The Hunter is the player character and main protagonist of Bloodborne. Through this avatar, players will interact and experience the world of Yharnam.
Description
Promotional material depicts the Hunter as a male in a grey duster coat, a black tricorn and leather boots. He holds in his hands a Saw Cleaver and Hunter Blunderbuss.
In Bloodborne, the player has access to a feature-rich character creation that allows for appearance and voice customization. The player can also select different origins that align their backstory and starting stats.
The origins of the Hunter are determined by the players themselves, ranging from a middle-class upbringing; a troublesome childhood; a military background or the member of a noble family among others. At some point in their life the Hunter becomes afflicted with an unspecified disease and travels to Yharnam, an ancient city known for its advanced medical knowledge, in search of the rumored "Paleblood", which is said to cure any disease. At Iosefka's Clinic, the Hunter is anesthetized and given a blood transfusion by an unnamed Blood Minister. Upon waking up, the Hunter finds themself alone with a note telling them that they must seek the Paleblood to transcend the Hunt.
Personality-wise the Hunter is presented as a 'silent protagonist'. The Hunter can communicate with the people of Yharnam, such as when they point them towards a safe-haven. However, they lack any kind of spoken dialogue outside of grunts and yells when taking damage.
Story
For an unknown reason, the Hunter travels to Yharnam, home to Blood Healing, a powerful blood remedy that is believed to cure all diseases. Upon arriving, the Hunter receives a blood transfusion from the Blood Minister in Iosefka's Clinic. Said blood grants the Hunter the abilities necessary to participate in the hunt, such as being able to heal themself with blood vials.
After waking up from the transfusion, the Hunter finds a note that tells them to seek the Paleblood to "transcend the hunt". The Hunter then exits Iosefka's Clinic only to be killed by a beast. They wake up again, now in the Hunter's Dream, a place they will travel every time they die in Yharnam. There, the Hunter receives weapon gifts from the Messengers, small skeleton-like creatures that help the hunters trapped in the Dream. The Hunter then returns to Yharnam where they, now equipped with the gifts, is able to slay hostile men and beasts alike. Traveling to the Dream once again, the Hunter meets a Plain Doll, who helps them channel Blood Echoes from their slain enemies into their strength. They also meet Gherman, an ex-hunter bound to a wheelchair who just tells them to enjoy the hunt, and that the Dream is now the Hunter's home.
At Central Yharnam, the Hunter meets Gilbert, a sick man who also came to Yharnam seeking a cure, who speaks to them from inside his home through a window. He points the player towards the Cathedral Ward, home of the Healing Church, telling them that it's the place where the Hunter will most likely find the Paleblood they seek.
AnonymousIs it bad that everytime I play bloodborne I call my character John Bloodborne
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
- Anonymous
I feel like the hunter is the best out of the other from soft protagonists.
- Anonymous
“Every man is borne from blood”
-john bloodborne, the protagonist of the hit game bloodborne
- Anonymous
The hunter is one of the most blessed people in the game. They get nothing but "motherly" love from nearly all sources. The doll always awaits the hunter to come home. Iosefka(and imposter) is relieved the moment she sees the hunter unharmed. Arianna offers her special blood to aid them. Adella sees them as their savior. The old woman eventually treats you like family. Annalise turns down the offer of marriage and considers the hunter "...dear to us. We would see no harm befall thee." Maria just didn't want to let go. Adeline dedicates the last of her life to pass on knowledge to the hunter. Kos lifts the curse to the one who liberated her child. Ebrietas forgave the hunter otherwise she would've attacked on site. Yharnam gives you final access to traverse ever changing labyrinths to build power and nods her head in approval towards you once you slay Mergo. Lastly, assuming it's female, the Moon presence comes for the hunter to be their "surrogate." Yes, I believe the hunter was chosen by nearly everything that is or had potential to be a mother.
- Anonymous
What if the hunter is from the land of Ashina? After all the hunter is from a foreign land and the cut dialog from the beginning suggests that his family was effected by a disease. Maybe the dragon rot from sekiro. Just a far fetched thought
- Anonymous
Couldn't the "disease" they Hunter arrives to cure also be their selected origin? The Doll says to the Hunter upon meeting her, "You will hunt beasts, and I will be here for you, to embolden your sickly spirit." I always understood this to imply that it's not their physical body that is ill, but perhaps their consciousness is troubled by something. After all, it wasn't until around the Victorian era that people started to try and rationalize things like mental illness. It was also about the time that "alienists," the archaic term for psychologists and psychiatrists, became commonplace in developed nations in order to understand the more insidious afflictions presenting themselves within a more stabilized civilization.
A major narrative trend in Bloodborne is rebirth through sacrifice, and I wonder if the traveler turned Hunter also intended to reinvent themselves. Maybe this is the implication of the "Childhood's Beginning" ending--the Hunter absolves themselves of their dark past, but in doing so erases their very humanity, similarly to many other characters in the game, but perhaps in doing so, they provide for the rest of mankind a chance of understanding how to heal the "sickly spirit." It just took a ton of *****ed up experiments for this knowledge to finally be obtained...
- Anonymous
I don't believe the hunter is seeking out a "paleblood." In the beginning, as the hunter falls unconscious, they can hear a female voice say, "Ah, so you've found yourself a paleblood." The hunter is also instructed, via one of the notes left to them by messengers in the Dream, to end the loop by hunting down and killing the cause of it, which leads me to believe that the hunter is a paleblood.
a hoonter must hoont
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