PlayStation 4 exclusive Bloodborne isn't just Demon's Souls 2

Yes, Demon's Souls does have a "sequel" and it's spawned into the Dark Souls franchise, but this is the Sony exclusive and with the main director back, this could be the true sequel that fans have been waiting for.

When the trailer was released for Bloodborne, I was pretty excited like every other Demon's Souls fan on Twitter. Even though the horror genre isn't my favorite and the gameplay was incredibly difficult, I was still intrigued by the environment Demon's Souls had. It's a game that I wanted to be good at, but it continued to kick my ass. It still does when I pick it up from time to time, regardless of how positive I am heading into it.

I finally got a chance to play Demon's Souls when it was a free game on PlayStation Plus, and it was a great experience. Bloodborne looks like that and so much more.

Here's what director Hidetaka Miyazaki talked about working on Bloodborne in the PlayStation Blog, who passed up the opportunity to guide Dark Souls 2 to work with Sony again.

“Creating Bloodborne as a completely new game on the new PlayStation 4 hardware has allowed us to really push the envelope in myriad ways. That being said, in more ways than one, it also very much retains our distinct, signature style. As has been at the core of our development philosophy since Demon’s Souls, we make true games for people who love games. Please watch for more to come on Bloodborne, and thank you very much for your support.”

Now that gameplay features have been released on the interwebs, things look even more promising. When I talk about the environment of Demon's Souls, I don't mean the difficulty. I mean the setting. Keza MacDonald of Kotaku gives us a look into what they experienced while testing out the game.

It's set in an impressively gothic town, all looming, craggy towers and imposing churches, the building all pressed up against each other and blocking out a dark sky. The people and... things that live here are, unsurprisingly, not friendly. Townspeople clad in quasi-Victorian apparel - long coats, elaborate hats - lumber around the streets, attacking on sight. In the distance, a crowd of them gather around some crucified monster as it burns on its cross, watching wordlessly. It is profoundly chilling. I was gripped by curiosity at what was going on here, battling with a simultaneous urge to run away and never look back - exactly the same feeling that I get upon entering some unknown area in Souls.

Having the duo of FromSoftware and Miyazaki together is the boost this game needs for fans that were disappointed in the ingredient Dark Souls 2 lacked, and I'm intrigued that it doesn't just look like some kind of sequel that's slopped together to push out and get money. It's a whole new world that promises to have the same amount of beautiful creepiness from the original Demon's Souls.

Photos via Flickr