Next month, Bloodborne turns ten years old, and the fanbase has spiralled into conspiratorial speculation that will soon rival the GTA 6 community. Frankly, there’s no basis for any of this. FromSoftware and Sony have not teased anything, there have been zero leaks, and we’re five games removed from it by this point. Yet at every single tentpole gaming showcase, fans hype up expectations that maybe, just maybe, Bloodborne will appear. Why are you doing this to yourselves?
A lot of the speculation has been stirred up by PlayStation’s recent string of remasters — Until Dawn, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Last of Us Parts 1 & 2, and now Day’s Gone. Why wouldn’t Bloodborne join their ranks? However, this fails to consider a few important factors. FromSoftware is not a first-party studio, and co-developer Japan Studio was shuttered (the bones of which were rebuilt into Team Asobi, who have moved on to Astro Bot). Former SIE president Shuhei Yoshida believes that Hidetaka Miyazaki is too busy to spend time on a remaster, and given his adoration for Bloodborne, is unlikely to let Sony take the reins as it did with Demon’s Souls.
Many criticised the changes to the art style and tone in the Demon’s Souls remake.
Even if, against his assumed wishes, Sony wanted to remaster or remake Bloodborne, the go-to its experienced and dedicated in-house studio would be Bluepoint, who oversaw the Demon’s Souls remake. But that studio has been busy with the now-cancelled God of War live-service game and an unannounced original IP. Sony could hand Bloodborne to a smaller studio like Iron Galaxy, but a) Naughty Dog was still involved in their co-developed The Last of Us remake, and b) would it really risk handing one of its most adored games to a less proven studio? We saw how that worked out for the GTA Trilogy.
None of the theories about fan projects being DMCA’d or PlayStation Germany mentioning it in an offhand tweet answers the simplest question of who would even be behind such a revival. I would eat my hunter’s hat if anything was announced next month.
Bloodborne Fans Are Missing The Forbidden Woods For The Trees
Look, I get it. The Lovecraftian aesthetic, Victorian-inspired backdrop, and visceral, aggressive combat of Bloodborne is still among the best work that FromSoftware has ever done. But one of the most endearing parts of the Soulsborne series is how experimental it is. Clinging onto Bloodborne after ten years when we’ve had Dark Souls 3, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon, Elden Ring, and in just a short few months, Nightreign, is to ignore the strides that the Soulsborne series (and soulslike genre) has taken.
A sequel hasn’t happened, but it’s not like FromSoftware has been sitting idle. And there’s so much of Bloodborne’s DNA in every single one of those games it has made since. Dark Souls and Demon’s Souls were more methodical, with slower-paced bosses and an emphasis on blocking and finding weaknesses, but every game post-Bloodborne has emphasised fast-paced combat, pitch-perfect dodging, and more aggression. It changed the game.
Spending hours complaining on Reddit, concocting outlandish theories, and setting yourself up for disappointment at every showcase is wasted energy when Bloodborne lives on in every spiritual successor. It might not be as blatant as slapping a ‘2’ on the end or reheating the original in the microwave like Sony is wont to do with so many of its PS4 hits, but FromSoftware builds on Bloodborne year after year with reverence.
If I could give any advice to the community it would be this: don’t get angry next month if nothing happens. Move on, try FromSoftware’s newer games, embrace the Soulsborne series and not Bloodborne in isolation. Hell, get into Lies of P ahead of its new DLC. You’ll be a lot happier for it.
- Released
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March 24, 2015
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence
- Developer(s)
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From Software