From Software Looking to Reach ‘Wider Audience’ with Bloodborne

With From Software’s Demon’s Souls spiritual successor Bloodborne, the studio is trying to find the balance between the widely-recognized difficulty of the Souls franchise and trying to potentially open the game up to an audience outside those who have played the Souls games before.

Speaking with VG24/7, From Software’s Masaaki Yamagiwa talked about this issue the studio is having, and was adamant that while it wouldn’t betray fans that are expecting a gruelingly difficult game, it is looking for ways to make the game appeal to those outside the Souls fanbase.

“In terms of who the game is aimed at, and who we want to capture in terms of the audience, obviously we can’t betray or disappoint the fans out there,” said Yamagiwa.
“They’re very, very important. They’ll be the main ambassadors of the game.”
However “we do want more people to share in this experience,” he admitted.

Yamagiwa didn’t elaborate on it, but he did claim that’s online components would help the game reach a “wider audience.”

While Demon’s Souls and its successor Dark Souls are both known for being incredibly punishing, From is looking to make Bloodborne feel not so unforgiving.

“You died a lot in the previous games, and you had to persevere, but one of our main goals with this game is that we don’t want to focus on punishing the player,” he said.

“We want to deliver a game that gamers love. If the gamer likes the game they’ll definitely like it enough to have that bit of perseverance, but the way in which we’re making the game? The sense of punishment is much less.”

Bloodborne was leaked under the code name “Project Beast” before ultimately getting a proper reveal at Sony’s E3 press conference back in June. The first public gameplay footage of the PlayStation 4 exclusive premiered during Sony’s Gamescom conference earlier this week.

Recently, there’s been talk of the game getting a photo mode similar to Infamous: Second Son and The Last of Us: Remastered.

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