Bloodborne 10 Years Later: Still Nothing Short of A Gaming Masterpiece
- Sven Stumbauer
- 7 days ago
- 25 min read
By Sven Stumbauer
DISCLAIMER: This article contains spoilers for Bloodborne's base game and The Old Hunters DLC. It's highly recommended to go into this game with no prior knowledge of areas, bosses, or the story to get the full experience. Also, while it could be discussed for hours, the lore of Bloodborne won't be mentioned unless necessary. This retrospective will largely focus on Bloodborne's gameplay, themes, and more immediately discernible aspects.
"We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood." -Master Willem, Bloodborne.
Introduction
What does it truly mean to be afraid? When, if ever, do we know whether our curiosity will inevitably lead us to a groundbreaking discovery or an untimely demise? At what point is someone a man or merely an unsightly beast just waiting to be slaughtered?
These questions are critical to the 2015 video game Bloodborne, an action RPG (role-playing game) developed by the Japanese studio FromSoftware and directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki. The game takes place in a fictional land known as Yharnam, which has managed to be renowned at one point for its blood ministration, which can heal the sick and give strength. However, this inevitably caused an event known as the Beast Scourge, where residents lost their sanity and succumbed to bloodlust, transforming them into ravenous monsters.
As the player, you are a hunter tasked with killing these beasts, only to discover that they're a sideshow to the eldritch beings known as the Great Ones that are the true cause of the Scourge and the nightmare encompassing Yharnam.
With March 24, 2025, marking the tenth anniversary of Bloodborne's initial release date as an exclusive for the PlayStation 4, it only felt right to revisit Yharnam once again to celebrate a title that to this day, people say is their favorite game of all time, let alone their most favored title of FromSoftwares infamous "Soulsborne" catalog.
This retrospective will delve into Bloodborne's qualities, which stand out over a decade after its release. It will also look at some of the game's shortcomings, considering when it was first released and now viewing it from a more modern lens.
Perfection of Atmosphere
"This town is cursed. Whatever your reasons might be, you should plan a swift exit. Whatever can be gained from this place, it will do more harm than good." -Gilbert, Bloodborne
Bloodborne is meant to emphasize horror
above all, and not only does it do that, but it's able to emulate and expand upon two established genres of horror that couldn't be more different.
From the introductory cutscene where the player gets a transfusion of the fabled Yharnam blood, we see the appearance of a beast and the creatures known as Messengers, which immediately sets the tone that something is wrong, and the blood is what's causing it.
To make this notion even more pronounced, once the player steps into Yharnam itself, they're immediately thrust into a chaos-riddled mess. Every nuance of Bloodborne's early and late level design, from the winding streets, unkept aqueducts and dilapidated houses, to a burning beast at a pyre in the plaza of Central Yharnam, emphasizes that this land is far beyond repair in any way, shape, or form, instilling a sense of immediate dread, and furthers the game's intended message of the hunter being nothing more than a pawn in a much greater sequence of events that precede them and are out of the realm of human comprehension.
The Role of Architecture
In addition, Bloodborne fully captures this motif via Gothic architecture. The use of pointed arches and towers in buildings, profuse usage of candle and lantern light, and the now decrepit state of Yharnamite architecture perfectly depict a motif of an overrun and more haunting version of London, which couldn't be more perfect to describe the
game.
Nuanced Enemy Design
Moreover, Bloodborne's enemy design plays a crucial role in sustaining its gothic atmosphere. Throughout the early game, in areas like the Cathedral Ward, Forbidden Woods, and Old Yharnam, most enemies are Yharnam’s citizens, twisted into half-human, half-beast monstrosities. Their grotesque transformations reflect Gothic horror’s core themes of bodily corruption and the loss of humanity.
Although these beast-like enemies vary in shape, size, and stages of transformation, Bloodborne provides a universal signal of their descent into madness: bloodlust. Humanoid foes scream incoherently as they attack, once-docile animals like crows, boars, and dogs become vicious predators, and fully transformed werewolves show no trace of their former humanity. Even major bosses, such as the Cleric Beast and Blood-Starved Beast, embody this feral rage, their erratic movements and piercing shrieks making it clear that the blood of Yharnam has utterly consumed them.
Two Styles of Horror, One Way to Bridge Them Together
Furthermore, via the lens of enemy design, Bloodborne masterfully executes a complete 180 in its horror style, shifting from primarily Gothic to cosmic horror akin to the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Bloodborne does this by slowly weaning the player into interacting with more unnatural enemies in areas outside the main city of Yharnam itself, such as the Forbidden Woods. While the standard spread of enemies previously encountered throughout the early game thus far is prevalent, as the player trudges on, they encounter more horrid enemies that are clearly out of place, like clumps of serpents known as "Snake Balls", a stark departure from the
more beastly adversaries encountered before.
This shift becomes even more pronounced when the player goes past The Forbidden Woods and enters Byrgenwerth, an old college that was the foundation for Yharnam's knowledge of the eldritch Great Ones. Particularly, enemies that stem from the Great Ones known as "kin" are the primary types of adversaries faced in this location, like the Garden of Eyes. Its spider-like appendages, resemblance to a mutilated human, and its large number of eyes, which in Bloodborne represent the ability to see Yharnam's cosmic truth, are emblematic of how the game's motifs have changed, and also how Yharnam is slipping into incoherence and madness as the player discovers more about this land and its history.
Fully-Fledged Cosmic Horror
Once Byrgenwerth's boss, Rom the Vacuous Spider, is slain, the player is transported to an area in the city called Yahar'gul, where the veil of cosmic perception is broken, and they can now see the Great Ones situated among buildings. Specifically, when looking up in the room the player is transported to, they see one of these eldritch beings known as an Amygdala. What makes this even more haunting is that the Great Ones didn't suddenly appear. They've always been present, simply hidden by the limitations of human perception, which have now been lifted across Yharnam with Rom's death.
The motifs of Yharnam's Gothic setting paired with this Lovecraftian shift towards the unknown actually have a surprising amount of synergy with one another. Not only do the incomprehensible Great Ones feel right at home in Yharnam's decaying streets and towering buildings, but the Gothic architecture in areas found later in the game like Yahar'gul or the Nightmare of Mensis capitulates the cosmic themes of Bloodborne via imagery.
Profuse use of spires can represent Yharnam's collective descent into madness as a result of trying to understand the Great Ones, or the failed attempt to ascend to the plane of existence occupied by the Great Ones. Spiked fences may symbolize the dangers of trying to trespass into a plane of existence not meant for humanity, and the large amount of arches have the potential to highlight the rise and fall of Yharnamite society after the discovery of the blood that once was their lifeline.
While these observations may be just that, they point to a bigger picture surrounding Bloodborne, and it's that its atmosphere is unrivaled, and it manages to pull the rug from under the player by subverting their expectations at every turn through their balancing of Gothic and cosmic horror via several means, and that is emblematic of a truly timeless game. Yharnam truly makes you feel unwanted, and as you slowly uncover its history, it begins to practically devours you whole.
Near-Perfect Gameplay
The Dark Souls series is known for its more methodical take on combat, focusing a lot on waiting out combos, finding windows to damage enemies after they attack, and sometimes hiding behind a shield in wait for an opening to present itself. However, while polished and continually successful, Bloodborne threw this combat paradigm out the window to make an experience that gives unparalleled speed, freedom of movement, and savagery, all characteristics of the hunt that envelops Yharnam. Bloodborne doesn't just make you feel like a nimble hunter, it gives you the tools to accomplish that goal, which is achieved in several ways through game design and novel mechanics.
Exhibit A: Equipment Loads
A noticeable way that Bloodborne cranks the game's pace up a notch is by eliminating the concept of equipment loads. Bloodborne has no formal "armor" system like the Dark Souls franchise or Elden Ring, which causes the player to dodge attacks more slowly when wearing cumbersome gear like metal armor, nor does it have the "Equipment Load" feature, which the value that dictates how fast you can dodge, and is a combination of the weight of your weapons and armor. Instead, Miyazaki opted for an "attire" system with no equipment load whatsoever, and also got rid of that feature for weapons as well. This means that the player is on one constant pace when it comes to dodging through enemy attacks, with no way to hinder their speed of movement, either unknowingly or willingly doing so in favor of having higher damage negation from armor, like in previous FromSoftware titles. By doing this, the game forces one to play faster as the swiftness of the Hunters of Yharnam is put on full display.
Exhibit B: Dodging Changes
One of the biggest under-the-hood changes Bloodborne makes compared to Dark Souls is in its dodge system. In Dark Souls, you rolled to dodge, whether locked on or not. Bloodborne tweaks this: when you’re not locked on, you still roll, but when you are locked on, which you’ll be for almost every encounter with an enemy or boss to have them in your line of sight, you instead perform a quickstep dash. This subtle shift has massive consequences. Rolling is slower and riskier, tying you to longer animations, which can affect windows of opportunity to counterattack or heal due to its longer time to complete. Quickstepping, though, is snappy and precise, letting you dodge at the last second and immediately counter. It pushes players toward a much faster, riskier, and more aggressive playstyle — essential, since enemies in Bloodborne are quicker, deadlier, and rarely give you time to breathe.
Exhibit C: Firearms
Moreover, Bloodborne knocked it out of the park with weapon design, emphasizing quality over quantity and giving the player virtually no viable tools to hide behind, literally. Aside from the DLC's Loch Shield, which in and of itself is very situational, the only "defensive" option Hunters have is a wooden shield that only blocks 50% of all incoming physical damage, making any other left-handed option significantly more viable.
Speaking of which, in place of bows and other left-handed items like chimes, staffs, or pyromancy flames, Bloodborne introduced a firearm system, with options ranging from pistols and blunderbuses to cannons. Pair this wide arsenal with the ability for smaller firearms to parry opponents, and this mechanic is no longer exclusively viewed as a way to punish an opponent but rather opens up an opportunity for the player to inflict massive amounts of damage on foes.
Exhibit D: Trick Weapons
Simultaneously, Bloodborne offers an exclusive weapon feature in the form of what are known as "trick weapons." This feature is reserved for melee weapons wielded in the player's right hand and involves a weapon changing forms, which can be toggled with the L1 button on the PlayStation controller. For instance, the Threaded Cane, one of the three starting weapons, has a rapier-like thrusting moveset in its standard form, but when transformed, it turns into a whip that has significant range and the ability to crowd control.
Additionally, trick weapons can execute a transforming attack, where the weapon used changes its form mid-attack, doing more damage. This heightens the fluidity of Bloodborne's combat and opens up several creative ways to chain attacks and fully capitalize on windows to attack enemies throughout one's playthrough in Yharnam.
Furthermore, not every trick weapon necessarily changes form into a completely different type of armament. For instance, the Chikage, a katana earned in Castle Cainhurst, doesn't change its moveset when transformed; instead, it empowers the weapon with additional blood damage and makes the player two-hand the weapon at the cost of slowly draining their health.
The same can be said for the Tonitrus, a mace-like weapon that, when "transformed," simply gains a lightning buff, boosting overall damage while retaining the same moveset. This appeals to people who like the new weapon system while also giving room for those who prefer one distinct moveset for each weapon to have an array of items that satisfy their play style.
Trick weapons have a powerful impact on Bloodborne's gameplay loop. By combining two distinct movesets into a single weapon, they allow players to chain together real combos and deal more damage without constantly swapping gear. Since there are fewer weapons overall, and each one is highly versatile, players spend less time hunting for upgrade materials. This speeds up progression through Yharnam and directly reshapes both Bloodborne's faster core gameplay and the broader Souls formula it evolved from.
Exhibit E: Rallying
However, what truly sets Bloodborne's gameplay apart is the Rally system. This high-stakes mechanic highlights that in Yharnam, the best defense is simply a better form of offense. When a player is damaged, part of their lost health is represented as an orange segment on their health bar. This indicates the health that a player can regain by damaging an enemy within 5 seconds of being hit.
The Rally system is a true game-changer. It encourages players to stay aggressive, offering the chance to recover health mid-fight instead of retreating. It also subtly de-emphasizes the use of Bloodborne's healing items, Blood Vials: if a player uses a Blood Vial after being hit, they lose the opportunity to rally back the health they could have otherwise earned. As a result, players are incentivized to fight back first, using Blood Vials only as a last resort.
By reducing downtime caused by traditional healing, the Rally system helps Bloodborne maintain a relentless, fluid pace throughout its boss fights. It’s one of many small but powerful design choices that, when combined, create the most aggressive and streamlined experience FromSoftware had crafted at the time — and one that, even today, rivals the speed and flow of their more recent titles. Bloodborne's philosophy is blunt: it's best to bleed out your opponent before you bleed out yourself.
Exemplary Boss Fights
However, FromSoftware is known for their boss fights which push the envelope in terms of difficulty, spectacle, reward, and design. Bloodborne is no exception to this rule, and to this day, has a phenomenal roster of boss fights.
What's truly surprising about Bloodborne is that out of 17 bosses in the base game, only eight to ten are needed to complete the game, depending on what ending you're trying to get.
In addition, every main boss in Bloodborne has its own purpose. For instance, Father Gascoigne, the first mandatory boss in Bloodborne, serves as the player's first test to see whether they've grasped the game's combat and movement system. Additionally, his transformation from a bloodthirsty hunter into a beast that he would have likely hunted in the second phase of his fight highlight the ability of Bloodborne, and by extent, FromSoftware, to weave in the themes of their game and the narrative of their characters through these boss fights.
However, that doesn't mean that FromSoftware skimped on the optional fights. In fact, many believe that they're the crown jewel of the game. Bosses like Martyr Logarius are mechanically sound, challenging, and visually stunning encounters that test the player's limits and makes victory all the more rewarding. His setting atop a roof in Castle Cainhurst and his unique moveset make this fight pure and utter eye candy. Additionally, his second "enraged" phase turns his attacks from largely being ranged and keeping distance from the player to now profusely using melee attacks and pursuing the player. What can be said about these optional fights is that they have their own twists and turns, and whether you're fighting Martyr Logarius or any boss tucked away in one of Bloodborne's areas, you're bound to be in for a treat.
Aside from being challenging, Bloodborne's bosses can also shine as primarily spectacle-based encounters. The One Reborn, for instance, has a gruesome introductory cutscene in the Advent Plaza of Yahar'gul, followed by the player having to deal with a gargantuan heap of flesh and bodies as they take out enemies in an elevated area above the main plaza, who end up healing the boss. This provides an immersive experience while also highlighting the size of The One Reborn, putting into scale the monstrosity of those who created it and the depravity of Yharnam as a whole. While not as challenging or entertaining in terms of the fight itself in the eyes of fans, bosses like The One Reborn are still notable members of this game's roster of bosses, and in their own right, are still memorable fights to experience.
On several levels, Bloodborne offers a varied experience to players through its boss fights, and they all highlight the fact that they can all be viewed as masterpieces in a department of the game's storytelling, be it through the cinematic experience of fighting with them, the awe of encountering them, whether its for the first or thirtieth time, or through the lens of the story that the fight conveys as it elapses, which are all exhibitions of varied yet phenomenal game development that still stack up with modern titles in 2025.
The Old Hunters: Short, Sweet, and Peak
"You're a hunter with your sanity, aren't you? Must've taken a wrong turn then, eh?" -Simon the Harrowed, Bloodborne.
Bloodborne's DLC, The Old Hunters, is nothing short of a condensed yet utterly enthralling showcase of what makes this game so enrapturing to begin with.
The DLC is set in a realm known as the Hunter's Nightmare, where hunters who succumbed to bloodlust or committed atrocities against the Great One known as Kos in the early days of Bloodborne's story are subject to an eternity of mindless hunting so that they know no true peace.
What truly makes The Old Hunters stand out is how it not only delivers the player base even more from the world of Bloodborne, but it builds upon and even surpasses the horror, gameplay, and grandeur of the base game.
To start, The Old Hunters shines brightly with its new array of weapons of all shapes and sizes. From explosive options (quite literally) like the Boom Hammer to the Whirligig Saw, Bloodborne introduces a new array of even more intriguing trick weapons for players to use in their journey through the Hunter's Nightmare. Firearms aren't left out either, as weapons like the Gatling Gun, Church Cannon, and Piercing Rifle are all new additions that shake up gameplay and boost one's firepower to greater heights.
The Levels of The Old Hunters
Secondly, Bloodborne's DLC excels in its portrayal of already existing and new locations in a nightmarish light and building upon its atmosphere.
The DLC's first area, the Nightmare Cathedral Ward, is chock-full of hunters who have long been residents of the nightmare and is uniquely warped compared to its base game counterpart due to the Nightmare being a dreamlike dimension crafted by the trauma, experiences, and memories of those subject to living in it. The madness of the base game is amplified even further as enemies use weapons seen in the early days of the hunt, and beastlike enemies are more reminiscent of the enemies found in the location Old Yharnam, due to the Nightmare
Additionally, the second main location, the Research Hall, is astoundingly developed to portray the madness of its patients and of the nightmare itself. Winding stairwells, elevators, and ladders all make this area feel labyrinthine and nearly endless until a lever is pulled to have the main staircase descend, leading to the Lumenwood Garden and then the Astral Clocktower.
Finally, the DLC's last location, the Fishing Hamlet, is another masterful switch from Gothic to eldritch horror, just like in the base game. It takes influence from H.P. Lovecraft's The Shadow over Innsmouth, with both featuring fish-like inhabitants, barnacle-ridden structures, foggy shores, and indecipherable chants being uttered.
This area is a masterpiece of level design as the player sloshes through enemy-filled waters and makes their way near the bottom of the hamlet to fight the expansion's final boss, mirroring the descent into madness and eternal suffering that the old hunters endure within the Hunter's Nightmare.
But what good is a FromSoftware DLC without the boss fights? While The Old Hunters only features 5 boss fights, all of them are notable in Bloodborne and the entirety of FromSoftware's stellar catalog.
Ludwig, the Accursed and Holy Blade
"Ah, you were at my side all along. My true mentor. My guiding moonlight." -Ludwig the Accursed, Bloodborne.
After going through the Nightmare Cathedral Ward and finding the source of an eerie river of blood, players are thrown into an epic fight against the first hunter of the Healing Church, Ludwig, who has now succumbed to bloodlust and is a ravenous beast with an equally savage moveset.
However, what sets this fight apart is his second phase, where he regains his humanity after having his Holy Moonlight Sword be unsheathed during the fight with the hunter, and now stands tall as the Holy Blade, transforming this fight from one against a beast to one against a fellow hunter. This fight is touted as one of FromSoftware's best-made boss fights ever, not just in Bloodborne, and the atmosphere, gravitas, and intricacies of Ludwig's fight make it memorable over a decade after its release.
The Living Failures
"...Ah, some one...Help me...I'm guilty, I know. But I won't do that again, I promise. The damp darkness... It, it frightens me... And what rises from its very depths..." -Clocktower Patient, Bloodborne
After slaying Ludwig and sloshing through the Research Hall's maze of patients and stairways, the player encounters back-to-back boss fights in the form of the Living Failures and then Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower.
First, while the Living Failures are almost unanimously touted as the worst boss fight in the DLC, the fight shines from a thematic lens. From their design, the player can infer that these stemmed from the insane patients in the hall, who have inflated heads. It highlights the sinister intent of the Research Hall itself, with the patients being depicted as sacrificial lambs to achieve a goal beyond their reach or comprehension.
Additionally, due to their name and the cosmic powers they possess in the fight's second phase, it's heavily implied that these experiments were predecessors to the Celestial Emissaries and Minions that are encountered in the base game, who can accomplish their intended task of communing with the Great Ones. The implications of the Living Failures and their story serve as a grim tale of the collective hubris of Yharnam's people as they try to trespass into a plane of existence not meant for them, and attempt to make sense of the incomprehensible.
Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
"Oh, I know very well. How the secrets beckon so sweetly." -Lady Maria, Bloodborne
Immediately following the Living Failures, the player can fight Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower, who stands out as a phenomenal boss. Her fight is incredibly fast paced and energetic, and is still one of FromSoftware's best designed fights. She fights much like the player does with several combos and lunging attacks with her signature weapon— the Rakuyo — and a firearm, making the encounter feel personal yet fair due to her similarities and limitations to the player. While the windows to dodge and punish Lady Maria are already tight in her first phase, they're further constricted once she enters her second phase, where she impales herself with her weapon, causing her attacks to gain a blood aftereffect that alongside being for spectacle, deals additional damage to the player and gives her more range. Once her health is brought down to around one third, she enters her third phase, where she gains fire damage and creates blazing aftereffects in her attacks which much like her second phase, deal additional damage to the player and heighten her range even further. This fight is one that perfectly blends substance with spectacle, and despite being fairly manageable due to Lady Maria's low overall health, the ability to get free damage on her when she changes phases, and being one of the few bosses that can be successfully parried, still shines as a pillar of FromSoftware's boss design for all the right reasons.
Laurence, the First Vicar
Before heading to the DLC's final area, if the player managed to find Laurence's skull in a hidden elevator platform on their way to the Research Hall, they can encounter his burning body in the Nightmare Grand Cathedral and fight the first vicar of the Healing Church. While many criticize this fight for being an asset flip of the Cleric Beast boss fight which is encountered as many players' first boss, the recycling of it is intentional.
Laurence is the first Cleric Beast, thus warranting those similarities, and despite that, he manages to have his fight be unique from his base game counterpart. Once he reaches around half health, he severs the lower half of his body from his torso, gains a new moveset, and crawls towards the player as he attacks, leaving behind a trail of lava that deals damage if touched. He can also spew out lava from his mouth and unleash a radial attack from his severed spine that covers the area around him with lava.
It's a fun twist on an already polished boss design, and the problems of the first Cleric Beast fight, being the limited space the player has in its arena due to its placement on a narrow bridge, are alleviated with a much more open space in Laurence's fight. While being in the bottom half of boss fights in The Old Hunters, Laurence is still a memorable fight that plays to its strengths, and while it may have sacrificed uniqueness for narrative connection to current Yharnam's Cleric Beasts, it still delivers on an adrenaline-inducing encounter.
The Orphan of Kos
Once the player circles back to the Fishing Hamlet, trudges through the half-man, half-fish monstrosities of the area, and reaches a beachhead, they face the final boss of The Old Hunters, the Orphan of Kos. The fight starts with a cutscene where the dead body of the Great One Kos is shown, followed by the Orphan emerging from her womb. Once it fully emerges, the player can see the Orphan's lanky stature, humanoid appearance, and the thin membrane on its back as it attacks them.
Amidst its constant screaming throughout the fight, The Orphan of Kos uses its own placenta as a weapon and has a variety of ways to utilize it, such as being able to throw it like a flail which grants it more range, or being able to rip chunks of flesh off of it and throw those chunks as projectiles. Once it reaches low health, the Orphan plunges its placenta into the ground, and the thin membrane draped around its back turn into a pair of malformed wings.
At that point in the fight, it has access to a variety of new attacks, including a series of overhead strikes with its placenta, akin to a guillotine, the ability to conjure lightning that spreads around the arena in a radial attack, and the chunks of flesh that it rips off now have more varied and deadly uses. It can embed a chunk of flesh into the ground and after a short delay, it explodes with a fairly large radius, and as it repositions itself through the arena, the Orphan can throw multiple chunks of flesh at once to create multiples explosions near itself.
This fight is a perfect combination of Bloodborne's ability to combine spectacle, challenge, story, and design in one cohesive yet decisive package. To this day, the Orphan of Kos is praised as one of the best boss fights FromSoftware has ever made. Most of that praise comes from its sheer difficulty, with the Orphan having high damaging attacks and the ability to mix and match its various moves to catch the player off guard. However, the setting of the Fishing Hamlet, the motif of the player fighting a being on a different plane of existence on a humble shoreline, and the somber realization that much like the hunters trapped in the Nightmare, the Orphan isn't able to find peace itself, and unfortunately, we can only grant that to it by killing it.
Once the Orphan of Kos is finally dealt with, the DLC doesn't officially end yet. Right next to its mother Kos is a black shadow representing the Orphan, which while debated, is meant to represent the "true" essence of the Orphan of Kos, still tethered to the Hunter's Nightmare. Attacking the shadow finally grants the Orphan peace, ending the DLC and the Hunter's Nightmare for good.
While short, The Old Hunters is a phenomenal experience. It manages to elevate Bloodborne into an entirely new stratosphere with its additions to the game and the overall story of Yharnam by giving the player a glimpse into the past. It's the gold standard for what a phenomenal video game should be, let alone a piece of completely optional content, and it manages to deliver with what Bloodborne's base game does to a T: concision, thrills, action, and an insatiable hunger for more.
"Ah, sweet child of Kos, returned to the ocean. A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea. Accepting of all that there is, and can be." - The Orphan of Kos' eulogy, Bloodborne.
Looking At Bloodborne In 2025
While one can go on and on about what Bloodborne does right, there are some spots where the game seems to fall a bit short, both from the lens of 2015 and 2025.
Case 1: Chalice Dungeons
Arguably, the most controversial part of Bloodborne involves Chalice Dungeons. This was FromSoftware's take on a procedurally generated dungeon format, but for many, it rubbed them the wrong way.
This is largely due in part to each dungeon having three to four mini-boss fights, which don't have any variety aside from a few bosses unique to the dungeons, such as the Bloodletting Beast or Queen Yharnam.
A lot of these fights are simply encounters against either overworld enemies like Maneater Boars, Brainsuckers, or even against bosses that have already been defeated, such as Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos, which, for some, feels like a cheap attempt at filling out the roster of bosses for this feature.
While the concept of infinite amounts of Bloodborne seems amazing, the way FromSoftware executed it was not. If the game ever gets a remaster or remake, they should seriously consider either making bosses that are repurposed enemies from levels that have distinct movesets to justify their allocation as bosses, or preferably, focus on making a completely original roster of new bosses to dwell in the Chalice Dungeons. This solution would dramatically reduce the talking point of recycling boss fights while also creating the opportunity for Chalice Dungeons to be more exciting with the prospect of new and unique boss fights in the game.
In addition, other parts of Bloodborne that don't sit well with players, both old and new, are the implementation of checkpoints, healing items, and the hunters' base of operations, the Hunter's Dream.
Case 2: Lamps
In Bloodborne, lamps serve as checkpoints like bonfires in Dark Souls, but they come with drawbacks. Unlike bonfires, lamps can't reset the world to respawn enemies for farming. Instead, players must return to the Hunter's Dream, endure two lengthy loading screens, and navigate menus just to reset an area. This tedious process significantly slows down grinding, further compounded by the time spent traveling between the lamp and farming spots.
Furthermore, there are only one or two lamps present in an entire level of Bloodborne, whereas in the Dark Souls series, upwards of nine can be present for a singular large area. While Bloodborne does have smaller levels, and the presence of shortcuts found by exploring the areas does help this issue slightly, it's still overly punishing to the player, especially when losing to a boss and having to go back to their location from a lamp far away, a case most glaringly seen in the Forbidden Woods.
Additionally, lamps can't be used to travel to another area in the game without going to the Hunter's Dream first, severely hindering player movement in a game meant to be fast-paced in more aspects than combat. While visually stunning, the sheer impediment of lamps is a black mark that, to this day, is echoed by Bloodborne's fanbase.
Case 3: Healing Items
Alongside lamps, the presence of healing items is a topic of debate among the community. In addition to standalone healing items like Lifegems, the Dark Souls games that came before Bloodborne had replenishable healing items known as Estus Flasks, which would be replenished to however many uses of it that the player had available at a bonfire. However, Bloodborne did away with the Estus Flask mechanic and any substitute for an automatically regenerating healing item in favor of Blood Vials, which need to be farmed from enemies or bought from NPCs.
The unreplenishable nature of Blood Vials makes engagements and boss fights risky, especially in the early game, as players have to choose between fighting an enemy or boss, potentially losing, and having to gain back the Blood Vials they used during the fight just to face them again, or cutting their losses, returning to the Hunter's Dream, and using hard-earned Blood Echoes to buy Blood Vials instead of leveling up their character.
By doing this, not only is Bloodborne's gameplay loop inhibited, but the ability for the player to allocate additional resources toward leveling up is hindered as well, which in turn applies to several other aspects of the game such as meeting level requirements in a certain stat like Strength or Bloodtinge to use a weapon or firearm.
While its implementation is thematically justified due to the player having to hunt for the healing items they use and the lack of lore-based reasoning as to why they would replenish, which is the case for Estus Flasks, the entire process in practice is simply tedious, and it would be much better to do away with the mechanic if the opportunity presents itself and fill in narrative gaps to accomplish the goal of a reusable healing item if there are any plans for Bloodborne in the future.
Final Thoughts
To say that Bloodborne is a once-in-a-generation experience, gameplay, theme, and story-wise, would still not do it justice. For both its time and in the present day, it stands as one of FromSoftware's crowning achievements and still manages to distinguish itself from their other titles that are also worthy of that moniker.
Does Bloodborne have flaws? Yes. Does its age impair its replay value? Also yes. But with the occasional con comes a deluge of things this game simply does to perfection.
Bloodborne is more than a horror game mixed with the classic Souls formula, it serves as a cautionary tale and as an omen to the existence of things beyond our control, and more accurately, of the dangers in trying to tread into a domain where we simply do not belong. It's a Gothic and eldritch representation of humanity's hubris, and Bloodborne perfects the dichotomy of the player knowing nothing about Yharnam's history and dilemma, to then knowing too much to even grasp as the game's true nature is revealed to be from the roots of cosmic madness.
To this day, the game still has a vibrant community of dedicated players, a plethora of extensive videos detailing the game's complex lore, and countless discussions piecing together its narrative. It's not just a game that's played. It's one that utterly compels you with an atmosphere that, for now, doesn't seem to be replicable.
Not only that, but Bloodborne never played it safe when it came to gameplay. FromSoftware stepped into the realm of the unknown by amping their gameplay loop's speed to eleven, and through novel mechanics like trick weaponry, firearms, and the rally system, this game has so many phenomenal attributes that to this day have still not been replicated in the same capacity as Bloodborne executed them.
Even things that weren't discussed in this retrospective, such as Bloodborne's music and characters, are still shining examples of immersion that truly make the player feel as if they're fighting beasts in Yharnam themselves, and that feeling is something that many say has never since been replicated by any game that came after this one.
As many people put it, and will continue to do so for years to come, the worst part about Bloodborne is the simple fact that it ends.
Images are from the author's gameplay, the Bloodborne Wiki, and the official Bloodborne art book.
Great article. Well-written and articulated the author's love for Bloodborne incredibly well while providing some unique perspectives on the game. Thoroughly enjoyed the read.