In a recent interview with GameSpot, Hidetaka Miyazaki, legendary creator of the Dark Souls series and Bloodborne, told the press outlet that making a sequel to the lovecraftian horror title in the souls genre wasn’t a decision that was his to make. He went on to say much more about the games, such as the fact that Chalice Dungeons and Blood Gems could have been better, and that his favourite soulsborne boss is the Old Monk of Demons Souls. However, this tidbit of news got me thinking about Bloodborne 2, and why we need a sequel on Sony’s next generation console. Here are the three core reasons I think this sequel should get made.
Dedicated Fanbase
Most games generate a fanbase, and those fans will follow the game for a time. They might dip in and out of the game as new ones come along, but they’ll always return because they love what the game allows them to do, whether it’s a looter shooter series like Borderlands, or a crushingly difficult hack and slasher like Bloodborne. After a time, if no sequel is made, then a game can lose that fanbase. They’ll drift away as the hope of any new content dies, and they tire of replaying the same experience over and over again.
Bloodborne is different though. The souls games have always had dedicated players who stick around no matter what, and part of that is down to the cooperative and competitive multiplayer. However, in Bloodborne, players return every year, at least, simply for the fun of it. Right now the Bloodborne Reddit community is holding their yearly Return to Yharnam event. During the month of March every year, though it’s October this year, as many Bloodborne players as possible come back to the game to fill the servers and help each other out, or hinder each other if that’s what they want to do. The point is that for one whole month the game will be active again.
The point I want to make with this is that Bloodborne continues to see an influx of new players each year, some of which stick around playing the game up to New Game +7. Most other games that have sequels don’t get this much attention each year, yet Bloodborne does. It’s because of this, that I think the world deserves a sequel.
So Much Potential
Bloodborne has a bonkers story, mostly told through item descriptions. There are mad characters, many of which are more creatures than anything else, that feel as though they’ve barely been explored. The world, or worlds are the same themselves. No one really understands where Bloodborne takes place, or what’s actually going on, but everyone agrees that it’s brilliant. Part of the fun of the game is coming up with theories about the story, because no one story has ever been outlined as the correct one.
One of my favourite things abut the world is the pursuit of knowledge, and how that leads people to seek out cosmic beings that were dumped underground for some reason. There’s a lot of potential to expand the lore of Bloodborne, bringing new creatures into the fold, and opening up new avenues for players to theorise about, such as alternative worlds. Without a sequel we’re left contemplating the universe of Bloodborne through the finite amount of lore it holds, but with a sequel, so much more is possible.
Chalice Dungeons Provide Endless New Areas
This final point isn’t something everyone likes about Bloodborne. Chalice Dungeons are areas of the game that will randomly generate for each player, crating a new dungeon for them to crawl through. These dungeons are filled with tough enemies, depending on the type of chalice used to create them, as well as a lot of bosses that aren’t found anywhere else. I myself never finished Bloodborne, but I did make use of the Chalice Dungeons, which sucked up a lot of my time with it. I just loved exploring the new areas, getting more items to take to the main game, and having somewhere to gain Blood Echoes, the currency for levelling up in Bloodborne, that wasn’t simply farming the same are over and over again.
A Bloodborne sequel could double down on this part of the game, improving it and making it the true endgame. I think that with a bit of work, the Bloodborne 2 Chalice Dungeons would keep players busy for years by themselves.
There you have it, I’m sure the Bloodborne fanbase will have loads more reasons that a sequel should be made, but these are the three that I think matter the most. The game is iconic, and it’s a shame that right now there’s no word on a sequel being made. Games such as Dark Souls 3 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are brilliant in their own right, but nothing compares to Bloodborne.