Bloodborne is a special game, and its intriguing Lovecraftian world was enough to draw me in — someone who doesn’t really play or enjoy Soulslikes. It’s also been locked to the PS4, and it has never made its way to other platforms.
Yes, this includes the PS5 as well, which technically just runs the PS4 version of the game with backward compatibility and no additional tweaks enabled, which is a bit unfortunate. With no PC port in sight, the community took it upon themselves to port Bloodborne.
Getting Bloodborne to work on PC initially began with shadPS4, a PS4 emulator. While this worked marvelously well, it was still emulation and not a native PC port. Now, thanks to the work of a talented developer, it is now possible to run Bloodborne natively on Windows PCs, with all the tweaks and mods you need.
What you need before you begin
The ROM dump and an update file, plus (optional) patches
The first thing you need before you start using the program is a dump of the game itself. Once you’ve secured your legally obtained backup of Bloodborne, it’s time to grab the update file.
Make sure to extract and save the v1.09 update file. This step is crucial because it updates the game to the newest build, which offers better overall support. Updating to v1.09 also eliminates most visual glitches, so there’s no reason not to use the updated version.
Once you’ve updated and extracted the files into a folder (use something like ps4-pkg-tools), you can move on to downloading the launcher.
Installing Bloodborne on Windows
And a look at the customization options
Before we begin, a bit of a technical rundown. The PS4 is essentially a custom x86_64 PC with its own storage, RAM, and AMD CPU/GPU combo. This makes it a lot easier to work with, unlike the PS3’s Cell processor, which was a nightmare to deal with — even if it was ultimately decoded, to run even on Android. Jailbroken PS4s can run Linux, which makes me wonder if the reverse is true.
Turns out, it is. This project lets PS4 code run natively on your PC, without any emulation. This is very different from shadPS4, since it is more of a traditional emulator.
The original Bloodborne PC project was created by deadinside28, which lets you run Bloodborne on Linux PCs using Vulkan for its graphics. Supermedo’s Bloodborne PC Windows fork performs identically, and since this isn’t emulation, you get more FPS, leaving a bit of breathing room for lower-end devices.
You can grab the executable from its official GitHub releases page and launch it to open a very Claude-coded menu. Next, you’ll want to point the launcher to your game folder (containing the eboot.bin file), and that should be enough to get things rolling with the default settings.
All you need to do is just hit the Play button to start playing Bloodborne! What makes this “port” even more impressive is its extensive customization menu. You can tweak a lot of graphical settings, much like a real PC port. There’s also full cheat and mod support, and importing those are also rather simple. I’d label a ton of these Bloodborne mods essential, and they can dramatically change things, like fixing the frequent frame rate spikes.
You also have FSR 4 upscaling, along with the often confusing DLSS, which is impressive on its own. Like a real PC port, this also supports achievements and, surprisingly enough, multiplayer. It is possible to join community servers and host your own games, which is very much appreciated and rather unexpected given this is a port.
There are still a few issues that need to be resolved
Best settings and a few general pointers
First, keep in mind this is a very experimental project that routinely receives updates. Expect bugs and frequent re-downloads.
Going back to performance, it is shockingly good. The game runs reasonably well, and you really won’t need a powerful CPU or GPU to run this unofficial port. I maintained an average of 30 FPS (the frame rate cap for Bloodborne) at 2540×1440, with everything enabled and FSR 3.1 set to Native AA, on an RX 6600.
I also tried running this on an integrated Intel Arc iGPU, and it performed reasonably well, provided I dropped the resolution to 1280×720 instead. There’s definitely room for improvement here, but this should be fixed over time. However, I encountered a series of strange visual artifacts and a rather odd crash in the character creation menu. It could just be a fluke, though, or a driver issue that Intel needs to address, and not a fault of the launcher itself.
You’ll also have the occasional stutter when loading into a new area or animation, and there really isn’t much you can do about it. The good thing is, these stutters slowly disappear as you play through the game, as the shaders are slowly being compiled.
I’d also recommend the following tweaks before you start playing:
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Remap the controls! The PC keybinds make little sense, so you’ll want to change them. |
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Clear the shader cache if you run into issues. |
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Cap the frame rate to 30 FPS if you have a lower-end system. |
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Use FSR 4 if you have a newer AMD card. Otherwise, stick to FSR 3.1 for the upscaler, and don’t go below Quality, or you’ll risk pixelation. DLSS is also available. |
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Set the output resolution to whatever you need. The launcher supports resolutions from 720p to 4K. |
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If you need to play online, make sure the Play Online button is checked, and double-check your co-op settings. |
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Turn off Chromatic Aberration and Motion Blur if you want a cleaner look. |
These tweaks should give you a good enough balance between image sharpness, quality, and raw performance.
The closest we’ll ever get to a proper PC port for Bloodborne
Bloodborne might never get a native PC port. The game seems to be knee-deep in IP hell, and I do not foresee it changing anytime soon. With Japan Studio no longer existing, this makes things even more difficult.
Given the popularity of the game, it wouldn’t be too difficult to envision a remaster, built for modern platforms like the PS5 and PC. If Sony wanted to, they could have done it years ago, and nostalgia sells.
That brings us to the present day, and this unofficial port is as good as it gets. This might be the closest we’ll have to a fully featured port of the game, and I’m content with that. It’s very close and has everything you’d ever need.