Bloodborne
Bloodborne is an action role-playing video game developed by FromSoftware and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.
The game is played from a third-person perspective, players control a customizable protagonist, and gameplay is focused on weapons-based combat and exploration. Players battle beastly and varied enemies, including bosses, using items such as swords and firearms, and journey through the story, exploring the game's different locations, interacting with non-player characters, collecting key items involved in the story, and discovering and unraveling the world's many mysteries. Another trait of the game is its difficulty, with some gaming publications calling it "brutal", while others said it was "difficult, but fair".
Bloodborne began development in 2012 under the working title of Project Beast. Bearing many similarities to the Souls series of games by the same director, Bloodborne was partially inspired by classic H.P. Lovecraft novels as well as Dracula, and the architectural design of certain real world locations in places such as Romania and the Czech Republic. The decision by game director Hidetaka Miyazaki to create a new intellectual property (IP) and not another Souls game was made because Miyazaki wanted to create something "different"; at the same time, Sony wanted a new IP to be made exclusively for the PlayStation 4. An expansion for the game, titled The Old Hunters, was released in November 2015.
Having been highly anticipated, Bloodborne was met with critical acclaim upon release. Many critics applauded the game's atmosphere, detailed environments, and overall visuals, the interconnected world design, the design of the characters, particularly that of the enemies, the fast-paced gameplay, the storyline and lore, and the soundtrack. Frame rate issues and long load times at launch did, however, cause the game to draw some criticism. By September 2015, the game had sold over two million copies worldwide.