Bloodborne

Full Circle

Bloodborne immediately feels like such a throwback for me. Its game design is extremely familiar and harkens back to when I first got into PC gaming. Running through the streets of Yharnam sent me back in time and I started thinking about Dark Souls, a gaming phenomenon no less, but also a game that was very impactful to me personally. I thought back to the end of my senior year of college, the spring of 2016, and realized that the beginning of my journey into Bloodborne has come nearly a decade later, almost to the day...

Life is weird like that and while that eerie, decade-bookending connection exists, the circumstances under which I played Dark Souls and Bloodborne couldn't be more diametrically opposed. Playing Dark Souls back in 2016 was all-encompassing. The spring and summer after undergrad was a strange limbo-state. I had grad school on the horizon in the fall but had absolutely zero on my plate for the summer. I moved back in with my parents and youngest brother, the one who had introduced me to Dark Souls in the first place, and we sunk our teeth into this beast of a game. I'll never forget my first playthrough and sharing that experience with my brother. Dark Souls, while not a huge game, has so much to discover. Areas can be explored in alternate orders and discovered from different entry points. Certain bosses will stop one build in its track, while others will blow past. Certain bonfires you can completely miss for a chunk of the game, changing how an area feels. So having someone else to bounce your discoveries, successes, failures, and questions off of was a ton of fun. I remember him describing finding Ash Lake and being utterly confused about what the hell he was talking about. I think he must have found Blighttown's back entrance because that first time through was hell for me but no big deal for him. It all came back around though when he almost lost his mind trying to get past that sliver knight archer on the outside of Anor Londo castle. And that was just the first playthrough... We must of each played it through three or four times, finding all the different weapons and spells, running down all the obscure questlines, and 100%ing the achievements. Even a decade later, I still feel like I know Lordran like the back of my hand.

So, fast forward a decade and things have changed a little bit. Back in 2016, Dark Souls I'd say was still fresh. The online community around everything FromSoftware related was really buzzing and there was just a lot of games released in close proximity at that time. For me personally, over the following years I burnt out on that formula after too many playthroughs of that original Dark Souls trilogy. In 2018 I actually bought a PS3 to exclusively play Demon's Souls and that's how I knew I had my fill. When I finished one playthrough and promptly sold the game and the console, that was the sign. Good game, glad I played it, but it didn't have that impact anymore. What really sunk my interest in the "Souls" genre though was Elden Ring. What a monster of a game that is so estranged from its Dark Souls roots. And that's okay, the studio and the game design evolved over the years, not surprising. Again, it's a good game, I'm glad I played it, but it didn't have that impact I found in Dark Souls. I say all this to put context around how it felt playing Bloodborne in 2026. Times had changed; I wasn't sitting in my childhood bedroom with my brother chilling with pretty much infinite amounts of time on our hands. I now have a wife and two kids, a full-time job, and we're buying a house currently. Re-discovering that these games don't have a pause button is kind of a big deal when you're on your third attempt of Father Gascoigne and he just transformed into a werewolf and then you hear your four-year-old daughter running down the stairs. Yeah, boss transformations are scary, but nothing's scarier than losing all that progress because you don't want to expose your kids to the gruesome, eldritch horrors of Bloodborne quite yet.

I say all this to get across that things could've always panned out differently. After playing through Bloodborne, I didn't really feel like reviewing it in a traditional sense. How I felt about this game was inextricably tied to my past experiences and my present situation. I can imagine a world where twenty-year-old me had a PlayStation instead of a PC and in that world Bloodborne would've hit the way Dark Souls did. It could've been the eternally top five game that Dark Souls is for the real me right now. Instead Bloodborne was a decade late, an afterthought that only got screen time because my coworker had a PS4 he was trying to offload. So, you know what, I've just decided I'm not going to review Bloodborne in a traditional sense. It's really good, if you happen to have a PS4 and like FromSoftware games, definitely try it out. But before I go here's two remarks I'll leave you with, so this isn't just a trip down memory lane.

Refreshing Level Design

Apologizes for continuously going back to Dark Souls, but here we go again... The Undead Burg into Undead Parish is one of the all-time great levels in gaming and I haven't made that comprehensive list yet, but believe me, it belongs up there. And there are two, simple reasons: (1) the ladder at Undead Burg bonfire and (2) the elevator back to Firelink Shrine. These two methods of vertical conveyance absolutely broke my brain at the time and have stuck with me ever since. I remember defeating the Taurus Demon, making it halfway across that bridge with the dragon, exploring around, kicking down a ladder and discovering a bonfire. I rested, leveled up, and set out again thinking I was entering a new area. But then I was quickly struck by deja-vu, it was like I had been there before, it all seemed too familiar, and then I realized I was back in Undead Burg and my head spun back into place... WOW. The elevator from Undead Parish down to Firelink sent me for a similar loop. Seeing those tall, blurry trees, the ruined castle, hearing the music, it all felt like I had been there before and then I saw the bonfire and realized I was back in Firelink. I remember looking around and wondering if that made any geographic sense. It's hard to confirm but, in the future, you start to take notice of when you are wrapping around certain structures, ascending or descending weirdly long ladders and such and it piques your interest as now you know these crazy shortcuts are possible. But what does this have to do with Bloodborne?

It didn't take long and I began to sense this classic, Dark Souls-type level design at work in Bloodborne. I was absolutely ecstatic. The Dark Souls sequels got somewhat carried away with bonfires. The level design became more linear, and the developers started plopping down bonfires all over the map. And don't get me started on Elden Ring, I understand it's a very different game but sites of grace are literally everywhere. In Bloodborne it wasn't long before I realized each area really only had two lanterns, one at the start and one after you beat the boss. All of the exploration and map design before the boss typically wrapped around that first lantern in the area. Shortcuts, ladders, locked doors, unexpected drops or jumps, and simple looping paths are all utilized to create levels that twist in on themselves. Because I've come to expect this in FromSoftware games, there's not as much shock and awe when they do pull off a cool shortcut, but it's still fun and practical level design, nonetheless. You get that building sense of dread as you realize you've extended yourself oh so far from the last lantern. Then there's that relief and sense of permanent progression as you conveniently find yourself back at a lantern after unlocking a shortcut. And oh man did I miss the janky architecture of a FromSoftware game and Bloodborne more than any other one of their games really relishes in it. The city of Yharnam is a pile of oddly stacked houses and churches. Alleyways wind in creepy ways, steps crumble and wrap around rickety terraces. Is this a courtyard or a graveyard or both? If you haven't played Bloodborne but have played the Dark Souls series, think Blighttown crossed with Undead Burg or the Undead Settlement. There was a lot to enjoy about Bloodborne as a returning FromSoftware fan, but I think the level design here takes the cake.

Bloodborne Remaster When?

Like what I feel like is a lot of other people, I didn't rush out and buy a new console when I heard about Bloodborne. I figured that at some point it would come to PC... But here we are, eleven years after release and Bloodborne is still locked to the PlayStation platform. It's actually worse than I thought though, it's not just locked to PlayStation, it's also locked to 30 FPS. Now it has been a long, long time since I last played a game under 60 FPS and when I first loaded up Bloodborne oh boy did I feel it. The first thirty minutes or so was crippling. It was like everyone and everything was stuck in quicksand. When the camera moved the beautiful scenery became all smeary and fast actions like swinging a blade looked choppy. My initial reaction was one of shock and repulsion, I didn't know if I could continue. But I made the choice to push onwards and decided to immerse myself in the 30 FPS choppiness by swearing off other games for the time being. And it worked, I won't ever say the game looks or feels amazing, but I was able to eventually forget about the technical limitations and become immersed in the world. But still, it is such a shame that Bloodborne is stuck in this state. I get all the cries for a remaster now; this really is one of gaming's great tragedies. When stationary, the visual qualities of Bloodborne are top notch. Beautifully intricate detail surrounds you, there's damp, cobblestone streets that reflect the night sky, a hazy mist permeates dusty library halls, blood-splatter coats the base of an ornately decorated but bent streetlamp... What I'm getting at is that there's so much potential here just hidden behind a layer of performance issues. Why not even the PlayStation 5 version hasn't received a performance update is beyond me.

Verdict

★★★★☆

Bloodborne is an easy four out of five stars that is only really being held back by my own personal background with the genre and some significant technical limitations. Despite those aspects, Bloodborne easily slots in as my 2nd favorite FromSoftware "souls" title. Here's a quick rundown:

1. Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition - It was first by a mile, now Bloodborne is at least within shouting distance.
2. Bloodborne - Easily the most comparable in level design to Dark Souls.
3. Dark Souls 3 - A fusion of 1's themes and style with 2's lesser level design and Bloodborne's faster paced combat, a really fun game overall.
4. Demon's Souls - A weird one that reveals the roots of Souls design.
5. Elden Ring - Too much. Fun, but too much.
6. Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin - The runt of the litter, it has its moments but overall, 2 is a large drop in quality from the first.