Bloodborne is a gamer ass game. From Software took everything that was amazing about Dark Souls' combat, streamlined it, and then increased the speed by three times. There's no blocking or spellcasting, only fighting and parrying. This reduction in scope allows for combat to be more tightly designed around melee-ranged battles. It doesn't matter if you're using a cleaver or a cane, those half-British half-beast (hard to tell which is scarier) monsters are still gonna tell you you're not wanted here. Presentationally, every part of combat is designed to make killing enemies as viscerally satisfying as possible. When you stagger an enemy, you tear into them and seemingly rip their heart out, dealing massive damage. Weapons, especially the Saw Cleaver, have a satisfying weight to them, as indicated by the excellent sound design.

In Dark Souls, the player works against the world they've found themself in, a lone warrior who is fated to save or reshape the world. In Bloodborne, the player is very much entrenched in the world of Yharnam. There is no hope for this world, no saving it. Upon beating the game, there is no ending which could be considered a "good ending". You either perpetuate the world's cycle or become part of the power structure. Kill or be killed.

Bloodborne is, in a lot of ways, less vibey than Dark Souls. It's a lot less vague about its plot, and features many cutscenes where human characters have, at least comparatively, human conversations. There's no joy to be found in Yharnam, only death and despair and blood. The world of Lordran is much more complex than this, featuring abject suffering juxtaposed with otherworldly beauty. Thus, Bloodborne didn't evoke any emotions in me other than "this owns", which I think is totally fine. I truly believe Bloodborne is faultless, even if I do slightly prefer the original Dark Souls. It's a shame this game is trapped on the PS4, because I feel if it could be accessed by more players it would comfortably be considered one of the greatest video games of all time.