- Sorry for yet another Bloodborne thread! Ive been working on this list for a few weeks and thought it was finally time to share! -
Let me start off by saying that Bloodborne is a phenomenal game and well deserving of the glowing positive reception it has been receiving. However I believe there are still various small tweaks and fixes that could be implemented to make a great game even better. This is by no means a moan at the games shortcomings but instead a list of suggestions that could provide some constructive feedback. With that being said I want to use this thread as a platform to suggest and discuss some changes you would like to see in the game (be it in updates, DLC or a sequel).
First off here is a list of technical issues I believe should be addressed:
- Loading times (I don't think I need to explain this one!)
- Framerate judder/dips. While nowhere near the level of Dark Souls Blight Town there can be the odd hiccup here and there. It's nothing severe but it would be a welcome fix none the less.
- Aliasing/Shimmering. Particularly noticeable on thin objects and geometry such as branches or fences. Not sure if there is a solution for this one as applying more intensive AA methods could potentially make any pre-existing issues with performance even worse.
- Match making. Everyone (myself included) seems to be having a tough time finding matches (for co-op or PvP). It can be particularly frustrating when trying to co-op a chalice dungeon with a friend. Even after setting a password, using the same chalice glyph, standing in the EXACT same spot and synchronising bell ringing it still doesn't want to work the majority of the time. I was hoping match making would improve after a few weeks but it still seems to be very inconsistent.
- Clipping. Ok so this one bugs me in particular but I can understand if you don't care about it. Basically there are a lot of clothing items (and hair in particular) that clip through one another. Of course this is a natural side effect when a game utilizes cloth physics so lavishly but it can become a bit of an eye saw at times. If you keep any weapon on your characters back and are wearing anything that flows or flaps when you run the clipping can be quite severe at times (e.g Ludwig's Holy Blade can be particularly bad). Not sure what to suggest that could fix cloth collision but I would really like FromSoft to address hair clipping/collision issues. This is really only going to be a problem if your character has long/shaggy hair (or a beard) and is particularly apparent on anything with a pronounced collar (so basically 90% of all clothes in the game!). I have some examples of said hair clipping here:
As you can see it cuts right through the collar. There are two potential fixes for this problem. One is to disable hair physics when wearing certain items of clothing to prevent clipping when in motion. The other (which leads me onto my next point) is to allow us to edit our characters appearance at any point in the game.
- So I believe this should be a feature of ANY RPG that allows character creation. There are not many games I can think of that let us alter the appearance of our character after the initial creation process at the start of the game but I desperately want that to change (Dragons Dogma and Fallout 3 are the only two I can remember right now). I feel like FromSoftwares games in particular suffer from this lack of feature because we are stuck with the characters we make for such a long time and are totally unable to tweak their appearance in any capacity. Perhaps if we were only allowed to edit/modify our characters hair/facial hair and apparel (such as glasses) then it may be an acceptable compromise. It seems like an easy thing to implement into the game and would even make sense in the context of Bloodborne (giving its dreamlike/lucid setting). There is even a mirror in the Hunter's Dream workshop where this feature could be added:
Either that or put an option in the main menu or even give us the option to alter our characters appearance at the start of new game +... This is one feature I would love to see added (even if it meant purchasing it in the form of a DLC).
Now I'll move onto graphical improvements/options I would like to see implemented
- An option to disable chromatic aberration. This has been a highly requested option among a lot of you here and I definitely agree. In case you don't know what chromatic aberration or CA is here are some examples of it being used in Bloodborne:
The main problem with CA in Bloodbornes case is that it seems to emphasise or draw more attention to the aliasing issues I mentioned above. CA adds red/green contrasting colours to the edges of objects (with the intensity increasing the further from the centre). As a result it can make a lot of people dizzy or "blurry eyed" when looking at the edges of the screen. To be honest I don't find CA totally out of place in a game like Bloodborne, when the game revolves around the concept of dreams and such. But FromSoft should still provide us with an option in the menu to disable it if we choose.
- More HUD options. Dark Souls 2 introduced a brilliant new optional feature where the HUD would minimize after a few seconds of inactivity. The HUD would remain in its minimized form until you pressed the attack button (if I recall correctly) so for the most part when you were just running around the HUD would remain compact and discreet. Unfortunately this feature wasn't carried over into Bloodborne which only gives us two options for the HUD, all on or all off. It would be great if they could add an auto hide/minimize feature for the HUD or even just provide an opacity/transparency slider (which would REALLY help with screen burn in!).
- Photo/Filter mode. I really don't expect this to ever come to Bloodborne but after seeing it being added to games like Infamous Second Son, The Last of Us Remastered and more recently The Order 1886 I can't help but feel every current gen game should have this feature. I know given the "always online" functionality of FromSoftwares games it may not be suitable but there is no reason they couldn't make it an offline mode only feature.
- Add item info on loading screens. This one is really odd, for some reason they decided to make Bloodbornes loading screens as bare as possible with just the games logo on display. In past Souls games we were treated to item descriptions or even images of NPCs in the case of Demon's Souls. They always made the loading times slightly more bearable as we had something to read at least. But given how long Bloodbornes loading times can be it just makes the decision to remove any reading material for players all the more perplexing. I understand if they want to remove the risk of any spoilers to the games plot but surely they could have given us something to keep us occupied considering how much we are staring at that black screen and Bloodborne logo. Heres an example of a DS2 loading screen:
Now I will move onto suggestions for possible gameplay improvements:
- Make lamps function like bonfires did in Dark Souls. So in Dark Souls each and every bonfire you encountered would allow you to rest and restock supplies (while re-spawning all enemies), repair your weapons, access your storage box, level up and warp from bonfire to almost every other bonfire. Here's a screen cap of the bonfire menu in Dark Souls:
This was such a convenient system and it puzzled me greatly why it was later removed in Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne. I understand that you didn't have any specific NPC like the Maiden in Black, Emerald Herald or Doll that would handle levelling up in Dark Souls. But it feels odd to refine the system after Demon's Souls then go back to the old system for DS2 and BB. Ideally they could find a way to balance it so that it gives us the convenience of Dark Souls bonfires with the character interaction of the other games. I really like those NPCs in the other games but you just cant argue with the sheer convenience Dark Souls system brought to the table. Perhaps the best case scenario is if the Doll still retained her purpose as the levelling up NPC and the lamps granted all the remaining features (resting/restocking, repairing, storage, warping). With such long loading times the ability to just warp from lamp to lamp without having to go back to the Hunter's Dream first would be a particularly welcome addition.
- An item that lets us respec our points. This ones very straight forward, Soul Vessels in Dark Souls 2 let us reset our characters assigned skill points and change them how we saw fit. I thought this worked well in DS2 as Soul Vessels were very hard to come by so the respec process couldn't be done continuously. An item similar to the Soul Vessel would be very welcome in Bloodborne and could be used via the Doll.
- An item that lets us respawn bosses. Again just like another item in Dark Souls 2, Bonfire Aesthetics let you respawn the boss of that area while pushing that entire area into NG+ (or further). It also made certain items and enemies respawn such as crystal lizards which made material farming SO much easier (I'm looking at you Dragon Aerie!). We should therefore we allowed to apply this item to any lamp we encounter in the game so that it functions just like the Bonfire Aesthetics.
- Button remapping. Specifically an option to change the input for certain commands such as jumping. This is only a niggling issue but it wouldn't hurt given the fact that we were allowed to swap the jump command to L3 in DS2.
- Unique visceral attacks/executions for each weapon type. Ok so this one will definitely not be added in any updates (or DLC either probably) but maybe for the inevitable sequel. The visceral "claw gut wrench" attack is pretty fun to pull off in Bloodborne but just imagine how much cooler it would be if each weapon (including guns) had its own unique execution. Although considering the fact that nearly every weapon has an alternate form this may require too much work. Maybe we could have one for slashing weapons, blunt weapons, thrust weapons and guns?
Right that's all the improvements and fixes I can think of for now but please contribute by suggesting what else could be added or changed to make the game even better.
Now I'd like to suggest some ideas for any potential DLC.
- New melee weapons (a TWIN BLADE! it's too perfect to not be a trick weapon, Sickles/Shotels, Halberd, Lance, Anchor with chain, Scissors/Sheers that tear apart or extend into a giant blade, moonlight great sword!)
- New firearms (Gatling gun, cross bow gun? long range rifle with a scope??)
- Weapons that were formally a part of an enemy/boss. Think tail weapons in Dark Souls or boss soul weapons (e.g. Quelaag's Furysword which is literally the leg of her spider body). This is one thing I desperately miss from the Souls games (particularly Dark Souls). It always made each boss encounter all the more exciting as you would spend the fight thinking "what kind of weapon could I get/make from this thing?" They could give us some potentially amazing transformable creature appendage weapons in Bloodborne (from beasts, kin, etc). Of course it would all still have to make sense from a lore perspective. It would be incredible to acquire something as otherworldly as the Kin of the Cosmos (a gun/sword that uses cosmic energy
).
- New clothing/armour (beast pelts, kin pelts!?, basically I want to wear the skin of the thing I just hunted ala Monster Hunter!)
- New NPCs, more lore/story expanding on the Lovecraftian/cosmic god elements.
- An expansion of the lore on Master Willem and Laurence in addition to Great Ones such as Oedon and Kos/Kosm. FromSoftware could potentially give us a DLC in the same vein as Artorias of the Abyss and let us travel back in time to witness key events first hand.
- A TRUE beast mode! This requires little explanation! FromSoftware, we want to turn into beasts! It would be great to have varying levels of beast hood like the stages of hollowing in DS2. The initial rumours of a "beast mode" were unfortunately blown way out of proportion with some people stating that you could become a beast by consuming bad/corrupt blood and avoiding it by only consuming pure blood. This sounded like a cool mechanic and it would be great if it could actually be realised in the future.
- An entire environment set inside or on top of a dead/dormant old Great One. Not much to say about this, I just think it would provide an amazing concept to work from. With the incredible visionaries at FromSoftware I'm sure they could create something truly phenomenal from this idea.
- New covenants. So after the somewhat disappointing lack of purpose with the existing three covenants in Bloodborne I feel this is something they definitely need to add in a future DLC. My idea for this would be to introduce two rival covenants that represent the two different sides of the games world. One covenant would represent the Beasts of Yharnam while the other represents the Kin of the Cosmos. I'm sure FromSoft could have some fun coming up with the design of each of the covenants lead representatives. As both of these covenants would be in direct opposition of one another the purpose of each would be to invade members of the rival covenant, kill them and retrieve a prize (like a Blood Dreg). This prize could then be offered to the covenant leader to progress and rank up. So this is essentially JUST like the dragon covenant in Dark Souls 2 but with two competing factions. The rewards for ranking up could be very substantial too like in DS2. In the dragon covenant you could receive a weapon and items to turn yourself into a humanoid dragon (you could also turn into a dragon through a similar process in Dark Souls). Imagine progressing enough in the beast or kin covenant to transform yourself into a shaggy hair ridden beast man/woman or a slimy, translucent, glowing cosmic being.
- PvP arenas (1v1, 2v2, 3v3). No explanation needed!
- New Chalice Dungeons specifically designed for co-op play with friends. This means the entire dungeon (not just a single floor) is playable from start to finish with a buddy. This also means that said buddy does not have to then replay the entire dungeon again on their save file.
Finally I'd like to suggest some ideas for any potential sequels to Bloodborne.
- So given the surprising turn of events we are put through during the story of Bloodborne we end up discovering that Yharnams beast outbreak is just the mere tip of the iceberg of a much grander threat. After approximately the midpoint of the game the narrative suddenly shifts from being about a viscous plague corrupting the city of Yharnam to cosmic ancient demi god beings known as the Great Ones. These mysterious and powerful Great Ones are said to have travelled through time and space (and dimensions) to arrive in our world where they are worshipped as literal gods and have entire religions built around them.
Now with these cosmic beings essentially becoming the focus of the games narrative I believe there is an enormous amount of flexibility when it comes to deciding on where the franchise could go in a sequel. There is no reason at all why we need to be bound to the Victorian inspired aesthetic or the Gothic Hammer horror tropes we encounter in the game. In my mind it would be incredible if a sequel to Bloodborne took us somewhere TOTALLY different.
For example an Eastern/Oriental landscape where we are tasked to hunt down Oni/demons. Or a dystopian gothic sci-fi wasteland that has been ravaged by a mysterious catastrophe (the idea of a sci-fi Souls/Blood game makes my brain drool...). I got the latter idea after recently reading the manga Blame!. Here are some examples of the types of environments that I could see working with this idea:
Of course the Great Ones would still be at the core of the narrative so it would never feel entirely disconnected from its predecessor. Alternately the entire game could take the cosmic elements one step further, letting us explore distant galaxies in the search of these ancient gods... I still think it would be important to retain consistent visual themes with Bloodborne but only to bridge the gap. Once we are re-established into the world of Bloodborne the game could take us anywhere it wants (like it did with the Lovecraftian elements). Finally here are some examples by the Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński that would provide an excellent source of inspiration for any future Bloodborne environments:
I believe they could push the nightmare elements of Bloodborne even further and Zdzisław Beksińskis work provides a great vision of the type of worlds we could explore.
Phew... Ok I am all done (for now!) but I am very interested to hear what suggestions everyone has for anything Bloodborne (be it improvements or ideas for DLC/sequels). Thanks!
Let me start off by saying that Bloodborne is a phenomenal game and well deserving of the glowing positive reception it has been receiving. However I believe there are still various small tweaks and fixes that could be implemented to make a great game even better. This is by no means a moan at the games shortcomings but instead a list of suggestions that could provide some constructive feedback. With that being said I want to use this thread as a platform to suggest and discuss some changes you would like to see in the game (be it in updates, DLC or a sequel).
First off here is a list of technical issues I believe should be addressed:
- Loading times (I don't think I need to explain this one!)
- Framerate judder/dips. While nowhere near the level of Dark Souls Blight Town there can be the odd hiccup here and there. It's nothing severe but it would be a welcome fix none the less.
- Aliasing/Shimmering. Particularly noticeable on thin objects and geometry such as branches or fences. Not sure if there is a solution for this one as applying more intensive AA methods could potentially make any pre-existing issues with performance even worse.
- Match making. Everyone (myself included) seems to be having a tough time finding matches (for co-op or PvP). It can be particularly frustrating when trying to co-op a chalice dungeon with a friend. Even after setting a password, using the same chalice glyph, standing in the EXACT same spot and synchronising bell ringing it still doesn't want to work the majority of the time. I was hoping match making would improve after a few weeks but it still seems to be very inconsistent.
- Clipping. Ok so this one bugs me in particular but I can understand if you don't care about it. Basically there are a lot of clothing items (and hair in particular) that clip through one another. Of course this is a natural side effect when a game utilizes cloth physics so lavishly but it can become a bit of an eye saw at times. If you keep any weapon on your characters back and are wearing anything that flows or flaps when you run the clipping can be quite severe at times (e.g Ludwig's Holy Blade can be particularly bad). Not sure what to suggest that could fix cloth collision but I would really like FromSoft to address hair clipping/collision issues. This is really only going to be a problem if your character has long/shaggy hair (or a beard) and is particularly apparent on anything with a pronounced collar (so basically 90% of all clothes in the game!). I have some examples of said hair clipping here:
As you can see it cuts right through the collar. There are two potential fixes for this problem. One is to disable hair physics when wearing certain items of clothing to prevent clipping when in motion. The other (which leads me onto my next point) is to allow us to edit our characters appearance at any point in the game.
- So I believe this should be a feature of ANY RPG that allows character creation. There are not many games I can think of that let us alter the appearance of our character after the initial creation process at the start of the game but I desperately want that to change (Dragons Dogma and Fallout 3 are the only two I can remember right now). I feel like FromSoftwares games in particular suffer from this lack of feature because we are stuck with the characters we make for such a long time and are totally unable to tweak their appearance in any capacity. Perhaps if we were only allowed to edit/modify our characters hair/facial hair and apparel (such as glasses) then it may be an acceptable compromise. It seems like an easy thing to implement into the game and would even make sense in the context of Bloodborne (giving its dreamlike/lucid setting). There is even a mirror in the Hunter's Dream workshop where this feature could be added:
Either that or put an option in the main menu or even give us the option to alter our characters appearance at the start of new game +... This is one feature I would love to see added (even if it meant purchasing it in the form of a DLC).
Now I'll move onto graphical improvements/options I would like to see implemented
- An option to disable chromatic aberration. This has been a highly requested option among a lot of you here and I definitely agree. In case you don't know what chromatic aberration or CA is here are some examples of it being used in Bloodborne:
The main problem with CA in Bloodbornes case is that it seems to emphasise or draw more attention to the aliasing issues I mentioned above. CA adds red/green contrasting colours to the edges of objects (with the intensity increasing the further from the centre). As a result it can make a lot of people dizzy or "blurry eyed" when looking at the edges of the screen. To be honest I don't find CA totally out of place in a game like Bloodborne, when the game revolves around the concept of dreams and such. But FromSoft should still provide us with an option in the menu to disable it if we choose.
- More HUD options. Dark Souls 2 introduced a brilliant new optional feature where the HUD would minimize after a few seconds of inactivity. The HUD would remain in its minimized form until you pressed the attack button (if I recall correctly) so for the most part when you were just running around the HUD would remain compact and discreet. Unfortunately this feature wasn't carried over into Bloodborne which only gives us two options for the HUD, all on or all off. It would be great if they could add an auto hide/minimize feature for the HUD or even just provide an opacity/transparency slider (which would REALLY help with screen burn in!).
- Photo/Filter mode. I really don't expect this to ever come to Bloodborne but after seeing it being added to games like Infamous Second Son, The Last of Us Remastered and more recently The Order 1886 I can't help but feel every current gen game should have this feature. I know given the "always online" functionality of FromSoftwares games it may not be suitable but there is no reason they couldn't make it an offline mode only feature.
- Add item info on loading screens. This one is really odd, for some reason they decided to make Bloodbornes loading screens as bare as possible with just the games logo on display. In past Souls games we were treated to item descriptions or even images of NPCs in the case of Demon's Souls. They always made the loading times slightly more bearable as we had something to read at least. But given how long Bloodbornes loading times can be it just makes the decision to remove any reading material for players all the more perplexing. I understand if they want to remove the risk of any spoilers to the games plot but surely they could have given us something to keep us occupied considering how much we are staring at that black screen and Bloodborne logo. Heres an example of a DS2 loading screen:
Now I will move onto suggestions for possible gameplay improvements:
- Make lamps function like bonfires did in Dark Souls. So in Dark Souls each and every bonfire you encountered would allow you to rest and restock supplies (while re-spawning all enemies), repair your weapons, access your storage box, level up and warp from bonfire to almost every other bonfire. Here's a screen cap of the bonfire menu in Dark Souls:
This was such a convenient system and it puzzled me greatly why it was later removed in Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne. I understand that you didn't have any specific NPC like the Maiden in Black, Emerald Herald or Doll that would handle levelling up in Dark Souls. But it feels odd to refine the system after Demon's Souls then go back to the old system for DS2 and BB. Ideally they could find a way to balance it so that it gives us the convenience of Dark Souls bonfires with the character interaction of the other games. I really like those NPCs in the other games but you just cant argue with the sheer convenience Dark Souls system brought to the table. Perhaps the best case scenario is if the Doll still retained her purpose as the levelling up NPC and the lamps granted all the remaining features (resting/restocking, repairing, storage, warping). With such long loading times the ability to just warp from lamp to lamp without having to go back to the Hunter's Dream first would be a particularly welcome addition.
- An item that lets us respec our points. This ones very straight forward, Soul Vessels in Dark Souls 2 let us reset our characters assigned skill points and change them how we saw fit. I thought this worked well in DS2 as Soul Vessels were very hard to come by so the respec process couldn't be done continuously. An item similar to the Soul Vessel would be very welcome in Bloodborne and could be used via the Doll.
- An item that lets us respawn bosses. Again just like another item in Dark Souls 2, Bonfire Aesthetics let you respawn the boss of that area while pushing that entire area into NG+ (or further). It also made certain items and enemies respawn such as crystal lizards which made material farming SO much easier (I'm looking at you Dragon Aerie!). We should therefore we allowed to apply this item to any lamp we encounter in the game so that it functions just like the Bonfire Aesthetics.
- Button remapping. Specifically an option to change the input for certain commands such as jumping. This is only a niggling issue but it wouldn't hurt given the fact that we were allowed to swap the jump command to L3 in DS2.
- Unique visceral attacks/executions for each weapon type. Ok so this one will definitely not be added in any updates (or DLC either probably) but maybe for the inevitable sequel. The visceral "claw gut wrench" attack is pretty fun to pull off in Bloodborne but just imagine how much cooler it would be if each weapon (including guns) had its own unique execution. Although considering the fact that nearly every weapon has an alternate form this may require too much work. Maybe we could have one for slashing weapons, blunt weapons, thrust weapons and guns?
Right that's all the improvements and fixes I can think of for now but please contribute by suggesting what else could be added or changed to make the game even better.
Now I'd like to suggest some ideas for any potential DLC.
- New melee weapons (a TWIN BLADE! it's too perfect to not be a trick weapon, Sickles/Shotels, Halberd, Lance, Anchor with chain, Scissors/Sheers that tear apart or extend into a giant blade, moonlight great sword!)
- New firearms (Gatling gun, cross bow gun? long range rifle with a scope??)
- Weapons that were formally a part of an enemy/boss. Think tail weapons in Dark Souls or boss soul weapons (e.g. Quelaag's Furysword which is literally the leg of her spider body). This is one thing I desperately miss from the Souls games (particularly Dark Souls). It always made each boss encounter all the more exciting as you would spend the fight thinking "what kind of weapon could I get/make from this thing?" They could give us some potentially amazing transformable creature appendage weapons in Bloodborne (from beasts, kin, etc). Of course it would all still have to make sense from a lore perspective. It would be incredible to acquire something as otherworldly as the Kin of the Cosmos (a gun/sword that uses cosmic energy
).- New clothing/armour (beast pelts, kin pelts!?, basically I want to wear the skin of the thing I just hunted ala Monster Hunter!)
- New NPCs, more lore/story expanding on the Lovecraftian/cosmic god elements.
- An expansion of the lore on Master Willem and Laurence in addition to Great Ones such as Oedon and Kos/Kosm. FromSoftware could potentially give us a DLC in the same vein as Artorias of the Abyss and let us travel back in time to witness key events first hand.
- A TRUE beast mode! This requires little explanation! FromSoftware, we want to turn into beasts! It would be great to have varying levels of beast hood like the stages of hollowing in DS2. The initial rumours of a "beast mode" were unfortunately blown way out of proportion with some people stating that you could become a beast by consuming bad/corrupt blood and avoiding it by only consuming pure blood. This sounded like a cool mechanic and it would be great if it could actually be realised in the future.
- An entire environment set inside or on top of a dead/dormant old Great One. Not much to say about this, I just think it would provide an amazing concept to work from. With the incredible visionaries at FromSoftware I'm sure they could create something truly phenomenal from this idea.
- New covenants. So after the somewhat disappointing lack of purpose with the existing three covenants in Bloodborne I feel this is something they definitely need to add in a future DLC. My idea for this would be to introduce two rival covenants that represent the two different sides of the games world. One covenant would represent the Beasts of Yharnam while the other represents the Kin of the Cosmos. I'm sure FromSoft could have some fun coming up with the design of each of the covenants lead representatives. As both of these covenants would be in direct opposition of one another the purpose of each would be to invade members of the rival covenant, kill them and retrieve a prize (like a Blood Dreg). This prize could then be offered to the covenant leader to progress and rank up. So this is essentially JUST like the dragon covenant in Dark Souls 2 but with two competing factions. The rewards for ranking up could be very substantial too like in DS2. In the dragon covenant you could receive a weapon and items to turn yourself into a humanoid dragon (you could also turn into a dragon through a similar process in Dark Souls). Imagine progressing enough in the beast or kin covenant to transform yourself into a shaggy hair ridden beast man/woman or a slimy, translucent, glowing cosmic being.
- PvP arenas (1v1, 2v2, 3v3). No explanation needed!
- New Chalice Dungeons specifically designed for co-op play with friends. This means the entire dungeon (not just a single floor) is playable from start to finish with a buddy. This also means that said buddy does not have to then replay the entire dungeon again on their save file.
Finally I'd like to suggest some ideas for any potential sequels to Bloodborne.
- So given the surprising turn of events we are put through during the story of Bloodborne we end up discovering that Yharnams beast outbreak is just the mere tip of the iceberg of a much grander threat. After approximately the midpoint of the game the narrative suddenly shifts from being about a viscous plague corrupting the city of Yharnam to cosmic ancient demi god beings known as the Great Ones. These mysterious and powerful Great Ones are said to have travelled through time and space (and dimensions) to arrive in our world where they are worshipped as literal gods and have entire religions built around them.
Now with these cosmic beings essentially becoming the focus of the games narrative I believe there is an enormous amount of flexibility when it comes to deciding on where the franchise could go in a sequel. There is no reason at all why we need to be bound to the Victorian inspired aesthetic or the Gothic Hammer horror tropes we encounter in the game. In my mind it would be incredible if a sequel to Bloodborne took us somewhere TOTALLY different.
For example an Eastern/Oriental landscape where we are tasked to hunt down Oni/demons. Or a dystopian gothic sci-fi wasteland that has been ravaged by a mysterious catastrophe (the idea of a sci-fi Souls/Blood game makes my brain drool...). I got the latter idea after recently reading the manga Blame!. Here are some examples of the types of environments that I could see working with this idea:
Of course the Great Ones would still be at the core of the narrative so it would never feel entirely disconnected from its predecessor. Alternately the entire game could take the cosmic elements one step further, letting us explore distant galaxies in the search of these ancient gods... I still think it would be important to retain consistent visual themes with Bloodborne but only to bridge the gap. Once we are re-established into the world of Bloodborne the game could take us anywhere it wants (like it did with the Lovecraftian elements). Finally here are some examples by the Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński that would provide an excellent source of inspiration for any future Bloodborne environments:
I believe they could push the nightmare elements of Bloodborne even further and Zdzisław Beksińskis work provides a great vision of the type of worlds we could explore.
Phew... Ok I am all done (for now!) but I am very interested to hear what suggestions everyone has for anything Bloodborne (be it improvements or ideas for DLC/sequels). Thanks!
