Game Composer Listens to LIVING FAILURES for the First Time 

You guys have been recommending Living Failures for a long time and now I can see why. That first half sounds so different than any Bloodborne music I've heard. And hey, while you're here, make sure you check my Dark Souls music videos as well: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-_AKjMqhE-mI.html

Watching lore channels to understand lore : ❌ Watching Davi Vasc to understand lore : ✅

The Living Failures are the result of an experiment yes. The very basic gist is that the church in BB tried to turn humans into gods. In doing so there were many failures. One woman, Lady Maria, took care of the people who were being experimented on. She provided solace to those who were in the process of transforming. As such she is pretty much revered by them and seen as a holy mother of sorts. This could very well explain the second orchestral half with a lot of happiness in it.

was thinking Mars from gustav holst too. and this boss lorewise has EVERYTHING to do with space.

This man just understood the lore just by listening to the theme, very cool

The choir portion right before the 2nd phase with the "happy" sounding chords kinda lines up with the Failures finally managing to all pose together to cast the meteor spell. You can see some attempting it in the 1st phase but they never seem to time it together. Then the 2nd phase could entirely represent the grand nature of Kos but also the knowledge unknown to us that the Failures seem to have tapped into.

You literally discovered the lore behind the failures just by simply listening to their soundtrack and that’s super impressive.

The lyrics for the choir at around 10:45 are approximately "Glory, glory to the stars! (...) Oh blessed lord!" (in Latin). This, along with the boss's lore, gives some context to the happy chords - that part of the song is likely meant to represent the ascension that the patients in the Research Hall were meant to achieve, but ultimately failed (hence the name Living Failures).

From what I understand, the Living Failures were, well, failures from experiments into trying to ascend into Cthulhu-like 'gods' via the ingesting of special water, as opposed to the path through 'The Blood'. The 'successful' ones are called the Celestial Minions and the truly successful one is called the Celestial Emissary. So the space association is very apt.

Definitely feels like what would play over a mad scientist screaming "ITS ALIVE!!!!!"

Talking about the excitement portion of the song. That part plays specifically during an attack where everything turns into stars and meteors fall out of the sky. Since the Failures are the failed experiments to reach a higher plane of existence, it'd make sense for them to be the ones feeling the happiness as even in their failed state, they can still temporarily touch that existence they tried to reach in the first place.

Another goosebump inducing boss music from Bloodborne. AWESOME

Wow! Almost all of the songs from the DLC. I wish you could analyze the "Orphan of Kos" theme or "Laurence, The First Vicar". Awesome songs as well! Best wishes from Brazil!

I think it’s a testament to not only your skill as a music analyst but also the skill of the composer of these songs that you are able to so accurately understand the lore and what’s happening with these bosses just by listening to the music

The entire area leading up to this fight is extremely dark and depraved, the abominations are worse than the ones you’re fighting in this boss battle. These “living failures” are the culmination of all of these experiments, and during the fight they are finally able to commune with the celestial beings and bring down comets to earth. In the eyes of the church and these poor souls that were turned into these things… they finally did it. That’s probably why the second part of the track contains so many of those happy chords, these failures finally lived up to their purpose and showed some kind of success. In that moment all of the experiments in this part of the research hall were no longer for nothing. These failures, taken to this lumenwood garden by lady Maria finally had some form of success.

When they raise their arms and turn the whole sky to space and meteors come down, that is a top 5 overall moment from any soulsborne game IMO (art + music + combat + lore all put together)

I love how analytical he is about the first part of the theme, but when phase 2 hits he's just like : 'wow', lost for words

So one little detail: the second phase starts here 10:15 at the "explodiye part" and as you can see at the footage here 10:27 they are standing still rising their hands summoning comets, and the choir sings something like "Ave, ave Stellar" which means "Hail, hail the star".. what I'm trying to say maybe it's the Living Failures the ones who exited, they were created to communicate with cosmos and they kinda able to do it and may be they are happy about it But we don't know maybe we both right maybe both wrong etc :) Thanks for the reaction!

This song is amazing, the choir comes when the boss is finally able to make contact with the gods, being their original objective and the reason they were created, facing you seems to be the final push they needed to achieve their purpose.

The amount to things you discover just by listening to the soundtrack... it's both showing how much of passion and talent for music you have and how much the soundtracks in those games are an amazing work of art that manages to get it's themes perfectly

Absolutely love this one. I've always interpreted the brass to be the grandiosity of space, as well as the looming presence of the cold, experimental, church. What's interesting is that the song loops before the crazy choir bits at 10:15, it's only when the bosses work together to literally bring space to them (and shoot SPACE DEBRIS at you!) that you hear it. It's perfectly synced and never plays before hand (that's why the buildup is so quick, so they can fit it anywhere on the track). Even though they are "failures" they wield the strange universe power that humans never have. When threatened, they succeed to use this "magic". It's been a while since I played, so I don't remember why they are considered failures. In fact, the "successful" version of this boss is easier to fight, so it begs the question, what was the church after?

Now that you mention it, this definitely sounds like an evil mad scientist's big reveal of their new discovery/invention with the classic bloodborne eldritch horror vibes added in. Mad Scientist: BEHOLD! MY GREATEST CREATION! *invention activation followed by mass destruction*

I find it fascinating that the Latin vocals during the beginning of the 2nd phase for the "Living Failures" is crying out "AVE", which is to proclaim victory. I wonder if anybody has taken apart the latin vocals in souls music and found if it gave more context or flavor to lore.

The choirs in this song are absolutely astounding! It's insane how they can use it so well

1:45 Kinda seeing as the boss resembles the Celestial Emissary, another boss in the game. The Living Failures reside in a building that partook in quite a bit of human experimentation, namely in trying to 'ascend humanity' and allow communion with celestial higher entities beyond human comprehension. At least, I think that's what the location these Living Failures reside in was trying to do.

The happy part rly gives me Frankenstein's monster vibes. Like they're a horrifying scientific breakthrough

Love that ending haha. *song ends* , *Davi looks directly into the camera* "Wow"

Another day of Davi Vasc blowing my mind with music breakdowns. When you said “Does this have something to do with space?” I lost it 🤣 because it very much does. Awesome work bro!

been looking forward to this vid!

8:00 Ahhh, The feeling.The build up in this parts never get old and Never will

Broke: Understanding lore through item description. WOKE: Understanding lore through boss music.

The music for the Living Failures has always been super interesting to me because typically the other really good music comes from the bosses that are generally considered to be some of the best, but the Living Failures are a pretty mediocre boss and in my opinion the only real flop of the Old Hunters, and yet have one of my favorite soundtracks of all of bloodborne.

I love how the souls community comes together to watch all composers reacting to the music of the game, hope you all can stay and support this man.

“Living failures” sounds like what my mom might call me

This is one of my faves among BB OSTs, and you nailed all about the lore again! Great content as always sir!

I'll always associate the ''happy'' part with a ''celebration'' of sorts. Because when it plays, generally, plays with the part where the living failures is casting the cosmos power conjuring a meteor clash, and the gesture seens like a celebration or glorification of it with the hands in the air, like they are literally embracing the cosmos. So the happiness of it its disturbing because those things were once humans that embraced the cosmos at the cost of its own humanity. Great video! Very insightful :)

Awesome dude! I've been waiting for this one. The fight itself is really kind of annoying due to how it plays out so my first time playing I didn't stop to appreciate the theme. Now I look forward to it just to hear this banger. So... Laurence The First Vicar soon?

I love to watch your videos cause your analysis is so educated, I feel like I learn something new from you every video!

Davi in BB the two main factions are the Healing Church and the Choir. They both started when Master Wilhem and his pupil Lawrence had a fallout over the usage of a certain type of miraculous blood that was discovered in an ancient labyrinth below the city of Yharnam. The blood could cure any disease in record time and enhance endurance which made Lawrence want to spread its usage to the rest of the world and make the Church the most powerful organization in it (whether out of good intentions or not its not specified). Wilhem and Lawrence wanted to ascend the human race to its next step in evolution. Wilhem wanted to do it through insight, the gathering of knowledge of the astral plane and its creatures. Lawrence wanted to do it through the blood. The blood which has its origins in a great one called "The Moon Prescence" does not evolve humans, in fact it regresses them to a primal, beastly state of frenzy, turning them into beings similar to werewolves. This major fuckup made them quarantine Yharnam and the Church founded the Hunters organization to fight the beasts periodically. The church hunters had two major leaders, one was Ludwig and the other was Gerhman. Over time both Lawrence and Ludwig became afflicted with the bloodborne disease and turned into beasts. The first part of the "Old Hunters" DLC recaps the events (through a nightmare setting) of the raid of "Old Yharnam" in which the city was burned to the ground alongside everyone in it. But the hunters didn't stop there. In their attempts at purging the scourge of the beast the hunters, led by Gerhman, raided a coastal town named The Fishing Hamlet, where they slayed another great one called "Mother Kos". After experimenting on himself with parasites (called Phantasms in game) Master Wilhem had his intelligence massively boosted and his insight into the cosmos widened. He described the feeling as having "eyes on the inside". The transformation produced by ingesting these parasites is different to the one caused by the blood as it makes the bodies of the victims turn into fishlike blue creatures. These two modes of corruption are in fact used in game as mechanics where the player can gain "insight" or "frenzy". The Living Failures are the results of these experiments. After the events of the Old Hunters DLC everything went to shit. The great ones started to capture some hunters into their realms as "Hosts" chaining them to an eternity of servitude with Lady Maria being the host of the orphaned child of Mother Kos and Gerhman being the host of the Moon Presence forever tasked with recruiting hunters to serve the Moon Presence until the cycle is broken. There are other minor great ones and hosts in the game such as Micolash, head of an ofshoot of the choir called the School of Mensis, trapped by a great one called "The Brain of Mensis". The Amygdala, who captures an npc named "Patches" as its host and the formless great one Oedon who has the most mysterious role in the story but has ties to the old queen of Yharnam and his present day descendant, both of which are impregnated by him.

My favorite ost in Bloodborne finally, so epic, so tragic and so galvanizing at the same time. Simply an amazing piece of music. I know when I'm earing it that somwhere there is a brother in arms who's listening it too and it gives me so much power and strength That's amazing

Good to hear I wasn't the only one hearing a march in that rhythm. Ominous space march authority with a happy chord in the mix is quite a way to describe a song.

Man, am I happy to see this. This is by _far_ the most underappreciated track in the game in my opinion. That second phase transition is just an absolute showstopper!

you have very well trained ears and mind, dude. Super impressive. Understanding the music makes you understand the story even more, it’s awesome

It amazing how close you get to the actual lore of the boss just from the theme, its incredible and it makes me appreciate Bloodborne's and Fromsoft's music more knowing how well these themes match up with their respective bosses.

Yes finally about time this one gets some attention. But anyway the part when the quire takes over I think is more so excitement on the part of the living failures. In a way like they are able to fulfill a purpose they have been striving for, for so long. And the rest sounds like when they noticed that there purpose has failed. It then changes into anger but also happiness as if in a way they are finally released from a massive burden and are happy and angry at the same time.

Your analyses have become my favorites because you actually break things down well and enlighten me on new parts of the songs. I even learn about new bits of music history. It’s great. You also guess the lore so well every time. This boss does have something to do with space, and the religious organization that created it, the Choir, is very authoritarian and grand. The joy of a new scientific achievement, the dread and ominous twist of “failure” in the experiment, the cosmic elements, the tragedy….it’s all there. It’s amazing how many themes a piece of music can communicate in one brief progression of chords and notes.

The “wow” at the end sums it up like poetry 👌🏼

Thank you so much. The choirs are divine in this track and you perfectly got the lore. I was really surprised about the clear reference and omage at the beginning to "Mars". I wasn't expecting that.

this video just show us how the music this themes literally tell the story without words AND I LOVE THAT, great video!

Blessed be the choir, for through them the blood of life flows to all.

Very exiting is also the turn in of the choir in the secound phase.It sounds quite like youre facing a sect or some sort and theyre summoning something evil.

Some people are saying the second half of the song with the very happy almost religious chanting is because they love lady Maria and lady Maria loves them, but I think it’s more the creators of the Failures being very excited about the progress they’ve made even though they weren’t entirely successful. I think it’s sort of like a proof of concept since the Failures can summon cosmic projectiles and whatnot, even if they aren’t fully transformed kin.

You should react to blood starving beast and the queen of the vile bloods theme as well. They're both underrated tracks but sooo good

Reaction to every other part: Detailed explanation of what's going on. Reaction to climatic end: "Wow."

My favourite track from Bloodborne - great analysis

It’s so satisfying listening to you explaining the surface level of lore just from music. Really shows how well trained is your ear is and how well written the songs are

Awesome stuff, I'm liking the analysis of your videos. While I recommended Moon Presence, I feel another Bloodborne track to check out is Ebiretas, Daughter of the Cosmos. Keep it up, I'm enjoying the content!

The disturbance and layers not matching witch one another + the Boss' name = 🤯

The icing is the second phase, where the song goes "AAAAAAMMEEEEENNN", all failures rise theyr hands, the sky gets dark but full of stars (celestial) then starts to rain deadly meteores (chaos), and then the music go all in with orchestra and choir, as you fight aganist all failures and all attaks they now have unlocked.

I feel like at this point we're just gonna ask him to do every song in the Bloodborne soundtrack

I was looking forward to this one! Honestly, as someone who loves music, your channel is perfect with its breakdown and your enthusiasm makes it so much fun. Can’t wait to see where your channel goes

Fun fact the Living Failures were supposed to be Celestial Puddings (That's how I call them) And the group of patients on the Balcony turned into the Celestial Puddings

9:03 you are absolutely correct! And at 9:27 where you spoke about the later that adds a layer of worry, unsuccess, and doubt is exactly correct too! The living failures are creatures that were SO close to ascension and being a successful project, however they are a failure nonetheless. That is why the track suggests cosmic themes but keeps a layer of doubt and unsuccess. It’s because they were so close to reaching the stars and ascension but not quite. And the cosmic theme stays because, in the bossfight, they keep actually have partial access to the power of the stars and they unleash cosmic attacks on us involving meteors and stuff. It’s exactly why it’s a mix of happy and disturbing/unfortunate. Great analysis, you hit the nail right on the head. It’s both a congratulations to you and the composers for being able to translate such complex emotions and themes with multiple layers.

amazing how this guy managed to figure out the lore behind the bosses via the music and how the composers are able to tell a story with like music alone. Really shows how video games can tell amazing stories without having to copy movies like so many "cinematic" games are doing but can tell it purely through gameplay or visuals or sound.

From 7:46, the brass chords are echoed in the next phrase by the strings. The gods speak and the humans answer.

Listen to Living Failures earlier today, and then I see this on my break

I'm so glad I found this channel, it's super interesting listening to how music can really tell the story

What are the odds? I was just going trough your older videos when this popped up as I refreshed the page. One of my favorite tracks from Bloodborne, glad you covered it :)

The build-up and the choir is just \°O°/ made into a song.

Yet again he completely gets the lore of the thing lmao

Oh my god, YES! I’m so glad someone else noticed that this sounds so Star Wars(ey), I’ve had that feeling for years now! But it’s also such an interesting spin on Star Wars like music, because there’s this theme in it where it’s not adventurous like Star Wars is, it has the same dramatic flare to it, but there’s something scary and ill-fated about it which fits so perfectly with the lore, as these ”Living Failures” are actually people who’ve been experimented on in mad attempts to explore the cosmos, which in this game is portrayed like space but is more like this unseen realm of the Eldritch Great Ones, gods for all intents and purposes. And these victims as seen in the area leading up to the Living Failures undergo this horrific process of mutation, agony and brewing madness as this crazy organization tries to elevate their minds, in typical Bloodborne fashion resulting in insanity, an insanity made scarier by the fact that some of them seem to be in immense pain, wishing for death and others eerily content or even happy in their complete detachment from reality and their senses, often times reduced to a tumultuous sludge that used to be their malformed heads, in touch with something beyond what you the player can see, hearing things you cannot. And so these Living Failures are as kin to the Great Ones, harnessing their powers at the cost of all their humanity in every sense of the word, becoming horrors of the game’s inspired Lovecraftian nature. And so the horrific Star Wars music fits so well, humans reaching for the stars, never quite reaching what they aim for and cruelly destroying and corrupting themselves and those around them in the process. The music encompasses all of this, the entire story of the story at play surrounding this boss.

From all these "proffesional reacts" videos i've seen, you're by far the most insightful when it comes to breaking down things.

As always, your video makes me look at some things from a new side. Yep, The Choir is a very authoritarian organization. "Here we stand, feet planted in the earth, but might the cosmos be very near us, only just above our heads?" For someones this tragedy is a really exciting thing.

When I started listening to the music I thought it sounded like a movie OST, it also reminded me a bit of Star Wars. And it's probably because of the influence of Gustav Holst (I didn't know him until now).

One of my personal favourites, and I didnt even know why, thanks for teaching me. It ends so suddenly also

wow this is unexpected, it's a great theme

Subscribed to your channel when I found your Gehrman video and then this which is my favorite theme from Bloodborne pops. Great reaction to the theme and its amazing how well you understand the lore just from the music.

I absolutely love this OST and I’m really enjoying your Videos too. Thank you for making them. It’s nice how you literally guessed everything about this bossfight correctly and even lined the gameplay up with the music so that they both ended at the same time.

So without getting super lore nerdy in you. The Living Failures are essentially a failed attempt at making significantly shorter blue space goobers. Which I think is so in tune with the music. The first half or so that kind of builds until AVEEE I think is really great at portraying these failed celestials as really offputting abominations. I mean pretend for a second you're not a guy whose spent the last 30+ hours fighting oversized werewolves and squid gods, now imagine you stumble across 9 foot tall blue alien dudes with a bad tendency to bring down the cosmos. Probably some pretty freaky shit.

What i love from this track is how well it's integrate with the fight. By the time the music is building up, you are fighting one failures individualy, but the numbers icrease, and by the time the music is full blow, you have to fight 4, and every time one die, other rise.

slave knight gael next pleaseeee, imo it has the best "drop" of any game OST i've heard. On par with Ludwig at least :^)

I'd always tried to explain that this track sounds space-y and I'm glad it wasn't just me who noticed the mars link

Laurence, the First Vicaar :0! it's an awesome ost too

Praise The Cosmo

FINALLY!! I'm so excited you've finally reviewed this gem! You're absolutely right on the authoritative organization in the world of Bloodborne. It's called "The Healing Church'. The way you can pick out elements of the plot based on music history is not only a testament to the genius of the music of Bloodborne, but your own knowledge and musical expertise. Bravo, thank you again for another lovely breakdown!

It is astounding how much of the lore you got right about them just from listening to the theme. Amazing composition captures the story of the boss perfectly. And your trained ear picked up on subtle lore most players had to look up theories for online. You got a sub from me dude

Big brain here, your story inferences from the music is pretty spot on

Great breakdown of the sounds and how the theme was constructed

My second favourite theme in Bloodborne.

My god how much he can understand of the boss and the worlds lore from the music alone is incredible!! Goes to show the thought that goes into these scores

If you're thinking of doing more Bloodborne I'd definitely recommend Ebrietas, daughter of the cosmos. It's wild and really gives the impression that you've discovered something unknowable.

Oh wow the John Williams thing completely flew over my head, that's such a good find

Yep, I could not NOT stop thinking about Gustav Holst when I first heard this piece, especially while listening to the soundtrack alone by itself. Really feels intentional, with the cosmos link lore-wise.

this has always been one of my all-time favorites!! maybe someday you could do the track "Queen of the Vilebloods" from this game too! its not the most popular bloodborne track, but imo it's one of the best in the whole game. either way, thanks for the work you put into these!

I LOVE this content! Would also be cool if to look up to the actual lore after to see if the feelings one got from the theme matches the lore of the boss.

I recommend the track "Queen of the Vilebloods" Its absolutely bonkers, I'd love to see your analysis on it! That and Laurence the First Vicar

Oh man, please please please do Laurence, the First Vicar from Bloodborne, it's so beautiful.

The fact that you got lore out of the music is phenomenal. I subbed just because of this video. I love souls borne.

does sound like they are welcoming the invasion of a powerful entity o.o makes sense given the story!

You can really see how much care was taken by from soft for the games, even the music, if you look at videos like this. A professional who never played the game (?) could see the whole theme of the boss just by the choice of music. Its amazing!