Summary
Bloodbornefans finally have the gameplayable on PC via emulationafter months of nothing butblack screens, crashes, and hellish red tints. It’s a monumental step forward for not just FromSoftware and Japan Studio’s seminal Lovecraftian action RPG, but also for PS4 emulation in general.
With Bloodborne now on PC, fans are digging through the files to find new ways to optimise the game while also making some neat discoveries in the process. Take YouTuber and modder fromsoftserve, who found the Hunter holding apropershield and sword.
As they note in the comments, it’s probably just a debug item, but it’s fun to see all the same.
Lest We Forget The Wooden And Loch Shields
The only shield you can find in the release build of the game is the wooden shield, the item description of which tells us that “Hunters do not normally employ” them as they are “ineffectual against the strength of beasts”.
In all likelihood, FromSoftware included it not as a viable means of protection, but as a thematic way to distance Bloodborne fromDark Soulsby showing the futility of old tactics as the game pushed us towards more aggressive action. However, youcanfind a much better shield in The Old Hunter DLC (the Loch Shield), but it’s designed more to protect you from non-physical attacks than beast swings.
Bloodborne emulation still has a long way to go. There are crashes, visual bugs aplenty, and performance issues all over the shop—modders like fromsoftserve have managed to get it running at a smooth 60fps, but it comes at the cost of environmental details like foliage and debris.
They even had to disable the lightmap in the Hunter’s Dream to stop it from being completely black, but as fromsoftserve notes, these are temporary fixes that will be reversed “once the emulator makes more progress”, so Bloodborne on PC won’t look quite as hodgepodge when all is said and done.
Bloodborne
WHERE TO PLAY
Bloodborne is a PlayStation 4-exclusive title developed by Dark Souls and Elden Ring creator FromSoftware, and launched in 2015. A critically acclaimed action role-playing game, you must traverse the city of Yharnam seeking a cure for a mysterious illness.
