Bloodborne’s PS1 Demake is Now Available

Time Stamp: January 31, 2022 5:07 PM

A new fan-made “demake” of Bloodborne was released on itch.io on Monday, transporting the world of Yharnam into the PSX era, complete with polygonal werewolves, D-pad controls, and MIDI synth.

Created by developer Lilith Walther AKA b0tster, the game can be downloaded here on their itch.io page. You can also watch the official trailer here or in the tweet below.

While many PSX “demakes” are typically short demo-length experiences, the Bloodborne PSX demake is a surprisingly fully-featured ride. I took the game for a spin and managed to get to the giant troll that bangs on the central Yharnam gate door on the corpse-riddled street that runs through the city.

“I was inspired by seeing mockup screenshots of demade games in a post that went viral in around 201,” Walther told IGN. “Bloodborne was a year or so old at that point but it was still fresh on my mind as my favorite game and I went to the logical conclusion to ‘make it real’ I made a prototype that year but stopped so I could finish my indie game. After that was done I took a short break and started the project over for real in January 2021.”

The demake pretty much has everything you’d want, including blood vials, Molotov cocktails, and lots and lots of switchbacks throughout a (mostly) faithfully recreated Yharnam. I say “mostly” because there are a few alleys and gate triggers that threw me for a loop, as someone who’s walked Central Yharnam more than a couple of times. There are even a few surprises thrown in here that I won’t spoil for you.

Above all else, it’s just shocking how long the experience is for something that Walther coded and designed in 13 months. Suffice it to say that the atmosphere of Yharnam hasn’t been lost either. If anything, the PSX fog of war that permeates the city only adds to the eerie stillness of a city collapsing one blood transfusion at a time.

The gameplay itself is equally faithful, with some caveats made to further instill the feel of playing on a PSX controller, with only a D-pad for basic movement. You can lock onto enemies, dodge back, and strafe around them to get a punishing blow in. It’s a little janky at times, especially when trying to lock onto enemies behind you using the trigger buttons, but that’s certainly not out of the realm of other third-person games on the actual PSX. When I asked Walther what was her biggest challenge, you bet she said figuring out a control scheme for the stick-less PSX controller.

Check out the official “box art” in the tweet below, designed by @art_Mino.

Other PlayStation games to get the demake treatment include The Last of Us, Cyberpunk, and even Kojima’s P.T. demo. Beyond just these demos, there’s also an emerging subgenre of games (particularly horror) evoking the same kind of PSX-era polygonal graphics, such as Bloodwash.

Considering the popularity of Bloodborne, the virality of this fan project, and how certain game companies can be notoriously litigious, it remains to be seen if the Bloodborne PSX remake will continue to be available for download and play.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/good hunter for IGN.

Source: https://www.ign.com/articles/bloodborne-ps1-demake-release

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