Celebrating Bloodborne’s 10-Year Anniversary (It’s Still Fantastic BTW)

March 24, 2025

Where has the time gone? It’s wild to think that Bloodborne is officially ten years old. Often considered one of the greatest games of all time, FromSoftware’s seminal action RPG has achieved quite a legacy since releasing exclusively on PlayStation 4 in March 2015. Its grim, decrepit world and aggressive risk/reward combat are a masterclass in design. Few games in the Soulslike genre match its quality, even some of those subsequently developed by FromSoftware.

So, if you’ve yet to play Bloodborne, that’s okay; it’s never too late to venture out to Yharnam. And to all the returning hunters, it’s time to take a trip down memory lane. Join us as we celebrate everyone’s favorite Souls game and what it truly means to “Fear the Old Blood.”

Who Is FromSoftware?

For the uninitiated (and by the end of this article, you will be initiated), FromSoftware is primarily known for establishing the massively influential Soulslike genre, which is a subgenre of action RPGs. Under the helm of visionary director Hidetaki Miyazaki, the studio is one of the most popular developers in gaming today, responsible for creating many groundbreaking titles, including Demon’s Souls, the Dark Souls trilogy, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Elden Ring, and, of course, Bloodborne.

What Makes Bloodborne So Special?

Among FromSoftware’s incredible body of work, Bloodborne arguably stands out the most. As the developer’s fourth major Soulslike title, it pushed the envelope with intelligent, creative changes to the fledgling genre, which initially made its name off brutally difficult combat and minimalist storytelling conveyed by item descriptions, the environment, and NPC dialogue.

A Lovecraftian Odyssey

Rather than continue painting on the canvas of dark fantasy, Bloodborne’s story is quintessentially Lovecraftian-inspired, a horror subgenre not explored by many big-budget games at the time. As a lone “hunter,” you journey to Yharnam, a towering gothic city whose inhabitants are plagued by a disease that transforms them into bloodthirsty beasts. The deeper you push into the city,  the more you slowly unravel the answers to its tragic and shocking eldritch mysteries. It’s tough not to be enraptured by Bloodborne off its setting alone, which, combined with FromSoftware’s indirect storytelling, makes for a mesmerizing, haunting odyssey.

Streamlined Gameplay Systems

A significant factor that helped Bloodborne succeed was its streamlined gameplay systems. It did away with the character classes from the Souls games, instead emphasizing more flexible playstyles dictated by your chosen weapon type. The game’s unique transformable “trick weapons” offered greater utility in combat, allowing you to swing your weapon at varying speeds and power depending on its current form. For example, you could swing Ludwig’s Holy Blade like a standard sword, but when sheathed, it transforms into a heavy-hitting, two-handed great sword. With a less restrictive approach to playstyles, FromSoftware broadened the appeal of its emerging Souls genre by focusing more on action.

Renewed Focus on Action

The greater emphasis on offense surprised many longtime fans. Gone was the slower, more measured and defensive dueling of Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, and in its place was a scrappy, frantic combat system that stripped you of the ability to block. Instead, you had to thrive without a shield, using your character’s increased mobility and offensive capabilities to meet the demands of the game’s fiercer enemy AI. More importantly, Bloodborne bolstered the pace of its combat by incentivizing you to continue trading blows after an enemy strikes you. Doing so could recover lost health only if you hit them after taking damage, but like anything that sounds too good to be true, there’s always a risk that you’ll end up more hurt than you started.

Making it easier to parry also played a big part in leveling the playing field. By shooting your equipped firearm just before an enemy hits, you could render them vulnerable to deliver a devastating “Visercal Attack,” an impaling strike that takes a large chunk out of their health (and is incredibly fulfilling to watch). The more forgiving timing made parries a more viable option for casual players, which was crucial given the game’s chaotic moment-to-moment encounters. However, it retained enough depth and style to please advanced players.

Design changes like these recontextualized how Souls combat felt and worked at the time, impacting how you strategized against enemies and tailored your hunting arsenal to stay in the fray. Despite sharing qualities similar to those of its predecessors,  Bloodborne genuinely felt different to play and uniquely challenging—something highly refreshing for hardcore fans and newcomers.

Memorable Boss Fights

All the more memorable is Bloodborne’s biggest trials: the boss fights. Thanks to the frenetic pace of combat, these encounters were far more varied and riveting than those from the Souls titles. They’re also some of the most visually inspired and compelling to look at (you need only refer to the hideous ghoul in this article’s header image). Fans often cite the game’s bosses as some of the best in the genre’s history, either mechanically, aesthetically, or both. Adversaries like Father Gascoigne, Vicar Amelia, Ludwig the Holy Blade, and Lady Maria are just a few highlights from its stacked roster.

Every boss battle is a harrowing ordeal, frequently testing your reflexes and capability to learn intricate attack patterns. Still, that didn’t stop FromSoftware from throwing in the occasional puzzle-focused boss to mix things up.

*Glares at Micolash, Host of the Nightmare*

But no matter who you fight in Bloodborne, you’re always in for a memorable clash against captivating foes, whether they’re an eccentric, crazed combatant or a hulking eldritch monstrosity. 

Reception

It’s no surprise that critics and consumers loved Bloodborne. The game launched to universal acclaim with a 92 Metacritic score and an 8.9 user score. IGN’s Brandin Tyrrel scored it a 9.1/10, praising it as “an amazing, exacting, and exhausting pilgrimage through a gorgeous land that imposes the feeling of approaching the bottom of a descent into madness.” Game Informer’s Daniel Tack gave it a 9.75/10 and offered equal praise, calling the game “a magical, wondrous work that admirably instills both terror and triumph in those brave enough to delve into it.”

Considering the period, Bloodborne sold well out of the gate, achieving over 1 million copies sold worldwide in only a few weeks before crossing 2 million in September later that year. While these numbers seem surprisingly low, it’s crucial to note that FromSoftware only had a cult following and modest financial successes during this time. Despite the numbers, Bloodborne’s publisher, Sony Interactive Entertainment, still felt the game exceeded their sales expectations. The game even spurred enough support to receive an expansion called The Old Hunters in November 2015, which was met with similar critical reception.

As the years passed, Bloodborne’s legacy grew among fans and developers. With every new title that FromSoftware released, the studio’s popularity increased. Along with that success came a new wave of players hungry for more of their unique style, which inevitably brought them back to Bloodborne. The install base steadily grew, and by 2022, the game sold 7.46 million copies. But even this number doesn’t account for the thousands of players who purchased the game secondhand or played it for free via Sony’s discontinued “PlayStation Plus Collection.”

Legacy

To this day, critics and fans still cite Bloodborne as one of gaming’s greatest of all time. Its lasting legacy and influence persist in games today, with countless Soulslike developers having created incredible games directly or indirectly inspired by it. Each picked up what FromSoftware was putting down, focusing either on swift action or incorporating an oppressive horror-inspired atmosphere.

There’s a great many other Bloodborne-inspired Soulslikes worth checking out. Below we’ve compiled a handful of titles you should play if you’re looking for something with a similar flavor (aside from FromSoftware’s other games, of course):

• Lies of P (Neowiz and Round 8 Studio)
• Thymesia (Overboarder Studio) 
• Mortal Shell (Cold Symmetry)
• Blasphemous (The Game Kitchen)
• Hollow Knight (Team Cherry) 
• The Nioh Collection (Team Ninja)
• Another Crab’s Treasure (Aggrocrab) 

What’s Next for Bloodborne?

With all the love for Bloodborne, many have wondered if FromSoftware will ever revisit the game. Fans have expressed an overwhelming demand for a potential remake, remaster, or PC port in the last few years. However, FromSoftware and Sony Interactive Entertainment have not confirmed any plans to produce one.

When asked about the potential for a remake in an IGN interview in February 2024, Miyazaki said, “It’s not in my place to talk about Bloodborne specifically. We simply don’t own the IP at FromSoftware.” 

He commented further about the fan demand in a Eurogamer interview around the same time: “Put simply, it makes me very happy to see it’s a title with a lot of specific memories, both for me and the staff who worked on it. And when we see those passionate voices in the community, of course, it makes us feel thrilled; it makes us feel very fortunate to have that and to have those memories.”

It’s clear that FromSoftware shares in the fans’ love for Bloodborne. So, will we ever get a remake? Perhaps even a sequel? According to former Head of PlayStation Studios, Shuhei Yoshida, in an interview with Kinda Funny, the stars may need to align between FromSoftware and Sony Interactive Entertainment first for that to happen. 

“I have only my personal theory of that situation,” he said. “I left first-party Sony, so I don’t know what’s going on but my theory is because I remember Miyazaki really, really loved Bloodborne, what he created and so I think he is interested, but he’s so successful, and he’s so busy so he cannot do it himself, but he doesn’t want anyone else to touch it. So that’s my theory, and the PlayStation team respects his wish.”

No matter what the future brings, all we know is that Bloodborne is a truly special game worth celebrating. The impact of its more streamlined, action-focused design began a shift in the Soulslike genre that has inspired and captivated so many; its haunting world continues to be a beacon that developers strive to achieve in their work. If you haven’t played Bloodborne, now is the time to do it. And if you have, well, what are you waiting for? That New Game Plus+ run isn’t going to finish itself.