Recently, there was a rumor that Sony Games was going to acquire the famous Japanese game company From Software, and at the same time, players once again discussed the topic: whether It is possible for From Software to launch Bloodborne Curse 2.
Since the launch of "Blood curse" in 2015, players' appeals for sequels have not stopped, especially in some foreign game communities, almost every once in a while, they will come up with hot discussion and analysis, which shows the popularity and status of this game in everyone's heart.
With the rumors of Sony's acquisition of From Software (hereinafter referred to as FS), we may wish to rationally explore, assuming that this acquisition is really achieved, is it possible for "Bloodborne Curse" to launch a sequel?
How are the games selling?
Whether the sales are good or not has a great influence on whether a game will launch a sequel. However, a slightly pessimistic fact is that Bloodborne Curse isn't selling very well.
At the beginning of the release, the performance of "Bloodborne Curse" was still quite good, with sales exceeding one million in two weeks, which exceeded Sony's expectations at the time, but after it was later announced that the game sold more than 2 million, there was no follow-up, and the final sales have always been a mystery.
Comprehensive multi-faceted analysis, as well as the 5 million sales of "Only Wolf: Shadow Death Twice" created by the production team of "Bloodborne Curse", it is speculated that the final sales of "Bloodborne Curse" should be slightly lower than that of "Only Wolf", which may be in the range of 3 million to 4 million, after all, "Only Wolf" is a multi-platform game, and "Bloodborne Curse" is still exclusive to the PS platform. Compared to the dark souls series that exceeded 30 million sales, and the Eldon's Law Ring reached 12 million sales in just 20 days or so after its release, the sales performance of "Bloodborne Curse" is really not good.
A strategic shift in Sony Games
Sony Game Japan's Japanese division, SCEJ (Sony Computer Entertainment Japan), saw a dramatic upheaval and contraction last year, with the studio restructuring and several producers leaving, including two producers of Bloodborne Curse, Akira Toriyama and Masaaki Yamaji, who announced their departures.
The restructuring of the Japanese division is actually related to the overall strategic transformation of Sony Games, because in recent years, Sony has paid more attention to the tens of millions of sales level masterpieces, for games below the tens of millions of sales level, Sony does not seem to be willing to launch a sequel, such as the acclaimed "Gravity Fantasy World" series, its producer Keiichiro Furyama also left at the end of 2020; for example, "The Past Is No More", sales of more than 5 million, but the reputation is not as good as "God of War 4" and "Horizon: Dawn of Zero" equivalent to the same scale 3A Blockbusters, so the sequel plan was also canceled by Sony.
Judging from these circumstances, the possibility of a sequel to Bloodborne Curse is further reduced.
Hidetaka Miyazaki's attitude
As the soul of FS, Miyazaki Hidetaka's previous remarks when mentioning "Bloodborne Curse" in some interviews also conveyed some signals.
In an interview with Gamespot Brazil in 2019, Miyazaki Washitaka was asked "which game I liked the most" and said that Bloodborne Curse is the game he feels the most, and he made it the way he wants, and this work will always remain in his heart. It can be seen that he himself has a personal preference for "Bloodborne Curse", and he even further stated that he hopes to optimize the design of the Holy Grail Dungeon and Blood Gem in this game.
But that doesn't mean he's actually going to do Bloodborne Curse 2.
First of all, the ownership of the Bloodborne Curse IP is not in the hands of FS, so the decision on whether to launch a sequel is not up to him, only Sony has the right to decide this matter.
On the other hand, Hidetaka Miyazaki himself actually did not like to do sequels, from the beginning of "Demon Souls" to the present, the only sequel he has actually participated in is "Dark Souls 3", and it was added when the project was developed in the middle of the development, and "Dark Souls 2" was developed when Miyazaki Hidetaka was busy with "Bloodborne Curse" and only served as a supervisor, mentioning feedback and modification suggestions.
"Demon Souls", "Bloodborne Curse", "Only Wolf: Shadow Death Twice" these three games have not had a sequel so far, and the response of "Eldon's Ring of Law" is too good, maybe a sequel will be launched in the future, but it is difficult to say whether the director of the sequel is still Hidetaka Miyazaki.
In summary, we can basically conclude that the possibility of the introduction of Bloodborne Curse 2 is very slim.
Why are so many people looking forward to Bloodborne Curse 2?
Although the sales of "Bloodborne Curse" are not high, the unique charm of this work still attracts a large number of loyal fans, making everyone know that a sequel is unlikely, and still do not give up the mood of expectation.
First, Bloodborne Curse adopts the Cthulhu worldview, which is unique in both FS and Hidetaka Miyazaki's work.
Throughout FS's works, the "King's Secret Order" series in the early years and the "Dark Souls" series in recent years belong to the more common Western fantasy themes; the Japanese theme of "Only Wolf" is not rare in FS's previous works; only "Blood Curse" is the only game that completely uses the Cthulhu myth to create a world view, and also integrates many complex contents such as Hebrew mythology, medicine, psychology, etc. The architectural style mainly refers to the Gothic style, and the era background refers to the Victorian British era in the 19th century. The fusion of many elements produces a unique temperament, both crazy and terrifying, both mysterious and strange, intoxicating and awakening, as if it were a dream.
Second, the gameplay of the game also has some differentiation.
"Bloodborne Curse" is actually the product of Hidetaka Miyazaki's exploration of other directions beyond the Dark Souls style: the Dark Souls series is more complex RPG, with a variety of weapons and a variety of magic, prayer, spells, weapons can also be qualitatively changed, but "Bloodborne Curse" has made changes, mainly simplification and action changes.
In terms of simplification, there are only 20 kinds of melee weapons in "Bloodborne Curse", and there are not many long-range weapon choices, from the bow and arrow of the "Dark Souls" series to pistols, cannons, etc., and there are not many costumes, let alone magic, prayer, and spells.
In terms of action, the tumbling design of the "Dark Souls" series was cancelled, and it was changed to a more flexible dodge action, and there was no concept of weight bearing, and the protagonist's action was more agile and fast. The game also has a unique design of the weapon's morphing chop, which allows players to play a variety of handsome combos.
▲ There are many differences in the way of fighting and Dark Souls
The "Attack Return To Blood" of Bloodborne Curse, that is, the short time after the protagonist has been damaged and lost blood, if you quickly attack the enemy, you can add back the amount of health lost, which also makes the combat experience very different. In the Dark Souls series, players prefer the "shield defense" tactic, and the defense benefit is greater; but in "Bloodborne Curse", the attack at a critical moment is more profitable, the shield is almost useless, shooting at the moment when the enemy attack is about to hit the protagonist, and can also shoot the "gun counter" to knock the enemy out of the hard straight state.
It is these that make the combat experience of Bloodborne Curse addicted to many players, and the aftertaste is endless.
▲ The first boss priest in the game requires the player to master the "gun counter" to win
In addition, "Bloodborne Curse" itself has some imperfections due to the rush, which is also a reason why players are calling for a sequel.
In the game, there are a lot of reused materials in the Holy Grail Dungeon, and there are also some meaningless walls, which are actually caused by the rush. When the game itself was launched, the evaluation was actually only moderate, until the DLC "Old Hunter" was launched, and the design of several bosses such as Ludwig, Maria, and Kos Orphan was top-notch, which pushed the overall reputation of the game to a super high level.
This DLC also further raises the players' expectations for the sequel: even the DLC can do this, so what is the fun to make a sequel?
epilogue
A lot of serious talk, the conclusion may still disappoint many people: the sequel to "Bloodborne Curse" will most likely not appear.
From Sony's point of view, they also seem to be inclined not to launch a sequel to Bloodborne Curse, which also makes players quite critical of it.
However, words cannot be said to be dead. Sony has been very active in supporting some personalized games, such as Wanda and Colossus, ICO, Gravity Fantasy World, and of course, Bloodborne Curse is also one of them. As a commercial company, they are not without feelings, perhaps more resources need to be invested in the exclusive AAA masterpiece now, and there is no spare energy to do anything else for the time being.
Maybe one day Sony's thinking will change? Even if there is still a glimmer of hope, I believe that everyone will not give up and look forward to a "lifetime".
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