10 years on, Bloodborne remains an unmatchable feat of atmosphere thanks to the mind-boggling oppressive scale of Yharnam

 Opinion | A decade studying the dangerous streets of Bloodborne's Yharnam has me convinced – the cloying city is why it remains my favorite Soulslike

(Image credit: Sony)

If Elden Ring is known for the scope and scale of the Lands Between, where each new horizon genuinely presents breathtaking new vistas; then the beauty of Bloodborne's Yharnam lies in the complete opposite. The old blood runs thick, and it's poured from the tip of the layered city's cathedrals to collect and congeal across the cobbles, leaving our hunters to hazily wade through the terrors that come with it.

Fittingly, it's a struggle to stay above the violence and not just to suffocate in it. As we ascend through the cathedral district – many detours to fouler depths in between – we fight just to take a one breath of air above the cloying, dank, Gothic city. And, well, avoiding spoilers – what we find up there goes to show that no matter how high we climb we are always beneath. Some nightmares you can't wake up from. Some you are born into.

Borne again

(Image credit: FromSoftware)

Whether I'm playing new game plus or jumping in fresh, the many hours I've spent clashing against the terrible creatures in Bloodborne mean my own knowledge has equipped me well to deal with the difficulty. Yet, every time I push open the doors of Iosefka's Clinic to step into the streets I'm struck by how small I feel. The city feels so large, and I so insignificant, that for a moment I'm always returned to my opening hours with the game – and with PS4 as a platform – where making it through just to the first few lantern checkpoints felt nearly impossible.

Yharnam feels dense, multiple routes weaving through one another to give the sense of a space that was once lived in and one that hides many secrets. There's the feeling that it didn't just spring up fully formed, but was genuinely built on top of again and again, giving reason for some of the confusing, looping hallways and roads – and made literal through the shifting, procedurally generated (optional) chalice dungeons. These spaces literally lie beneath Yharnam – the foundation for the new, corrupted city.

The urban detail in these central areas are a fantastic way for FromSoftware to build upon its their shortcut-heavy design from the original Dark Souls. Everything in Bloodborne really does feel connected, and there's a focus to how every route that spins off from the city relates to it – it's always hanging over every area. This may not be literally the case for The Nightmare of Mensis and Castle Cainhurst, but both spaces are defined by their relationship to Yharna. Even in The Old Hunters, an expansion that thrusts the Hunter through skewed memories, recasts key Yharnam locations – tellingly has you ascend dream-logic style through a clock tower before you somehow meet a creature having ascended from the depths, washed up on a shore.

(Image credit: Sony)

incredible combat mechanics that reward meeting the Eldritch threats of the game head on – which are impeccable on their own – Bloodborne has a singular vision that at every turn it manages to make you feel immersed within. Always within the shadow of Yharnam, it's impossible to escape just how constantly focused it is.

Which is why, for me, it's still yet to be dethoned as FromSoftware's crowning achievement. It's all killer, no filler, and that killing frequently involves amazing trick weapons from sawblades to brick hammers. Elden Ring's Leyndell, Royal Capital, may be a city that's more truly open and twisting than the relatively linear Yharnam could ever hope to be on paper, but it feels lesser in play to me. Like a lot of Elden Ring, it's spread across so much. Bloodborne, on the other hand, will always remain steeped in its steeples, drowning in the cursed blood that rolls down its stonework.