Bloodborne's other pending issue is its loading times. Longer than any Souls title before it, reviving at a lamp in Central Yarnham takes between 40-45 seconds - a patience-testing number given the frequency of death in this game. It's also a nuisance due to the game's hub-world structure, where each level loads from the Hunter's Dream area, which in itself takes 12 seconds to load. The obvious question is to what extent upgrading to an SSD might solve the issue. We gave this a test, swapping out the stock PS4 drive for a Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB SSD, and find that loading times are reduced by around 25 per cent overall.
The SSD upgrade has a cumulative effect. After dying over and over, plus warping back and forth, a 25 per cent saving on the time spent looking at the loading screen could seriously add up by the time the game is complete. It also makes each of the (many) losses a bit easier to take; the last thing we want is a lengthy wait for another shot at a tricky section, and this upgrade at least softens the blow. It doesn't pull it back in line with Dark Souls titles' turnaround, which tended to reload within 10-20 seconds on PS3. However, until From Software swoops in with a patch to optimise this aspect, upgrading your PS4's to an SSD is easily the best option for a fresh Bloodborne playthrough.
| Bloodborne Loading Times |
Stock PS4 500GB HDD |
Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB SSD |
| First arrival at Hunter's Dream |
13.9 seconds |
10.7 seconds |
| Warping to Iosefka's Clinic |
36.9 seconds |
26.6 seconds |
| Warping to Central Yarnham lamp |
41.2 seconds |
29.9 seconds |
| Respawn at Central Yarnham |
44.4 seconds |
31.1 seconds |
| Return to Hunter's Dream from Central Yarnham |
12.1 seconds |
9.6 seconds |