Bloodborne looks almost unrecognizable in these "never-before-seen design planning maps and alpha layouts," showing FromSoftware's evolution of an iconic hidden shortcut

It might just be the understatement of the year to say that games take an awful lot of work to make, but perhaps nothing puts that into perspective more than these "never-before-seen design planning maps and alpha layouts" for Bloodborne, which make Yharnam almost recognizable.

Documented in a new guided tour by FromSoftware expert and creator of Bloodborne's old 60fps mod, Lance MacDonald, we can see how much the world of FromSoftware's 2015 action RPG changed, particularly around the starting area of Iosefka's Clinic and the hidden Forbidden Woods shortcut that eventually loops back to it later in the game.

In MacDonald's YouTube video, we see Bloodborne's beginnings in a very gray and very blocky form. Early test maps show the basic layout of the start of our adventure, with some noticeable differences. For example, in the earliest iteration, MacDonald shows that the room where you actually start your journey in the final version of the action RPG didn't even exist.

However, other design decisions, like the rooftops being connected to the second floor of Iosefka's Clinic, were already in place, although they were initially accessible right from the beginning of the game rather than later on.

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This old layout also would have allowed players to explore an area inaccessible in the final version, by rolling onto a different rooftop and jumping through a broken window to head inside and look out over a load of pyramids on sticks (representing trees), which would eventually become the graveyard we're more familiar with.

The evolution of the Forbidden Woods shortcut is also particularly interesting, with one test map showing what eventually became the poisonous swamp hidden in a cave (which you have to pass through to get back to the Clinic's new area) as a more artificial-looking cave-like path. Travelling from the woods, after passing through this cave, you'd find a couple of ladders leading you to the rooftops near the Clinic, showing that the whole idea came up early in Bloodborne's development, even if it was refined a fair bit before becoming the path we know today.

All in all, MacDonald's guided tour is a fascinating watch – it's well worth a look for some insight into Bloodborne's history. Even though Yharnam and its surrounding areas look very different in these early test maps, it's very cool to see which parts remain familiar if you squint your eyes to look past those chunky blocks.

Bloodborne's notoriously difficult Orphan of Kos fight even gave Elden Ring legend Let Me Solo Her a run for his money, who agrees it's "definitely the hardest boss" in the action RPG.