Hear me out: Bloodborne is a Demon’s Souls sequel. This theory has been thrown around since before the game even launched, but there’s actually a lot of weight to the idea that these two iconic FromSoftware games are connected.

If you’re willing to accept some… Insight, it’s a fairly compelling idea. And it opens the door to some interesting possibilities for where this series might go next, beyond a mere ‘Bloodborne 2’.

The Basic Connections

via street_ronin

To start with, let’s look at the surface-level connections. Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne are the only Soulsborne games co-developed by Japan Studios, each features a hub that separates the world through archstones/graves, you can’t rest at checkpoints like with bonfires, and you heal via limited items — grass and blood vials.

You can also find corpses in Chalice Dungeons wearing armour similar to Demon’s Souls’ iconic Fluted Set, Martyr Logarius wields a weapon reminiscent of Soulbrandt, the Brainsuckers behave like the Mind Flayers in Demon’s Souls, and the Doll — who functions as the game’s Maiden in Black — is even voiced by the same person, Evetta Muradasilova.

They are the most similarly structured of all FromSoftware games, which makes them flow together near seamlessly. But there are some lore connections in the cut content that bridge the gap further.

Bloodborne’s Cut Content

Via Fandom

In Demon’s Souls, the devout say ‘Umbasa’ after a prayer. It’s one of the most recognisable phrases in the entire game, and in Bloodborne’s original alpha build, Father Gascoigne would say, “May you rest in peace. Umbasa.”

He earned the title of ‘Father’ in a mysterious faraway land, not in the Healing Church of Yharnam. So, while the Umbasa reference was cut, Gascoigne may still be a holy man of Boletaria, directly connecting the two games.

Bloodborne also features a cut boss called the “Lesser Demon”, which looks strikingly out of place in Yharnam. Indeed, they'd feel more at home in Boletaria, so perhaps, as we fight the remnants of Chaos Demons in Dark Souls 3 after millennia have passed since the first Dark Souls, this creature might have been a remnant of the demon scourge unleashed by the Old One.

The Old One Is A Great One

There are a lot of connections, but these could be chalked up to mere easter eggs. After all, Dark Souls references Demon’s Souls plenty. But the Old One might be the key to bridging the gap and truly cementing Bloodborne as a sequel.

In Demon’s Souls, the Old One is described as the first demon, a writhing snake who appears as a mound of dead trees. When awakened, it unleashes a fog upon the world that gives rise to the rest of demonkind. Bloodborne introduces similarly powerful beings known as the Great Ones, and it's their Old Blood that transforms people into beasts (or, more rarely, Kin). Through the church, and the Mensis Ritual, this is how the plague began, consuming all of Yharnam. The stories are different, but the corrupting nature of these beings is eerily familiar.

In the 'good' ending, the Maiden in Black sacrifices herself to lull the Old One back into its slumber, thus ridding the world of Soul Arts. What does Bloodborne notably lack? Magic.

The Old One is said to have been created by a higher deity known only as ‘God’, but the Talisman of Beasts claims that “the symbol of God was nothing more than the image of the Old One”, which implies that this supposed monotheistic figure is a myth and that the Old One itself may be equivalent to a god. The Great Ones are also depicted as god-like figures, powerful interdimensional figures transcending mortality, drawing from the unfathomable Eldritch horrors of H. P. Lovecraft.

Bridging the gap even further is that, in Demon's Souls, we're told that the image of the beast is a “symbolic depiction of the Old One”, directly tying demons and beasts together. Perhaps the Old One is as much the first beast as they are the first demon, but the similarities don’t end there.

Via Fandom

At some point in development, we would have fought the Moon Presence on a beach. The entrance was originally an ornate, ancient doorway surrounded by giant, tangled roots, leading to ruins that look near identical to those found Below the Nexus in Demon’s Souls. The unending ocean pictured above is almost a poetic inverse of Below the Nexus, a vast desert stretching out as far as the eye can see. Perhaps this was intended as two halves of the same coin, that of demon and beast.

Cut content should be taken with a grain of salt, and is obviously not canon, but in the world of headcanon, it’s fair game.

The hub worlds are especially important to each game, too. In Demon's Souls, the Nexus is a self-isolated respite where wandering souls, tended to by the Maiden in Black, gather for safety. This strange, disconnected limbo is eerily dreamlike, much like the far more literal Hunter’s Dream, in which intermittent travellers are tended to by the Doll (who again shares a voice actor). Below the Nexus, we face the Old One, and within the Hunter’s Dream, we fight the Moon Presence — these strange otherworlds appear to be intrinsically tied to these ancient gods.

What This Means For Bloodborne 2

If Bloodborne is de facto Demon’s Souls 2, then it stands to reason that ‘Bloodborne 2’ could be a far less literal sequel as well.

FromSoftware could explore an entirely new setting, perhaps even a futuristic sci-fi one, that unravels the nature of the Great Ones even further. It would be unshackled from the restrictions of building on Yharnam or the Victorian aesthetic and could allow for similar evolutions in gameplay like trick weapons and gun parrying.

It’s fun to play connect-the-dots with FromSoftware’s disparate games, but none convince me more than Demon’s Souls and Bloodborne, and it would be incredibly exciting to see that idea taken further with another spiritual successor. Maybe we could fight Eldritch gods in mech suits with laser swords and plasma grenades, Armored Core-style. Or maybe we could dive back in time and fend off a Great One during the equivalent of Renaissance France. FromSoft could truly do anything.

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Bloodborne

Action RPG Soulslike Systems 8.0/10 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
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Bloodborne is a PlayStation 4-exclusive title developed by Dark Souls and Elden Ring creator FromSoftware, and launched in 2015. A critically acclaimed action role-playing game, you must traverse the city of Yharnam seeking a cure for a mysterious illness. 

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