Despite all the rumors over the years, I can assure you that there will never be Bloodborne Curse 2. This is not Miyazaki’s style (yes, he is indeed the director Dark Souls 3, but that’s Bandai Namco’s IP, and you can always feel his reluctance to come back so he can put out the bonfire forever). Also, seven years later, the best PS4 exclusives are still perfect – I’d say, even though the 2015 games look dated, they lack 4K resolution and the PS5’s 60FPS patch.
That doesn’t mean that Yharnam’s bloodline can’t be found in FromSoftware’s other games, though. In fact, instead of emulating the industry’s desire to keep expanding the IP world until all the fun and mystery is sucked away, developers have been good at creating new worlds while inheriting similar ideas or mechanics, evolving or fine-tuning to become something new .
It’s certainly true Eldon Ring, in many ways, it is far more epic and grandiose than its predecessors. In other ways, however, it almost feels like a FromSoft Greatest Hits pack. That means there is some spiritual Bloodborne 2 for those who crave it, just as Father Gascoigne craved that sweet blood.
Of course, Elden Ring doesn’t have Bloodborne’s scary horror or trick weapons (though Ghiza’s Wheel shares a lot of similarities with the whirlwind saw from The Old Hunters DLC), but it has many smaller dungeons, caves, catacombs, and tombs Featuring many of the same mixed environment assets, it definitely goes back to the procedurally generated elements of Bloodborne’s Chalice Dungeons.
In my first playthrough, when a chest in the starting area mischievously teleported me to a god-forsaken mine with higher-level enemies, I couldn’t help but think of the nightmarish world of Bloodborne. When I found my way out of this new location, I was greeted by a blood-red sky – not unlike the sky from Yahar’gul, Unseen Village.
That place turns out to be Kerid, a full hellscape with skulls forming on the face of a cliff, and the center of the map is just a big poisonous swamp where you’re mercilessly chased by giant dogs and crows. In short, Caelid’s doomed land is as terrifying as Nightmare Frontier or Mensis’ Nightmare.
But there’s another, more notable homage to Bloodborne in Elden Ring. In typical Miyazaki style, there’s a good chance you’ll miss your first chance to play the game. I’m talking about the Volcano Manor found at the top of Mt. Gelmir, although it’s the home of the demigod Archon Reckard mentioned in the intro to The Ring of Eldon, it’s not that much if you just want to go. is not part of the critical path. Complete the game.
But even if you do reach the manor and befriend the mysterious Ms. Tanith (who basically turns you into Agent 47, handing you letters identifying NPC targets for you to invade and assassinate), you probably won’t Knowing that there is actually an entire town hiding beneath it, out of sight. Technically, it doesn’t even have a name, as any Grace site you fast-travel will just say you’re at Volcano Estate. But given the names of the churches you can enter, I call this place “Prison City”.
Looking at the gothic architecture and hellish inhabitants of Prison Town (of course, its cobblestone streets also have rabies), you do feel like you’ve stepped into Yharnam, even though it’s built on lava. After all, we are basically above a volcano. However, you find secret hidden passages under the manor, before reaching a small chapel and slowly opening its double doors, also reminds me of the way hunters explore the cathedral area of Anan… It turns out that old Anan Just below it.
But that’s not how I came across Prison Town. There is another way to get there, it doesn’t have to hike all the way up Mt. Gelmir, I found it at the bottom of the waterwheel at Raya Lucaria Academy. There’s a creepy mechanical steel maiden there – if its swinging blades weren’t bad enough – and some weird creatures inside that will grab you if you get up close. If this particular Iron Virgin catches and kills you this way, it will teleport you all the way to a mysterious lava-filled location in the Volcano estate, where you’ll be trapped there until you find a place of grace – or discover it with Prison Town.
This reminds me of the kidnapper in Curse of Blood, who shows up in the Cathedral area near the mid-game point and shoves you into the big bag on its shoulders if it manages to kill you. It ends up throwing you into the Hypogean Gaol; an underground prison that happens to be connected to the old Alam and Yahar’gul. But that’s not the only similarity, as this unusual mode of transport is also associated with FromSoftware’s famous recurring character, Patches, that everyone loves to hate.
You see, while I actually found Iron Virgin through an online prompt, the actual prompt in the game came from the pampering bald git — except he told you it was a way to get to Erdtree’s base. In that sense, it’s like his spider form in Bloodborne: he tricks you into being killed by an invisible amygdala, even though he’s lucky enough to give you a tonsil stone so you live And was taken to the Lecture Building (and, then, the road to the Nightmare Frontier). Spider Patches is an admirer of Amygdala, while Patches the Untethered of the Elden Ring is related to Lady Tanith, as you later find him hiding in the corridors of the Volcano Manor.
The beauty of Elden Ring is that while it’s terribly huge, there’s always something fascinating to discover. Some of my personal highlights include Haligtree’s secret location (where you can fight Malenia), or the entire questline of Ranni the Witch.
But for gory fans longing for a return to Alam, Volcano Manor and its secluded prison town are the way to go. This town isn’t over yet.
