Chapter 68 - #68: Bloodborne Debut Trailer | Face Your Fears | Xbox Series Hephaestus Action RPG

Chapter 68: Chapter #68: Bloodborne Debut Trailer | Face Your Fears | Xbox Series Hephaestus Action RPG

As the executive officer of Xbox, Ivan naturally possessed the authority to experience the game build long before any of the players.

That night, he sat alone in his office, replaying the game’s internal promotional video over and over again.

Ever since Ethan Vale had broken into the industry, the hallmark of a Nova game was painstaking polish applied to smaller, tighter experiences.

Most of his previous works had utilized stylized pixel art.

Even though the art direction of Hollow Knight had been universally praised for its breathtaking beauty, it was fundamentally a 2D game built entirely on hand-drawn, original paintings.

The world of Hallownest was vast and meticulously crafted, but it possessed a specific kind of 2D delicacy—a freehand, resonant beauty that fundamentally differed from the crushing weight of cutting-edge 3D rendering.

Even after Irina Jelavic had showcased a few early environmental screenshots on First Game News, Ivan hadn’t dared to hold his expectations too high for the actual in-game modeling.

He knew Sprout Studio was still incredibly young and operating on an indie budget.

But after booting up the actual game build, Ivan realized just how wrong he was.

The fidelity was absolutely outrageous.

He promised himself right then that he would never doubt Ethan’s capabilities again.

Ethan was a developer who poured his entire soul into his craft, dedicated solely to pushing the boundaries of the medium. If Nova decided to make a game, he would tear himself apart to ensure it was a masterpiece.

Even though he hadn’t slept a single wink all night, Ivan’s mind felt sharper and clearer than it had in years.

As the dark sky outside his window finally began to lighten, he immediately forwarded the raw promotional video to the Xbox marketing department and issued a direct, uncompromising executive order.

At exactly nine o’clock that morning, a massive banner announcement went live across the official Xbox platform and all associated social media channels.

[ At 12:00 PM EST today, the official, uncompressed 4K cinematic trailer for Bloodborne will premiere. Continuous gameplay reveals and deep-dive trailers will follow in the weeks leading up to the official launch. ]

The moment the notice was posted, the Xbox marketing machine roared to life.

The promotional campaign was absolutely overwhelming.

Millions of players across the globe received push notifications, targeted ads, and direct platform messages simultaneously.

The Bloodborne trailer was locked into the premiere hero slot on the front page of the Xbox dashboard—a tier of dedicated promotion historically reserved strictly for first-party, billion-dollar AAA console exclusives.

In Terra’s domestic market, Ivan had unilaterally authorized a massive budget just to buy out the top trending slots on every major social media platform, purely to ensure every single gamer knew the trailer was dropping.

[

NoRest: HOLY SHIT BLOODBORNE ALREADY?! That son of a bitch actually did it!

NicoGab: The roadmap said mid-year, and we hadn’t heard anything! I honestly thought it was getting delayed!

kindred: Bro, the marketing budget for this is insane... My friends in Europe said their entire feed is just Bloodborne ads right now.

Senpai_for__hire: So this is the sheer power of being the sadist’s publisher, huh?

]

Even Xbox’s own internal development studios had never received a marketing push this concentrated and aggressive.

A dedicated, platform-wide trailer premiere event for a single indie title?

It was unprecedented.

It was an absolute, exclusive flex for Nova.

"Ivan! Who the hell authorized you to use emergency executive overrides?!"

The furious shouting erupted from the speakers of Ivan’s laptop. He was sitting calmly in his office chair, staring at the grid of angry faces on the impromptu video conference call. Rival executives within the corporate hierarchy, men who had been eyeing his regional position for years, were absolutely seething.

Ivan’s expression remained perfectly flat. He lightly tapped his index finger against the mahogany desk, letting the barrage wash over him.

"You’re going to destroy our quarterly budget!"

"You can’t just weaponize the entire platform for your personal pet projects!"

Ivan rolled his eyes. He reached out and slowly dragged the volume slider on his laptop down to zero.

His office was instantly peaceful again.

"..."

He watched the red, screaming faces on the screen, completely ignoring their frantic gesticulating. He only unmuted the audio once he saw them pause to catch their breath.

"Right. Was the entire purpose of this emergency meeting just to complain about the trailer?" Ivan’s voice was soft, his tone infuriatingly level.

"Is that just a complaint to you?! We’re talking about massive protocol violations!" one of the senior execs roared back.

"You said it yourself. I used my executive override authority," Ivan replied, sitting up straight and staring directly into the webcam. "Using my highest authority means I am formally accepting full, sole responsibility for this campaign. If this launch causes any material loss to the company’s bottom line, I will immediately submit my resignation."

The grid of executives fell dead silent.

"So, is there anything else of actual substance we need to discuss? Because if not, I’m logging off. The trailer premiere is going live very soon."

"You... you’re going to pay for this, Ivan!"

Rather than listen to another round of empty corporate threats, Ivan simply slammed his laptop shut.

He picked up his mug and took a slow sip of black coffee.

Feeling the sharp bitterness hit the tip of his tongue, followed by the subtle, lingering sweetness at the back of his throat, he couldn’t help but smile.

Working with Ethan Vale was exactly like drinking this coffee.

At first contact, the demands and the stress felt overwhelmingly bitter.

But once you acclimated to his rhythm, the sheer brilliance he delivered left nothing but an endless, intoxicating sweetness.

Ding.

His phone buzzed on the desk. He unlocked it to find an urgent priority summons from Xbox Global Headquarters. They were formally ordering him to fly back and report directly to the board—to justify his budget expenditures, explain his strategy, outline the projected metrics, and, most importantly, defend his rogue marketing campaign.

He knew the summons was coming, but he hadn’t expected the board to move quite this fast.

"Book me on the first available flight out this afternoon," he texted his secretary.

At exactly 12:00 PM, the Bloodborne promotional video premiered.

Millions of players refreshed the Xbox homepage simultaneously.

The massive, uncompressed video player expanded to consume their entire screens, visually declaring that they were about to witness a top-tier visual masterpiece.

The first image to fade into view was a grimy, sickeningly detailed vial of cloudy beige liquid.

A single, thick drop of dark crimson blood fell into the filthy glass container, spiraling into the murky fluid.

Everyone inherently understood that blood transfusions required pristine, sterile environments.

Watching the visceral, infected blood violently mix with the polluted serum immediately triggered a deep, instinctual revulsion in the viewers.

Under the cold light of a pale moon, a low, ominous bell began to toll.

The camera panned up, revealing a breathtaking, nightmarish gothic cityscape.

Massive, imposing clock towers and jagged cathedral spires pierced the night sky.

The city of Yharnam was drained of warmth.

The towering architecture was rendered in suffocating blacks and cold grays.

The only illumination came from sickly, dim lanterns swinging from the iron-wrought street walls.

The camera drifted down into a claustrophobic alleyway.

Thick, rusted iron chains designed to bind something massive lay discarded on the cobblestones.

Smashed, blood-soaked baby carriages sat abandoned in the gutters. Severed limbs and sickening pools of gore coated the streets.

Through the oppressive darkness, a mob of citizens marched forward. They wore heavy, tattered gray shirts, dark wool jackets, and wide-brimmed hats, their faces obscured.

They moved with a stiff, unnatural determination, clutching burning torches and rusted pitchforks.

Just as the viewers assumed they were watching a standard, angry mob sequence, a horrific creature stepped out from the shadows to join the march.

It was a massive hound, but its skin had been entirely flayed off. Its raw, glistening muscles and exposed bone were clearly visible, and its eyes glowed with a feral, terrifying red light.

The flayed hound walked perfectly in step with the mob. Not a single citizen reacted to it.

To them, the monstrosity was entirely normal.

This was no ordinary night in Yharnam.

The Hunt had begun, and the city was suffocating under the weight of an ancient, terrifying sickness.

Blood soaked every inch of the screen.

Suddenly, a figure in a sweeping black trench coat stepped into the light.

With a sickening, metallic shing, a massive, serrated saw cleaver snapped open.

The Hunter violently slashed into a lunging, infected hound.

A geyser of brilliant, arterial blood erupted from the wound, the visceral spray painting the camera lens.

In the final seconds of the trailer, the Hunter raised a blunderbuss and aimed it directly at an approaching enemy’s head.

The camera pushed in, finally revealing the face of one of the "citizens."

Its yellow eyes were blown wide, trembling with a feral, unhinged madness. Thick, matted gray-black hair had burst through the skin of its face.

The thing staring down the barrel of the gun wasn’t a man anymore.

It was a beast.

Beasts. The Hunt. Hunters. Oppression. Eldritch madness...

A tidal wave of adrenaline and dread slammed into the players’ chests.

The screen cut to black.

The echoing sound of a heavy body collapsing against the cobblestones played out in the dark, followed by the wet, heavy breathing of the Hunter gripping his trick weapon.

The night was quiet once again.

( ?° ?? ?°) ( ?° ?? ?°) ( ?° ?? ?°) ( ?° ?? ?°) ( ?° ?? ?°)

Stone me.

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