I hope you can choose a different class. It's like Van Hellsing going on ready steady cook.

Ok that vibrated my hype boner

Info so far:

- Early 2015 release
- Action RPG
- PS4 Exclusive. (Sony IP)
- No easier difficulty. Targeting the same level of difficulty as Demon's Souls.
- Game length will be around the same as Souls games.
- Visually one of the most impressive current gen games.
- Targeting 1080p 30fps. Game is still early so currently has framerate issues, devs have acknowledged this and said will be ironed out.
- Bloodborne was started by the team who developed Demon's Souls and the first Dark Souls after they finished work on the Artorias of the Abyss DLC.
- Bloodborne does not star a static protagonist, can customize character and stats like previous souls games.
- From Software says it's going to be more in line with the death penalties and progression system found in Demon's Souls, which from what we gather means that we'll be collecting souls (Blood?) and returning to a safe zone once again.
- The world and story is completely new, and the setting takes full advantage of the PS4's capabilities
- City is called Yharnam, it's massive, looks like London back in the 19th century
- game will take place during various times of day and weather.
- "If you remember the Tower of Latria level in Demon's Souls, that's the kind of atmosphere we want to create with Bloodborne." ( https://www.youtube....h?v=NmWmABpzT0U )
- City is very densely layered. 'More complex than Thief'
- When asked, From Software says it's not pursuing the same open structure of Dark Souls II
- The zones of the game are connected between them, as in Dark Souls 1 (conflicts with the above point?)
- Q: Will zones only be filled with enemies? A: You will feel alone.
- But the game has NPC's, can choose to save or ignore some that are in trouble.
- Ragdolls are in
- Cloth physics
- Fog gates are in
- Bosses will not always be behind soul-gates this time. Instead, sometimes they'll just ambush you and the soul-walls will just appear afterwards
- Monsters bleed where you slice them.
- Some areas are really dark, you'll need a torch to navigate.
- There will be no map display in the game
- No shields, focus on faster action.
- Rolling, backstepping, locking on, parry and kicking are all in.
- There are less weapons overall, but he thinks the depth of each of those actually available make up for that difference.
- Still tons of weapons and armor to collect
- Weapons are divided by right and left hand so you cannot dual wield certain weapons.
- Bladed weapon in right hand is referred to as a 'Sawcleaver'
- Firearms are more useful defensively, to stun enemies, giving you time to back up or create counter-attack opportunities.
- If you hit an enemy's torch they get set on fire.
- You cannot play this the same way as Demon's Souls'. Have to be more aggressive.
- He wants combat to not just focus on action but also the strategic element.
- The combat in the game is designed to feel like a life or death struggle.
- Enemies are not static spawns, but walk around and can come from anywhere (behind crates etc).
- The keywords for the game is "blood" and "beast".
- Blood a key focus and is also used to regain your HP and gain various other benefits.
- They said the Virus(bloodborned) has progressions.
- You get blood sucking it from corpses or items.
- Sucking too much blood will turn you into a beast which I suppose is this game’s Soul/Hollow form. The game will apparently become a lot harder to play/control when in beast mode. To become a human again you need human blood and is where the online component comes into play. [translated from Famitsu, not sure if entirely accurate]
- There will be online elements of some sort, and it will involve players "discovering" together. As to how exactly the process of fighting alongside other players will work, Miyazaki's coy. "The key concept, or phrase, that we have right now is it's an open explorative community," is all he'll give away

All very nice. The only thing that worries me is the video I've just seen. Combat looks very flaky but I'm assuming they might still be using components from Dark Souls this early on. Plus the dick playing it didn't have a clue how to lock on. Unless you can't???

6 months to get PS4 then

That list sounds like the right balance between keeping the Souls philosophy and moving on to new things. Very interested in this now.

I think I'm the only one a bit disappointed with just how Souls it looks. Animation and visual style looks copy-and-paste, instead of adapting it to a new generation - early stuff, I know, but it's pretty disappointing.

If it ain't broke etc...

Great post, Curtis. I can't wait to learn some info about multiplayer aspects.

You're disappointed by 30 secs of sneakily filmed poor quality footage that shows leaps and bounds of progress in terms of animation style and architecture definition in a fucking awesome blood soaked Victorian setting...got it

fullspectrum wrote:

You're disappointed by 30 secs of sneakily filmed poor quality footage that shows leaps and bounds of progress in terms of animation style and architecture definition in a fucking awesome blood soaked Victorian setting...got it

Really?  Leaps and bounds? It looked identical to Dark Souls' animation. I think you're kidding yourself if you think you're seeing progress from that footage.

Some fuckers just want to watch the world burn, it seems.

It its not broke, and it isn't (DkS2 is perfect) then why change it?

Benefit of the doubt for now, it depends how far they go with the new stuff.


- Bloodborne does not star a static protagonist, can customize character and stats like previous souls games.

That's numberwang.

The talk of bosses ambushing you could be something more dynamic than what we've seen before but could just as easily be limited to pre-scripted encounters.  Likewise with the roaming enemies and NPC encounters.  Patrol routes or some degree of randomisation, maybe linked to another system like well 'ard bastards hunting you down if you're a beast or something.  I did read of NPCs crucifying a beast. 
The roaming Black Knights of Dark Souls' concept stages?

I could go for a Metroidy (or Ninja Gaiden 2, srsly guys the weapon set's dead good) approach to weaponry, as in a small number of functionallly distinct weapons but then apparently "there's still tons of weapons and armor to collect" so yeah.


Edit: @Chief, vaguely.

There's nothing wrong with it man, flawless.