The dedication to replicating enemy types and AI is staggering, proving to be as challenging as you might expect, albeit with a handful of forgivable bugs.īloodborne PSX feels like it definitely could have existed in the mid-nineties.īloodborne PSX also offers some surprises. When the primary werewolf boss also appears in Bloodborne PSX, my memories flooded back when he let out his bit-crushed howl. Funnily enough, sanity proved a strong theme in the game, and facing the first mandatory boss, Father Gascoigne, made sure mine was stretched thin. Last year, I threw in the towel and decided that the original Bloodborne would be my first foray into the world of soulslike games. Pixel-starved beastįor years, I resisted the urge to play Dark Souls, primarily for my own sanity since I'd heard how brutally difficult it could be. The music brought it all back, even with its interesting twist on composition with period-authentic synthesizers. I worried I wouldn't remember the music, but hearing the menu theme in Bloodborne PSX and soundtrack to the Hunter's Dream, the worry proved needless. All cutscenes run in real-time, so whatever garish character you create will always be visible during the story.īacking the nostalgic visuals are arrangements of the original musical score, composed by Evelyn Lark using a Roland SC-88 Pro for an authentic PS1 sound.
Change the appearance of your hunter and adjust hair color by mixing hues, and your creation appears on the title screen when you load your save. Not content with doing the bare minimum, the create-a-character sliders are also included. Doing this does cause a strange juxtaposition of super-smooth textures and chunky pixels, so it's better to leave some options switched on to maintain the retro theme. You're free to disable it all, of course, and run the game at maximum size with all effects off. Coupled with affine texture warping and a recreation of the original PlayStation's jittery vertices, the effect is extremely convincing. By default, the game runs at 20FPS and renders the screen at one-third resolution. The many faux CRT effects are adjustable, with millions of possible combinations. The effect is convincing compared to the original PS1 hardware. Source: Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Windows Central)