Fans of FromSoftware games, whether it be Bloodborne, Dark Souls, Sekiro, or any other title, love secrets. FromSoftware is known to fill its games with rich lore and story, but to so withholding that fans will go to extreme lengths to discover something new. Such is the case with Bloodborne's mysterious Snake Ball boss, removed from the game and only existing in fragments within Bloodborne's source code. But FromSoftware fans weren't content with that and have taken matters into their own hands.
Modder and YouTuber Foxy Hooligans shared a new video on Wednesday showcasing their in-progress effort to restore the Snake Ball boss fight in Bloodborne. In the three-minute video, Foxy Hooligans shows an incredible amount of progress having been made on the Snake Boss, with the boss itself beautifully updated and its animations and attacks fluid and impressively rendered. Those unfamiliar with Bloodborne's Snake Ball could even mistakenly believe the video showcases a complete boss within the game.
As impressive as the Snake Ball boss demo video is, Foxy Hooligans makes clear that it's a work in progress. The description for the video has a brief message that reads," This boss is/was very broken. Lots of work ahead..." The implication is that Foxy Hooligans has done a lot of work to get the Snake Boss to even be as playable as it already is, with more work to come. As exciting as it is to see the Snake Ball in motion, it isn't the "complete" version FromSoftware likely had in mind.
While Foxy Hooligans doesn't make explicit what changes they've made, there's some educated guesswork that can be done. Previous delves into Bloodborne's source code have revealed just how much of the Snake Ball boss fight have been found. The boss' model, a variety of combat animations, low-resolution textures, and basic AI make up the most of it. In other words, Foxy Hooligans appears to have added high-resolution textures, previously unfinished attack animations, and AI for certain attacks that weren't previously available.
For example, the Snake Ball could previously try and swallow the player with its largest snake head, but it would break the game and the player would t-pose until everything was reset. Also, the randomly spawning white snake wasn't implemented, meaning Foxy Hooligans added it entirely on their own. There's also an attack involving the mid-sized snake heads that dive into the ground and burst out beneath the player that remains to be implemented in the Bloodborne mod. All of this is work that Foxy Hooligans is doing on their own.
This isn't new territory for Foxy Hooligans. The modder is well known for "restoring" cut content from Bloodborne. Their best-known work was reimplementing another cut boss known as the Great One Beast. The Snake Ball seems like an even bigger project. Odds are Foxy Hooligans will share the mod when they're done, too, though their past mods have required a modded PS4. Regardless, just the video alone is a very cool thing for FromSoftware fans.
Bloodborne is available now on PS4.
