BOY
What a game. Before I start writing I want to get this out of the way.
Fuck you Micolash.
Alright.
I got this game for Christmas and I've always been wanting to try it out (got a PS4 just a few months ago) only other Souls game I have played is Dark Souls, so I at least knew what I was getting into. Sort of.
I tried to play this the same way I would play Dark Souls and it wasn't working out very well, the game wants one to be aggressive thanks to its health mechanic and there's a number of bosses that teach the player this. I struggled a LOT on the first area, took me a number of tries before I even got past the mob at the wicked m̶a̶n̶ beast, not to even mention the number of deaths I got with those two werewolves at the bridge. I explored around when I got stuck there, and found some nifty things, like the hunter set on the sewers and opened some shortcuts that made life a lot easier.
The Cleric Beast (Was it based on Manus?) was a great fight, but that one only took me a few tries and the fight itself wasn't as hard as getting there. But then was the first wall.
Father Gascione. This boss made me rage hard, took me over 10 tries. This is one of the two bosses in my opinion that teaches players two very important things about Bloodborne: Its Risk-Reward system for health regeneration, and using guns to parry attacks. I think Father G teaches both, but it really emphasizes the first, the player doesn't really need to parry him, as long as one sticks close to him and dodge accordingly, but if one tries to keep their distance and not be take initiative on their attacks Father Gascione's quick sweeps and leaping attack will make short work of the player.
Once I figured out that I had to keep myself close to him I went all out and managed to beat him. The other boss that teaches the player one of Bloodborne's important mechanics is The Blood Starved Beast, the poison the boss receives in its third phase makes it a bit more dangerous to stay close, so parrying its long sweeps attacks makes for the safest way to beat it.
Bloodborne has all around great level design and great bosses, with some weak exceptions for both. Nightmare Frontier is an area that has TOO much going on, the poision swamp, those one-shotting rock-throwing trolls, the fact that one is susceptible to invasion, the frenzy-inducing monsters. A lot for one to take in right away and its a bit frustrating. What's more puzzling though its the area's boss, unlike the area before it, the boss is strangely anti-climatic, its beam barrage is very powerful, but easy to dodge, and by sticking close it seems its options remain severely limited. This is one of the three bosses I beat on my first try.
The other two were Gherman and the Moon Presence. Now, Gherman was hard, it took pretty much all of my blood vials to beat him (including special ones like Iosefka's) but the fact that he is open to parry during the entire fight makes it a LOT more manageable, I parry him a lot, if it wasn't for me dropping the ball on the follow up visceral attacks I could have beat him faster. The Moon Presence on the other hand was kind of easy, I beat right after Gherman when I only had 5 vials left. It has that one really strong attack, but after the second time it used it, I realized it will remain still after using it for enough time to just refill the entire healthbar I just went it and beat it without much issue.
There's some things I missed during my first playthrough such as Eileen's questline (She died at the same time as Henryk) and the music boss quest, but thanks to a friend I was able to learn about Cainhurst Castle (really great area), the Upper Cathedral ward, and how to fight the Moon Presence. I did leave summoning and invading for my first playthrough, as I just wanted to beat the game myself the first time.
Either way, I just beat it a couple of days ago, and I started NG+ just now. Beat the Cleric Beast without any hiccups, helped another player beat it, and beat Father Gascione as well, already at Oedon and it only took me about 20 minutes compared to the looong time it took me on my first playthrough.
Only other games on recent memory that I've wanted to replay right away after finishing them were The Wonderful 101,and SMTIV: Apocalypse. Which speaks greatly of just how good this game is. I still haven't gotten the DLC, I will get to that sooner or later, as I still have those $10 Sony was spreading around.
tl;dr: Great game, very good. Similar enough to Dark Souls, but it has its own identity and mechanics to differentiate it.
What a game. Before I start writing I want to get this out of the way.
Fuck you Micolash.
Alright.
I got this game for Christmas and I've always been wanting to try it out (got a PS4 just a few months ago) only other Souls game I have played is Dark Souls, so I at least knew what I was getting into. Sort of.
I tried to play this the same way I would play Dark Souls and it wasn't working out very well, the game wants one to be aggressive thanks to its health mechanic and there's a number of bosses that teach the player this. I struggled a LOT on the first area, took me a number of tries before I even got past the mob at the wicked m̶a̶n̶ beast, not to even mention the number of deaths I got with those two werewolves at the bridge. I explored around when I got stuck there, and found some nifty things, like the hunter set on the sewers and opened some shortcuts that made life a lot easier.
The Cleric Beast (Was it based on Manus?) was a great fight, but that one only took me a few tries and the fight itself wasn't as hard as getting there. But then was the first wall.
Father Gascione. This boss made me rage hard, took me over 10 tries. This is one of the two bosses in my opinion that teaches players two very important things about Bloodborne: Its Risk-Reward system for health regeneration, and using guns to parry attacks. I think Father G teaches both, but it really emphasizes the first, the player doesn't really need to parry him, as long as one sticks close to him and dodge accordingly, but if one tries to keep their distance and not be take initiative on their attacks Father Gascione's quick sweeps and leaping attack will make short work of the player.
Once I figured out that I had to keep myself close to him I went all out and managed to beat him. The other boss that teaches the player one of Bloodborne's important mechanics is The Blood Starved Beast, the poison the boss receives in its third phase makes it a bit more dangerous to stay close, so parrying its long sweeps attacks makes for the safest way to beat it.
Bloodborne has all around great level design and great bosses, with some weak exceptions for both. Nightmare Frontier is an area that has TOO much going on, the poision swamp, those one-shotting rock-throwing trolls, the fact that one is susceptible to invasion, the frenzy-inducing monsters. A lot for one to take in right away and its a bit frustrating. What's more puzzling though its the area's boss, unlike the area before it, the boss is strangely anti-climatic, its beam barrage is very powerful, but easy to dodge, and by sticking close it seems its options remain severely limited. This is one of the three bosses I beat on my first try.
The other two were Gherman and the Moon Presence. Now, Gherman was hard, it took pretty much all of my blood vials to beat him (including special ones like Iosefka's) but the fact that he is open to parry during the entire fight makes it a LOT more manageable, I parry him a lot, if it wasn't for me dropping the ball on the follow up visceral attacks I could have beat him faster. The Moon Presence on the other hand was kind of easy, I beat right after Gherman when I only had 5 vials left. It has that one really strong attack, but after the second time it used it, I realized it will remain still after using it for enough time to just refill the entire healthbar I just went it and beat it without much issue.
There's some things I missed during my first playthrough such as Eileen's questline (She died at the same time as Henryk) and the music boss quest, but thanks to a friend I was able to learn about Cainhurst Castle (really great area), the Upper Cathedral ward, and how to fight the Moon Presence. I did leave summoning and invading for my first playthrough, as I just wanted to beat the game myself the first time.
Either way, I just beat it a couple of days ago, and I started NG+ just now. Beat the Cleric Beast without any hiccups, helped another player beat it, and beat Father Gascione as well, already at Oedon and it only took me about 20 minutes compared to the looong time it took me on my first playthrough.
Only other games on recent memory that I've wanted to replay right away after finishing them were The Wonderful 101,and SMTIV: Apocalypse. Which speaks greatly of just how good this game is. I still haven't gotten the DLC, I will get to that sooner or later, as I still have those $10 Sony was spreading around.
tl;dr: Great game, very good. Similar enough to Dark Souls, but it has its own identity and mechanics to differentiate it.