is a 2015 action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. The game follows a Hunter through the decrepit Gothic, Victorian-era inspired city of Yharnam, whose inhabitants are afflicted with a blood-borne disease. Attempting to find the source of the plague, the player's character unravels the city's mysteries while fighting beasts and eldritch beings.
Bloodborne is played from a third-person perspective. Players control a customizable protagonist, and the gameplay is focused on strategic weapons-based combat and exploration. Players battle varied enemies while using items such as trick weapons and firearms, exploring different locations, interacting with non-player characters, and unraveling the city's mysteries. Bloodborne began development in 2012 under the working title of Project Beast. Bearing many similarities to FromSoftware's Dark Souls series, Bloodborne was inspired by the literary works of authors H. P. Lovecraft and Bram Stoker, as well as the architectural design of real-world locations in countries such as Romania and the Czech Republic.
Bloodborne has been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made, with praise directed at its gameplay, atmosphere, sound design, Lovecraftian themes and interconnected world design. Some criticism was directed at its technical performance at launch, which was improved with post-release updates. The downloadable content The Old Hunters was released in November 2015. The game had sold 7.46 million copies by February 2022. Some related media and adaptations have also been released, including a card game, board game, comic book series, and an upcoming film adaptation.
Gameplay
Bloodborne is an action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective. The player controls a customizable character known as the Hunter and explores the city of Yharnam, fighting enemies and bosses, collecting items, and interacting with non-player characters. At the start of the game, the player creates the Hunter by choosing details such as name, appearance, and an "Origin", which determines the character's starting attributes.
Yharnam is structured as a series of interconnected areas, with optional locations and shortcuts unlocked through exploration.Dunsmore, Kevin (April 29, 2015). "Here's a Full Map of Bloodborne's World" . Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved June 25, 2015.Saed, Sherif (April 29, 2015). "This is the full map of Bloodborne" . VG247. Retrieved June 25, 2015. Lamps found throughout the game world act as checkpoints and allow the player to return to the Hunter's Dream, a hub area where the player can buy items, level up, upgrade weapons, and travel to other areas.
Combat emphasizes dodging, counterattacking, and close-range aggression. The Rally system allows the player to regain a portion of recently lost health by quickly striking an enemy after taking damage.Reynolds, Matthew (August 13, 2014). "Bloodborne's health Regain system makes combat more offensive than Souls" . Digital Spy. Retrieved December 1, 2016. Many melee weapons are "trick weapons", which can transform between two forms with different attacks. Firearms are generally used to interrupt or parry enemy attacks, creating openings for powerful visceral attacks.Dawson, Bryan. "The Best Weapons in Bloodborne – First Playthrough" . Prima Games. Retrieved July 3, 2015.
Defeating enemies grants Blood Echoes, which are used as currency and for character progression. If the player dies, their Blood Echoes are dropped at the site of death or held by a nearby enemy; they can be recovered by returning to that location, but are permanently lost if the player dies again before reclaiming them.Concepcion, Miguel (March 23, 2015). "15 Tips for Bloodborne Beginners" . GameSpot. Retrieved July 22, 2015. Insight is a secondary currency obtained through events such as encountering or defeating bosses. It can be spent on items and multiplayer actions, and accumulating Insight changes some aspects of the game world.Saed, Sherif (March 27, 2015). "Bloodborne: this is what happens when you have 40 Insight" . VG247. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
The game includes online multiplayer features. Players can summon others for cooperative play, invade other players' worlds for player-versus-player combat, and leave messages that appear in other players' games.McWhertor, Michael (March 25, 2015). "How Bloodborne's multiplayer works" . Polygon. Retrieved June 27, 2015. Bloodborne also features Chalice Dungeons, optional dungeons accessed through ritual items. Some Chalice Dungeons have fixed layouts, while "root" versions use procedural generation to create new arrangements of rooms, enemies, and rewards.VanOrd, Kevin (March 13, 2015). "Taming the Beasts Lurking in Bloodborne's Chalice Dungeons" . GameSpot. Retrieved June 27, 2015.McWhertor, Michael (December 6, 2014). "Bloodborne director expands on the game's Chalice Dungeon, character customization" . Polygon. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
Synopsis Setting
Bloodborne is set in Yharnam, a decaying Gothic city known for blood ministration, a medical practice built around the healing properties of blood. Before the events of the game, scholars at the city's College of Byrgenwerth discover the existence of a race of eldritch beings dubbed Great Ones and a substance known as the old blood that can seemingly heal any illness. Using the old blood, the Healing Church, an institution founded by Byrgenwerth breakaways, spreads blood ministration throughout Yharnam. The practice is connected to a plague that transforms people into beasts, leading to the deployment of Hunters to kill the infected. Ever since, the Healing Church has succumbed to the infighting of its upper echelons. The player controls an unnamed Hunter who travels between Yharnam and the Hunter's Dream, a mysterious realm overseen by Gehrman, an elderly Hunter.
Plot The Hunter arrives in Yharnam seeking "Paleblood" and receives a blood transfusion. After the procedure, they awaken during a night of the Hunt, when Yharnam's citizens and Hunters kill those transformed by the plague. Trapped in the Hunter's Dream, the Hunter is guided to the Healing Church's grand cathedral, where a vision points them toward Byrgenwerth.
At Byrgenwerth, the Hunter defeats Rom, a spider-like being whose death reveals the blood moon and the influence of the Great Ones. The Hunter then encounters signs of Queen Yharnam, her child Mergo, and the Nightmare of Mensis. In the hidden village of Yahar'gul, the Hunter defeats the One Reborn and enters the Nightmare of Mensis. There, they kill Micolash, leader of the School of Mensis, and Mergo's Wet Nurse, ending the nightmare.
Afterwards, the Hunter returns to the Hunter's Dream, where Gehrman offers to release them. If the Hunter accepts, Gehrman kills them, and they awaken in Yharnam at sunrise. If the Hunter refuses, they defeat Gehrman, but the Dream's master, the Moon Presence, binds them to the Hunter's Dream as his replacement. If the Hunter has consumed three umbilical cords associated with the Great Ones before refusing, they resist the Moon Presence, kill it, and are reborn as an infant Great One.
The Old Hunters In The Old Hunters, the Hunter enters the Hunter's Nightmare, a realm that imprisons hunters consumed by bloodlust. Moving through the Nightmare, they fight hunters transformed into beasts and eventually reach a clock tower guarded by Lady Maria, one of Gehrman's former pupils.
After defeating Maria, the Hunter discovers the Fishing Hamlet, whose inhabitants were experimented on after Byrgenwerth scholars discovered the corpse of Kos, a Great One. At the village's shore, the Hunter finally discovers the curse's source: Kos' post-mortem-born child. After the hunter subsequently fights and slays the creature, its spirit is released from Kos' corpse, ending the curse of the Hunter's Nightmare.
Development
Japan Studio, a subsidiary of Sony Interactive Entertainment, approached FromSoftware concerning cooperative development on a title, and director Hidetaka Miyazaki asked about the possibility of developing a game for eighth-generation consoles. The concept of Bloodborne developed from there. There were no connections to FromSoftware's previous titles, even though Miyazaki conceded that it "carries the DNA of Demon's Souls and its very specific level design". Development ran parallel to that of Dark Souls II.
The game's Victorian Gothic setting was partly inspired by the novel Dracula, and the architecture of locations in Romania and the Czech Republic. Miyazaki also enjoyed H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos series of surreal horror stories, and applied similar themes into the game. Miyazaki had wanted to create a game set in such an era as those novels, but he wanted everything to be as detailed as possible, and felt that such a game was only possible on eighth generation hardware. This need for high-end hardware, and the fact that the PlayStation 4 was presented to the company first, was the reason the game was a PS4 exclusive, rather than a cross-generation release. The developers' target frame rate for the title was 30 frames per second, due to their design choices made for the title.
Story details were more plentiful than in the Dark Souls games, though the team created a larger mystery at the heart of the story to compensate for this. The method through which the story is shown and developed to the player is also done in a similar style to Miyazaki's other games, especially the Souls series, in that the plot is revealed with item descriptions, interactions with various NPCs, visual storytelling, and from the player's own inferences and interpretation of the plot. The team did not want to raise the difficulty level higher than their previous games as they felt it would make the game "pretty much unplayable for anyone". To balance this out, the team created a more aggressive combat system focusing on both action and strategy. They also wanted to alter the penalties for death used in the Souls games as they did not want the game to be classified as being for hardcore gamers. One of the more difficult decisions the team faced was the introduction of guns as weapons. Because it would fit well into the game's setting, and that it would consequently be less accurate than modern models, guns were eventually included, taking the place of shields from the previous Souls titles.
Bloodborne soundtrack contains over 80 minutes of original music by Ryan Amon, Tsukasa Saitoh, Yuka Kitamura, Nobuyoshi Suzuki, Cris Velasco, and Michael Wandmacher, featuring performances by a 65-piece orchestra and a 32-member choir.Owen S. Good (April 4, 2015). "Bloodborne's haunting soundtrack gets a separate release April 21" . Polygon. Retrieved July 2, 2015.Sherif, Saed (April 6, 2015). "Bloodborne soundtrack coming April 21" . VG247. Retrieved July 2, 2015. The development of the soundtrack lasted for around two and a half years.
Screenshots and a gameplay trailer of the game were leaked on the Internet weeks before the official reveal, under the title of Project Beast. Many believed at the time that the leak could be connected to Demon's Souls. However, Miyazaki later stated that Bloodborne was never considered to be Demon's Souls II, due to Sony Computer Entertainment wanting a new intellectual property (IP) for the PlayStation 4.
Release