Quote Originally Posted by ItMe View Post
Considering they were pretty blunt about Sage being Gundam inspired, they didn't make a similar comment about Reapers and Bloodbourne, it feels like saying "it was inspired by Bloodborne" is speculation more than fact.
It's definitely more speculation than anything, I believe. I don't recall anything being tied to such and considering Bloodborne was developed in the same country and Yoshida straight up stated that a Scythe wielding job was heavily desired specifically by the western fans - and the games popularity in the west, I can't imagine hints about those ties would've been omitted.

However, I'm going to point out that a Scythe wielding job is definitely nothing new for Final Fantasy. Sice used Scythes as her weapon and Dark Knight used Scythes in FFXI - and FFXIV is directly tied to FFXI in a lot of ways. Yoshida even stated that the design team for the Reaper job explicitly placed homages to the FFXI Dark Knight in its animations.

Not to mention this sort of "Bloodborne-esque" theme in equipment design has been present even in the Cryptlurker gear. Perhaps the theme present in Bloodborne was what has been the theme present lately in their gear choice as we move closer to Endwalker rather than it being inspiration from Bloodborne itself.

I don't think XIV taking inspiration from other franchises is a bad thing. They've obviously done it before and have noted when they do. This time around, however, they haven't far as I've seen and I think what they have said should be considered.