The most demanding game in the catalog
Bloodborne, learning to stop protecting yourself
- Critic score
- 92
- Player rating
- 4.7/5
- Main story
- 32.2 h
- Genre
- RPG, Action
An action-RPG that takes the Souls formula and removes the shield. That single subtraction changes everything, and explains why it still stands apart in the catalog.
Bloodborne is the only entry in its series, with no sequel or predecessor and a single expansion. It shares most of its grammar with Dark Souls — same developers, same shortcuts and bonfires, same relationship with death — but shifts its centre of gravity radically.
The shield is gone. In its place, a firearm used not to shoot from range but to interrupt an attack at the right moment, opening a devastating riposte. And crucially: damage taken can be recovered if you strike the enemy within the following seconds. The game does not reward caution, it punishes it. To back away is to lose that health for good.
This system transforms how the game feels. Where a classic Souls is learned by waiting, Bloodborne is learned by advancing, which runs head-on into reflexes acquired elsewhere. The opening hours are brutal for exactly that reason.
The setting supports the design: Yharnam, a gothic city eaten by a disease turning its inhabitants into beasts, slides steadily from Victorian novel into cosmic horror. The game almost never explains it — understanding comes through item descriptions and architecture, which exasperates as much as it fascinates.
Expect around thirty hours, more if you explore the Chalice Dungeons. It is not difficult through sheer volume of enemies, but through the need to unlearn. If you gave up on a Souls out of impatience, this one may paradoxically suit you better.