Everyone’s favorite video archaeologist Lance McDonald is back with a new Bloodthirsty video. This time, he explores the unused dialogue for the Doll, the 2015 NPC Award level. And while the alternative voice acting is neat, what she said earlier has piqued my interest.
Bloodthirsty, like most of the software games, is narratively opaque. Story details and plot points are often hidden in descriptions of articles and easy missions, making each piece of spoken dialogue much more important to gather even a fraction of history. In his video, McDonald explains that the Doll originally had a lot more to say to the player around the world. Bloodthirsty, and the unused dialogue sheds light on early details that did not make it to the final match.
A good portion of the unused Bloodthirsty dialogue revolves around the fact that you may be playing as someone who is ill and hallucinating on their deathbed. Instead of greeting the player as a ‘good hunter’, for example, the Doll usually referred to them as the ‘sick’, a name that can still be found in the note templates that players can share between their games. She also welcomes the main character in the “nightmare” at the beginning of the game, calling it “a dream of the sick, of those who are on the threshold of death”, and sheds more light on the strange center.
Bloodthirsty is as fascinating and compelling in its history as playing. Diligent hunters still discuss the finer points of his universe today, a testament to the lengths From Software made the story as obscure as possible and the depth of the concepts of the narrative. While this unused Doll dialogue does not affect the story as it unfolds in the actual game, it does offer an interesting perspective on Bloodthirsty as a whole and the changes it has undergone over the course of development.