Is From Software a one trick pony? I ask this for a few reasons. Those reasons are as follows:
Demon Souls
Dark Souls
Dark Souls II
Dark Souls III
Bloodborne (souls...okay, maybe not, but you get the idea)

I mean I understand that every studio has a trademark and every studio has their own main series, but seriously, since Demon Souls, From has basically reskinned the same game repeatedly with only a few minor tweaks.

Now sequels I can get being similar: they're sequels. But why when they move on to a "new" IP does it always feel like a reskinned Demon Souls? And what's worse is that they actually made other games until Demon Souls, and then they hit a stroke of luck and stuck with what was safe. It's actually kind of sad.

And to top it off -and this is what made me decide to make this thread- it has been revealed that SCEA (I believe) is working with From to make a new JRPG for PS4 that is "in the same vein as Bloodborne". Seriously? Why even specify that? EVERY From game is in the Bloodborne/Souls vein...it's the only vein they have! And most annoying is that they get so much praise for doing this reskinning. I wonder how many times they can make "new" IPs that are merely reskins of previous games they made.

Again, I understand sequels being that way, but the jump from one series to the next and still keeping nearly identical or at best extremely similar traits just looks lazy and eventually will catch up to you, or so you would think.

So my question is this: am I the only one seeing it this way? Am I wrong? I admit I've never played any of these newer From games, so I could be way off base, I just know what my friends have told me and what I've seen. The similarities are 100% undeniable, but it may not be as bad as I think. What are your thoughts, regardless of whether you've played it or not?

As I do have the pleasure of owning and platinuming Bloodborne and at least having played both 1 and 2 I agree it's kind of an odd thing to make Bloodborne it's own IP due to all the similarities they have, having similar feature that are essentially renamed and the most major differences really being in the gameplay style (Bloodborne being a more aggressive and offense oriented game while Dark Souls gameplay is often more defense based and waiting for the right moment to attack) and even having recurring characters like Patches.

If anything I figured it'd seem more likely that Bloodborne being a PS4 exclusive and Dark Souls 3 being a multiplatform game would be the only reason I could see for them possibly not wanting to make it be part of the same franchise as to not officially make Bloodborne be part of the Dark Souls cannon despite the several similarities (same with Demon Souls since I believe it was a ps3 exclusive) to not alienate gamers who don't own a playstaiton?

Considering they seem to be making yet another IP in the same style however that theory becomes a bit more shaky because if what they're making is another PS4 exclusive it would make sense to make that be part of the Bloodborne cannon as well. I'm kind of struggling to see why they would do this if there isn't a huge difference that separates them, so I'm actually inclined to agree with your line of thinking.

Zlinqx : Oh okay, now see I didn't know that Dark Souls wasn't a PlayStation exclusive. Now with that in mind I can see why they might make Bloodborne so similar. And this new game could be an idea from Sony. That could make it more understandable, but still it wouldn't have hurt to make some more changes between Dark Souls and Bloodborne. It's just that at a glance, you can't always tell which game someone is playing when it's either souls or Bloodborne.

But I mean maybe this is what's going on. Or maybe a mix of both. I guess we'll see soon enough if they keep putting out only these kinds of games.