It was the first souls game with broader appeal due to it's aesthetics. Women lets players liked it, hipsters liked it, so it reached critical mass when, before, the dark souls games were ... not obscure, but more of a meme in the wider gaming community. Personally I think bloodbourne killed off the potential of this genre just when it was becoming popular. Calling these games 'souls like' feels wrong, because pretty much every game like this made after that, were designed like bloodbourne, not dark souls. Dark souls combat is methodical, tactical AND scrategic, but souls fans diss the strategic part as 'gimiky', i.e. if you can figure out a way to get an edge in a boss fight, that's a poorly designed fight. Bloodbourne combat is just dodgeslop. It's the first souls game where, to win most boss fights, you basically need to get your ass kicked 20+ times before the fight idly becomes second nature to you. Simon says tier. It's no wonder why all games made after it were more bloodbourne than dark souls, making "gimicky" fights require creativity, making dodgeslop just has the devs make the boss flail around a bunch and then see if anyone on the team can eventually survive that onslought. You can then mass produce these encounters, only having to worry about the aesthetics of the boss and how it fits in the story. Don't get me wrong, I like bloodbourne, but I think fromsoft's previous formula was far better and I resent it for supplanting it.