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‘Bloodborne’ Has a Much Darker Soul Than ‘Dark Souls’
I’m hereby declaring next week to be the Week of Bloodborne. In case you couldn’t tell by the sudden spike in Bloodborne-related headlines this past week, only a few days remain between us and the arrival of what may very well end up being the best reason to get a PlayStation 4. March 24 really cannot come soon enough.
The team that’s behind this game is the same one that gifted us Demon’s Souls and the Dark Souls series. Bloodborne serves as a spiritual successor to those games, with a Gothic horror twist. I never questioned their decision to create a spooky spin-off of what was already a sufficiently terrifying series — mostly because I was too distracted by the childlike glee it filled me with — but director Hidetaka Miyazaki’s explanation for it makes sense.
“There are several reasons why you need a sense of horror in the world, especially with Bloodborne, which has a more chilling world view than Souls,” Miyazaki said in an interview with the PlayStation Blog. “It’s not like horror is something we specifically go for, but it’s important to have that sense of fear and terror because it directly ties into the player overcoming that and enhancing their sense of achievement.”
Scarier enemies and more chilling environments might be the things that immediately stand out, but it goes deeper than that. This is a much darker game, and here’s why.
“My personal view is that the world we live in can be a harsh and unkind place. To create a game world that is always kind to players – that’s not how I see the real world. Whether it be nature or society, it’s often a harsh and unkind environment – so that translates into my games.”
Apparently, Bloodborne will have less weapons than the Souls games. Now, before you get up-in-arms about it, there’s a reason for that, too.
“The weapons transform,” Miyazaki explains. “So one weapon will have various uses and strategies that you can implement. You can also customize your weapon with Blood Gems. You can have many different combinations–so actually the amount of weapons in Souls is absorbed in Bloodborne by this customization element and how someone can tailor a weapon to how they want to use it. In a way, the variety is still there, but it’s absorbed down on a customization level, rather than in the quantity of actual weapons, much more than in Souls.”
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‘Dead Mail’ Exclusive Images: SXSW Horror Movie Begins With a Blood-Stained Postal Box Delivery
One of the genre films we’re looking forward to checking out at SXSW this year is Dead Mail, written and directed by Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy and premiering on March 9.
Meagan Navarro will be reviewing Dead Mail for Bloody Disgusting as part of her SXSW coverage, and she writes in her preview for the upcoming fest: “Dead Mail leans heavily into the ’80s analog aesthetic, delivering a unique crime thriller unafraid to get offbeat with its dark narrative. Expect its characters to be as atypical as Dead Mail‘s sense of style.”
In the SXSW 2024 horror film…
“On a desolate, Midwestern county road, a bound man crawls towards a remote postal box, managing to slide a blood-stained plea-for-help message into the slot before a panicking figure closes in behind him. The note makes its way to the county post office and onto the desk of Jasper, a seasoned and skilled “dead letter” investigator, responsible for investigating lost mail and returning it to its sender. As he investigates further, Jasper meets Trent, a strange yet unassuming man who has taken up residence at the men’s home where Jasper lives.
“When Trent unexpectedly shows up at Jasper’s office, it becomes clear he has a vested interest in the note, and will stop at nothing to retrieve it…”
Sterling Macer, Jr., John Fleck, Susan Priver, Micki Jackson, Tomas Boykin, and Nick Heyman star in Dead Mail. Preview the film with an exclusive image gallery below.
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