The Chinese Room's cofounder told Paradox 'we can't make Bloodlines 2' but then they did make Bloodlines 2 and it was like 'untangling an anaconda fuckball of competing priorities'

Pinchbeck points out that the original Bloodlines came out at a “really interesting period” when games like Stalker and Shenmue were shooting for the moon in terms of roleplaying simulation. “You could ship a really ambitious game that was full of bugs and holes, was totally flawed, but the ambition was really exciting.”

Pinchbeck says that “you couldn’t get away with” that style of design now. “Trying to recreate that magic in a different environment felt wrongheaded. No one would be happy. You wouldn’t make people who love Bloodlines 1 happy and you wouldn’t make people who didn’t know about Bloodlines 1 happy, because they’d never get Bloodlines 2 and they’d always get a flawed game that was built too fast and with not enough money.”

I disagree. I will speculate that many Bloodlines 1 fans would be OK with jank and strategic use of their limited graphic asset budget (e.g. focus on the faces), if Bloodlines 2 did well on writing and role-playing.