Lovecraftia/Eldritch/Cosmic Horror games that works/at the very least good for me: + Dead Space series (1, 2, 3) + Bloodborne + Prey (2017) + Alan Wake series + Darkest Dungeon + Darkwood + Amnesia TDD + Hellpoint + Conarium Some gray area that idk if this games are considered to be Lovecraftian Horror or somewhat have elements of it: + The Evil Within series 1, 2) + The Suffering + Dusk + Silent Hill series (1, 2, 3) + Death Stranding
Thank you. So few people seem to know about this game. It was pure gold for me. Especially the fact that the entities are ripped straight from Lovecraft descriptions and it's set in a multiverse. It encorporates health, sanity, and a magic meter very well. I especially loved the way it broke the 4th wall. I distinctly remember wanting to blow up my GameCube the first time it said the save data was erased.
The problem is if you give someone a health bar it set your mind to the idea you can fight whatever it is and you should never be able to fight the great old ones it’s kind of their whole point. It’s like saying you are going to shoot the tornado or attack a volcano with a machete their so powerful that it’s insane to even try.
then adapt the gameplay to the story, don't make a gameplay where you attack directly the old ones ? Or adapt the story to make a fiction yourself based on lovecraft so you can ? Creativity.
So many people make this argument and it makes no sense. Yes of course you cant kill cthulhu but lovecrafts stories are full of lesser beings that can be killed via traditional means. Hell there are at least a couple of his stories I can thing of where the protaganist in an hp lovecraft story fights back and kills a lesser creature, cultist, etc. You may not be able to deal with the threat of elder gods directly but there are many lesser dangers in lovecrafts mythology that protaganists (to varying levels of success) have engaged in combat.
Mostly right, the point of The Great Old ones is to embody to unkowable uncaring and even downright cruel aspects of the universe and making them fightable kinda defeats that purpose. But on the other hand the OG itself Cthulu was prevented from fully awakening via boat ram even in the source material, also the Mi'go are shown to be very much not bulletproof same with other lesser creatures and of course the cultists themselves so there's some leeway.
I feel like Bloodborne, Dishonored (when you consider the outsider a emissary) and the Witcher's hearts of stone DLC are the only games that do cosmic horror well. Somebody replied Dead Space 3 is a worthy contender and I totally agree though they couldn't do it as effectively as they wanted to because of executives controlling the game's design too much. I'd also say Sunless Skies/Sunless Sea but that's more of a interactive novel then a game. (not to say that it isn't good)
I'd argue Dead Space 3 is also cosmic horror, but most don't pay attention to that kinda of horror when it comes to Dead Space. Most prefer the body and environmental horror and outright either ignored or didn't even notice the cosmic horror of three.
@@Practitioner_of_Diogenes Okay yeah dead space 3 is a pretty good example given the very base of the story is what they intended. A lot of the awful parts that happened in that game & the aspects that fucked up the story is EA's part.
It was Bloodborne that actually got me interested in Lovecraft funnily enough. Forbidden knowledge, madness, fear of the unknown and existential dread, cosmic entities, etc. So many typical Lovecraftian themes were incorporated into the game. Oh yeah and squishy fishy appendages. Can't forget those.
Darkest Dungeon also does cosmic horror very well, especialy in the begining when you have no ideia of what you are going to find in the dungeon and the stress mecanic punish you more than the damage monsters do. The storie is vague, but realy draws you in with creepy bits of information.
_Bloodborne_ is one of my favorite games of all time, but perhaps ironically I find one of the reasons is that despite its pseudo-Lovecraftian trappings its actual story is firmly rooted in Gothic themes rather than Lovecraft's. The true villains of the piece are all humans, hunting in their various ways for a mad ascension to cosmic planes of perception, yet in their hubris inflicting untold horrors on their fellow humans and even upon the eldritch beings they encounter. The majority of Great Ones come off as at least vaguely sympathetic by comparison, with their relatable desire for a child and grief over those lost. The DLC culminates in a revelation drawn almost 1:1 from "The Shadow over Innsmouth," but it's a story about how humans went to "Innsmouth" and used not only the fish people but "Dagon's" baby as experimental test fodder, and you solve the problem by exorcising the ghost of said dead infant Great One so its tormented, wrathful spirit can find peace (after first defeating it in combat, because _Bloodborne_ is an action game where problems are generally solved through hitting them in the face with a saw). It's almost a complete inversion of Lovecraft, one in which the unknowable alien horrors may be alien inasmuch as they exist on multiple planes of existence with the ability to perceive reality through senses humans don't even have and even death does not mean the same thing, but in fact aren't unknowable at all even though their alienness is incidentally destructive to the fragile human mind. And I think that ties in firmly with what you said in the video: _Bloodborne_ works as a game precisely because its developers chose to take only so much from Lovecraft and no more, and wrote their own story with it that can function in the medium.
One of my favorite theories for bloodborne that fits the whole lovecraft theme is that the doll is a great one and that great ones want babies so she basically got a baby in the 3rd ending pulling your strings the entire game. That theory is neat but has no real traction, if anyone wants a bigger and deeper look into the story surrounding Bloodborne and its development JSF and Sinclair lore have 100s of videos on Bloodborne and about how the game started as demons souls 2 and how it became that its very insightful ;).
I think "The Consuming Shadow" which was never mentioned unless I missed it in the video, has the lovecraftian atmosphere and style portrayed extremely well, perhaps because of the simpler layout and the focus on writing. I actually think the lacking graphics add to the horror elements (and no, not in a comedic way lmfao). Not based on any story of his nor did the creator use any known creatures or names, but definitely inspired by such things regarding aesthetics. Feels pretty intensely bleak and hopeless as the end of the world creeps closer and I recommend it for anyone who wants to play a simpler but atmospheric rogue-like horror game that's genuinely spooky if you play it right.
Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim, at the end the player has only one option. They can't defeat Hermaeus Mora, they can try to resist him but according to Hermaeus, Miraak and other characters sooner or later the supernatural allure of infinite knowledge will draw them in especially since their dragon soul craves power. It doesn't matter how moral the player character is, they have no choice but to replace Miraak as Hermaeus Mora's new human servant.
I found you recentlly and I must say...i dont get why the view count is so low? I mean ...the videos are great ...seen 5 just today I don't get it you should have way more views.. Let us take it like this : - 98k subscribers yet 15.7 k views for a video from 2020... - you speak well in English (I don't...) -you make your point with clear evidence from source material -and you play de game and react... ------------------ With all those it should be more views....Hope the channel is not shadowbanned or something ....or I dunno maybe the *dark* topic of the games and movies are no longer ok for youtube....i dunno...is getting more frustrating trying to understand all these new rules of the platform. BOTTOM LINE --I like your input and agree...played call of cthulhu with my cousin and yeah sometimes it can get a boring a bit.
The nightmare you described reminded me of one i had once but still can't forget. I'm walking through a forest during what seems to be a day during fall because the trees look barren but not ill and the sky is cloudy. For some reason i am drawn to one paticular path and as i walk that path i see a huge tree at the end. It's very tall and old looking and the roots are so big and thick that they come out of the ground. As i walk nearer i feel an uneasiness that becomes more dreadfull as the tree draus closer and at some point i get so scared that i wake up. Nothing about the dream is very creepy itself but this feeling of fear was so strong and Real that i just can't forget it and how that tree looks
Loving coverage of cosmic horror / lovecraft in general Jinzee ! Still waiting for a good lovecraft game, besides Eternal Darkness and Bloodborne, nothing really comes close to scratching that itch. Regardless this was thoroughly enjoyable and looking forward to more, specially in relation to this month and the Halloween theme :) keep up the amazing work !
Your videos are bloody hilarious, by the way! You've got a magnificent sense of humour and your presentation of it is spot-on. Your content makes me so dang happy 😊
straight up Lovecraft games are hard to make work, i remember being exicted for call of cthulhu and the game turned out to be disappointing, not flat out bad but playing through it felt like a chore.
Lets not forget that cthulhu's awakening was stopped by a boat bumping him on his head. Holmes turning on a lighthouse to stop cthulhu honestly doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility. Lol
I have to sonewhat disagree here. For one, Lovecraft monsters aren't always invincible. They kill Dexter Ward. They kill the witch in the Dreams of the Witch House. They kill the fungus ghost vampire thing in the Shunned House. Secondly, just because you have Lovecraft creatures doesn't automatically change the genre. There are countless games where you kill demons, or angels or even gods. Look at religious texts and you'll see that shouldn't be possible, but games do it anyway. If games can let you kill satan, you should damn well be allowed to kill Cthulhu.
I had an idea for a Lovecraft inspired game. It would be it's own game where the Lovecraft inspired horrors wouldn't be something you'd directly interact with. They would be in the background, mostly unseen. Maybe you'd see the aftermath of what they do to people and places. A little idea I had was like a foggy night and in the distance behind the fog, you'd see the silhouette of a GIANT monster way in the distance. Stuff like that where you know it's there. Then of course you wouldn't want to look for too long or risk going insane and dying :P The world that you interact with could slowly be getting changed by the monsters and that is what you as the player would really interact with.
I know I'm late for a reply like this, but I tried making something really similar in concept. And, I ended up with just another walking simulator but without written notes scattered all over the place. Gave the demo to a few people to try it out. Well, results were kinda mixed bag. It does get creepy and weird, but that wears off really fast. I think a good Lovecraftian game should be a good horror game first and only then Lovecraftian. The things that work great in Lovecraft's stories really falls apart once you add game mechanics to it and set of rules, if you decide to break the rules during the game it ends up with players feeling like the game is cheating. It's all just one big loop. Players expect a game with mechanics, but that messes up the sense of lingering horror, remove those and you end up with a walking simulator. And round and round we go.
Sundered is also a great one, not a retelling of Lovecraft, but inspired, it does reference his work heavily though, much in the same way Darkest Dungeon does. Besides that, one film that managed to create that sense of dread, unbeatable odds, and that is the VVitch, weirdly enough, the devil there is a lovecraftian monster.
Wow I felt so called out on the podcast thing xD The banana was too funny - I will build some banana plantages in honor of this in Tropico. Still surprised that the BEST game ever - Alpha Polaris - wasn't mentioned. Best way how to drive someone crazy - make a dessert with a fire extinguisher.
Wasn't it in the gameplay of the Dark Corners that the game would end if you went insane enough? Or at least the insanity played an important role to the gameplay.
I saw plenty of people refer to eternal darkness and amnesia. But I posit Pathologic as a game that inspires Lovecraftian atmosphere. Another that is less game, but serves as a glimpse of the possibilities - The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker.
LOL I have a pet goose and the only thing "Lovecraftian" about that chonky lil birb is her appetite. Boggles the mind how much grass one bird can devour!
A true Lovecraft inspired game would have you rocking back and forth, hugging yourself as you question your own reality. Kind of like dealing with the more questionable parts of the internet in that respect. Wait, what if the internet is an Eldritch horror and we just don't have enough perception to realise it?! It would explain a lot of the insanity that's been going on lately... o.O
While it's not a good lovecraft game, the game Magrunner had a good lovecraft moment. If even by accident. In the late game, I looked into the distance, ignoring a puzzle. There were mountain sized rocks around in a void that surrounded where I was. Then, I see a light in the distance. As I looked closer at that light, I realize they were eyes. A brief flash of light then revealed what I had been looking at. It was mountain sized, it had glowing eyes, and it's face moved at it watched me. You could guess who it was, staring back at what may as well been a mouse or an insect to it. There was not sanity loss, no terror effect. It was just me looking off in the distance, ignoring a puzzle, and seeing something that proved how screwed things were. Something that had me think "I can't fight this. If it's that huge in the distance, how big is he up close?" Even if it was a monster I could see, what I imagined was even powerful explosives would just be firecrackers to it. Short of some miracle that thing was ending the world soon. Still, it was only a incidental moment in a puzzle game with the odd monster chase scene here and there. Even so it was a better moment of eldrich horror than most game I've played had ever gave me.
The buildup to the Reapers in Mass Effect is extremely cosmic horror. To the point where I wasn't disappointed with the ending of the third game, because the only satisfying follow up would have been "We don't know understand where the Reapers come from or what their motivations are. Their capabilities are unknown and they can not be stopped. Everyone is dead." and obviously they weren't gonna do that because it's a video game.
Geese are truly terrifying. As for a related game. Stygian is quite good storywise as it litterally ends whith your character going insane and presents you with so brutal turnbased combat that you can only flee. It was riddled with bugs when i played it so quicksave was my friend but looking at a letsplay should show you the vibe.
It's hard to convey HP Lovecrafts through this medium I agree, the closest thing that worked for me was "Call of Cthulhu" and how I wish they remaster this gem. My ideal Lovecraftian game is within the tune of Amnesia which I think is fitting for the material.
12:17 Here's where I have to interject. Tonally, you and everyone else saying that is absolutely correct! The problem is there's an issue with the internal logic of that because Cthulhu and is family were nearly destroyed by the Yith who themselves weren't as impressive as the writers wanted them to be. The sub plot being that they had spaceships and plasma weapons, were master genetic engineers and could kill "gods" but were still kinda just idiots that died in a snowstorm (ice age) is not only hilarious but inadvertently uplifting. In lore they created humanity, which couldn't handle one of the big baddies without incredible luck or perfect tactics at the moment but..... Theoretically, If we're following the same logic here the Federation from Trek is better than Cthulhu and the other old ones and that's not considering the massive military industry that exists in the SW franchise. In summary, I think this is more of that writer bs. Where they go on about a concept or character but don't actually back it up.
At any rate, it is hard to translate Lovecraft because HE WROTE WELL, and because he didn't give two stincking ones about money, his vision was kept at a great price for himself, and his negative reception would have broken a lesser man in less time. Today most companies are worried about what the latest research showed to be profitable, and they end up with loot boxes and the marvel cinematic universe.
Games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Slender: The Arrival, and Alan Wake (though in a different way) invoke the Lovecraftian feel well enough for me. I think Lovecraft has a place in video games, I just think that most are just trying to capitalize on the name and not the substance. To make a good Lovecraft game, you need to focus more on mystery instead of horror. Make the game about solving puzzles, in a manner of speaking. Put together clues and include very subtle, but noticeable things in the background, peripheries, and in the distances. Enter a dark cellar and catch a glimpse of...something moving just out of sight. Since you shared one of your recurring nightmares, I'll share one of mine. A recurring dream I have is one where my loved ones and closest friends don't act right. When I say that, I mean...for example my best friend is incredibly shy and even insecure in some ways. They won't even go on any form of social media because they hate having photos taken and posted of themselves. A recurring dream I have is when my friend starts posting photos, even videos of themselves and becomes much more outgoing. And my reaction is always "What the hell is going on?! This isn't you." It's such a seemingly small thing, but it's so different from how my friend behaves irl that it feels wrong. It's so wrong that I usually wake up in a fright. It's like something has replaced my friend.
There are definitely games that convey Lovecraft's horror well enough, but as you said it's the ones that name their games specifically after Lovecraft or his creations that always miss the mark for me.
Other games/shows that display lovecraftain culture: There are two video games I love that have really displayed Lovecraftian culture inside there games. On the map shadows of evil in Call of Duty Black ops 3 Zombies, ironically has a very Lovecraft vibe to it. Set in a fictional town based off of a 1940s New Orleans, the creepy jazz music already sets a tone. But when watching the intro to the zombies u can hear an omnipotent being called “the shadow man” tell them how insignificant their lives are in such a big universe. As you play the game you come across many scary monsters, and it has all the tentacles you need. You can make something called the Apothican Servant (screams lovecraft right off the bat) which is a gentle tentacle gun sucking the zombies in to another dimension. Call of duty has been pretty stale the past few years other than cold war, but Bo3 zombies is definitely something to check out. The second is Batman Arkham Asylum. This game isn’t necessarily lovecraft at all really, it’s more so just the creepy setting and gothic atmosphere, and the fact that the asylum is called Arkham, which some people speculate to be named after the arkham from lovecraft. Scooby Doo Myster Incorporated: I understand it’s a kids show, but for cartoon terms this show is incredible. And there is one episode in particular where they make a monster called char gar gothican w a bunch of tentacles and there’s a guy named hate craft. it’s called The shrieking madness, and it’s a parody yet pretty well put together.
I agree 100%. I also think if a game or movie or book is making its own original world they should call it Cosmic Horror, it’s more general. If there directly using Lovecraft work they can call it Lovecraftian. That’s just me I think that’s a good idea.
Thanks for this input :) I happen to believe it as well: the Lovecraft stories only works for me because I can transport myself into it and imagine my struggle to being haunted by something that not only cares little for me but that I can't make correlations with what I know.
On the subject of Lovecraft, do you mind people giving you music recommendations? After watching this vid I got back into listening to some of my old music collection (thanks for putting them back in my head again!) and there's an old band called "Fields Of The Nephilim" who based a lot of their work around the Cthulhu Mythos. If you don't know them I recommend a track called "Psychonaut", preferably the 9 minute version, as that gives a good idea of what they were about. Either way, thanks for giving my brain the poke that got me to listen to them again :)
If you have not played a game on steam based on the lovecraftian stories, that's because lovecraft has become a universe/a genre/an aesthetic for some people. Before knowing that lovecraft was what it is, I couldn't define what was this dark , mysterious, psychologic and deep thing that inspired me in my art, one day I discovered Lovecraft and I was like "oh waow, maybe that was something like that ! BUT not entirely" My take and point of view on lovecraft or darkfantasy is kinda different to what lovecraft is in details, that's why a lot of people probably don't care about creating the exact stories that HP Lovecraft wrote.
I see someone mentioned Eternal Darkness, to me it's the closest a video game came to capturing the dread and the other worldness of Lovecraft and the sanity metre dynamic was shocking when the first time it went low for me. If you never played it it's definitely a must play horror game
That is a little off topic, but Jesus Christ, do i love her voice and way of speaking... And i have no idea why... Heard today, fell in love, seems that will stay... To the topic at hand: at least when it comes to me, if the game is well made, or has "the thing",that makes one come back, despite obvious flaws, even if it is touching upon Lovecraftain themes only somewhat, or not really at all, beside borrowing monsters- it still can be fun. I never let a gasp, after seeing blasphemy of "Tesla vs Lovecraft"- because it is only silly shooth'em up game. It means to be taken as such. I like "Dark Corners of the Earth" exactly because of presence of sanity meter- which is so overused by now- as well as unique atmosphere and quite a few moments, that really made me pause and take a few deep breaths, to calm myself... Yeah, i just smirked at shook my head, when i blew Dagon's face with a missle, or electorcuted Mother Hydra- but i considered those just a way game works, and whole thing to be a homage, rather than retelling "Legacy of Kain" which is one of two of my favourite game series of all time, also deals with many themes, that could be considered Lovecraftain, some of them are actually quite good- like fighting one's fate and failing... Still- i agree. Cannot transfer to the game the idea of same feeling, that we have, when we see millions of stars, coldly glimmering in total darkness, and we feel alone, small and insignificant. Because few bulbing eyes and tentacles isn't, what makes us feel so BUT When i heard that Elder God, from "Legacy of Kain" was inspired by Lovecraftian creatures, i had to check, who said man was(mind, i am not from english speaking nation, hence up to, when i was, i think, 11, i never even heard about Lovecraft. Ha! I never even heard about Tolkien!... knowledge of authors, who are my favourites nowdays came with time), and what his works touched upon. And i imagine in today's world games and movies are exactly this: introduction. Some people just look for fun monsters to murder and be scared by- peace be with them- but some will be interested in the world, glimpses of which were shown to them in particular products. Another example- when i was in highschool, i was Game Master, making stories for my circle of pals, leading them through pretty generic fantasy worlds. Then few years of not doing that- various thing, such as university, and now, from time to time, they want me to tell them a story again. One day, when drunk- as i often am, when they bother me with this-, i said, i am fed up with elves, orcs and magic, how about i tell them a different story? And it was just RPG game, they had means to fight back(like Elder Sigils, or bullets and knives made from mysterious metal- they even invented the idea of scratching the Elder Sigil on a bullet completely on their own, and i ran with it, as idea was nice...), they had ability to think things through and learn bits and pieces of mythos, without me telling them, that their character is about to go insane every 5 seconds- but all in all, it intrigued them... And they afterwards went to learn more on thier own. So even with my broken ways, i "converted" 4 more people :) my job is done How deeply we want to understand the world of Cthulhu is up to us- but as long as we are made aware of it- that is good thing. In conclusion of my rambling: even if game isn't doing a good job of portraying Lovecraftian themes- it still may drawn some neophyte XD to explore that world
I would have said that Control was one of the closest things to lovecraftian games, but the big scary entities are very interested in the characters in that game. Which doesnt quite hit
Cabin in the Woods is a good example of how to handle a Lovecraft scenario. After fighting so hard to save their own lives and not be used as sacrifices to appease the old gods, the protagonists of the story are reward by the old gods bursting out of the ground and destroying the entire human race. Their refusal to die for the greater good resulted in bringing about the apocalypse!
I sometimes wonder if a different approach would work for a walking game/adventure: use HPL's longest story, The Dream-Quest to Unknown Kadath (and its related stories such as Pickman's Model and Cats of Ulthar). They very story itself is a "walking adventure". Plenty of critters to fight and escape from. Or make your allies (for that RPG touch). No Cthulhu in sight - Azatoth and Nyarlathotep make very, *very* brief appearances and are escaped from by... waking up.
Honestly i feel that the best 'lovecraftian' games arent even games based on lovecraftian lore, but rather games that manage to reproduce a feeling of cosmic horror, which is not easy. Creating a sense that there are beings in the game to which you are at most an insect is hard to write into a games story well. And in that, honestly Witcher 3s Gaunter O'Dimm and higher Vampires were to me good examples.
I'm kind of sad that you didn't include some of the really old games inspired by Lovecraft's writing, or rather the Call of Cthulhu tabletop RPG, like "Shadow of the Comet" and "Prisoneer of Ice". Both games are, probably, much more akin to the ideas of Sandy Petersen (the lead designer of the tabletop game), but they really nailed one element: in the end you can't win, at best you can give other a shot at keeping the ball spinning one more time.
"It's very hard because he (Lovecraft) describes indescribable horror. I mean, what is it? What does it look like? It drives people mad when they see it, so if you visualize too much of it, I think, it may lose its punch." - John Carpenter, director of THE THING (1982) "...You can't adapt Lovecraft without an extremely strong visual style. It has to be very, very stylized and very particular. What you need is a cinematic equivalent of Lovecraft's prose, that's the problem. That's very hard to achieve. Lovecraft can't be adequately adapted for ordinary cinematography at all." - Dan O'Bannon, writer of ALIEN (1979)
I’d love to see you do a review of Alone In The Dark “the new nightmare” as a stand alone game on the PS1. Great content in your videos 🙂 I’m relatively new to your channel. Good work
I think what ruins most attempts at Lovecraft is by the very nature of announcing what should be a dark and unexpected twist. Telling me right off the bat that it's gonna be a Lovecraft game takes away the fun of it.
I love the note that starts with "It's ya girl" like some kind of social media influencer. I think the problem with outright adapting Lovecraft today - you know, besides the virulent racism - is that his stories aren't very scary when observed through a modern lens. The concepts are sound; a mere human intellect struggling against the scope of the unknown in our universe/reality. Unfortunately for Lovecraft, "unknown" mostly meant "different," and "different" more often than not meant "things that were non-white and not from New England." Combine that with his lack of literacy in math and science and it kind of sucks the fear out of his creations. Most of the things Lovecraft didn't understand during his time we understand pretty well now. The things that were scary to him wouldn't make the average person blink today. That's why, as you said, some of the best Lovecraftian stories/games don't actually use any Lovecraft in them. They capture the atmosphere - creeping existential dread - but the things that go bump in the night don't represent a fear of science, math, or miscegenation. They're manifestations of human trauma and loneliness - concepts that exist mostly in the mind. Like you said, there isn't much that can strike fear into us the same way our own minds can. It's why games like *Call of Cthulhu* veer into silliness, but games like *Silent Hill* are fucking great.
Have you read a graphic novel called "Neonomicon" by Alan Moore? It's a strange one (naturally) but it's worth a read if you like Lovecraft inspired stories.
@@ProperBird On the off-chance you've never heard of Alan Moore he's well worth looking into. A quick wikipedia search will tell you why. He's a weird guy, but he does really good work :)
We have been discussing this very topic in the table top server we have on disc! Very cool to hear some of the same things we discussed get brought up in this vis
I recently played Call of the Sea, a good take on the Deep Ones and the Cthulhu mythos. I'd recommend Anchorhead and the ancient The Hound of Shadow if you like interactive fiction.
Great video! You can use alot of this around what I like to think _IF_ aliens exist, what they'd be like - why would they have eyes or mouths? For all we know they'll be literally Alien in such meaning of the word that we cannot comprehend them, living, looking, communicating... scary :) - all pulls away out our deepest instincts of, I do not know this thing and thus I fear it greatly
I actually enjoyed the Old Gods lore quite a bit, though I suppose it's largely ended now. It was mostly disappointing that they could be fought and killed at all, sure with help but I wish they'd just retreated into the void or something.
I thought Call of the Sea was very good. It's a walking sim/puzzle adventure. What makes it do "Lovecraftian" well for me is how it doesn't do the green filter, modern style jump-scare horror, needless tentacles, or combat. It's also is a lot like an actual pulp fantasy/horror story written in the 1930's. The gorgeous visuals help too. The best HPL-based games don't call themselves "Lovecraftian" either, IMO.
I actually think the show itself is very enjoyable, but I don't think it captures Lovecraft the way I prefer it. If I look past that though it's a very decent horror show otherwise.
the only lovecraft game that comes to mind that works as a lovecraft game is not a lovecraft game ..............darkest dungeon,fight as much as you like ,win as many fights ....,you`re still next in line to inherit everything good and wrong .................you can never win vs the unknown hamlet , that`s why i love that stupid game
Had a ton of fun watching this, sorry for the late comment. Even managed to make me laugh with those videogame note parodies. Well done! You made a good point, the fear of the unkown is the key. If we see, know and can defeat the horror, then it's not really Lovecraftian at all. It's the same with the Call of Cthulhu table top rpg. You can't win there, and most players used to D&D and the like don't understand that they can't "powerlevel" the game.
It was SO INTERESTING !! I'm not very familiar with Lovecraft books and the games you presented so I've learned a lot and I agree 100% with your point. Also I've laughed a lot. The banana monster will haunt my nightmares now 😂
IMO i think DUSK did nyarlathotep justice, because you dont really kill him, you just damage him until he decides you proved yourself and you become his champion
"Sup y'all, it's me, it's ya girl Mary, and today I'm going to talk about the monster chasing me..." I kind of feel a lot of what is at fault here is just general survival horror tropes that have been extended over the years with classic games like Resident Evil and Alone In the Dark (itself inspired by Lovecraftian horror). Said games basically had severe technical limitations requiring much of the narrative to be expressed via these notes and other methods.
I think at least in movies it could work in the movies like lighthouse- the evil itself and what cause it is not described and in the end nôt even shown but you know- yeah this is that unimaginable thing
While I agree that simply allowing the player to defeat something like Cthulhu is rather absurd. Do keep in mind he was wounded by a large boat. So I'm fairly certain artillery would do more. Dagon is nothing special in the mythos. He's a big deep one, you can definetly kill him. Side note, Dagon may have died before. It might not be a name but a title given to the greatest male deep one but that's just my head canon.
Lovecraftia/Eldritch/Cosmic Horror games that works/at the very least good for me:
+ Dead Space series (1, 2, 3)
+ Bloodborne
+ Prey (2017)
+ Alan Wake series
+ Darkest Dungeon
+ Darkwood
+ Amnesia TDD
+ Hellpoint
+ Conarium
Some gray area that idk if this games are considered to be Lovecraftian Horror or somewhat have elements of it:
+ The Evil Within series 1, 2)
+ The Suffering
+ Dusk
+ Silent Hill series (1, 2, 3)
+ Death Stranding
Darkwood is pretty up there.
thanks for the list!
Darkest dungeon , bloodborne and darkwood where fuckin awesome
I also came here to point out Bloodborne.
This dude could find lovecraftian elements in his breakfast
"Eternal darkness: sanitys requiem" pulled off the feeling of lovecraft for me. But the haunted house point still applies.
Thank you. So few people seem to know about this game. It was pure gold for me. Especially the fact that the entities are ripped straight from Lovecraft descriptions and it's set in a multiverse. It encorporates health, sanity, and a magic meter very well. I especially loved the way it broke the 4th wall. I distinctly remember wanting to blow up my GameCube the first time it said the save data was erased.
The haunted house thing got me thinking about Bendy and the Ink Machine
The problem is if you give someone a health bar it set your mind to the idea you can fight whatever it is and you should never be able to fight the great old ones it’s kind of their whole point.
It’s like saying you are going to shoot the tornado or attack a volcano with a machete their so powerful that it’s insane to even try.
Absolutely agreed and I appreciate the force of nature comparison you're making.
Yeah well insanity is also a point of Lovecraft so seeing someone shoot at a tornado endlessly fits the tone... If you frame it right.
then adapt the gameplay to the story, don't make a gameplay where you attack directly the old ones ? Or adapt the story to make a fiction yourself based on lovecraft so you can ? Creativity.
So many people make this argument and it makes no sense. Yes of course you cant kill cthulhu but lovecrafts stories are full of lesser beings that can be killed via traditional means. Hell there are at least a couple of his stories I can thing of where the protaganist in an hp lovecraft story fights back and kills a lesser creature, cultist, etc. You may not be able to deal with the threat of elder gods directly but there are many lesser dangers in lovecrafts mythology that protaganists (to varying levels of success) have engaged in combat.
Mostly right, the point of The Great Old ones is to embody to unkowable uncaring and even downright cruel aspects of the universe and making them fightable kinda defeats that purpose. But on the other hand the OG itself Cthulu was prevented from fully awakening via boat ram even in the source material, also the Mi'go are shown to be very much not bulletproof same with other lesser creatures and of course the cultists themselves so there's some leeway.
I feel like Bloodborne, Dishonored (when you consider the outsider a emissary) and the Witcher's hearts of stone DLC are the only games that do cosmic horror well.
Somebody replied Dead Space 3 is a worthy contender and I totally agree though they couldn't do it as effectively as they wanted to because of executives controlling the game's design too much.
I'd also say Sunless Skies/Sunless Sea but that's more of a interactive novel then a game. (not to say that it isn't good)
I'd argue Dead Space 3 is also cosmic horror, but most don't pay attention to that kinda of horror when it comes to Dead Space. Most prefer the body and environmental horror and outright either ignored or didn't even notice the cosmic horror of three.
@@Practitioner_of_Diogenes Okay yeah dead space 3 is a pretty good example given the very base of the story is what they intended. A lot of the awful parts that happened in that game & the aspects that fucked up the story is EA's part.
huh, but isn't W3 HoS is more abot "Faustian" horror instead?? The classic "Devil's Pact" themes?
It was Bloodborne that actually got me interested in Lovecraft funnily enough. Forbidden knowledge, madness, fear of the unknown and existential dread, cosmic entities, etc. So many typical Lovecraftian themes were incorporated into the game.
Oh yeah and squishy fishy appendages. Can't forget those.
Darkest Dungeon also does cosmic horror very well, especialy in the begining when you have no ideia of what you are going to find in the dungeon and the stress mecanic punish you more than the damage monsters do. The storie is vague, but realy draws you in with creepy bits of information.
_Bloodborne_ is one of my favorite games of all time, but perhaps ironically I find one of the reasons is that despite its pseudo-Lovecraftian trappings its actual story is firmly rooted in Gothic themes rather than Lovecraft's. The true villains of the piece are all humans, hunting in their various ways for a mad ascension to cosmic planes of perception, yet in their hubris inflicting untold horrors on their fellow humans and even upon the eldritch beings they encounter. The majority of Great Ones come off as at least vaguely sympathetic by comparison, with their relatable desire for a child and grief over those lost. The DLC culminates in a revelation drawn almost 1:1 from "The Shadow over Innsmouth," but it's a story about how humans went to "Innsmouth" and used not only the fish people but "Dagon's" baby as experimental test fodder, and you solve the problem by exorcising the ghost of said dead infant Great One so its tormented, wrathful spirit can find peace (after first defeating it in combat, because _Bloodborne_ is an action game where problems are generally solved through hitting them in the face with a saw). It's almost a complete inversion of Lovecraft, one in which the unknowable alien horrors may be alien inasmuch as they exist on multiple planes of existence with the ability to perceive reality through senses humans don't even have and even death does not mean the same thing, but in fact aren't unknowable at all even though their alienness is incidentally destructive to the fragile human mind. And I think that ties in firmly with what you said in the video: _Bloodborne_ works as a game precisely because its developers chose to take only so much from Lovecraft and no more, and wrote their own story with it that can function in the medium.
Most Lovecraft games are too aesthetic focused and miss out the exploration of his narrative themes. Which arguably makes them more Gothic horror
also true !
Do people say Lovecraft when a tentacle shows up in ....... Hentai?
One of my favorite theories for bloodborne that fits the whole lovecraft theme is that the doll is a great one and that great ones want babies so she basically got a baby in the 3rd ending pulling your strings the entire game. That theory is neat but has no real traction, if anyone wants a bigger and deeper look into the story surrounding Bloodborne and its development JSF and Sinclair lore have 100s of videos on Bloodborne and about how the game started as demons souls 2 and how it became that its very insightful ;).
The Banana guy reminds me of a character from Jim Woodring's trippy art
7:15 Untitled Goose Game best Lovecraft video game CONFIRMED.
True Lovecraft isn't horror, it's terror.
I think "The Consuming Shadow" which was never mentioned unless I missed it in the video, has the lovecraftian atmosphere and style portrayed extremely well, perhaps because of the simpler layout and the focus on writing. I actually think the lacking graphics add to the horror elements (and no, not in a comedic way lmfao). Not based on any story of his nor did the creator use any known creatures or names, but definitely inspired by such things regarding aesthetics. Feels pretty intensely bleak and hopeless as the end of the world creeps closer and I recommend it for anyone who wants to play a simpler but atmospheric rogue-like horror game that's genuinely spooky if you play it right.
I'd not heard of this one actually, I'll have to check that out!
Dragonborn DLC for Skyrim, at the end the player has only one option. They can't defeat Hermaeus Mora, they can try to resist him but according to Hermaeus, Miraak and other characters sooner or later the supernatural allure of infinite knowledge will draw them in especially since their dragon soul craves power. It doesn't matter how moral the player character is, they have no choice but to replace Miraak as Hermaeus Mora's new human servant.
I never played the Dragonborn DLC (I know, for shame), but that's good stuff!
I found you recentlly and I must say...i dont get why the view count is so low? I mean ...the videos are great ...seen 5 just today I don't get it you should have way more views..
Let us take it like this :
- 98k subscribers yet 15.7 k views for a video from 2020...
- you speak well in English (I don't...)
-you make your point with clear evidence from source material
-and you play de game and react...
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With all those it should be more views....Hope the channel is not shadowbanned or something ....or I dunno maybe the *dark* topic of the games and movies are no longer ok for youtube....i dunno...is getting more frustrating trying to understand all these new rules of the platform.
BOTTOM LINE --I like your input and agree...played call of cthulhu with my cousin and yeah sometimes it can get a boring a bit.
The nightmare you described reminded me of one i had once but still can't forget.
I'm walking through a forest during what seems to be a day during fall because the trees look barren but not ill and the sky is cloudy. For some reason i am drawn to one paticular path and as i walk that path i see a huge tree at the end. It's very tall and old looking and the roots are so big and thick that they come out of the ground. As i walk nearer i feel an uneasiness that becomes more dreadfull as the tree draus closer and at some point i get so scared that i wake up.
Nothing about the dream is very creepy itself but this feeling of fear was so strong and Real that i just can't forget it and how that tree looks
Without having watched the video yet, the first question that comes to mind is: "Hey, but what about Darkest Dungeon?"
Aaah, don't you worry it is mentioned. :p
Loving coverage of cosmic horror / lovecraft in general Jinzee ! Still waiting for a good lovecraft game, besides Eternal Darkness and Bloodborne, nothing really comes close to scratching that itch.
Regardless this was thoroughly enjoyable and looking forward to more, specially in relation to this month and the Halloween theme :) keep up the amazing work !
Your videos are bloody hilarious, by the way!
You've got a magnificent sense of humour and your presentation of it is spot-on.
Your content makes me so dang happy 😊
Ah, Eternal Darkness. My sister and I had a grand time with that game.
straight up Lovecraft games are hard to make work, i remember being exicted for call of cthulhu and the game turned out to be disappointing, not flat out bad but playing through it felt like a chore.
Lets not forget that cthulhu's awakening was stopped by a boat bumping him on his head. Holmes turning on a lighthouse to stop cthulhu honestly doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility. Lol
I am saddened people don't focus more on the Randolph stories. The Dream questline is my favorite one :(
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath is actually one of my favourite Lovecraft stories. ^^
I have to sonewhat disagree here. For one, Lovecraft monsters aren't always invincible. They kill Dexter Ward. They kill the witch in the Dreams of the Witch House. They kill the fungus ghost vampire thing in the Shunned House.
Secondly, just because you have Lovecraft creatures doesn't automatically change the genre. There are countless games where you kill demons, or angels or even gods. Look at religious texts and you'll see that shouldn't be possible, but games do it anyway. If games can let you kill satan, you should damn well be allowed to kill Cthulhu.
I had an idea for a Lovecraft inspired game. It would be it's own game where the Lovecraft inspired horrors wouldn't be something you'd directly interact with. They would be in the background, mostly unseen. Maybe you'd see the aftermath of what they do to people and places. A little idea I had was like a foggy night and in the distance behind the fog, you'd see the silhouette of a GIANT monster way in the distance. Stuff like that where you know it's there. Then of course you wouldn't want to look for too long or risk going insane and dying :P The world that you interact with could slowly be getting changed by the monsters and that is what you as the player would really interact with.
Someone should hire you.
@@celladoor_uk I wish :D
I know I'm late for a reply like this, but I tried making something really similar in concept. And, I ended up with just another walking simulator but without written notes scattered all over the place. Gave the demo to a few people to try it out. Well, results were kinda mixed bag. It does get creepy and weird, but that wears off really fast. I think a good Lovecraftian game should be a good horror game first and only then Lovecraftian. The things that work great in Lovecraft's stories really falls apart once you add game mechanics to it and set of rules, if you decide to break the rules during the game it ends up with players feeling like the game is cheating. It's all just one big loop. Players expect a game with mechanics, but that messes up the sense of lingering horror, remove those and you end up with a walking simulator. And round and round we go.
Sundered is also a great one, not a retelling of Lovecraft, but inspired, it does reference his work heavily though, much in the same way Darkest Dungeon does. Besides that, one film that managed to create that sense of dread, unbeatable odds, and that is the VVitch, weirdly enough, the devil there is a lovecraftian monster.
Quality acting as always!
This is one of my favorite Proper Bird videos. Keep it up!
I love the monster naming ramble at the end!
"Well?" *Gestures* *at* *machete*
"........ I've got a gun."
Wow I felt so called out on the podcast thing xD
The banana was too funny - I will build some banana plantages in honor of this in Tropico.
Still surprised that the BEST game ever - Alpha Polaris - wasn't mentioned.
Best way how to drive someone crazy - make a dessert with a fire extinguisher.
Agree with others. Eternal Darkness got the closest.
Wasn't it in the gameplay of the Dark Corners that the game would end if you went insane enough?
Or at least the insanity played an important role to the gameplay.
I saw plenty of people refer to eternal darkness and amnesia. But I posit Pathologic as a game that inspires Lovecraftian atmosphere. Another that is less game, but serves as a glimpse of the possibilities - The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker.
LOL I have a pet goose and the only thing "Lovecraftian" about that chonky lil birb is her appetite. Boggles the mind how much grass one bird can devour!
A true Lovecraft inspired game would have you rocking back and forth, hugging yourself as you question your own reality. Kind of like dealing with the more questionable parts of the internet in that respect. Wait, what if the internet is an Eldritch horror and we just don't have enough perception to realise it?! It would explain a lot of the insanity that's been going on lately... o.O
While it's not a good lovecraft game, the game Magrunner had a good lovecraft moment. If even by accident.
In the late game, I looked into the distance, ignoring a puzzle. There were mountain sized rocks around in a void that surrounded where I was. Then, I see a light in the distance. As I looked closer at that light, I realize they were eyes. A brief flash of light then revealed what I had been looking at. It was mountain sized, it had glowing eyes, and it's face moved at it watched me. You could guess who it was, staring back at what may as well been a mouse or an insect to it.
There was not sanity loss, no terror effect. It was just me looking off in the distance, ignoring a puzzle, and seeing something that proved how screwed things were. Something that had me think "I can't fight this. If it's that huge in the distance, how big is he up close?" Even if it was a monster I could see, what I imagined was even powerful explosives would just be firecrackers to it. Short of some miracle that thing was ending the world soon.
Still, it was only a incidental moment in a puzzle game with the odd monster chase scene here and there. Even so it was a better moment of eldrich horror than most game I've played had ever gave me.
The buildup to the Reapers in Mass Effect is extremely cosmic horror.
To the point where I wasn't disappointed with the ending of the third game, because the only satisfying follow up would have been "We don't know understand where the Reapers come from or what their motivations are. Their capabilities are unknown and they can not be stopped. Everyone is dead." and obviously they weren't gonna do that because it's a video game.
This might sound rather weird, but as a Dutchman I’m really proud you’re Dutch and have such a terrific pronunciation!
Je hoort het af en toe nog wel heel erg maar daar zijn re-takes voor. :p
@@ProperBird Ik zeg niets als jij niets zegt😉
Geese are truly terrifying.
As for a related game. Stygian is quite good storywise as it litterally ends whith your character going insane and presents you with so brutal turnbased combat that you can only flee.
It was riddled with bugs when i played it so quicksave was my friend but looking at a letsplay should show you the vibe.
I haven't played Stygian yet, did play Song of Horror recently which had a great ending even though the gameplay mechanics weren't all there.
It's hard to convey HP Lovecrafts through this medium I agree, the closest thing that worked for me was "Call of Cthulhu" and how I wish they remaster this gem. My ideal Lovecraftian game is within the tune of Amnesia which I think is fitting for the material.
The description of your dream is amazing, how have you managed to deal with such a recurring thing?
I don't really, it's always unexpected and I just wake up freaked out and disoriented until I realize what's happened again. 😅
12:17
Here's where I have to interject.
Tonally, you and everyone else saying that is absolutely correct! The problem is there's an issue with the internal logic of that because Cthulhu and is family were nearly destroyed by the Yith who themselves weren't as impressive as the writers wanted them to be.
The sub plot being that they had spaceships and plasma weapons, were master genetic engineers and could kill "gods" but were still kinda just idiots that died in a snowstorm (ice age) is not only hilarious but inadvertently uplifting. In lore they created humanity, which couldn't handle one of the big baddies without incredible luck or perfect tactics at the moment but.....
Theoretically, If we're following the same logic here the Federation from Trek is better than Cthulhu and the other old ones and that's not considering the massive military industry that exists in the SW franchise.
In summary, I think this is more of that writer bs. Where they go on about a concept or character but don't actually back it up.
At any rate, it is hard to translate Lovecraft because HE WROTE WELL, and because he didn't give two stincking ones about money, his vision was kept at a great price for himself, and his negative reception would have broken a lesser man in less time. Today most companies are worried about what the latest research showed to be profitable, and they end up with loot boxes and the marvel cinematic universe.
Games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Slender: The Arrival, and Alan Wake (though in a different way) invoke the Lovecraftian feel well enough for me. I think Lovecraft has a place in video games, I just think that most are just trying to capitalize on the name and not the substance. To make a good Lovecraft game, you need to focus more on mystery instead of horror. Make the game about solving puzzles, in a manner of speaking. Put together clues and include very subtle, but noticeable things in the background, peripheries, and in the distances. Enter a dark cellar and catch a glimpse of...something moving just out of sight.
Since you shared one of your recurring nightmares, I'll share one of mine. A recurring dream I have is one where my loved ones and closest friends don't act right. When I say that, I mean...for example my best friend is incredibly shy and even insecure in some ways. They won't even go on any form of social media because they hate having photos taken and posted of themselves. A recurring dream I have is when my friend starts posting photos, even videos of themselves and becomes much more outgoing. And my reaction is always "What the hell is going on?! This isn't you." It's such a seemingly small thing, but it's so different from how my friend behaves irl that it feels wrong. It's so wrong that I usually wake up in a fright. It's like something has replaced my friend.
There are definitely games that convey Lovecraft's horror well enough, but as you said it's the ones that name their games specifically after Lovecraft or his creations that always miss the mark for me.
I had no idea Geese had teeth on their tongues... it's funny the older I get the more true the old saying "reality is stranger than fiction" gets
Ravening for delight is how I spend my weekends.
Not finished the video yet but unless it wasnt mentioned, one of ny favourite lovecraftian type games is sunless sea.
Other games/shows that display lovecraftain culture:
There are two video games I love that have really displayed Lovecraftian culture inside there games. On the map shadows of evil in Call of Duty Black ops 3 Zombies, ironically has a very Lovecraft vibe to it. Set in a fictional town based off of a 1940s New Orleans, the creepy jazz music already sets a tone. But when watching the intro to the zombies u can hear an omnipotent being called “the shadow man” tell them how insignificant their lives are in such a big universe. As you play the game you come across many scary monsters, and it has all the tentacles you need. You can make something called the Apothican Servant (screams lovecraft right off the bat) which is a gentle tentacle gun sucking the zombies in to another dimension. Call of duty has been pretty stale the past few years other than cold war, but Bo3 zombies is definitely something to check out.
The second is Batman Arkham Asylum. This game isn’t necessarily lovecraft at all really, it’s more so just the creepy setting and gothic atmosphere, and the fact that the asylum is called Arkham, which some people speculate to be named after the arkham from lovecraft.
Scooby Doo Myster Incorporated: I understand it’s a kids show, but for cartoon terms this show is incredible. And there is one episode in particular where they make a monster called char gar gothican w a bunch of tentacles and there’s a guy named hate craft. it’s called The shrieking madness, and it’s a parody yet pretty well put together.
someone needs to make the shadow over Innsmouth into a movie and they need to stick to the story
I agree 100%. I also think if a game or movie or book is making its own original world they should call it Cosmic Horror, it’s more general. If there directly using Lovecraft work they can call it Lovecraftian. That’s just me I think that’s a good idea.
Thanks for this input :) I happen to believe it as well: the Lovecraft stories only works for me because I can transport myself into it and imagine my struggle to being haunted by something that not only cares little for me but that I can't make correlations with what I know.
On the subject of Lovecraft, do you mind people giving you music recommendations? After watching this vid I got back into listening to some of my old music collection (thanks for putting them back in my head again!) and there's an old band called "Fields Of The Nephilim" who based a lot of their work around the Cthulhu Mythos. If you don't know them I recommend a track called "Psychonaut", preferably the 9 minute version, as that gives a good idea of what they were about.
Either way, thanks for giving my brain the poke that got me to listen to them again :)
The mmo the secret world works, the begining in new England has that cosmic horror feeling.
I've heard of the Secret World but never really looked into it, I might some day.
If you have not played a game on steam based on the lovecraftian stories, that's because lovecraft has become a universe/a genre/an aesthetic for some people. Before knowing that lovecraft was what it is, I couldn't define what was this dark , mysterious, psychologic and deep thing that inspired me in my art, one day I discovered Lovecraft and I was like "oh waow, maybe that was something like that ! BUT not entirely" My take and point of view on lovecraft or darkfantasy is kinda different to what lovecraft is in details, that's why a lot of people probably don't care about creating the exact stories that HP Lovecraft wrote.
8:24 The “Nepalese” woman has a pic of Joe Exotic behind her.
Eternal Darkness, Shadow of Comet and Call of Cthulhu (the 2004 game) are the only ones that IMHO had the right salte.
Still enjoyed watching your Call of Cthulu playthrough on your Twitch channel tho!
I see someone mentioned Eternal Darkness, to me it's the closest a video game came to capturing the dread and the other worldness of Lovecraft and the sanity metre dynamic was shocking when the first time it went low for me. If you never played it it's definitely a must play horror game
Don't think we didn't notice the backgrounds you used from the first Witcher game...
I'd be a little shocked if you didn't honestly.
That is a little off topic, but Jesus Christ, do i love her voice and way of speaking... And i have no idea why... Heard today, fell in love, seems that will stay...
To the topic at hand: at least when it comes to me, if the game is well made, or has "the thing",that makes one come back, despite obvious flaws, even if it is touching upon Lovecraftain themes only somewhat, or not really at all, beside borrowing monsters- it still can be fun. I never let a gasp, after seeing blasphemy of "Tesla vs Lovecraft"- because it is only silly shooth'em up game. It means to be taken as such.
I like "Dark Corners of the Earth" exactly because of presence of sanity meter- which is so overused by now- as well as unique atmosphere and quite a few moments, that really made me pause and take a few deep breaths, to calm myself... Yeah, i just smirked at shook my head, when i blew Dagon's face with a missle, or electorcuted Mother Hydra- but i considered those just a way game works, and whole thing to be a homage, rather than retelling
"Legacy of Kain" which is one of two of my favourite game series of all time, also deals with many themes, that could be considered Lovecraftain, some of them are actually quite good- like fighting one's fate and failing...
Still- i agree. Cannot transfer to the game the idea of same feeling, that we have, when we see millions of stars, coldly glimmering in total darkness, and we feel alone, small and insignificant. Because few bulbing eyes and tentacles isn't, what makes us feel so
BUT
When i heard that Elder God, from "Legacy of Kain" was inspired by Lovecraftian creatures, i had to check, who said man was(mind, i am not from english speaking nation, hence up to, when i was, i think, 11, i never even heard about Lovecraft. Ha! I never even heard about Tolkien!... knowledge of authors, who are my favourites nowdays came with time), and what his works touched upon. And i imagine in today's world games and movies are exactly this: introduction. Some people just look for fun monsters to murder and be scared by- peace be with them- but some will be interested in the world, glimpses of which were shown to them in particular products.
Another example- when i was in highschool, i was Game Master, making stories for my circle of pals, leading them through pretty generic fantasy worlds. Then few years of not doing that- various thing, such as university, and now, from time to time, they want me to tell them a story again. One day, when drunk- as i often am, when they bother me with this-, i said, i am fed up with elves, orcs and magic, how about i tell them a different story? And it was just RPG game, they had means to fight back(like Elder Sigils, or bullets and knives made from mysterious metal- they even invented the idea of scratching the Elder Sigil on a bullet completely on their own, and i ran with it, as idea was nice...), they had ability to think things through and learn bits and pieces of mythos, without me telling them, that their character is about to go insane every 5 seconds- but all in all, it intrigued them... And they afterwards went to learn more on thier own. So even with my broken ways, i "converted" 4 more people :) my job is done
How deeply we want to understand the world of Cthulhu is up to us- but as long as we are made aware of it- that is good thing.
In conclusion of my rambling: even if game isn't doing a good job of portraying Lovecraftian themes- it still may drawn some neophyte XD to explore that world
I would have said that Control was one of the closest things to lovecraftian games, but the big scary entities are very interested in the characters in that game. Which doesnt quite hit
Cabin in the Woods is a good example of how to handle a Lovecraft scenario. After fighting so hard to save their own lives and not be used as sacrifices to appease the old gods, the protagonists of the story are reward by the old gods bursting out of the ground and destroying the entire human race. Their refusal to die for the greater good resulted in bringing about the apocalypse!
That horse in your nightmare sounds like Archaeon the Everchosen’s mount.
That looks more like a hydra beast honestly. :p
@@ProperBird older books described it as a demon that took the vauge shape of a horse but changed its shape at will
I always imagined it the same way you described your nightmare
Thankfully, Lovecraftian storytelling works in TableTop RPGs though. good video.
There are some excellent tabletop Lovecraft adventures to be found for sure!
I sometimes wonder if a different approach would work for a walking game/adventure: use HPL's longest story, The Dream-Quest to Unknown Kadath (and its related stories such as Pickman's Model and Cats of Ulthar). They very story itself is a "walking adventure". Plenty of critters to fight and escape from. Or make your allies (for that RPG touch). No Cthulhu in sight - Azatoth and Nyarlathotep make very, *very* brief appearances and are escaped from by... waking up.
you are amazing, love your voice, you make incredible videos and thank you for everything!
This might be the best video I ever seen about Lovecraftian games! Amazing!
A great work as always, but a "Mac Tonight" reference?! Take my like and carry on!
But he's not even a moon!
wow what an amazing video! ive never read anything from lovecraft but this is really making me want to
Two words: Eternal darkness
Honestly i feel that the best 'lovecraftian' games arent even games based on lovecraftian lore, but rather games that manage to reproduce a feeling of cosmic horror, which is not easy. Creating a sense that there are beings in the game to which you are at most an insect is hard to write into a games story well. And in that, honestly Witcher 3s Gaunter O'Dimm and higher Vampires were to me good examples.
I'm kind of sad that you didn't include some of the really old games inspired by Lovecraft's writing, or rather the Call of Cthulhu tabletop RPG, like "Shadow of the Comet" and "Prisoneer of Ice". Both games are, probably, much more akin to the ideas of Sandy Petersen (the lead designer of the tabletop game), but they really nailed one element: in the end you can't win, at best you can give other a shot at keeping the ball spinning one more time.
"It's very hard because he (Lovecraft) describes indescribable horror. I mean, what is it? What does it look like? It drives people mad when they see it, so if you visualize too much of it, I think, it may lose its punch." - John Carpenter, director of THE THING (1982)
"...You can't adapt Lovecraft without an extremely strong visual style. It has to be very, very stylized and very particular. What you need is a cinematic equivalent of Lovecraft's prose, that's the problem. That's very hard to achieve. Lovecraft can't be adequately adapted for ordinary cinematography at all." - Dan O'Bannon, writer of ALIEN (1979)
I’d love to see you do a review of Alone In The Dark “the new nightmare” as a stand alone game on the PS1. Great content in your videos 🙂 I’m relatively new to your channel. Good work
I think what ruins most attempts at Lovecraft is by the very nature of announcing what should be a dark and unexpected twist.
Telling me right off the bat that it's gonna be a Lovecraft game takes away the fun of it.
I love the note that starts with "It's ya girl" like some kind of social media influencer.
I think the problem with outright adapting Lovecraft today - you know, besides the virulent racism - is that his stories aren't very scary when observed through a modern lens. The concepts are sound; a mere human intellect struggling against the scope of the unknown in our universe/reality.
Unfortunately for Lovecraft, "unknown" mostly meant "different," and "different" more often than not meant "things that were non-white and not from New England." Combine that with his lack of literacy in math and science and it kind of sucks the fear out of his creations. Most of the things Lovecraft didn't understand during his time we understand pretty well now.
The things that were scary to him wouldn't make the average person blink today. That's why, as you said, some of the best Lovecraftian stories/games don't actually use any Lovecraft in them. They capture the atmosphere - creeping existential dread - but the things that go bump in the night don't represent a fear of science, math, or miscegenation. They're manifestations of human trauma and loneliness - concepts that exist mostly in the mind. Like you said, there isn't much that can strike fear into us the same way our own minds can.
It's why games like *Call of Cthulhu* veer into silliness, but games like *Silent Hill* are fucking great.
The "it's ya girl" bit is (most likely) a direct reference to WoW content creator and general social media influencer Asmongold.
Have you read a graphic novel called "Neonomicon" by Alan Moore? It's a strange one (naturally) but it's worth a read if you like Lovecraft inspired stories.
I haven't, but it sounds interesting. I'll have a look when I find the time. ^^
@@ProperBird On the off-chance you've never heard of Alan Moore he's well worth looking into. A quick wikipedia search will tell you why. He's a weird guy, but he does really good work :)
Could sure go for more Lovecraft (or other horror stories) reading videos.
We have been discussing this very topic in the table top server we have on disc!
Very cool to hear some of the same things we discussed get brought up in this vis
Your video recommendation after a long time. Good to see you exploring Lovecraft.
Edit: Nice video. Liked what you had to say
I recently played Call of the Sea, a good take on the Deep Ones and the Cthulhu mythos. I'd recommend Anchorhead and the ancient The Hound of Shadow if you like interactive fiction.
wow great vid, but fantastic finishing quote.
Great video!
Great video! You can use alot of this around what I like to think _IF_ aliens exist, what they'd be like - why would they have eyes or mouths? For all we know they'll be literally Alien in such meaning of the word that we cannot comprehend them, living, looking, communicating... scary :) - all pulls away out our deepest instincts of, I do not know this thing and thus I fear it greatly
I know you don’t do Warcraft anymore, but how do you feel about the Old Gods from the WoW lore, clearly inspired by Lovecraft?
I actually enjoyed the Old Gods lore quite a bit, though I suppose it's largely ended now. It was mostly disappointing that they could be fought and killed at all, sure with help but I wish they'd just retreated into the void or something.
World of Horror doesn’t claim to be, and isn’t but might be one of the most lovecraftian games, and good too!
I thought Call of the Sea was very good. It's a walking sim/puzzle adventure. What makes it do "Lovecraftian" well for me is how it doesn't do the green filter, modern style jump-scare horror, needless tentacles, or combat. It's also is a lot like an actual pulp fantasy/horror story written in the 1930's.
The gorgeous visuals help too.
The best HPL-based games don't call themselves "Lovecraftian" either, IMO.
What do you think about the lovecraft country tv show?
I actually think the show itself is very enjoyable, but I don't think it captures Lovecraft the way I prefer it. If I look past that though it's a very decent horror show otherwise.
Hehe just working on my b.a. and engaging how lovecraft translates into other media, thanks for the video!
sorry for a late update, thank you for the video once more, it helped me make my b.a. a little more cohesive and got me a good mark! :)
the only lovecraft game that comes to mind that works as a lovecraft game is not a lovecraft game ..............darkest dungeon,fight as much as you like ,win as many fights ....,you`re still next in line to inherit everything good and wrong .................you can never win vs the unknown hamlet , that`s why i love that stupid game
I did not know that geese have teeth on their tongues. I have a newfound respect for these majestic creatures.
They are the freakiest birds and Canada has too many of them. 😬
Had a ton of fun watching this, sorry for the late comment. Even managed to make me laugh with those videogame note parodies. Well done!
You made a good point, the fear of the unkown is the key. If we see, know and can defeat the horror, then it's not really Lovecraftian at all.
It's the same with the Call of Cthulhu table top rpg. You can't win there, and most players used to D&D and the like don't understand that they can't "powerlevel" the game.
It was SO INTERESTING !! I'm not very familiar with Lovecraft books and the games you presented so I've learned a lot and I agree 100% with your point.
Also I've laughed a lot.
The banana monster will haunt my nightmares now 😂
IMO i think DUSK did nyarlathotep justice, because you dont really kill him, you just damage him until he decides you proved yourself and you become his champion
"Sup y'all, it's me, it's ya girl Mary, and today I'm going to talk about the monster chasing me..."
I kind of feel a lot of what is at fault here is just general survival horror tropes that have been extended over the years with classic games like Resident Evil and Alone In the Dark (itself inspired by Lovecraftian horror). Said games basically had severe technical limitations requiring much of the narrative to be expressed via these notes and other methods.
I think at least in movies it could work in the movies like lighthouse- the evil itself and what cause it is not described and in the end nôt even shown but you know- yeah this is that unimaginable thing
Don't forget hermaeus mora and his knowledge.
Gat dayum, you are a proper bird...
While I agree that simply allowing the player to defeat something like Cthulhu is rather absurd. Do keep in mind he was wounded by a large boat. So I'm fairly certain artillery would do more. Dagon is nothing special in the mythos. He's a big deep one, you can definetly kill him.
Side note, Dagon may have died before. It might not be a name but a title given to the greatest male deep one but that's just my head canon.
Honestly i thought that the Alien Cube did it rather well tbh