It frustrates more than it impresses. The sacrifices to make this game feel more archaic are just baffling. I get it, the point is to make the game look like an old, charming, busted-ass PS1 game. Did it have to play like one too?

You know what the PS1 had? The Dualshock. Which had plenty of buttons and sticks to map almost ALL of PS4 Bloodborne's functions verbatim. But since the goal is to make this game play like a game with a limited controls, what were simple actions in PS4 Bloodborne will now sometimes require multiple steps to achieve. Remember how convenient it was to have a button for your equipped quick slot items, and a dedicated button for healing? Goodbye to that, they're the same button now, which means they all occupy the same quick use slots that you have to scroll through, based on what you need. Even keys will have to occupy these same slots, so what was once as simple as even opening a door is now a test of your patience. First you go up to the door that says it is locked by a key. Now take a trip into the start menu, then scroll down to your items, scroll over to the key you want, then equip the key to one of your quick slots (2 rats you did not notice before pausing are now biting you in the ass during this process), now unpause the game (kill the fucking rats), then in-game switch past all your other items to the key you want, and NOW you can open the door. This should not be a thing at all. Just have the door say (You used the **** Key). Even the first Resident Evil got that right!

Your character's movement is also more limited. No more stick, so movement is done with the d-pad. But even if you manually map the controls the way they would be on PS4 to a USB controller with 2 sticks, it still does not feel the same. Dodging around agile enemies is now very finicky where it was not before. Dodging away from enemy attacks or through them is a 50/50 gamble. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. And yet, nobody told the enemies that your movement was limited! Be prepared to be stunlocked by extremely fast dogs, werewolves and rats with obnoxiously long reaching attacks, over and over again. And then, some enemies are totally comatose, like the cleric beast. He barely fights back. And some enemies just vibrate and jitter around like their movement is bugged.

And bugs aplenty too. I visceral attacked an enemy on the stairs, which put me through the stairs and I was stuck. Doors you unlock with levers will often become locked again as soon as you walk through them, meaning you will have to go the long way around AGAIN and hope when you pull the lever this time, it will stick. Sometimes gates appear like they are up and you are able to walk under them, only for you to be blocked by an invisible wall when you try. Very frustrating.

I want to like this game. I know it is a labor of love. The people involved love Bloodborne and have worked hard to get everything just right. The visuals and music and sounds all are just the way they should be to hit that PS1 nostalgia spot in your brain, and that took a lot of effort. But at the end of the day Bloodborne PSX is a game, and I didn't have fun playing it.