Gameplay Journal Entry #6

The glitch I am going to be talking about is the Top-Down Death Camera in Bloodborne. This glitch is achieved by falling off the map, a normally lethal distance, but can be survivable if done in the right location, leaving the character alive but the camera perspective changed. What I like about this glitch is it allows Bloodborne to be played like most top-down games instead of the third person; navigation, controls and gameplay are all altered by this change, and it allows you to view the scenery in a way you normally cannot.

Digital aesthetics are “drawing on the deconstruction, hacking or repurposing of media technologies to unveil their inherent mechanisms and processes as well as the social-cultural effects of their pervasiveness.” (Ferreira 121) In this glitch, the mechanisms and processes being explored are the camera and out of bounds functions, and it challenges the player experience to relearn controls and gameplay. The effects on senses and aesthetics are significant enough that it takes some getting used to, and in this way, it can be considered a fun handicap or challenge to normal gameplay. In a more artistic sense, this camera perspective allows you to view the world differently, Bloodborne is a beautiful game that is limited by the lack of free camera views, this glitch gives you an option to see it in a new light. Functionally, this glitch can also be used to skip areas in the game, the character being considered “dead” in this state causes some areas to load differently, or you can pass through map geometry you normally couldn’t. This glitch can be found in the other Souls games, and it is used for speedrunning occasionally, so there is also an advantage to playing the game in this way.

Glitch found at 1:10

Reference: Pedro Ferreira and Luisa Ribas. “Post-Digital Aesthetics in Contemporary Audiovisual Art” xCoAx2020.