It’s been almost a decade since then and – to date – these calls for a sequel or better version of Bloodborne have remained unanswered. With every State of Play come fresh demands for Sony to remaster From Software’s messy masterpiece, which are all too often met by yet another re-rerun for the likes of The Last of Us. 

In a time when Sony’s major first-party releases for the PlayStation 5 seem to be growing further and further apart, a re-release of Bloodborne feels like it should be obvious, achievable, and a slam-dunk. The fact that it remains a path untaken, at least publicly, has inspired plenty of speculation. You have to imagine that there’s some legal or technical hurdle that hasn’t yet been reported on or admitted to. 

A version of Bloodborne’s Yharnam that looks or runs a little better has become a distant dream to many. For others, it’s become a cause to rally behind. If you’ve heard this story before, I don’t blame you. In recent months, the gaming media ecosystem has been flooded with clickbait articles that claim that Bloodborne is finally coming to PC. 

The truth is a little more complicated. In the absence of an official or authorized remaster by Sony, the fans of Bloodborne are rallying behind those working in the emulation space. Perhaps that’s not a surprise though. 

The road to hell is paved with good intentions and those who make it possible to play games that have been abandoned are about as noble as these things get.

Historically, big companies tend to be unreliable stewards of the games they create over the long run. Sometimes, there are legitimate or business reasons why this is the case but if you’re looking for information or access to an old video game then chances are better that someone with a passion has made it their pet project to keep that possibility alive than anyone with something commercial to gain. 

The same goes for emulating hardware. For every new console that makes its way to market, there’s a legion of hackers and tinkers looking to take it apart. Eventually, interest shifts in the other direction. As supply dries up and it becomes harder for people to get their hands on the console needed to play older games, emulation becomes necessary. 

That’s been the case with the PlayStation 4 as much as it has with every PlayStation before it. It’s a tale as old as time. However, not all emulators are born equal. 

There are two different approaches that the unfamiliar should keep in mind. Firstly, there’s high-level emulation (HLE), which tries to mirror and match the functionality of how a piece of hardware behaves more so than the technical underpinnings of how it is implemented. In contrast, low-level emulation (LLE) adheres to the hardware as closely as it can. It’s very much a case of following the spirit of the law versus the letter of it. 

LLE emulators are much more difficult and time-intensive to build and may not offer the best performance, but they do promise to be more true to what the intended or original experience is meant to look like. Some games will run better with HLE. However, others won’t run at all because they rely on a quirk of the original hardware that only a more faithful LLE system can account for. 

Within the world of PlayStation 4 emulation, both approaches have happily co-existed for some years. Rather than compete, the two schools often learn from one another. Speaking to Reviews.org, the coder and founder of ShadPS4 (who goes by the handle ‘Shadow’) revealed that he’s been working in space since around 1999. 

“I don't know exactly. I was curious enough about emulators and how they work, so I [started to] experiment with my first Playstation 1 emulator named Jackal,” he said.

This initial curiosity quickly led to collaboration. Shadow formed friendships with others in the emulation community to work on a PCSX emulator (an open source emulator designed for playing PlayStation games.). He would team up with the same individuals only a few years later to work on the inevitable follow-up: PCXS2, an emulator for PlayStation 2 games. 

While Shadow has a background as a software developer and told me that he doesn’t work in the game industry, his claim that emulation is a mere hobby for him is hard to swallow. If you’ve ever dabbled with emulating any older PlayStation console, chances are you’ve come across his handiwork. In 2005, he took a break due to study and military obligations but by 2008, he was back at it with JPCSP, an emulator designed to play PlayStation Portable games. 

Fast-forward to 2022, and Shadow has his sights set on emulating the PlayStation 4. Although ShadPS4 is capable of running a decent amount of PS4 games, it’s become clear to the man running the show that most people want to run it because of Bloodborne.

While the experience of using a modern emulator is as close to plug-and-play as digital gaming gets, there’s a lot that goes into getting a piece of software like Bloodborne to play nice with a given emulator. That said, Shadow pushed back against the idea that it’s the most difficult game that the ShadPS4 devs have come up against. Other problematic games for ShadPS4 include DriveClub, Shadow of Colossus, and The Last Guardian.

“There are still games we are trying to emulate and still don't have results,” he said.

The team actually had Bloodborne running on ShadPS4 internally well before they made it public, leaving out a series of relevant code fixes. These omissions were later picked up on though and in July 2024, the team published its first video of From Software’s horror RPG running on the emulator.

That video didn’t exactly explode in popularity, but it got the attention of a few technically-minded fans. As a result, the team at Shad4 began to grow in earnest. At the time of writing, the total number of contributors to the project is just shy of 100 people. 

As far as fan projects go, that makes it fairly large. However, despite this manpower, there are still issues that remain when it comes to getting Bloodborne running on ShadPS4, from missing sounds to random crashes.

“One main issue that remains is that GPU cards are not compatible sometimes, which leads to some games working on AMD cards and some other works better on Nvidia cards,” Shadow explained.

This is one of the problems that a newer member of the ShadPS4 team (who goes by the handle IndecisiveTurtle) is looking to solve. He joined the project in May to help write its GPU implementation. During his time on the project, it’s become very clear that the hype around this particular port can sometimes eclipse the broader perception of the project. 

As far as Bloodborne is concerned, it's the game most people focus on and thus they tend to think the project completely focuses on it,” he said.

To put it bluntly, he’s not a fan of how Bloodborne has taken over the conversation let alone how it gets reported on. More than once, he’s seen YouTubers with no inside knowledge make baseless claims about ShadPS4. 

“Clickbait titles proclaiming that "it's almost ready" and YouTube channels reporting on every little new mod or perceived improvement[s] that didn't actually happen make people think it's just Bloodborne.” 

“This isn't a "Bloodborne simulator,” he said.

Alongside an influx of new talent, Shadow revealed that the project has had support from others in the PS4 emulation community. Specifically, he's been working with the teams behind alternative PS4 emulators FPPS4 and RPCSX.

While both FPPS4 and RPCSX rely on LLE rather than HLE as ShadPS4 does, “these talks appeared to be quite helpful,” according to Shadow. 

While new bug fixes are arriving with each passing day, there’s no solid timeframe for when the work will be done.

“There are some stuff left like tessellation shaders that we are aware of  and some random crashes that might take a while to sort out,” Shadow said.

But as the efforts to bring Bloodborne to a platform that isn’t PS4 near fruition, there’s always the looming possibility that this success might catch Sony’s attention. Nintendo’s has cracked down on emulators in recent years, particularly those who have flown too close to the sun.

For his part, Shadow said that Sony’s relationship to the emulation community is a little different. 

“Sony so far has shown no interest to come after emulators. In fact, they have even used emulators in their own systems,” he said. Even so, the ShadPS4 team are taking precautions and keeping the risks in mind.

Perhaps it's for the best that Sony hasn’t been able to successfully mount an effort to return to Yharnam. Chances are that any remake would be as popular as it would be divisive. The original Bloodborne casts a long shadow that would easily eclipse any attempt to ape it. Fortunately, for the fans that want more, the one thing that can fill that void grows closer with each passing day.