Bloodborne is not only not a direct sequel to Demon’s Souls 2, it’s not even a spiritual successor, according to SCE Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida.
Yoshida admitted that Bloodborne is inspired by Demon’s Souls, but in speaking with Polygon insisted that the game is a totally new experience and not a successor of any sorts, spiritual or otherwise.
“The end result has a definite feel that comes from the team, but the gameplay mechanics and the characters are brand new, pretty much,” he said.
Sony, the original publisher of Demon’s Souls, has no plans to resurrect the brand.
“We are not thinking about doing anything else, just focused on Bloodborne,” Yoshida said – probably a good thing given the confusion between Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, which I can’t imagine Namco Bandai would be too pleased about.
As for why Bloodborne is happening at all, Yoshida said it comes from his long relationship with From Software over the years of his Sony career.
“We had an opportunity to reopen the relationship, and going into the launch of PS4, our producers proposed that we should work together with the From team and Miyazaki-san to make something new on a new platform,” he said. “That resonated really well with Miyazaki-san.”
