Despite very little being done with the IP since its first game ten years ago,Bloodbornestill remains a firm favorite among fans. Some Soulsborne players claim that this game is the best of the bunch, still beating outElden Ringand anything from theDarks Soulsseries thanks to its faster combat and unique, gothic, bloody setting. Ten years later,Bloodbornestill has a vice grip on the same audience it introduced itself to on the PS4, and despite no new title or project in the series, more lore has come from an unlikely source.
Thanks to its popularity and cult status,Sony has claimedBloodborneas an integral part of its library. Doing anything with the IP has proved tricky; however, since FromSoftware has been busying itself with making Game of the Year winners likeSekiroandElden Ring.Although many other PlayStation exclusives have received PC ports of late, like the NorseGod of Wartitles and the twoHorizongames,Bloodborneremains a firm, PlayStation exclusive, but that doesn’t mean that Sony has forgotten this gem completely.
PlayStation’s Astro Bot Reveals Hidden Lore About Bloodborne
It Only Took Ten More Years
Astro Botis a new 3D platformer that plays homage to a plethora of PlayStation iconsthroughout Sony’s history. It is a brilliant game in and of itself, with a wonderfully charming aesthetic that makes its manyreferences and Easter Eggseven better. These aren’t just restricted to PlayStation exclusives either, including references fromYakuzatoMetal Gear Solid, but most of the PlayStation cast is here to make an appearance, including a couple of characters fromBloodborne, as pointed out by YouTuber: Zullie the Witch.
The Hunter (Bloodborne’scustomizable protagonist) and Lady Maria are the two characters included inAstro Bot, and it is quite strange to see such dour characters represented by cute little bots. When players find Lady Maria’s bot in Astro’s Playground, and rescue her from the boulder that has trapped her, they will receive a description stating that she is the youngest of the Old Hunters. The funniest part of this is thatnone of this was ever stated inBloodborneitself and new lore is being revealed inAstro Botof all things.
Players candress up Astro in the outfitsof other characters, includingBloodborne’s Hunter.
It should be noted that only The Hunter was initially included inAstro BotandLady Maria was included later as a tie-in with Astro’s Playground. With her being a DLC boss, it is fitting that she has been added to a game after its launch yet again, but it is interesting that she has been chosen to representBloodbornealongside The Hunter instead of anyone else. Gehrman, the Plain Doll, or Eileen the Crow could have been chosen, but Lady Maria seems to be the most popular choice despite her status as a DLC character.
What This Lore Means For Maria And Bloodborne
It Gives A Time Frame For The Old Hunters
The Old Hunters are a group led by Gehrman (the First Hunter) long ago, united by their sins, particularly what they did in the Fishing Hamlet. The time frame when the Old Hunters were active has always been vague, butwith Gehrman being the first and Lady Maria the youngest, it does give a rough beginning and end to their tenure. It isn’t clear whether the youngest means that she was the youngest active member or the youngest to join, but both are likely true at the same time, knowing her relationship with Gehrman.
Will a Bloodborne remaster ever get made?
Despite still being one of the most acclaimed games in Sony’s library of the past decade, fans have not only lamented the lack of a Bloodborne sequel, but particularly a remaster, especially with the recent announcement that fellow Sony title Horizon Zero Dawn will be getting a remaster. With this, some may wonder if a remaster of the FromSoftware title will ever get made, and I think there is still a chance for it to happen. The recent widespread success of FromSoft’s Elden Ring certainly has put the 2015 game back on the map for many previous players and those new to the Soulsborne formula, and with the unofficial franchise’s first installment, Demon’s Souls, having gotten a remake in 2020 that was a critical and commercial hit, I think it now comes down to the studio finding the right time to move ahead with one.
Gehrman was obsessed with Maria, and this continued even after her death,which is why the Plain Doll bears her resemblance so heavily. The Old Hunters violating Kos, a Great One, and mutilating the villagers of the Fishing Hamlet proved too much to bear for Maria, and it is inferred that she ended her own life. Her spirit was then taken to the Hunter’s Nightmare, where she guards the secret of the Nightmare (the actions in the Fishing Hamlet) in the Astral Clocktower.
Despite looking like her, the Plain Doll has none of Lady Maria’s personality and this is likely why Gehrman plays her little attention.
Despite being the youngest of the Old Hunters, she has yet to succumb to bloodlust like the other Old Hunter enemies in the Hunter’s Nightmare, showing her resolve despite her age. Her being the youngest member does make Gehrman’s already creepy infatuation with her even stranger, especially considering it isn’t known if she shared these feelings when she was his protégé.Her being the youngest also makes thematic sense, since she is the last thing guarding the secret of the Hunter’s Nightmare andthe Orphan of Koslater on.
It Isn’t Clear Whether FromSoftware Approved This Lore
Sony Owns The IP But FromSoftware Made The Game
As something that is treated as a throwaway line,it isn’t clear whether Sony got approval from FromSoftware for this lore. It could have been something that was a part of FromSoftware’s notes that never made it into the game, or could be something that Sony made up and put in, considering that they own the IP and can do what they want with it. Since it is a part of a PlayStation Studio game, it can be assumed that this is somewhat canon, especially since it doesn’t contradict any of the pre-existing lore established byBloodborne.
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In the Japanese version ofAstro Bot, the description is completely different.It is a kind of poem that references Lady Maria as Sleeping Beauty, since she spends most of her time sleepingin a chair before getting up to jump scare and continually murder the Hunter. Nothing in the Japanese version implies that Lady Maria was the youngest of the Old Hunters, but the sentence itself seems too specific to be a localization error, especially since it makes sense in the lore and adds a layer of thematic story telling to Maria’s fight.
Ultimately, the lore drop fromAstro Botcan be taken with a grain of salt, depending on whether a player believes that anything coming from Sony and not FromSoftware can be canon, but it does make sense and does fit intoBloodbornequite well. It gives greater context to Lady Maria herself, and shows, despite how deadly she is, she was likely considered a junior among the Old Hunters. It adds a layer of tragedy to her already sorrowful backstory, which is ironically quite funny considering the kind of game that this piece of lore came from.
