FromSoftware Inc. is a gaming company that single-handedly pioneered the “souls-like” genre, and comes with a certain credibility for many gamers. The man that put them on the map was Hidetaka Miyazaki, who began in an age where games were becoming more like movies, instead of impossible games designed to take several tries to beat. Now, they stretch out for months and games began catering to a new audience: people who like winning. Miyazaki wanted to bring back the era of extreme difficulty for the sake of overcoming that difficulty, while also bringing the same level of detailed story and aesthetics to his games. Thus, Dark Souls, a dark fantasy action-adventure game was born. Dark Souls became the driving force behind FromSoftware. Eventually, Miyazaki would make other games in a similar vein to Dark Souls. The crushing difficulty would follow all his games, but the movement, freedom, and aesthetics all improved with each release.
I’ve played three FromSoftware games; Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring. All three are masterpieces in their own right. Elden Ring was the most fun the first time through, but Bloodborne is the one I keep coming back to. It has less variety than Elden Ring and less freedom, however these things work to Bloodborne’s advantage. Because of the smaller scale of its campaign, they can capitalize on linearity, and make the combat, story, and aesthetics much more polished. That being said, quality is not valued over quantity in the gaming industry today, which is why Elden Ring won Game of the Year and Bloodborne did not. In this first edition of Ethical Gaming Journalism Reviews, I want to talk about why Bloodborne is the pinnacle of the souls-like genre for me, and why a remaster or sequel of the game would be lucrative.
Saw Clever (left) and Boom Hammer (right). Images via Fextralife
The combat of Bloodborne is incredibly fun, and the most technically impressive up until that point. The classic souls-like dodge roll is traded out for a quick side-step. When you get hit, you can deal damage to get some of that health back within a certain amount of time. There are over twenty weapons in the game. Given the dozens to hundreds of weapons in other souls-like games, this doesn’t sound like much. However, every weapon has two modes called transformed and untransformed. Transforming a weapon can vary from simply making a weapon longer, like with the Saw Cleaver, to adding a fire buff like with the Boom Hammer. These transformed move sets are also able to be combined into normal moves and vice versa.
On top of this, Bloodborne has guns. They do poor damage, but they allow players to parry enemies. This opens them up for a visceral attack. Instead of just stabbing your sword into them, you shove your hand into their body, and then pull it out, aggressively. That’s the main theme of Bloodborne’s combat; aggression. While souls-like games often encourage waiting and timing your attacks, the game wants you to learn the move sets and rewards your efforts by allowing you to eviscerate people. Bloodborne wants you to be powerful, and in her glory gives you the tools to do so.
That’s a nice segue into the next topic of aesthetics. This game runs like there’s a hamster wheel inside with an elderly rat on it, but that doesn’t matter in the larger picture. Within Bloodborne, Miyazaki was inspired by the gothic setting in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and by H.P. Lovecraft’s cyclopean structures, eldritch presences, and cosmic horror. This contrasts the dark fantasy locales inspired by the likes of the Japanese manga Berserk. These two ideas work so well in tandem that it’s almost absurd. The gothic structures akin to the Victorian era seem like they were built by towering gods, drawing inspiration from the Notre Dame Cathedral, Our Lady of Chartres Cathedral, and the Brussels Town Hall.
The main enemies are human citizens of Yharnam, a fictional country based on Victorian England, that are undergoing various stages of turning into werewolves. The central hub of the game, the Hunter’s Dream, functions as a workshop where you can upgrade your weapons and stats. The player character, simply referred to as “the Hunter”, is tall and slender, mainly to emphasize the giant prey slaughtering weapons they’re granted. The weapons are not only large but absurd. The main weapon on the cover is aptly named the Saw Cleaver, which is a saw that, well, it turns into a cleaver. My favorite weapon in the game is the Boom Hammer. It’s hard to explain that one. Every design choice is intentional in Bloodborne, from the Cleric Beast having one arm larger than the other, to the text after you kill a boss being “prey slaughtered,” instead of “enemy slain.”
Fans have been begging for a remake or remaster, or anything at all Bloodborne related for years. From the Insomniac/Sony leak a couple of months ago, we found out that the game has sold about seven and a half million copies. With the success of Elden Ring, I think a Bloodborne remake or even a sequel would be incredibly successful. It would be the perfect chance to sand down some of the rough edges and improve upon a formula FromSoftware has been working with for over a decade. Unfortunately, the game studio is owned by Sony. No matter how many fans demand it, if Sony says no, that’s it. However, something Bloodborne related could come soon. Even Sony can’t deny the appeal forever.
