The year 2015 seems like ages ago. Sony’s PlayStation 4 life cycle was in full swing, bringing us some of the era’s best releases. That October would bring us the console’s finest moment, the crème de la crème, a continually perfect game, and if somehow the title hasn’t clicked for you yet, I’m talking about FromSoftware’s Bloodborne. The fourth entry for FromSoftware’s SoulsBorne (the genre name coined to reference games inspired by Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne) took the games to new heights, and it remains their finest entry.
With the popularity of the latest SoulsBorne phenomenon, Elden Ring, I’ve wanted to go back to the games of the past, and specifically to Bloodborne. There was something so beautiful about the game, from the gameplay to the environment, even the soundtrack! It’s a truly special moment in gaming that hasn’t been surpassed since its release. The moment you wake up in the clinic while having a blood transfusion performed on you, it’s obvious this is unlike anything you’ve played before.
I still vividly remember going to pick up a copy of Bloodborne. The person who checked me out left me with a simple warning: “This game is hard.” It told me absolutely nothing of the game, and so I only had my past experience to go off of. I had played Demon’s Souls on my PlayStation 3, and it was unlike anything I had ever played. At the launch of Bloodborne, I hadn’t played anything FromSoftware had released in the prior six years. The two Dark Souls games seemed derivative, and while I’ve played them now and have seen the error of my ways, seeing the reveal and subsequent trailers for Bloodborne sparked an interest I hadn’t felt in ages.
Taking a ton of inspiration from the work of classic horror author H.P. Lovecraft, the player is dropped into Yharnam, a decaying city filled with beautiful Gothic architecture, on the night of The Hunt. Blood transfusions like the one the player had at the beginning of the game have turned the citizenry into inhuman beasts who attack at the sight of you. Torn between the waking and dream worlds, you have to make your way through the chaos.
One of the best parts of SoulsBorne games is the bosses. Bloodborne is no different, and as far as I’m concerned, does it best! While Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls tend to feel a little slower in how bosses telegraph their attacks, Bloodborne comes at you with a breakneck speed. Meeting Father Gascoigne for the first time is burned into my memory, and I can hear his mid-fight vocalizing of “Ooh, what's that smell... The sweet blood, ooh, it sings to me! It's enough to make a man sick.” The always-incredible voice acting that FromSoftware brings is in its finest form here.
The voice acting is only half of what makes these bosses great, and the other half comes from the boss design. Every FromSoft release has brought wonderful-looking bosses to the table, but the look of everyone in Bloodborne takes it above and beyond. The very final boss, Moon Presence, is likely my favorite. Taking its inspiration from eldritch horrors such as Cthulhu, a piece of fan art has found itself as the background for one of my monitors since I got it, while my other monitor has been home to Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, another boss from the game.
If, by some odd chance, you still haven’t played Bloodborne, there really isn’t a better time than now. Find yourself under the moonlight in the horrifying world of Yharnam. The base game brings a ton of content on its own, and you can typically find the game along with its The Old Hunters downloadable content, adding an incredible challenge for those who didn’t find the main game difficult enough. Here’s to hoping that the game finds its way to PC one of these days.
