Why There Should Never Be a Bloodborne Remake

Just before February's State of Play presentation aired, rumors began to swirl that a Bloodborne remake, or at the very least a remaster, could be imminent.

Those rumors were aided by Sony's move to DMCA two major Bloodborne fan projects, namely a 60fps patch created by modder Lance McDonald and a PlayStation-style demake made with love by the very talented Lilith Walther.

Of course, the State of Play came and went, yielding nothing in the way of PS4 revivals barring the frankly bizarre Days Gone remaster. Most other Bloodborne fans breathed a sigh of frustration, but mine was one of relief.

Let me lay my cards on the table. Bloodborne is probably my favorite game of all time. I've got its platinum trophy, and I've spent close to 200 hours in Yharnam, breathing in its eerie atmosphere and battling its deranged, skeletal beasts. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but trust me, it is for me.

Here's the thing. There should never, ever be a Bloodborne remake. I'm not even convinced there should be a remaster, although that's an argument I'd be far more ready to come around on. Here's why a Bloodborne remake or sequel is a terrible idea and why Sony should never do it.

The Demon's Souls Conundrum

In 2020, when Sony released the PlayStation 5, one of the console's launch titles was a remake of the 2010 action RPG (for there were no "Soulslikes" back then) Demon's Souls.

Developed by Bluepoint, the remake garnered critical acclaim, with many praising its faithfulness to the original. This is a take that has always baffled me. Bluepoint's Demon's Souls remake is certainly shinier and more "presentable" than the original, but it has none of the trademark strangeness and atmosphere of FromSoftware's effort.

Much of that is down to creative choices that I'm sure were made in order to sell the power of the PS5. The land of Boletaria is now one of much higher detail, much shinier surfaces, and much slicker animations, but it has completely lost the creeping, misty dread of the 2010 original.

The music choices, too, are irritatingly tone-deaf. Listen to Flamelurker's boss theme. Composer Shunsuke Kida wrote a theme that sounded like a long-forgotten demon "lurking" in the darkest recesses of the world. Bluepoint's remake, by contrast, drowns the boss in the kind of bombastic orchestral arrangement that Hollywood would kill for.

Like many other gaming companies, Sony's attitude towards game preservation is occasionally commendable but usually selective. While the company has made an effort to add many PlayStation classics to its modern store, there are also a lot of games - many of which are exclusives - that remain unavailable.

A lot of the games featured as little collectible robots in Sony's celebratory platformer Astro Bot (which is great, by the way), including major titles like Ico, the original Killzone, and even the first few God of War games, are unplayable on modern hardware despite being hugely celebrated and beloved landmarks in the medium of gaming's history.

Sure, Shadow of the Colossus has its Bluepoint remake, but here, we run into the same issue as the studio's Demon's Souls work. What if I don't like the Bluepoint version? What if I want to play the original? Well, it's tough luck for me in that regard, I suppose.

In short, I don't think Bluepoint's Demon's Souls remake gets close to the original for atmosphere and feel, but more to the point, Sony's slipshod approach to game preservation means that for many - myself included - it is now impossible to legally source the original without resorting to the second-hand market.

The Bloodborne Remake Game Preservation Problem

Sony has seemingly decided that nobody would ever want to play the original Demon's Souls, and that the only legitimate version is the remake. This is a terrible attitude to take; even if you prefer the shinier, more "AAA-feeling" Demon's Souls, this attitude leaves no room for those like me who prefer the 2010 version.

Should Sony ever make the decision to remake Bloodborne, there's every chance that just like the 2020 Demon's Souls, original director Hidetaka Miyazaki, as well as many of the other creative personnel who originally worked on the game, wouldn't be asked to return.

In the worst-case scenario, this would result in a remake that utterly butchers FromSoftware's original vision for Bloodborne, ruining the game's subtle, creeping journey from beast-strewn, blood-soaked horror to something altogether darker and more eldritch.

Now, I know what you're thinking. There's no guarantee Sony would ruin a Bloodborne remake. Maybe it would be better! Perhaps that's true, but Bloodborne is a work of art born (no pun intended) of its particular time and circumstances. Any remake produced by Sony would inevitably be a different product, because of course it would.

Remaking Bloodborne would be an act of monumental arrogance on several levels, and one that would only be slightly lessened by ensuring that the original remains available to play in perpetuity. Given Sony's previously demonstrated selective approach to game preservation, I don't have confidence this will happen.

In fairness to Sony, one of the reasons the original Demon's Souls may not have been preserved has to do with the PS3's notoriously difficult hardware. Other games, like Konami's Metal Gear Solid 4 and Sucker Punch's inFamous, also remain unplayable on modern systems (although I note the latter doesn't seem to have been considered for a remaster).

The point, though, is that the ball, as with many other companies, is very much in Sony's court here. It's not so much that Sony definitely will decide to replace Bloodborne with a remake (although I think I've demonstrated prior for that), but that it could, and if it does, the artistry of the original, like Demon's Souls, could be lost forever.

Bloodborne Isn't Perfect, but It's Perfect to Me

Of course, there's also the artistic argument for why Bloodborne shouldn't be remade.

Let's go back to Demon's Souls for a moment. It's not just a product, a piece of entertainment to be consumed and thrown away. It's a work of art. To remake it largely without the involvement of the original creative team and then proudly stamp the original name on the remake with no embellishments seems to me to be a little insulting.

By doing so, Sony is essentially saying "this is our new definitive version of Demon's Souls." I don't think Sony has, or should have, the artistic authority to do so. I'm fully aware it has the corporate authority, but I don't find arguing for or against remakes from a corporate perspective particularly interesting or illuminating.

For reasons we've already been over, a remake would probably be given to people who may well be huge fans of Bloodborne, but who didn't make it, and whoever would end up making the Bloodborne remake, they probably wouldn't have been heavily involved in the creation of the original.

Miyazaki has moved on. Sony's Japan Studio, which helped out with the development of Bloodborne, has been closed down. The team that came together to create the singular vision of Bloodborne no longer exists in its original form.

If you love Bloodborne like I do, and I really, really love Bloodborne, then you should rage against the concept of a remake for this reason.

To me, Bloodborne is a beautiful, precarious marriage of everything I want from both an action game and a horror game. I'm aware of how precious I sound here, but if just one element was pushed out of alignment, the whole house of cards could come crashing down.

I can't imagine a realistic scenario in which Bloodborne is remade and some beautiful, wonderful element of the original experience isn't carelessly tossed aside for some redundant quality-of-life improvement or gameplay tweak because someone didn't realize how important it was to the full picture.

Perhaps that's a failure of my imagination, but I'll offer you this guarantee (which is audacious, I know). If Bloodborne is ever remade, it will not live up to the remake you're currently imagining in your head. Not even close. Better to close that book and wait, likely in vain, for the remaster that barely does anything besides touch up the game's minor technical problems.

Okay, So Why Not Remaster Bloodborne?

This is a thornier question, and it's one I grapple with from time to time. When I revisited Bloodborne for this article, I found myself occasionally wishing it ran a little more smoothly or that its resolution was just a touch sharper.

A remaster could, in theory, fix these problems, but remasters aren't exactly perfect solutions either, at least not all the time. Let us remember the tragic, terrible story of Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto remasters and how they desecrated the classic originals.

Ah, but it wasn't just technical glitches that marred those particular remasters, was it? Fans also complained about odd-looking character models and newly introduced migraine-inducing rain effects. Proof, if proof were needed, that remasters also have the potential to ruin a game's artistic vision, even if they seem initially innocuous.

What about Sonic Colors: Ultimate, the remaster that dropped back in 2021? At launch, it ran horribly, leading to widespread criticism from players. Blizzard's Warcraft 3: Reforged led to the company dropping support for the original RTS, but it was hated by fans. No matter, though; to the best of my knowledge, you still can't easily play the originals.

Again, in fairness to Sony, its own remasters and ports are generally well-received (with some notable exceptions). All it would take, though, is one careless screw-up like the ones outlined above, and a game I consider to be one of the greatest of all time suffers as the result.

Of course, there are always updates and patches to fix issues, but, well... why not just play the original Bloodborne, which doesn't need any of those things to play well?

This may be a heretical statement, but I also think Bloodborne still runs just fine. Sure, it's not 60fps, but guess what? Your eyes will adjust. Mine did after just a few minutes, and if you allow yourself to be immersed in Bloodborne's peerless atmosphere and excellent storytelling, yours will too. I can almost guarantee it.

No, I think I've found my perfect solution. Let's just leave Bloodborne alone. No remakes, no remasters, and for the Moon Presence's sake, absolutely no sequels. Bloodborne came, kicked all kinds of ass, did what it came to do, and left. Why, in our era of constant unnecessary corporate franchise revivals, can that not be enough?