The Victorian, Lovecraftian, and incredibly gothic Bloodborne is one of the most celebrated games in developer FromSoftware's library, but there are aspects of this title that can be frustrating to return to in 2025. From relentless boss difficulty to tedious resource management, some mechanics in the game are somewhat dated. Released 11 years ago, Bloodborne's systems are incredibly innovative, but not all of them stand the test of time.
Despite its revered status, Bloodborne has received valid criticism over the years, especially by fans of the neighboring Dark Souls series, also made by FromSoft. With the release of Elden Ring in 2022, many fans considered the open world fantasy of that title to rival Bloodborne, or even supersede it. With no official update to Bloodborne in sight, nor a sequel, replaying the game now comes with a lot of pitfalls.
30 FPS Cap Downgrades Otherwise Impressive Visuals
Long Awaited PC Port Could Solve This Long-Held Issue
One of the biggest critiques of Bloodborne is how its visuals are locked to 30 FPS on PlayStation 4, preventing its graphics from running smoothly. This causes frequent performance drops during chaotic boss fights, while also adding stuttering to some cutscenes that fans have been noticing for years. While this quality has been nostalgically "retro" for some, it doesn't help the game come close to standards set in Dark Souls 3 or Elden Ring.
For the time it came out, Bloodborne's enemies, bosses, and environments were stellar, marking a shift in visual fidelity for that period. However, a long-overdue remaster or remake has not raised the graphics of the game to match titles in 2025, or even most games from the 2020s at all. As such, the lack of 60 FPS gameplay for Bloodborne holds it back from being likely the most striking visuals of almost any FromSoft game.
Farming For Blood Vials Takes Too Much Time
Healing Resources Need To Be Collected Often
Vital resources in Bloodborne are few and far between at times, especially the game's most valuable item -- Blood Vials. These tools are your healing items, restoring your health beyond what just striking at enemies can do after you get hit. Despite their importance, Blood Vials don't work like Estus Flasks, as you have to collect them as an item that spawns in areas rather than restoring them at Lamp checkpoints.
Other FromSoft games have made their healing items collectibles rather than a resource in the past. For example, the Demon's Souls game (both the original and PS5 remaster) had healing items you had to find rather than them getting restored.
This means you have to find places where Blood Vials always appear, or enemies they always drop from. This process can take time, forcing you to take breaks from challenging bosses or get past difficult areas to restock on Blood Vials. This is similar for Quicksilver Bullet ammo as well, forcing you to take a lot of time to travel back and forth from locations that have the item(s) you need.
Running Back To Some Bosses Can Be Frustrating
Returning To A Challenge Is Often Just As Hard As The Fight
The interconnected areas of Yharnam add to the great immersion of Bloodborne, but that doesn't mean everything is easy to reach. Lamps provide safety nets from where you spawn, but traveling from a Lamp to a boss can sometimes be difficult. Typically, Lamps are not next to boss rooms themselves, so you have to defeat or rush past enemies along the way to get back to a boss you died against.
The most egregious examples of this are truly aggravating, such as Martyr Logarius, an optional boss you reach by running along rooftops. Laurence, The First Vicar, a fiery boss in The Old Hunters DLC, is also a frustrating boss to get back to through a sea of enemies from the closest Lamp. Reaching bosses injured after a long runback can leave you at a disadvantage for the fight, adding to any anger that battle would create.
Difficulty Spikes Are Frequent Throughout The Game
Initial Battles Can Overwhelm Beginners Easily
Like many FromSoft games, Bloodborne can be hard, mainly for beginners who've never seen a game like Dark Souls before. That being said, Bloodborne takes it up a notch frequently, with faster-paced combat that can be harder to grasp than the traditional fantasy combat from other titles. Bloodborne has many moments where bosses and enemies grow much stronger from area to area, creating more challenges faster than you'd expect.
The Old Hunters DLC is by far the biggest example of Bloodborne's sharp difficulty curve, featuring some of the toughest bosses of any FromSoft game, including the infamous Orphan of Kos.
Enemies can be a mixed bag as you explore new locations, either being laughably easy to take down or just as hard as some bosses. Each time this happens, it can be incredibly jarring, throwing off your progression as you stop to deal with a surprising new obstacle. These can take many forms, sometimes even in rival NPC Hunters that can be unpredictable foes.
Chalice Dungeons Are Much Harder To Use Years After Release
Underground Ruins Don't Include Interesting Variety
Optional areas called Chalice Dungeons are accessible through the Hunter's Dream hub world of Bloodborne, offering additional content beyond the base game. In these places, you can farm for more resources, including powerful gems to infuse into your gear. While useful to grind, Chalice Dungeons are often repetitive or boring after a time, lacking enough variety to keep them engaging.
The random generation of Chalice Dungeons once facilitated players to share unique ones they found online, fixing this problem slightly. Yet, years after the game's launch, there are very few players sharing interesting Chalice Dungeons, beyond dedicated fans on various Reddit pages. While Chalice Dungeons has an additional story and extra bosses to take on, they are just hard to stay invested in.
Lamp Fast Travel Gets Annoying After Some Time
Constant Loading Screens Adds Unnecessary Waiting
The checkpoint Lamps all over Bloodborne are often sights for sore eyes, allowing your Hunter to reset an area and regain their health. They also can use Lamps to return to the Hunter's Dream hub, but only after a short travel time through a loading screen. To get back to where you were, you always have to fast travel back and forth through the Hunter's Dream, adding lots of loading time to your journey.
Many activities can only be done from the Hunter's Dream hub, including purchasing new weapons and armor, upgrading gear at the Workshop, and storing items from your inventory in chests.
The inability to access some systems unless you are in the Hunter's Dream adds to the tedium Lamps cause. For example, you can't level up unless you talk to the Doll NPC in the Hunter's Dream, rather than doing that at a Lamp itself. This is vastly different from other Soulslike games, which usually give you the option to handle level ups and inventory management at any rest point.
Some Enemies And Bosses Are Obstacles Rather Than Fights
Frenzy And Mist Make For Irritating Encounters
Bloodborne's bosses and enemies have an impressive amount of variation, both in the base game and DLC. At the same time, some enemies are almost impossible to kill normally, instead acting as obstacles rather than foes to defeat. The biggest example of this are the Winter Lanterns, creatures that inflict the Frenzy status that can kill your character just for being noticed by them.
Winter Lanterns are meant to turn sections of Bloodborne into stealth segments, but the right combination of Frenzy-resistant gear can help you fight these enemies in a more straightforward way.
Other "obstacle" fights include Micolash, Host of the Nightmare, a mandatory boss from the main game. This boss hardly fights you, but forces you to chase him throughout labyrinth-like hallways until you force him to battle. Gimmick enemies like Micolash are more prevalent in the game than you may have remembered, and are just as unfun to fight in 2025 as they were before.
PvP Systems Are Not Very Refined
Competition Between Builds Is Rarely Seen For Good Reason
While Elden Ring has a somewhat polished PvP system, FromSoft hardly took steps to refine competition between players when Bloodborne was released. PvP systems are bare bones in Bloodborne at best, and rather lackluster at worst. With the visuals being at the 30 FPS cap, online play causes even more performance issues, so you'll rarely have a PvP encounter that doesn't lag or crash out entirely.
As a result, there are very few ways to show off an interesting Soulslike PvP build in Bloodborne, which can be disappointing if you've enjoyed that part of other FromSoft games. While teaming up with players to do online co-op in Bloodborne is much smoother, having one skilled Hunter face off against another is usually reserved against NPCs or bosses in the main game.
Gear & Weapons Don't Have As Much Variety As Other FromSoft Games
Fewer Tools Allow For Far Less Replayability
Despite the unique nature of Bloodborne's trick weapons and firearms, there are very few armor sets, weapons, and overall gear compared to other Souls games. If you come into Bloodborne expecting the same level of variety as Dark Souls 3 or Elden Ring, you'll be let down. Although each weapon sometimes comes with two separate forms due to their trick stances, this still prevents players from making truly singular character builds.
The existence of some Covenants, their Oath Runes, and Caryll Runes allows for some variety in Bloodborne character builds, but these are more tied to innate stats rather than expressive features like weapons or armor.
Some fans may like that the armor and weapons roster is more focused in Bloodborne, but it can also be a pitfall for many others. Every weapon, gun, or armor piece serves a single purpose tied to one main stat, leaving less flexibility for that gear to be used in a build not specifically designed for it. This narrows down which weapon or gun you have to use to be effective, leaving less room to replace gear as you level up.
The Incredible Game Is Simply Too Short
Focused Experience Means Less Time In A Fascinating World
The biggest gripe about playing Bloodborne in 2025 is that you'll beat it before you realize the credits are rolling. Compared to Dark Souls 3, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and especially Elden Ring, Bloodborne might be the shortest FromSoft game ever, which is a shame considering how good it is despite the faults just listed. There are few ways to prolong your experience, even if you beat every optional boss and do the entire DLC too.
One of Bloodborne's biggest failings is that you can't respec your character's stats, only carry them over into New Game+ once you beat the story. It is hard to replay Bloodborne without starting over completely, but even that adventure doesn't take long to finish. As such, many players have resorted to just finding one build they love, then continually beating the game into as many New Game+ runs as they can before resetting.
As of this time of writing, there are no signs of a PC port for Bloodborne, meaning it is only playable on PlayStation consoles. Any of the issues mentioned in this list could potentially be solved with new features in a possible remaster at some point in the future.
Players can take to Chalice Dungeons for extra content during their playthrough, but, as mentioned before, that system has many different flaws. Challenge runs and different character builds can add some variety to the game, as well as trying to find the true ending to Bloodborne. Considering how you have to find specific items and talk to a select portion of characters in the game to reach the true ending, this adds plenty of time to your dark adventure.
Even with this hunt for a final ending, this game just doesn't have as much content to explore compared to other FromSoft games. Bloodborne is still an amazing experience to dive into in 2025, but only if you understand exactly what you're getting into.
Bloodborne
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OpenCritic Reviews Top Critic Avg: 91/100 Critics Rec: 98%
Released March 24, 2015
ESRB M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Violence
Developer(s) From Software
Publisher(s) Sony
Engine Havok
6 Images
Multiplayer Online Multiplayer
Platform(s) PlayStation 4
Genre(s) Action, RPG, Soulslike
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