Six months ago I bought Bloodborne with the goal of playing and completing my first From Software game. I brought it back home and popped it in my PS4 which had been lying mostly stagnant ever since beating FF7R and P5R. I marched and trudged through the streets of Yharnam. Upon getting to the game's first (optional) boss Cleric Beast, I died, lost my souls, and retired the game indefinitely.

A couple days ago I returned to begin a new adventure as a Hunter, fresh off a playthrough of Elden Ring. I felt like after understanding From's punishing overworld, combat, and mysterious narrative, that I could tackle Bloodborne with a new state of mind and undertake the game's difficult nature without putting the game down. It turns out, I was right. Returning to Bloodborne was a fantastic decision and helps me understand the genius of Hidetaka Miyazaki even moreso after completing 2022's current GOTY.

Bloodborne is an incredibly disturbing take on HP Lovecraft's absurd paranomal writings and Victorian England. The environment is meticulously designed to make the player feel uneasy; filled with dark greys that paint the buildings and streets, sound effects of people and beasts suffering in their moments of "life," pools of dirty water everywhere, and bodies draped around the atmosphere like they are normal. From minute one, Miyazaki and company establish the concept of dread as normal to the player. Of course, those who are friendly to From's previous titles, or those that have come since, know that none of the games paint an uplifting picture in their world, Bloodborne is no exception. You awake in a dimly lit room, only to strut forward and be killed (unless you are a seasoned Souls vet) by the first enemy you see in brutal fashion. This is the beginning of the grueling mystery of the game's combat and narrative. Again because this is Fromsoft, the story is hidden behind a multitude of sidequests, world events, notes, item descriptions and the occasional exhibition by NPC's in the main story. It's hard to grasp it all, but if you dedicate the time in game to reading and putting things together along with what you are witnessing firsthand, it quickly becomes captivating. There is so much "WTF" in this game, players will find it hard not to be interested. This is now a classic From tactic, by putting things in front of the player that are inherently interesting and not telling them outright what they are or what they mean in the grand narrative, the player becomes naturally invested.

I found myself after conquering the first (optional) boss in this boat, things around Yharnam were grotesque, but I felt like I needed to unravel the mystery of my character and the NPC's I interacted with. Who is Gehrmann? Why are the Hunter's Necessary? Why does my character seem like the only one who still has "it" together? These were all questions I immediately began to ask myself upon my first trip to the game's hub. This is what happened to me in Elden Ring when I had first played it as well, I questioned who and why, what and how, because the game made me WANT to do so. Often games dangle their narrative in the face of the player and decide to push whichever narrative in their face. This works in some regards, for example the Story and messaging of a game like Mass Effect is fairly direct, but Bloodborne is the perfect example of when a polar oppposite form of story telling is done, that it can lead to near perfection. While it doesn't hold the same benefit of an open world to freely discover like From's most recent title, Bloodborne has a world interesting enough and filled with a plethora of intrigue that its genius of discovery shines.

It shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone who has seen even a tidbit of this game to understand how impressive the art and environment are, but one such piece that I was genuinely surprised by in Bloodborne's strengths was the music. As previously stated, I had just completed Elden Ring within a couple weeks of starting Bloodborne, the music was pretty good and generally interesting. That is sort of where my praise stops for the soundtrack though. With Bloodborne I was continuously impressed with EVERY single boss encounter I had because of how incredible the orchestration and composition were. Each theme was designed in a perfect manner to couple with the character's story that they were attached to. Sinister characters has sinister themes, tragic characters had motifs and themes full of sorrow and despair. The genius of this games composer to match the histories of the world that Bloodborne takes place in is amazing. I don't want to speak on boss theme names because, that is inherently a spoiler, but I sincerely recommend listening to them, even if you're not a fan of classical oriented music.

Combat in Bloodborne is considerably easier than Elden Ring and genuinely surprised me with how un-difficult this game felt to me. I don't consider myself to be the best gamer, but I almost felt a little let down with how easily I was able to handle the bosses of this game. With the aforementioned Elden Ring, until the end game it took more than a few tries on many bosses. You were cut down very quickly if you mistimed a dodge/roll and punished very hard if you got greedy. Though, the games differ in how you rebound after a player death. In Elden Ring you had more Sites of Grace hanging around and could respawn at the statues of Marika, with Bloodborne you had corpse runs from a advanced distance. In Bloodborne it felt like getting hit very rarely was a death sentence. There was only one fight in the game that I felt like I legitimately struggled on in terms of bosses, and that was mostly due to the PS4 struggling to maintain a steady framerate and the boss arena being poorly designed. I had been told on and on about how difficult the final few bosses of the Old Hunters DLC were, and yet I beat them in just a few tries. Maybe this is a boon after playing Elden Ring recently that had prepared me for a more difficult fight, so I don't know if the game is really easier or I had just been already prepared. I will say though, the concept of having twenty plus healing potions from the beginning of the game was pretty nice. These potions are farmable very easily early on too which means that farming after a tough fight wasn't very hard as you could replenish quickly. The combat itself was alright and nothing too special. Dodging was just like it was in Elden Ring, and I presume in the previous Souls games, and attacking ran on a basic stamina meter. What is nice about Bloodborne's fighting is the sheer amount of offensive options. Multiple playstyles based on weapon combinations (in your main hand and off hand pistol/torch) is encouraged and genuinly fun to discover, I imagine even moreso on NG+.

Art. Story. Music. So where does Bloodborne draw the line for me that keeps it out of the five star spot that I gave Elden Ring? Well I can answer that in quickly: performance and mapping. What is a map? They don't know! In a game that is excessively intricate, Bloodborne could still have maintained its mysterious nature, yet save the player time in getting lost. It's wouldnt be impossible to have a map for how vertical this game is either, as game's like Resident Evil and Metroid have found great success in filling a map to the brim with content and being able to map it out successfully. This would allow the player to properly discover and explore locations without the folly of getting lost and dying with a high echo count yet still feel rewarding. Performance is frustrating, and I finally understand why for years people in my circle have complained and longed for a PC port. This game, being a title based on precision timing and beautiful enviroments, could HEAVILY benefit from a game running at a better framerate on a system with the power to support it. Multiple times I had been hit and lost fights because of the game's framerate taking a dive into the unknown. Thankfully the game was still amazing nonetheless, but tough to reason a five star rating when it at times felt miserable to power through from a performance standpoint.

Nonetheless, Bloodborne was a fantastic time and another masterpiece in From Software's catalog. If you like a game that entices discovery, tough combat, and player control in a dark world full of mystery, this is a great pick for you.