Bosses and Lore

Many times when a player encounters a boss they have only one goal, to defeat and destroy them. Not to hear their life story, but sometimes the boss has lore that deepens and improves the story. Today is a discussion on bosses with deep lore that either make them even more cool cause us to even feel bad about killing them

Bloodborne: Gascoigne

Bloodborne is a game where brutality rules the game and the deep, hidden story adds layer of lore into the game. The second boss in the game; Father Gascoigne is an old hunter, a hunter rids the city of Yharnam of infected citizens who turn into monstrous beasts. But when the player finds him, he is feral, insane from the very infection he meant to destroy. Once Gascoigne is around half health, he transforms into a more beast-like being. After you kill him, you can move on and let that be the end of it, but this game allows you to delve into the world and doing that shows the real depth of this character.

Before meeting Gascoigne, there is a window to a home where a little girl can be spoken to. She asks us if we have seen her parents, and if we find them to give them a little music box which has the names "Viola and Gascoigne" written inside. Using this item while in the battle will cause the old hunter to flinch in agony as he is reminded of who he was. After you defeat him you can find Viola's body not far with her signature red broach. If the player returns to the window, they can either offer to give the broach to her telling her of her parents' fate. Or you can not and tell her to come to a chapel where she can be safe and not alone.

But who has the heart to tell a young girl of her parents' deaths, if you tell the child to meet you at the chapel she says she will go there and thanks you. But when you get to the chapel she isn't there, if you follow the path the small girl would have taken she would have had to go through moving corpses and large crows only to reach the end where a colossal pig would be. The pig ate the girl and you find her ribbon there, bloodied. Go back to the window and the girl's older sister answers asking where her sister is, the player gives the ribbon to her and she weeps asking why did she leave. Not long after this, the player can find the body of the older sister who threw herself from their roof.

This single example shows that bosses can have a deeper meaning, if you wanted to you could have killed Gascoigne and been done with it. But the game allowed you to search the environment and uncover a tragic story behind the already grim game. What bosses have you looked into, I'd love to hear what you think about the topic. Below is a link to a YouTube video that goes over Gascoigne in more detail. Thank you for reading.

Bloodborne: Father Gascoigne