Making The Final Boss of Bloodborne PSX (Spoilers)

The final boss of Bloodborne PSX is something that I've wanted to talk about for a long time. For those who aren't familiar, the entirety of BBPSX's development was meticulously documented on Twitter via daily development threads, but all the unique content that took place after the expected ending of the demake (which was stated to end right after defeating Father Gascoigne) was made in secret due to spoilersand therefore there was no documentation of the creation process.  

That ends today, and I am going to cover it all now!

----------

Why?

Bloodborne PSX was effectively cut in half when the Cathedral Ward level (and its associated Vicar Amelia boss fight) was cut for time partway through development when it was evident that Central Yharnam (and its extended sublevels) would take up most of the game's development time.

Notice I said 'most', though! There was a little bit of time left over after Central Yharnam was completed and that meant that I had a little bit of wiggle room to create some bonus content out of recycled assets. This required me to revisit the 90s PS1 developer headspace and try to land on an idea that would fit the era.

What I ended up with was the idea of backtracking through Central Yharnam with some small but vital changes to the design (signified by a 'deep night' state that darkened the sky, echoing the night phases in the original PS4 release) before ending on a new short dungeon, complete with a final boss unique to the demake. This post will go over said final boss, with the rest of the extra content coming in future updates!




The Inspiration

I wanted to end the game on an emotionally charged note. Gilbert's side quest (which involves one of the only friendly NPC's getting sicker throughout the game before jumping out his window transformed into a beast mob enemy) originally doesn't end until long after the events covered in the demake, but fast tracking his quest and beefing it up to main quest + final boss material addressed that want and more.





Creating Gilbert: The Outsider

The time frame set aside for the creation of the boss was 2 weeks. That's not a lot of time, but with clever asset reuse I was able to craft a memorable experience fitting to end a game on.




Every decision made here was done in the interest of time. Gilbert's character model is a 'skin swap' of Beast Gascoigne, meaning that Gilbert uses the same rig and has the same proportions as him. Gilberts core boss design started at 'small, fast cleric beast which the hunter can counter with a gun'. The 'limb damage' mechanic was converted to 'back damage', meaning that if Gilbert is hit in the back enough, he'll be stunned for a brief amount of time and start bleeding. The bleeding state can be healed by a move that is directly based on the same move that the cleric beast does.



The first animation made was the grab move. The idea of a grab move that doesn't actually deal any damage but instead signifies that there's a part of your friend within this monstrous beast was something that was in my head for months before production started on this boss, and the first pose I made to test out the new model once it was weighted to the Beast Gascoigne rig, quickly followed by the full animation proper.



Speaking of the new model, it was a bash of the hunter's foreign garb (Gilbert describes himself as a 'fellow outsider' so it felt appropriate) and the werewolf character model stretched to fit the afore mentioned Beast Gascoigne rig with a single art pass to make it look cohesive, once again done in the interest of time. The overall vibe of the design was 'creepy'.  Bloodborne is more 'horror' than 'terror', but the PSX graphics made the game feel creepier due to its lo-fi nature and I decided to lean into that for this fight to make it stand out from the other two bosses. I made his animation set have him stand upright to differentiate him from Beast Gascoigne's hunched back, with his head rotated to the side to further lean into the creep factor.

Gilberts hooded werewolf head with the big circular eyes was the focus of the design. It was a unique choice, seeing as the beasts in Bloodborne have small beady eyes (or no eyes at all!) I wanted to add flare to it. In the first phase, the hood is covering his eyes completely. Once he is free his hood shifts back, creating a domed silhouette with the only visible features being his eyes and his bared grinning teeth. Once he is defeated, his hood I removed entirely, showing his less threatening head silhouette during his death animation.




Gilbert's animation was the only thing made 100% from the ground up, as a bosses move set is by far the most important aspect and because of that there was no recycling of animations (save for the second half of the visceral attack). That being said, some decisions were made to cut down on dev time. For example, Gilbert only creepily walks towards the player and never runs as run cycles are what I struggle with the most.

The animation set itself was inspired by a few wants: primarily 'light and fast' as both Gascoigne and the Cleric Beast (the only other bosses in the game) were heavy and weighty. This is what lead to the counterable dash moves, which were the first animations implemented into the actual fightable boss pawn, and everything started to fall into place from there.

The music was an original composition by Evelyn Lark (@TheNobleDemon on Twitter and YouTube) It was an incredible waltz inspired piece filled with anguish and sorrow, complete with a key change between phases. We made sure that the music was in a range that would complement the lightning and Gilberts howls. The VO was done by Wes Wiggins who did an amazing job bringing Gilbert to life, performing a broad range of screams and howls signifying Gilberts inner turmoil.

The Cut Content

Gilbert originally had a final phase that was cut. It was similar to Sif from Dark Souls, where at low health they would move to a 'pitiable' moveset. Once Gilbert was at 10% health, his hit reaction would have him falling over on his back and cowering in front of you, before running away to hide. This was originally where he would enter his less intimidating hoodless design.

At this point, the hunter would be tasked with hunting Gilbert (The arena was originally planned to have a lot more bookshelves, making a simple maze with restricted sightlines on the edges instead of the raised walkways in the final result). It was cut due to time restrictions, and also because I reasoned that the first phase with Gilbert strapped to the table was already a big enough gimmick and adding in a second one might push things too far.

This meant that the emotional climax of the fight had to be entirely packed into the death animation. I worked with Wes and Evelyn on creating an elaborate thrashing death scene but at the 11th hour I made the risky decision of making it lower key, where the music cuts out and Gilbert stares at the player in silence with all the rage drained from his body language. At both the grab animation and here, I changed his body language to signify that Gilbert the human, and not Gilbert the beast, was temporarily in control. It made the death more chilling, and in my opinion, more personal. Watching your friend die by your hand was a big moment and having a normal death animation didn't feel like it would fit, and I liked to think that Gilbert was able to die human after all.