By The Sony Playstation.com Bloodborne game screenshots and related videos illuminate some of the game’s playable experience, but I’m trying to look beyond spotlighted, captured specifics and visualize a bigger picture–the game that lurks in the shadows, the game that will be available March 24th. Bloodborne’s most important development component, the game’s story, may set this game alight as a burning achievement of a next-gen gaming experience, an inspirational flame that other developers will follow as they tread their own creative paths. Or, Bloodborne’s story may be walking on a dark path already carved out by Demon’s Souls, the story similarity possibly leading gamers into a triple A “ho-hum.”
So far, I’ve not seen any media that convinces me Bloodborne will be different from Demon’s Souls. The bits and pieces of Bloodborne game-play, Bloodborne music, and Bloodborne blogger talk don’t reveal anything new: Demon’s Soul’s Boletaria is cursed and demons feast on mortals’ souls; Bloodborne’s Yharnam is plagued and beasts feast on denizens (for blood?); Demon’s Souls is set in a medieval-like time period and players wield swords; Bloodborne is Victorian and players now wield guns. (Bloodborne may be faster paced–guess the development team did do something different.) Substituting one time period with another time period and replacing one weapon type with another weapon type is a Demon’s Souls soup recipe stewing with a new group of veggies but using the same soup’s stock. The two Playstation bloggers say nothing to convince me that Bloodborne is different from Demon’s Souls; they only talk about Victorian places and new weapons and scary monsters–oh, my!
Therefore, I’m in the dark about Bloodborne’s story. Bloodborne, so far, looks like a game stewing in a Demon’s Souls broth, one game cloaked inside another game’s shadow. I suppose if the Bloodborne game-play is fun, I shouldn’t care–just play the game. But I’ve gone down a similar dark path with another game series once: Call of Duty.
That is pretty much how I feel about this. I’ve seen some gameplay footage (I think from one of your prior blog posts) and it looks like a reskinned version of the Demon’s Souls series. If people are into that style of game, I guess it’s good they have more content. But it feels … unintuitive to just re-release the same type of game over and over with different monsters. Maybe that is too generalized of an assumption.
Good point, Ben.
Like you, I don’t want to assume too much about the Bloodborne title, but I am a little puzzled as to why From may not be attempting to go in a new direction; Sony is backing the project’s development. While I do understand the low-risk business aspect of the development–if it works, don’t break it–Hidetaka Miyazaki is capable of very creative work; Demon’s Souls proved that. If the new game content is good, Bloodborne will be fun to play but how long before the From fans are fatigued by repetition?