Here’s a comprehensive look at the Bloodborne PSX demake

Noclip does it again

Here at Destructoid, we’ve covered the Bloodborne PSX demake fan project pretty comprehensively — mostly because it rules. The scope of the demake is insane, and now we have a full 40-minute documentary on how it was made thanks to the YouTube Channel Noclip.

The Noclip team actually had the chance to meet and speak with Lilith Walther, the creator of the Bloodborne demake. Walther was inspired by Photoshop mockups/renders of God of War 3, Uncharted 2, and BioShock demakes, and created a prototype of Bloodborne PSX in three weeks in 2017.

It goes through Walther’s entire history of game development (and how they were spurred on by the complicated circuitry systems of LittleBigPlanet 2), through the origins of the demake itself. They talk about how a large part of the demake is meant to infuse old-school PSX-era systems into the game beyond just the raw aesthetic, including clunky UI elements (referred to as “rolling back quality of life systems”).

They also wax poetic about how fun old-school game design could be, and how quality-of-life features can potentially muddy the waters and put a damper on exploration. As someone who has grown up with games since the Atari, I’ve seen both the good and the bad of this philosophy, and while streamlining/quality of life has had a positive impact overall, in the subsector of action-adventure titles, I see exactly what Walther is saying here. Definitely check out the doc if you’re remotely interested in game design or Bloodborne!

As a reminder, you can get the project and check it out for yourself right here.