2. Fishing Hamlet (Bloodborne)

(Originally posted June 30, 2023)

A collection of simple thoughts on last levels, final dungeons, and endgame zones.
Spoilers ahead for Bloodborne: The Old Hunters DLC.
Table of Contents

Context: Hunters consumed by beasthood are condemned to the Hunter's Nightmare. Hidden above the clouds - guarded by the penitent Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower - is the Fishing Hamlet, where the Nightmare's innermost secret is contained.

Some might argue this ought be the Nightmare of Mensis, but no Souls game (except Sekiro) feels thematically complete without its post-release DLC. Bloodborne is no exception.

If Cainhurst Castlevania serves as the capstone to the gothic horror segment of Bloodborne, the Fishing Hamlet is the same for the eldritch horror segment. It's one of those obvious plays that doesn't occur to you until you're walking in; of course the final area would just be Innsmouth. Of course.

The fishmen are appropriately nasty pieces of work, with the usual screams and howls of enemies now nearly overcome with gurgling and bubbling. The giant shark fishmen are infamous, despite there only being four of them across the whole map. Want your precious waifu's special katana? Prepare to suffer at the bottom of that well trying to fight two at once. (Or use a Shaman Bone Blade, I guess.)

Brador (the asshole with the big honkin' blood mace) hounds you throughout the second half of the level as a red phantom, invading constantly until you find and kill his real body. Like Maria, he's trying to stop the player from discovering the dark truth at the center of the Hunter's Nightmare.

As for what that secret is... what else? A Great One (identified as Kos/Kosm) washed ashore one day and the villagers mutated due to her influence. The Hunters raided the village for eldritch knowledge and were in turn cursed to eternally wander the nightmare, possessed by the bloodlust of beasts. Only by slaying - freeing? - her grotesque child, its own essence linked with that of the Hunters, can the nightmare end.

Depending on who you ask, either this or Digging Too Deep in the Chalice Dungeons is the "original sin" of the Bloodborne setting from which all of the other bad shit stems, but I never bothered with the Chalice Dungeons myself.