Bloodborne Producer: Introducing Guns Was a “Very Difficult” Decision, Came From Desire to Change Up Gameplay

(Editor’s note: the interviewee was originally listed as Director Hidetaka Miyazaki, as that was the name on the interview schedule, among other circumstantial communication oddities. That aside, here is the interview with Mr. Yamagiwa)

If you’ve seen gameplay footage of From Software’s upcoming action RPG Bloodborne, then you might have noticed that the game will feature guns. While guns are a staple to almost every action video game there is, that’s not the case for From Software-developed titles like Dark Souls and Demon Souls.

So, what was the developer’s decision to include it in Bloodborne? That’s one of the questions we asked Bloodborne Producer Masaaki Yamagiwa during our chat with him at this year’s Tokyo Game Show.

It was actually a very difficult decision to introduce a gun, but it came from the desire to change up the gameplay and also to match this 19th-century setting. Fortunately, most guns back then weren’t as accurate and didn’t have as long range as today’s, so we could believable add one without breaking the combat. We’ve carefully considered how the gun can be used without being able to rely on it. We had a lot of feedback from our American counterparts about what
works and what doesn’t. We asked especially about that time period.

In the other parts of the interview, Yamagiwa confirmed that the “total game volume” of Bloodborne will be bigger than that of Demon Souls. Not only that, but he also explains why the game is a PlayStation 4-exclusive.

Make sure to keep an eye out for the full interview set to be published very soon.