Is Bloodborne the Resident Evil game we deserve?

[Fox12]

So, I broke down and bought Bloodborne bacause I'm weak. I'm probably going to flunk out of college now, but that's fine. So far the game is filling me with an evil glee.

Anyway, I noticed a faint nostalgic tinge when I played the game, and that's when I realized that it felt like a classic RE title, only...well, better. I felt excited, yet nervous, and many of the enemy designs were similar to classic RE foes. Rabid dogs, angry pox infested villagers, various horrors stalking the country side... it's been a glorious ride so far. I've even been careful to not deplete my ammo and items. I know it's not survival horror, but it almost feels like it. For me, at least, after years of disappointing horror titles, Bloodborne feels like coming home.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

No. I saw the jimquestion that claimed this and I kind of disagreed with it. Kind of a simple thing in that bloodborn rewards you for fighting enemies well resident evil mostly just punished you for fighting. In resident evil, you would gain resources from exploring and lose them from fighting, so you didn't seek out fights. In bloodborn, your activity looking for people to fight because it's how you level.

 

[ZiggyE]

No. I saw the jimquestion that claimed this and I kind of disagreed with it. Kind of a simple thing in that bloodborn rewards you for fighting enemies well resident evil mostly just punished you for fighting. In resident evil, you would gain resources from exploring and lose them from fighting, so you didn't seek out fights. In bloodborn, your activity looking for people to fight because it's how you level.

Agreed. You have too much agency in Bloodborne for it to be a proper horror game.

 

[Fox12]

No. I saw the jimquestion that claimed this and I kind of disagreed with it. Kind of a simple thing in that bloodborn rewards you for fighting enemies well resident evil mostly just punished you for fighting. In resident evil, you would gain resources from exploring and lose them from fighting, so you didn't seek out fights. In bloodborn, your activity looking for people to fight because it's how you level.

Agreed. You have too much agency in Bloodborne for it to be a proper horror game.

I disagree somewhat. I wouldn't call it survival horror, really, but but it's definitely action horror. I would argue it's a much better horror game then, say, RE4, which had a similarly heavy combat focus (not that I'm dissing RE4). In fact, that's probably the one Bloodborne reminds me of the most. What's more, Bloodborne creates a real sense of danger. I can usually get through Silent Hill or RE without dying once, even if the game is frightening. Bloodborne, though? There's always something new around the corner, and you don't really know how to respond.

Edit: incidentally, I didn't know Jim did a video covering this topic. I think he makes a fair point, though, that Bloodborne wears many hats, and one of those hats is horror.

 

[Sleepy Sol]

I disagree somewhat. I wouldn't call it survival horror, really, but but it's definitely action horror. I would argue it's a much better horror game then, say, RE4, which had a similarly heavy combat focus (not that I'm dissing RE4). In fact, that's probably the one Bloodborne reminds me of the most. What's more, Bloodborne creates a real sense of danger. I can usually get through Silent Hill or RE without dying once, even if the game is frightening. Bloodborne, though? There's always something new around the corner, and you don't really know how to respond.

I think that just comes with experience of the game. You could probably switch the places of RE4 and Bloodborne in your explanation and that would be my personal perspective. Never really feared a part of Bloodborne (cept maybe that damn spider room), but I've had plenty of experience with Souls games and I've already played through the game fully once, so I know almost everything I can expect in certain areas.

The new dangers kinda stop being new after you've gone through them multiple times, either in NG+ or after you've died to them enough times for it to become a non-issue. Or the thing that makes you quit the game.

Really, I would say Bloodborne is creepy and very disturbing later on, but never truly frightening or scary in the horror game sense.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

The scariest part of bloodborne is sitting through that loading screen every time you die.

<_<

I kid, I kid. Sort of.

I do think that the enemy and level design is superb and really gives you a feeling of heavy dread, but when I'm faced with a monster the part of it that scares me usually it's the monster itself but the prospect of dying and having to sit through that loading screen and the doing the run back to it.

I died to the first executioner enemy 5 or 6 times in a row because I was trying to get the parry down and I kept missing the visceral attack window. The fact that I kept dying to him really made me not want to go under the bridge later and fight the other two, even though I knew how to fight them by then, they still seemed intimidating.

 

[ZiggyE]

No. I saw the jimquestion that claimed this and I kind of disagreed with it. Kind of a simple thing in that bloodborn rewards you for fighting enemies well resident evil mostly just punished you for fighting. In resident evil, you would gain resources from exploring and lose them from fighting, so you didn't seek out fights. In bloodborn, your activity looking for people to fight because it's how you level.

Agreed. You have too much agency in Bloodborne for it to be a proper horror game.

I disagree somewhat. I wouldn't call it survival horror, really, but but it's definitely action horror. I would argue it's a much better horror game then, say, RE4, which had a similarly heavy combat focus (not that I'm dissing RE4). In fact, that's probably the one Bloodborne reminds me of the most. What's more, Bloodborne creates a real sense of danger. I can usually get through Silent Hill or RE without dying once, even if the game is frightening. Bloodborne, though? There's always something new around the corner, and you don't really know how to respond.

Edit: incidentally, I didn't know Jim did a video covering this topic. I think he makes a fair point, though, that Bloodborne wears many hats, and one of those hats is horror.

"Action Horror" is probably a title I could agree with, but I can't agree with "Survival Horror".

But now I guess I'm just splitting hairs.

 

[seditary]

I just what?

You can't even get permanently killed in Bloodborne. I feel 0 horror from Bloodborne because there are 0 stakes. Even if you get stuck you can just farm blood echoes and level up to take care of it.

 

[hybridial]

Lol.

No.

There is absolutely nothing in Bloodborne or the Souls games that make them survival horror in the slightest. Nothing that makes them scary either. No idea where people get this from.

 

[Casual Shinji]

In some ways, yes, but I feel that's putting too much praise on Resident Evil, and I like(d) that series.

Traversing the environment definately has a RE feel to it; That sense of extreme unease at the prospect of having to navigate through a newly discovered area. That is ofcourse if you're playing it offline, which I suggest you do.

And you wanna talk Resident Evil 4, wait till you get to the Forbidden Woods. Whooo boy!

Even if you get stuck you can just farm blood echoes and level up to take care of it.

This isn't nearly as effective in Bloodborne as it was in the Souls games. Sure, you can bump up your health, but that hardly makes too much of a difference against most of the enemies that can combo you to death in 4 or 5 hits. The only thing that make a sigificant difference is upgrading your weapons with bloodstone shards and installing runes. And the latter doesn't become an option untill much later in the game.

You can't even get permanently killed in Bloodborne.

You can't get permanently killed in Resident Evil either seeing as you can save your progress. Getting killed in Resi meant returning to the place you last saved and having to do redo the whole section. Kinda like Bloodborne.

 

[hybridial]

Getting killed in Resi meant returning to the place you last saved and having to do redo the whole section. Kinda like Bloodborne.

The major difference being RE puts you back there with the exact items you had. A Design necessity by all means, because that game has no means of respawning items. (I of course only really want to talk about pre RE4. I pretty much don't accept RE4 as an RE game let alone the ones that followed)

But it does mean you don't have to go grind for more.

Also Bloodborne seriously wished it was close to the elegance of REmake and not just a gimped action game that stole most of it's aesthetic from Nightmare Creatures.

 

[loa]

I find dark souls and bloodborne to be fascinating more than scary due to their imaginative world design which is much more interesting than anything resident evil ever had to offer.
It's only "horror" due to a formality, it has zombies and werevolves and is kind of on the dreary side, therefore horror.

It doesn't paint zombies and werewolves as something "evil" to be terrified of tho.
More like something bizarre, otherworldly and unfamiliar.

Something that is in equal parts hostile and uncaring because you're nothing special after all.
Something that follows its own blue and orange morality [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BlueAndOrangeMorality].

So those games are an entirely different beast compared to resident evil which tries to do something else.
As for the "survival" part, that doesn't even make sense since you literally don't survive.
Death is an intended game mechanic.

 

[SeventhSigil]

Ehhh, Survival Horror not so much, I think; while hardly a power fantasy title- you do get your butt kicked often- I think that Bloodborne gives you enough tools to let you 'carve a path,' as it were, through the dangers ahead, though I suppose this feeling may change depending on how difficult you're finding the game. xP I usually associate survival horror with being this REALLY vulnerable little waif trying not to die, and accomplishing not a whole heck of a lot more than that.

I WILL say that Bloodborne's stuff has genuinely creeped me out more often than most of the horror-esque games I remember playing, including the early Resident Evil stuff when I was a kid. While I am ludicrously vulnerable to jumpscare-y things (sudden BOOGABOOGA! in other words,) generally speaking I never found most games really instilled genuine DREAD in me, except for the feeling of 'I KNOW you bastards are going to jumpscare me.'

In the case of Bloodborne, with the exception of a few early-game ambushes, some surprise twists to certain enemies, and the occasional startled reaction when an enemy I didn't notice just happens to enter the camera frame, I found the experience didn't really have MUCH in the way of jumpscares. Often when encountering a new creature, I'd see it before it saw me, given plenty of opportunity to assess, plan my attack, even leave if I chose to. But even though this new creature I see off there in the distance is between me and my goal, and I should probably attack it, or at least try to run past it, I'm genuinely dreading the prospect of getting close enough to touch it. I can't actually remember the last time a game has literally laid out its short-term plans for me, let me see EXACTLY what's ahead, no surprises, no pressure for me to even act, and still evoked a feeling of 'Nope, nope, nope.'

 

[verdant monkai]

No

Where are all of the things I love about Resi?

-A modern world which is a ware of zombies and constantly dealing with them as a biological threat.
-humour
-Leon.s Kennedy
-Wesker
-The Umbrella corporation
-awful one liners
-Beloved Characters who have spanned more than one game
-Tyrant zombies

Bloodborne's great don't get me wrong but it doesn't deliver anything that similar to resident evil. The only thing its shares is the survival horror aspect, and yes I know Resi is fast losing the survival horror part.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Its more like an accurate Van Helsing movie tie-in game. I wish someone would mod in Hugh Jackman as the Hunter, voice, face, everything. It'd be perfect!

 

[Casual Shinji]

Also Bloodborne seriously wished it was close to the elegance of REmake and not just a gimped action game that stole most of it's aesthetic from Nightmare Creatures.

The "elegance" of REmake? You mean the game that forces you to run back and forth between item boxes ad nauseam, and stripped the series of its campy fun and colour? To each their own.

 

[Fox12]

I just what?

You can't even get permanently killed in Bloodborne. I feel 0 horror from Bloodborne because there are 0 stakes. Even if you get stuck you can just farm blood echoes and level up to take care of it.

but isn't that true of RE games, especially 4? If I die in a resident evil title then is have to go back and repeat the section.

Design wise it seems quite similar. In classic RE games you generally had a hub area that you explored out from. Everything was interconnected, and you often opened up shortcuts leading you back to where you were before. You were also retreading old ground quite often. This tight design seems quite similar to what I've seen in bloodborne and dark souls.

I didn't really find RE scary at any point, but it did rob you of power, which put you on edge. Bloodborne makes me feel even more vulnerable the RE did, and thus puts me more on edge. It's not survival horror, like silent hill, but I would definitely call it action horror.

Also, I just ran into Bazuso, and he head stomped me into the ground. So there's that.

 

[mad825]

Also Bloodborne seriously wished it was close to the elegance of REmake and not just a gimped action game that stole most of it's aesthetic from Nightmare Creatures.

*sigh* REmake? To some extent I wish it was never ported to the PC.

The "REmake" is more or less the original RE1 without the cock-ups that Capcom made. I.e the Voice acting.

I could go further and say RE1 has been remade half a dozen times.

OT: The OP is grasping for straws, Resident Evil is about a corporate conspiracy while Bloodborne is something I'd compare to Final Fantasy. Sorry, you're going to have to do better than comparing generic enemy types and I have yet to see something like Nemesis or a G-Virus mutation.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I don't think "survival" horror is the right type of horror here. When I can run up to an enemy and stab it to death without it even touching me because I'm that good, the survival part goes right out the window.

However, I do agree that there is a sense of dread, of helplessness, and hopelessness. Some of the stuff I've come across does scare me, but it's the type of, "Crap...that is disturbing" type of scare as opposed to, "OH MY GOD RUN FOR YOU LIFE!"