The market today is teeming with remakes, remasters, and enhanced versions of video games that have made media history, for better or worse. However, another practice (not new, but never as relevant as now) is starting to enter the contemporary cultural panorama: diminution. One of the cases that garnered the most hype for quality and accuracy as it turned out was undoubtedly that of the Bloodborne PSX, an idea run practically alone by Lilith Walther, an independent developer who had the time to dedicate herself to it. one job and another. In the latest documentary from Noclip, a Youtube channel dedicated to this type of production, the developer has talked about his path and talked in detail about the development process of this truly ambitious work.
let’s see together The story behind the Bloodborne PSX drop.
Birth of a Fall
an idea like this Bloodborne PSX often occurs suddenly. Walther told the Noclip team that it all started when he was reviewing some comments on Reddit. Here, users had posted Photoshop-created templates showing next-generation video games adapted to Photoshop’s graphic style. first PlayStation (PSX). Hence his desire to try to turn one of his favorite video games, Bloodborne, into a title with all the must-haves. Confused with PSX game.
So, in 2017, Walther built a prototype in just three weeks with the help of his textures friend, Corwyn Pritchard. But at that moment, he was about to start work on Arcus, a standalone game he created, so he put the demake project aside to focus on developing the latter. completed at the end of 2020early 2021 He begins to devote himself solely to Bloodborne PSX, where he completely rewrites his code and saves only a few models.
Yharnam like you’ve never seen before
Bloodborne PSX isn’t a great player for its “modern” counterpart. It’s a crazy idea to think you can recreate a complex and layered video game like Bloodborne from scratch and solo. Walther just created middle part of YharnamFirst, he bets everything on two bosses: Father Belva and Father Gascoigne. In addition to these, he recreated a number of minor enemies that haunt the game map. To do this, he used a few minutes of footage as a reference to be able to recreate the animations in Blender as faithfully as possible. The result is deliberately slightly less clean to maintain a certain consistency with the retro spirit of the project.
However, not wanting to leave players with too narrow and overly “mechanical” content, Walther decided to let his imagination go and created a game. original afterwordheavily inspired by early Resident Evil. In fact, having to follow the map backwards, as well as being careful not to be crushed by a true undead enemy (like Mr. X in Resident Evil 2), the final level takes place in a dreary villa reminiscent of those of the lucky ones. a. Capcom series. Here, the developer also created a final confrontation with a raging beast-turned-Gilbert, accompanied by an unreleased musical commentary composed for this event by Evelyn Lark, who also handled the rest of the soundtrack adapted for the event. sounds that could be encountered in video games of the first PlayStation.
go back in time
The most interesting thing about this demake is probably that it is not only a return to the graphics style of the first PlayStation, but also a complete translation of the control system and game interface. Walther used the first, which has no analogue of the Sony platform, as a reference controller, so it was necessary to rethink the entire motion system of the image, as well as the entire movement system of the image. layout of controls for various interactions. The result is much less intuitive and fluid, but tries to bring the mind back to the elaborate key combinations that allow you to interact with the game world.
We see a similar trend inventory structure. Inspired by old side-scrolling menus (like that of the first Tomb Raiders) to foster the new (then) 3D nature of video games, Walther created an inventory to reveal objects. in the foreground, it will mimic exactly the effect of amazement that developers seek at their first contact with 3D graphics.
Another “reduced” element is movement from one medium to another. If the world (skip the term) in the original work was open, every transition from one level to the next in Bloodborne PSX will need to be loaded again in full Resident Evil fashion.
The importance of projects like Bloodborne PSX
There nostalgia In whatever form it manifests itself, it is the driving force behind the entertainment industry. This is certainly satisfying, but it also creates a process of stagnation. If it’s so easy to excite and delight the audience with familiar things, why try to create something new that doesn’t have the desired effect? This mindset inhibits creativity, but it also allows someone to effectively engage in “third way”, hybrid, fresh, past and present dialogue.
Bloodborne PSX is a perfect example of this. It is a game that looks nostalgically to the past, looking to a number of sensations and atmospheres (both about an old platformer and an old video game, albeit a newer one), but not afraid to find new ways, to adapt to the times and the possibilities of the creators. Having the ability to reinvent and rediscover yourself is essential to healthy sharing your artistic work with an emotionally-hungry audience.
What makes the concept of demake interesting is,to adapt a new product to a language that is now outdated, unusual but still enduring in the collective memory of the industry. Making a fix doesn’t just mean taking a video game and making it “obsolete”, it also means implementing a translation process. Like an avant-garde art movement being rediscovered by contemporary artists, having the ability to “speak” a dead language and share it with the world is a process we cannot do without. Just looking ahead does not make us aware of the wreckage we leave behind.
What do you think Bloodborne PSX? Convinced you or do you prefer drifting with the Bloodborne Kart? Let us know in the comments.
Source: Multiplayer
