In 2024, my New Year’s Resolution was to finish Bloodborne. In 2025, my New Year’s Resolution is … to finish Bloodborne. Yes, I planned to finally beat Bloodborne last year. No, I did not accomplish my goal. Yes, I know that you have no reason to believe that I will actually follow through this year. No, that does not affect my belief that I will actually do it this time.
I DO Finish Some Resolutions, Okay?
Look, I don’t want you to think I’m a slouch on my resolutions. I made the goal to read 104 books in 2024 (well, actually, an even mix of books and screenplays) and I conquered it. I wanted to listen to 60 old albums and 60 new albums, and I passed 100 in both categories. I don’t accomplish all my goals but I absolutely get more done than I would if I didn’t make the resolutions in the first place.
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But, I had two mountains I wanted to climb in 2024: beating Bloodborne and reading Infinite Jest. To stick with the alpine metaphor, I’ve been frozen to death, with icicles leaking out of my nose, on both ascents since last March. I read 300-ish pages of Infinite Jest and then got really into Brandon Sanderson, and devoted that time to his 1000 page books instead. And, I wish I could say that I achieved something as difficult as beating Bloodborne in my gaming life, but my biggest accomplishment was probably just going back to Baldur’s Gate 3 and rolling credits. The drive to finish BG3 was partially driven by the knowledge that, thanks to Bloodborne, I already have one all-time favorite game that I haven’t actually finished.
The result is that neither mountain got fully climbed – I made it about one-third through Infinite Jest and more than halfway through Bloodborne. In the past, I would have felt defeated. I would have felt like, “Well, too much time has passed, I won’t remember anything, I just need to start over at the beginning.” But, one of the benefits of getting older (and I’m set to turn 31 next month) is that the years go by faster. I’ve seen people speculate on why this is — maybe because you have less novel experiences, maybe because a year is a smaller percentage of your total life lived, maybe because you’re no longer in school and so don’t have the delineations in time that semesters provide. Whatever the reason, 2024 blazed by for me, which means that I can pick up this game and this book I haven’t touched since last March and it won’t take me too long to remember what’s going on.
Sometimes A Year Isn’t Enough
Acknowledging that a project like this might take me longer than a year and that that’s okay is a game-changer. Finishing Bloodborne doesn’t need to be a roguelike project that I finish in one year or suffer permadeath. It can be like… well… playing Bloodborne. When you die in FromSoft’s classic, you might lose some Blood Echoes. But, you get back on the horse. I lost some muscle memory, and will undoubtedly spend the first hour going, “What the hell was I doing here?” But, then I’ll be back to it like no time has passed.
And, isn’t being willing to pick up where you left off valuable too? Not all goals need to be all new. Finishing something you started, even if it means coming back after a long time away, is still a worthy goal. But, I give you permission to flame me in the comments if I write this article again next year.
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Trust me, if you like Bloodborne, you’re gonna love this cult classic PS1 gem.