From Software Bloodborne. Discuss or die!

[Silva]

Great game. Like it more today than the first time I played it.

I have this feeling with DS3. Hated it first time due to very high expectations. Now I'm loving it (Ashes of Ariandel and Elfriede is kickass). But yeah, Bloodborne is just overall better.

I think one thing BB has and people sometimes overlook is extremely high quality peripheral factors like themes, aesthetics, soundtrack. The game simply is liquid cool in a way very few others are. I mean, who don't want to be an elegantly dressed gentleman hunting down Cthulhoid abominations with trick-weapons in a doomed gothic town to the tune of bombastic orchestras like Ludwigs and Maria's ?

 

[sullynathan]

Now that I think about it, Chalice dungeons add a whole lot of extra content in this game even though they are repetitive. The overwhelming majority of my recently completed playthrough was all chalice dungeons.

 

[Silva]

Good article about SoulsBorne aesthetics.

http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/12/09/the-artists-and-paintings-that-bleed-through-bloodborne

 

[Villagkouras]

All I see in Ebrietas is a vagina.

 

[Falksi]

I just wish they'd add an option to allow enemies to permanently die like in DS2.
I tried to like Bloodborne, but like most Souls games the repetition kills the fun for me.
DS2 still remains my fave, absolutely thrive on it, and that's largely down to that one difference.

 

[Elwro]

I learned to appreciate it like dancing, where repetition is key to everything. You need to repeat stuff hundreds of times, but when you finally master the moves, you don't want to skip them, but instead perform with aplomb and flair

 

[Falksi]

I learned to appreciate it like dancing, where repetition is key to everything. You need to repeat stuff hundreds of times, but when you finally master the moves, you don't want to skip them, but instead perform with aplomb and flair

Repetition with moves is one thing, but having to traverse the same area over and over, and deal with the same enemies there is another.
Can see your POV, must be satisfying if you have the patience, but for those of us who don't a "permanently dead after X deaths" option for enemies would really help.

 

[Elwro]

I learned to appreciate it like dancing, where repetition is key to everything. You need to repeat stuff hundreds of times, but when you finally master the moves, you don't want to skip them, but instead perform with aplomb and flair

Repetition with moves is one thing, but having to traverse the same area over and over, and deal with the same enemies there is another.
Can see your POV, must be satisfying if you have the patience, but for those of us who don't a "permanently dead after X deaths" option for enemies would really help.

This is really interesting. I was thinking about what you wrote and came to the conclusion that, in my opinion of course, Bloodborne is -- among the FROM games -- the one which lends itself best to the 'dance' interpretation, because you need to be in direct contact with the enemies and be perfect with your rhythm. No picking them out from the distance, no going close but with your shield up. You need to man up and dance with the horror. And when your partner does the boleo, you know it's time for a visceral attack.

To be frank, I've played the FROM games for hundreds of hours and for me DS2 has the worst feel when it comes to the dynamics of the combat. But that's just me, and it's a PS3 impression.

 

[Declinator]

I just wish they'd add an option to allow enemies to permanently die like in DS2.
I tried to like Bloodborne, but like most Souls games the repetition kills the fun for me.
DS2 still remains my fave, absolutely thrive on it, and that's largely down to that one difference.

I thought Bloodborne had the least repetition amongst the Soulsborne games while playing. DS2 has some very annoying boss runs so sometimes I just cleaned them out of the way before even seriously attempting the boss but in Bloodborne it felt like you rarely had more than 1 or 2 enemies on the path to the boss. Didn't you have to kill the enemies like 10 times in DS2?

 

[sullynathan]

Didn't you have to kill the enemies like 10 times in DS2?

You did. The only time I was actually able to stop enemies from respawning was during farming for that elephant armor.

 

[Villagkouras]

Of course. You always beat the bosses first try.

 

[sullynathan]

Of course. You always beat the bosses first try.

Not always

 

[Silva]

Of course. You always beat the bosses first try.

This is interesting. DS2 was the one where I remember killing most bosses first try indeed. This may be due to familiarity though, as I was coming straight from DS1. BB different pattern forced me to relearn so I had a hard time with bosses. With DS3, it was mixed. Vordt, Sullyvahn, Oceyros and Elfriede were a huge pain for me (and I never defeated Nameless King), the others were manageable.

Btw, DS1 is probably the easier in the series. Tried a playthrough last year and almost finished it in one seat soloing all bosses until that point.

 

[sullynathan]

Dark souls could be the easiest. Demon's souls has too many environmental hazards and gimmicks for certain bosses that could allow you to instantly die.

Dark souls had enough optional bosses to allow you to skip around but they weren't as aggressive nor did they track as much as souls 2, bloodborne or souls 3

 

[cruel]

DS1 the easiest? Anor Londo archers, catacombs without divine weapon, first time in Tomb of the Giants, first time in Blighttown? Maybe not that hard when replaying, but for the first run imo the hardest in the series

 

[Elwro]

I remember the feeling when in Anor Londo I finally understood that I'm not a complete idiot who cannot pass a simple obstacle, but that I have actually reached an element of specific and careful design True, on replaying the game that section is trivial...

 

[Max Stats]

Didn't you have to kill the enemies like 10 times in DS2?

You did. The only time I was actually able to stop enemies from respawning was during farming for that elephant armor.

Man, I grind a lot, it's just how I am at games, an I've gotten so many to despawnin DS2 I felt like I was breaking it, so I stopped playing when I got DS3 and played that instead. Ah, my precious grinding, it's safe there.

 

[Gentle Player]

I've finally got around to buying a PS4 just so that I can play this game. I haven't yet read this thread so as to avoid spoilers, but I believe I'm near the end though I've yet to tackle the expansion (Hunter's Nightmare) content other than going there at a low level and getting slaughtered. I also think I've missed a lot of optional content and I've certainly botched every single NPC questline (I sent some to the clinic and others to the chapel. Those at the clinic were apparently experimented on and transformed into horrific things. Those whom I sent to the chapel, including the mutated bloke who was running things there, were slaughtered by an unsavoury character whom I also sent there. Once I realised what had happened, I instinctively attacked the wretch only to have him transform into a massive beast which I had to put down - the joys of a first playthrough!).

In both its aesthetics and its gameplay this game does a great job at feeling like an horrific nightmare. In terms of its familiar-but-different mechanics (more different than I thought it would be, actually), its increased difficulty, and its even more arcane and esoteric world and story, this game is very much to Souls as Shadow Tower was to its King's Field counterparts.

 

[Elwro]

Botching some of the NPC quests is really, really easy. [Think of Siegmeier from Dark Souls and how you should keep his health above 50% but actually let him engage in combat in the one-before-last meeting with him.] So don't worry

 

[Gentle Player]

Botching some of the NPC quests is really, really easy. [Think of Siegmeier from Dark Souls and how you should keep his health above 50% but actually let him engage in combat in the one-before-last meeting with him.] So don't worry

Oh yes. In my first Dark Souls run I managed to progress the questline to that point in Lost Izalith only to have him die there and drop his ring - no slab for me! Good times. I at least managed to solve Logan's quest on my first run, which is just as well as my first character was a sorcerer and if not I would have missed out on the best staff.

 

[Elwro]

I still have not finished the Crow quest in Bloodborne

 

[Silva]

NPCs questlines in Bloodborne are much less fragile than its DS counterparts. I would never do some DS 1/3 ones without the help of a walk through, while BB ones are pretty doable without any help.

Good luck with the Crow of Cainhurst, btw. You will need it.

Spoiler

P.S: anyone else thinks the Crow is Eileen original master? They seem like the sith order to me, always a master and a pupil around.

 

[Gentle Player]

Just defeated Orphan of Kos. Not due to any skill on my part, that's for sure, it was more like wildly flailing about not knowing what's going on whilst he is going absolutely berserk. Pure luck. I ended the fight with 0 blood vials (and that with the runes equipped to give me 9 extra), 1 bullet, and 1 hit away from death. If I had died then I would probably have hurled my ps4 out of the window without bothering to open it.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Just defeated Orphan of Kos. Not due to any skill on my part, that's for sure, it was more like wildly flailing about not knowing what's going on whilst he is going absolutely berserk. Pure luck. I ended the fight with 0 blood vials (and that with the runes equipped to give me 9 extra), 1 bullet, and 1 hit away from death. If I had died then I would probably have hurled my ps4 out of the window without bothering to open it.

The series has nothing more to offer you in terms of challenge. Anything that tries to be harder than Orphan will just be in the blatantly bullshit difficulty territory.

 

[Elwro]

I can't even get through the chapel after the 1st boss of the expansion.