A fan project has taken Bloodborne and reimagined it as a game released for the original PlayStation. Blooborne PSX is the most dedicated type of homage, but with only a single developer and a handful of other contributors, recreating the entire game doesn’t appear to have been feasible. The project from Lilith Walther has been in the works for some time, but the Bloodborne demake is finally finished and playable on PC for free, and even includes some original additions.
Bloodborne PSX is primarily a retro recreation of Central Yharnam, the original game’s first major area. Players similarly wake up in Iosefka’s Clinic on the night of the hunt following a blood transfusion, and receive mysterious instructions, “Seek the Paleblood to transcend the hunt.” The demake includes all of Central Yharnam up to Father Gascoigne, including the Cleric Beast boss fight and the surrounding sub-areas, such as the Central Yharnam Sewers. Although the demake is pretty faithful, there are a handful of artistic liberties taken in level design, such as multiple flaming boulders replacing the single one that is rolled down the bridge near the Father Gascoigne boss arena.
The demake also recreated Bloodborne‘s Hunter’s Dream, a hub world where players level up and upgrade their equipment. The Hunter’s Dream is similarly reworked to support Bloodborne PSX‘s smaller scale. The entire game goes to great lengths to imitate an original PlayStation game, including FPS caps, dithering, and simulated CRT effects like a glare on the nonexistent screen’s rounded corner. The settings menu is also quite robust for a fan project, letting players tailor their experience to certain degrees, but Walther’s most impressive feat is creating an entirely new endgame area for Bloodborne PSX.
Bloodborne PSX Has Original Bonus Content
The Father Gascoigne boss fight is the farthest players can advance through the Bloodborne plot, but Walther has seen to it that Bloodborne PSX has an endgame of its own. Bloodborne PSX’s completion time is therefore much shorter than how long it takes to beat Soulsborne games, but the new area gives it an interesting and novel finale. Once Gascoigne has been defeated and players return to the Hunter’s Dream, they will notice that all of the Lamps in Central Yharnam are inactive save for one – the new Lamp at the Tomb of Oedon.
Central Yharnam will now be filled with new enemies, including White Lanterns, which are typically found in the original Bloodborne‘s Nightmare sections. Players will have to find their way back to the first Central Yharnam Lamp, where the door to Gilbert’s Estate has been knocked down, allowing access to Bloodborne PSX‘s new area. Gilbert’s Estate has multiple levels and ends in a new boss fight that is the actual ending to Bloodborne PSX. The PS1 demake of Bloodborne may only include a recreation of a couple areas, but it’s still an impressive feat for its single developer, and it even has some interesting new content for fans.
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