I've never played a game where the theme and gameplay complement each other so well, the world you explore in bloodborne is so dreary yet beautiful it sucks you in to this Victorian/cthulu mythos aesthetic where every detail in the world is both creepy and intriguing leaving you speculating without needing to know the answer because at face value its just really cool. The gameplay ties in with the Victorian beast hunter theme as it evolves the combat in dark souls into faster paced fights, it rewards you for being risking and parrying with your gun with many bosses being parryble and also rewards you for landing more combo hits which restore your lost health meaning you are both always on the offensive while timing your dodges well. This game scraps the shield and has much more forgiving invincibility frames with dodging making the fights more fluid while making them more tense as dodging the fast and aggressive bosses becomes incredibly fun. From my experience the role playing aspect is narrowed with less creative builds as dark souls but the exploration and boss battles exceed the quality of the dark souls franchise. The feeling of shooting an aggressive boss at point blank range stunning them then to rip their guts out with your bare hand is unparalleled. A fantastic action game rpg with beautiful graphics and challenging but fair gameplay.