"lovecraftian"

>"lovecraftian"

why do you care so much about how people describe something?

>soulslike

Bloodbabbys drawn to bait like moths to flame

Everytime someone says "Lovecraftian" about a product the product usually turns out to be shit. So coincidentally you can avoid shit products by avoiding ones that are described "Lovecraftian".

It's moreso that people can't understand tiers of genre literature and basic thematic elements. In other words, anything post gothic is muh luvcraf because they don't read enough to compare it to anything else.

Posting best Lovecraftian game.

>Kafkaesque

>Soulsborne
>Metroidvania

>immersive MMO experience

>Scariest Games Ever Made
>#1. Silent Hill (PS1)

Silent Hill 1 didn't have much in the way of scares and the monsters were laughable
But the atmosphere of the game was absolutely incredible

>kafkaesque

>Steampunk became such a meme that it enden killing itself

i was waiting for this one

>lovecraftian

Lovecraft DOES NOT translate well into video games. The horror of lovecraft is active investigation into something you arente suppose to be investigating and the UNFATHOMABLE. Video Games are a visual medium. Sure you have agency so the first part is doable but games cannot make something look scary because what made the edlrtich horros of lovecraft genuinely scary was the fact that you had to imagine it. Your brain thought up something scary on it's own that was scary specifically to you.

There will never ever be a good lovecraftian game because it's damn near impossible. We need a game that is seemingly normal but slowly descends into horror as the player chooses to cheat or fuck up or whatever.

Never ever PCfags

>like skyrim with guns

>procedurally generated

dark corners of the earth did really well at setting up a believable lovecraft setting and presenting the conflicts lovecraft's characters experience. shame about the second half of the game though

>battle royale

never heard of it, I'll try it out. Thanks for the heads up about it!

>eldritch
DON'T USE THAT WORD EVER AGAIN IT DOES NOT MEAN TENTACULAR

...

then you're in for a treat. enjoy

>shame about the second half of the game though
At least it's still better than what happened in Condemned 2.

post some lovecraftian games you enjoyed

call of cthulhu: dark corners of the earth
eldritch
dark souls
darkest dungeon

"Lovecraftian" themes are usually great, its just that "lovecraftian" things generally miss the point of lovecrafts actual works and what he was trying to express through them.
Its a shame even a lot of people who "know about books" havent even heard his name.

I love lovecraft shit, I really do but most of the time the visually focused medium of video games ruin the concept. Maybe this will be breddy gud so I'll give it a shot. Thanks for the recommendation.

>Investigation necessary for a Lovecraft story.
Terrible Old Man, dude. Stuff just happens, whether a character has any grasp of it whatsoever is irrelevant.

Darkest Dungeon visually and tonally are practically perfect (Not scary persay but for the concept). Too bad the game devolves into a gambling/luck simulator. The artist of that game deserves a fucking medal and a free blowjob as well as the narrator.

Alone in the Dark 1. Now get off my lawn.

>steampunk

That takes a lot of the tension away though. At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow over Innsmouth. I'm not saying it's the only trope of Lovecraft but forbidden knowledge is fucking cool since, in a broad sense, we've never encountered knowledge that we wish we never ever have learned as humans. It's an alien concept and quite terrifying because you can't unlearn something unless you go insane or something.

Sheeit Stephen King's The Dark Tower touches on it in book one with the number 19. It's not the only concept lovecraft liked to talk about but it's certainly my favorite.

>Immersive

It might be a bit unbalanced currently. People in the discord say they're getting fucked right out of the gate too frequently. Here is one of their experiences:
>Forced to take sanity damage early on because of reanimated corpse packs
>Said sanity damage causes him to develop a fear of open spaces, so he needs to hug a wall to avoid his minimum shock being raised
>While doing this, the walls collapse with like 20 axe reanimated corpses behind them
I should also mention that many enemies in the game cause you to gain shock by just having them in your sight. Reanimated corpses do this, and they also have the ability to come back to life once if their corpse isn't destroyed when they die the first time. If you see a reanimated corpse come back to life, that also causes a burst of shock.

Not too far off

>radiant AI

>dark souls
>soulslike
>japanese

>"innovative"
Just means they're going to shoehorn in some superfluous new feature that nobody asked for.

Is it just me or does nip animation get worse each year? Jesus fuck, even north korean factory animators could do a better job.

>roguelite

To put the person in the story of a lovecraftian work at such a high level of importance kind of goes against the themes in most of his works though. Reread his works and you might notice the "main characters" are much less important than pretty much every other aspect of what is being written.

>rpg
>no real roleplay

Fair enough. I can't argue there: there's a real appeal in that sort of forbidden knowledge. It's why "Hemaeus Mora" has appealed to me in the Elder Scrolls games ever since Daggerfall, so you can bet I lost my shit when "Dragonborn" came out lol

For those uninitiated: the backstory of the first AitD game, back in 1991, was that a pirate named Ezechiel Pregzt came to worship the voodoo gods after encountering slaves around New Orleans in the 1800s. He and his men killed a plantation owner, killed most of his slaves, but spared a kitchen girl named Elizabeth Jarret, whom taught Pregzt what she knew of another religion, that of Nyarlathotep and Cthulhu. She eventually left the crew but the mark was made and Pregzt sought the means for immortality, eventually building a plantation of his own, Derceto, devoted entirely to the worship of his new gods. There, he sealed his beating heart within a tree in the caverns below the mansion, his spirit taking posession of all owners of the mansion after him, one after the other, until the game's protagonist, Edward Carnby, the deceased owner's lawyer (surveying the property for sale), figures out something's very wrong and successfully destroys the tree and the spirit within it.

I agree mostly. The main characters in video games tend to be power fantasies and in lovecraft it's the opposite. It's literally the opposite in some situations and it's just another example of why video game 'concepts' don't mesh well if at all with Lovecraft themes at times.

>Lovecraftian entity
>it's covered in a censor mosaic so the player doesn't go insane when he looks at it.

Post the game or fuck off. But don't post a screenshot of the monster, that would make us all go mad and Sup Forums is a sane website

It's a boss in a game I'm making, I was merely testing if it was a cool idea.
Just wait ten trillion years until I finish it

>I'll try it out
It's a piece of shit. Don't waste your time.

A better idea is using tricky camera movements to never ever show the whole monster. And for people who hack your shitty RPG maker game to see the whole boss you leave an easteregg that makes them go insane for seeking forbidden knowledge.

I got through shittier games. I'll fucking try it myself and make my own decision. Something this board of barneyfags could learn from.

Fine. I tried to warn you. Just wanted to point out that user's description is not quite accurate. The plot is certainly not "believable". Maybe you'll enjoy it if you're a hardcore Lovecraft fan, but as a game it is terrible.

I use it for anything creepy and scary and disgusting.

I don't think of the ELDRITCH monsters from Bloodborne when I hear "lovecraftian" games, it usually makes me think of the Dunwich shit from Fallout, and the Flood and Precursors from Halo.

Im agreeing that video games arent a good vessel for the actual context or themes of lovecraft. My point is just that the whole "forbidden knowledge"thing isnt the point, and the closes thing to the character mattering is how little they matter is what matters. If you look into lovecrafts life a lot of what he was doing comes from the fact that his atheist self denied the more common fantasy and wonder people got from a spiritual life, but as a person still had a need or at least craving for something beyond and greater than our lives which he acts out in ways that made sense to him being so into astronomy. The great time scales and incomprehensible horrors are almost like a coping mechanism for him.

Im in the middle of falling asleep and I feel like I've paraphrased the guys life far too much, but my point is its hard to make a video game out of something "lovecraftian" because lovecrafts works arent settings or "incomprehensible horror" despite people being deadset on making those out of it.

That said something "lovecraftian" can be enjoyed in its own

Will probably do the second part.

AS A TRUE LOVECRAFT DICK SUCKING FAN, your warnings fall on deaf ears and I will try this shit with a total disregard for my sanity in the hopes I learn more about how awful immigrants and blacks are.

Fuck I forgot the name of the game on the gif, could you please tell what's the title?

Guess I can't stop you then. Let me offer you this last advice though: SEARCH THE AREA! ... SPREAD OUT!

I never thought of it that way honestly. I understood the horror of the existentialism or the nihilism that comes from the whole atheism thing. Whether it being Gods that literally do not see you or incomprehensible voids, the yearning for something more drives the characters to these locations and they do not like the answers they find. The atheist, despite being set in his defiance of God, still wishes for a God or for meaning yet never gets it or is told his meaning is something he doesn't want it to be. It's a concept that I can't convey because I have zero creativity or prowess in story telling but to try and convey that in a medium that intrinsically and matter-of-factly states otherwise makes it impossible as you have said.

Thanks for reminding me that it's the void of meaning that leads to the madness or the answer you didn't want. I'm rather drunk and honestly it's all just spewing out of me at this point.

Hotel Dusk, theres also the sequel Last Window

>rouglelike
>rougelite

After The Binding of Isaac, nothing has topped it since. I'm not saying it is perfect but it is a challenging Roguelike that is a nice mix between luck and skill. Nothing has come close and I fear nothing ever will

>Metroidvania
Cringey name for an overrated genre, imo

AIM AND SHOOT! COME OUT COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE!

Do yourself a favor and read more about lovecrafts life when youre sober. The man was far from flawless but it clarifies a lot. Also read some of his less spooky works

THANK YOU!

Nigga I have seen game "journalist" using them in casual conversation and even they were not sure what those terms mean exactly.

The genre is great. The problem is that the genre is 'solved' right now. Super Metroid is a masterpiece on pretty much every single level. This means everything that attempts to measure itself by that standard ultiamtely looks like shit.

I like to think La-Mulana is a metroidvania of some regard and that it does the genre justice but honestly, I hate games saying they are metroidvanias. not because they are bad games, but because they are inappropriately measuring themselves against a Godlike game they have no business comparing themselves to.

eternal darkness is the closest thing to a Lovecraftian game and that has a slew of problems

I'll check it out for sure. Thanks!

Lovecraftian nowadays just means strange aliens that in actual power all along. See Bloodborne, it's the worst way to handle the term "lovecraftian"

Before anyone attacks you on this post I'm gonna back you up and say I agree completely.

I don't understand. What do you mean by 'them' and 'terms'?

Don't get me wrong, roguelikes are worth rolling my eyes at but the BoI has nothing to contend with it at the moment.

>Lovecraftian
>it's just some mystery and creatures with tentacles
>Steampunk
>it's just a fedorafest and normal shit but with gears and brass

I agree. I'm the only pseudo-knowledgeable drunk-user and I got schooled on what lovecraft genuinely was but even I see bloodborne as merely a visual medium. Putting a bunch of eyeballs on something doesn't mean lovecraftian because lovecraft, at least in my opinion was never a visual medium and I'm apparently retarded.

>Undervania

>it isn't sunshine and lollipops so it's lecraftian

>an accepted term that has been used for 40 years by a small group of dedicated enthusiasts developing rogue like games to each other
>some anons on a Laotian basket weaving forum think they're so clever going against the term, probably because their favourite e-celeb took offence to it

loving. every. laugh

>Undervania

I really liked undertale as a story driven game but it does NOT deserve it's own fucking genre. There are so many games that fit this concept that it's unfair. Also wtf is a underVANIA? Are there vampires? Upside down castles? Metroid in METROIDvania defines the genre since metroid came first. Vania was tacked on because Symphony of the Night allowed the genre to continue past Metroid, creating a genre as opposed to as a single game.

This term triggers me and I hate it.

The Flood is Lovecraftian tbqh, and not just because it has tentacles and spooky.

Too bad we'll never get a non-action FPS game or even movie explicitly about it.

>plot is 'philosophical'
>game is described as a 'deconstruction of the genre'

I think you are still right in saying that lovecraft isnt really a visual medium though. I feel everything has its strengths in how its represented and when people try to do lovecraft visually they skip all of the important themes and try to put googly eyes on tentacles. When its in written form it makes it easier to focus on other things while as you mentioned earlier letting your mind fill the blanks for things that arent really the theme or point at play.

Also helps that they guy could use some sick ass words to describe architecture.

>Game describes itself as Lovecraftian
>Just has Lolthulhu tentacle squids, no cosmic horror

I can only think of a handful of games which effectively use cosmic horror.

Keep laughing because I genuinely have no idea what you are trying to convey. Are you agreeing? Disagreeing? At least you are having fun because like 99% of roguelikes are shit and only you would like them

I'm not against the term if that is what you are saying? Rogue Legacy is a roguelike as far as im concerned.. it just sucks like most roguelikes because the bar for making a roguelike is embarassingly low so shitty game devs think they can make a decent roguelike with little effort.

Then there is BoI which isn't perfect and has shitty RNG at times but at least it is fun and has neat synergies.

>METROIDvania

Funnily enough VN's managed to pull lovecraftian horror better than high budget games like Bloodborne.

>kafkaesque

Maybe that's because a VN has no agency similar to a book and describing something in print is vastly different than visually. Even with the visual there, the print stands out to describe thoughts, emotions, etc.

Also games have a since of agency and progress. We've been conditioned to just literally kill anything and everything in sight with zero emotion in videogames. The real crazy thing is that Undertale brings this conditioning into questioning. Lovecraft main characters rarely have any real power or are regular Joes so they can't kill even a single warped, fucked up horror and isn't mentally conditioned not to be turned insane... But a video game character is. That's the problem. If you wanted to make a good Lovecraftian Horror game, you have to uncondition the player. Make it known fighting is a really bad idea and that death is bad because death in video games usually isn't of consequence either.

Lovecraft video games aren't hard just because of the power fantasy of video games, its because players AND characters are conditioned against the psychological, don't consider their existence and killing is expected because you are obviously more powerful.

Dead Space is a great example. It's scary but you are clearly able to kill the flesh monsters in the game. It's fucking great as a game.. but the antithesis of Lovecraft.

At least in this drunk-anons shit opinion

>wider audience

Icepick Lodge's games can be pretty Kafkaesque

>Lovecraft DOES NOT translate well into video games

I think it's the exact opposite. Video games has the potential to be the BEST medium for it. There is no better way to emulate the feeling of insanity. There may not have been a team creative or ballsy enough to do it, but the potential for it is there tenfold.

don't watch kyoani shit or any moeblob anime

No, it really does.
In b4 some fags say >b-b-but Studio Trigger!
Fuck no. Gainax Jr. is just as shit as Gainax itself.

I'm going to best after this post but think about how whenever you play a video game you are in a box. There are rules you just KNOW. Like in skyrim I can't over over the last mountain over there. I know how much damage my sword will do. I know the boundaries of the game. Nothing can be scary in Skyrim. Even in a tough fight I can reload and reexperience an encounter.

As for emulating insanity maybe I've missed literally every game that has done it well but in my experience nothing has really made me question my sanity. I've questioned the rules of a game but even questioning the rules implies an understanding.

I'd FUCKING LOVE if there was a game like Stardew Valley but like, 8 hours into the game it devolves into a glitches, creepy as fuck game that makes me question the integrity of my savefile but there in lies a problem. I can just delete the save file. You have to take all control away from the player or else it isn't going to work.

You could have some fourth wall breaking sequences like Arkham Asylum which has a fucking amazing 4th wall breaking segment but it never made me question MY sanity, just the game's logic and if it was bugged/broken.

Sup Forums is so fucking miserable and bitter today. You guys can be so negative it's unreal.

Almost positive that that's a western artist.

I think they do the Gumball mom porn.

Who said bloodborne though? Only you.

>scariest enemy ever
>#1. RE4 regenerators

>japanese

???