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RTTP: Bloodborne - The masterpiece

Lynx_7

Member
It's a great game, but I kinda wish I hadn't gone for the platinum and just left it after that first experience. After going through the chalice dungeons and beating the game thrice, I felt burnt out. Still haven't touched The Old Hunters because of that, even though I bought it at launch. Someday I'll get to it.

I wish they had implemented the chalice dungeon content in the main game. There are plenty of cool bosses and enemies there, but it was just too repetitive as a whole. Still in my top 5 of the generation though, just not first place.
 

Toxi

Banned
ok, so side question:

What's IYO the hardest boss?

spoiler,
Ludwig
Laurence. Easily Laurence. He has so many attacks in the first phase that come out in an instant and just annihilate your health bar. And then the second phase is an incredible ordeal of patience and positioning. And he just doesn't die. It's funny, From Software managed to make the fucking Cleric Beast the hardest boss in the game.

And then in NG+ Laurence gets an absurd boost to both health and damage. Orphan in NG+? Eh, it's hard but I can deal. Laurence? Fuck that. Laurence in NG++? Double fuck that.
 
You can only get one blood rock per game (2 counting dlc), so you have to do multiple playthroughs to even make other weapons as good as your main one.
Unless you want to grind the shitty challice dungeons?

Blood rocks can now be purchased at the Insight shop, which was added in a late patch.
 

Toxi

Banned
You can only get one blood rock per game (2 counting dlc), so you have to do multiple playthroughs to even make other weapons as good as your main one.
Unless you want to grind the shitty challice dungeons?
You can buy a Blood Rock for 60 Insight. Not bad at all considering how easy Insight is to obtain. And a +9 weapon isn't that different in effectiveness from a +10 weapon.

The real roadblocks are the Blood Chunks. They cost 20 Insight each and have obscenely low drop rates, and you need sixteen to get a weapon to +9.
 

JMY86

Member
Brilliant fucking game on so many levels. Dark Souls and Bloodborne are my two favorite games of the last 10 years.
 

Closer Two

Member
Bloodborne is among the very few modern day single player experiences that respects and executes a finely tuned system of mechanics with all the cohesion of the great games on the SNES (demons crest, super metroid etc). It absolutely nails its game-feel which so fluidly supports its stat system that the flow of Bloodborne feels intuitive - compellingly so when taken with its level design and irresistibly dark atmosphere. Its a feat, really. It's a modern day SNES game with its philosophy on engagement and logic encased in a killer presentation. Brilliant game.

Nicely put. I'm going to have to re-download it now.
 
It really is one of the greatest games of all time. I just wish they would of done a pro version with performance improvements.
 

Luminaire

Member
One of my top five games. It hit so many right notes with me at just the right times, a lot of them being due to what was going on in my life at the time. Being able to talk to people about this game and share thoughts, ideas, experiences, warstories, theories on what's going on, the subject matter it's inspired by, etc...all of it meant a lot.

I'd gone through the game three times but only beat it once (up to last boss twice, but...life happened, restarted). I'd like to return to it after finishing up Dark Souls and Nioh and then giving those types of games a rest for a bit. It makes me happy that so many people enjoy the game, however. I would be ok without a sequel, but I wouldn't turn one down.
 
One of the best games ever made, and certainly the game of the generation still. An absolute masterclass. It's always a pleasure to revisit.
 

N1tr0sOx1d3

Given another chance
I really wanted to like this game. I ended up just getting tired and frustrated. I just couldn't defeat the Blood Starved Beast.

I too struggled with BSB, however I believe this is an optional boss that you can always return to later on.

Don't let this boss detract you from the rest of the game. Crack on and return to punish it later :)
 

N1tr0sOx1d3

Given another chance
It's a great game, but I kinda wish I hadn't gone for the platinum and just left it after that first experience. After going through the chalice dungeons and beating the game thrice, I felt burnt out. Still haven't touched The Old Hunters because of that, even though I bought it at launch. Someday I'll get to it.

I wish they had implemented the chalice dungeon content in the main game. There are plenty of cool bosses and enemies there, but it was just too repetitive as a whole. Still in my top 5 of the generation though, just not first place.

Return to the hunt friend. The Old Hunters is a challenge waiting for you. It's hard....real hard!

What's more you can access it after Amillia so very early in to the game.
 

Bronetta

Ask me about the moon landing or the temperature at which jet fuel burns. You may be surprised at what you learn.
Anyone who finished Bloodborne and enjoyed it even remotely, you absolutely have to play The Old Hunters. It has some of the best bosses in the entire series.

Old Hunters also adds so many unique weapons which break away from the traditional Souls weapons. Over 10 weapons and each ones more unique than the last. The brilliance of transforming into a beast or an alien thing is a sight to behold.

beast_transformation-bloodborne_small.jpg


zJSzVJ.gif



This is what has me really excited for From Software's next title. Instead of equipping weapons, it could be transforming into different creatures. It would be the perfect evolution of their combat system while still keeping a familiar rhythm.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Laurence. Easily Laurence. He has so many attacks in the first phase that come out in an instant and just annihilate your health bar. And then the second phase is an incredible ordeal of patience and positioning. And he just doesn't die. It's funny, From Software managed to make the fucking Cleric Beast the hardest boss in the game.

And then in NG+ Laurence gets an absurd boost to both health and damage. Orphan in NG+? Eh, it's hard but I can deal. Laurence? Fuck that. Laurence in NG++? Double fuck that.

I only took on the DLC in NG+ (and as soon as I could, too) so OoK and Laurence were insanely difficult. The second phase of Laurance was so dumb.
 

Melchiah

Member
It's an amazing game, that sits among my all-time top 3 with Silent Hill 2 and The Last of Us.
EDIT: It's also the game I've spent the most money on, as I bought the hard cover guides for the main game and DLC afterwards, and just pre-ordered the English art book. It speaks volumes of how much the game, and its visual design and lore, appealed to me.


ok, so side question:

What's IYO the hardest boss?

spoiler,
Ludwig

Laurence, since he's the only boss I haven't yet beaten on NG+. In comparison to it, Ludwig and Orphan were relatively easy. If Chalice dungeons are included, then another would be Pthumerian Descendant in the Ihyll Chalice.


GAF is the only place where I see this insane, constant amount of enthusiasm for Bloodborne this far after launch. It winning GOTY over Witcher 3 here despite being only being on one platform kind of speaks for itself. It's probably had the most LTTP threads and they're all non-stop hyperbolic gushing. It was a good game but definitely not perfect, and not universally better than any of the Souls games. It did somethings better, and quite a few worse.

Is this some kind of an allusion to Sony GAF?

I've played the game through thrice, and DLC twice, yet I still have an urge to return to it. The combat mechanics feel very satisfying, especially when compared to something like Witcher 3, and the trick weapons add a lot of variety to it. I definitely prefer it over DS3, which I'm never going to replay. Personally, I can't think of a single thing, outside of bonfire transportation and world reset, that DS3 did better.
 

roytheone

Member
I liked it a lot, but it is not even close to gotg for me. Witcher 3, ori, the witness, Zelda and prey are all better imo. Still a great game.



I can't think of a single thing, outside of bonfire transportation and world reset, that DS3 did better.

Ds 3 has better variance in environments and a better healing system imo. Having to break your flow of boss attempts to grind for blood vials is some Bullshit.
 

klee123

Member
Anyone who finished Bloodborne and enjoyed it even remotely, you absolutely have to play The Old Hunters. It has some of the best bosses in the entire series.

Old Hunters also adds so many unique weapons which break away from the traditional Souls weapons. Over 10 weapons and each ones more unique than the last. The brilliance of transforming into a beast or an alien thing is a sight to behold.

beast_transformation-bloodborne_small.jpg


zJSzVJ.gif



This is what has me really excited for From Software's next title. Instead of equipping weapons, it could be transforming into different creatures. It would be the perfect evolution of their combat system while still keeping a familiar rhythm.

It's one of the more unique aspects of BB, the ability to transform into creature whilst adding abilities using the right weapon makes it really cool.

If From ever does BB2, it'd be awesome if they could expand on that.
 

Melchiah

Member
Ds 3 has better variance in environments and a better healing system imo. Having to break your flow of boss attempts to grind for blood vials is some Bullshit.

It may have better variance in environments, but it also lacks the cohesion of Bloodborne. As for healing, I greatly preferred the Blood Vial system, as it was pretty frustrating to try to survive with a handful of Estus Flasks in the beginning. I never had to grind for the vials, since I used spare Blood Echoes from levelling up to buy them. There's just no point in trying to grind through certain enemies to get them.

EDIT: The dedicated healing button in BB was also nice, as it made using other items more easy during the heat of the battle..
EDIT.2: It was annoying to visit the dream to fetch certain supplies from the chest though, like Fire/Bolt Paper.
 
Ds 3 has better variance in environments

While this is true, Bloodborne's world feels much more cohesive, which is one of the main reasons I love it so much.

Entering the Forbidden Woods from Yharman and unlocking the Upper Catherdral Ward were two moments that Dark Souls III was never able to replicate.
 

NEO0MJ

Member
Is this some kind of an allusion to Sony GAF?

Why am I not surprised that the first thing that came to your mind, lol.

There's just no point in trying to grind through certain enemies to get them.

By grinding people don't mean killing the few enemies that drop them normally, they mean grinding for blood echos so they can buy more. Congratulations on being a pro enough player to not need to grind them though.

While this is true, Bloodborne's world feels much more cohesive, which is one of the main reasons I love it so much.

Entering the Forbidden Woods from Yharman and unlocking the Upper Catherdral Ward were two moments that Dark Souls III was never able to replicate.

It makes sense in the context of DaS III, though. The world is collapsing and merging at an unprecedented level. By the end
the whole world gets twisted together literally and regular laws of physics don't apply.
 

Izuna

Banned
Seriously, I keep trying to be fair with this game but the combat is so uninteresting and the performance makes it almost unplayable for myself.

I think I have to permanently shelve it. I always thought (before I had a PS4) that it was going to be as special as Demon's, but it isn't.
 

Melchiah

Member
Why am I not surprised that the first thing that came to your mind, lol.

By grinding people don't mean killing the few enemies that drop them normally, they mean grinding for blood echos so they can buy more. Congratulations on being a pro enough player to not need to grind them though.

Well, looking at the user's profile, the platform BB is on seems to be the one (s)he doesn't own. Coupled with downplaying it's all about hyperbole, it raised an eyebrow.

There's no need to grind for Blood Echoes either, as you're bound to end up with extra after levelling up. If you don't use them to stock on vials, you just make it needlessly hard on yourself. Congratulations on making another assumption, that it was about "git gud". BB was my first proper Souls experience, so there was a plenty of gnashing of teeth on my first playthrough, and several times I thought I'd never be able to reach the end. The thing is, I just tend to plan ahead to avoid depleting the supply of necessary items.
 
It makes sense in the context of DaS III, though. The world is collapsing and merging at an unprecedented level. By the end
the whole world gets twisted together literally and regular laws of physics don't apply.

Oh, I get that, but Bloodborne's world felt more believable to me personally and made it a more enjoyable experience for me because of that. That's not to say I didn't love DS3 though.
 

ActWan

Member
Laurence. Easily Laurence. He has so many attacks in the first phase that come out in an instant and just annihilate your health bar. And then the second phase is an incredible ordeal of patience and positioning. And he just doesn't die. It's funny, From Software managed to make the fucking Cleric Beast the hardest boss in the game.

And then in NG+ Laurence gets an absurd boost to both health and damage. Orphan in NG+? Eh, it's hard but I can deal. Laurence? Fuck that. Laurence in NG++? Double fuck that.

I agree with all of this, but I still think Ludwig is a harder boss fight (even though I beat him and didn't beat Laurence), because I think Laurence is just cheesy and unfair...not necessarily "hard", if you catch my drift.
 

xuchu

Member
Seriously, I keep trying to be fair with this game but the combat is so uninteresting and the performance makes it almost unplayable for myself.

I think I have to permanently shelve it. I always thought (before I had a PS4) that it was going to be as special as Demon's, but it isn't.

From software's titles have always had simplistic combat mechanics especially when coming from ninja gaiden. You're a character action person first and foremost but unfortunately that genre is pretty much dead outside of platinum. From soft titles performance wise have always been pretty rough even with demons and I don't know why they insist on having an obligatory swamp area if they can't optimise it. Maybe they think constant framedrops are akin to being in a swamp. And you like the level based structure of demons and Nioh more than the exploration needed and offered in dark souls and bloodborne. People like getting lost and the sense of discovery that comes from it. All this means that the game isn't for you, and guess what...that's totally okay.
 
It's my favorite single player game of the Gen and easily my favorite souls still but it could use some QOL changes.

Off the top of my head changing blood vials and having to teleport back and forth (make it more like souls)

Axing chalice dungeons or reworking them or giving access to the gems in other playtbroughs.

Allowing you to start a replay with any weapon (I wanted to do do an arcane hmgs run but to do that I basically had to beat the game first and do it in ng+ instead)

I platinumed it and the most bullshit thing was the final abhorrent beast in the dungeon. But besides that doing ng+ Laurence and Ludwig without having played them in ng first put hair on my chest, Jesus were those some fights. Kos and Ebrietas were hard but not like them. BSB is still annoying in ng before you've got a solid inventory even though I know him like the back of my hand.

Oh christ and the final boss of the Eileen quest line in ng+. Him and the final abhorrent beast I both cheese with poison knives I think, no regrets.


Father G is the Blade Wolf of the game (i.e. the git gud gateway) and having parrying click and wrecking him was so satisfying.
 
Oh and idk how it would work with the rpg aspects of the game but being able to replay boss fights in an arcade type boss run thing unlocked after beating the game and the specific boss would be neat
 

Breads

Banned
ok, so side question:

What's IYO the hardest boss?

spoiler,
Ludwig

Undead Giant (chain variant) can instakill you with a random chain swim that multi hits for like... no reason.

Abhorrent beast has to be the hardest one for me though. It's so aggressive you're basically forced into approaching it in one or two ways that guarantees a defensive fight that lasts 5-8 minutes.
 

Van Bur3n

Member
I really wanted to like this game. I ended up just getting tired and frustrated. I just couldn't defeat the Blood Starved Beast.

Dodge to the right, get behind it, and it dies. It's kind of the 101 tactic of the entire game. Not always dodging to the right but simply getting behind them.

Some bosses are actually quite helpless when you're behind them.
 

eot

Banned
I love all the stuff OP mentions, I just wish it were more of an RPG and also that it had better NPC quest lines. Oh and that hunters weren't such bs.
 

Van Bur3n

Member
I love all the stuff OP mentions, I just wish it were more of an RPG and also that it had better NPC quest lines. Oh and that hunters weren't such bs.

NPCs are definitely an area BB lacks in compared to other Souls. Especially DS3. Most of them remain quite static throughout most of the game and those with actual questlines are short-lived.
 

roytheone

Member
It may have better variance in environments, but it also lacks the cohesion of Bloodborne. As for healing, I greatly preferred the Blood Vial system, as it was pretty frustrating to try to survive with a handful of Estus Flasks in the beginning. I never had to grind for the vials, since I used spare Blood Echoes from levelling up to buy them. There's just no point in trying to grind through certain enemies to get them.

EDIT: The dedicated healing button in BB was also nice, as it made using other items more easy during the heat of the battle..
EDIT.2: It was annoying to visit the dream to fetch certain supplies from the chest though, like Fire/Bolt Paper.

Here is the thing : I also did exactly that and still had to grind for echoes to buy more vials multiple times. While it didn't take long, I like to get in a flow when attempting a hard boss and being forced to break that flow sucked. I understand not everyone will have that problem, but I did and it harmed my enjoyment of the game.

Well, looking at the user's profile, the platform BB is on seems to be the one (s)he doesn't own. Coupled with downplaying it's all about hyperbole, it raised an eyebrow.

There's no need to grind for Blood Echoes either, as you're bound to end up with extra after levelling up. If you don't use them to stock on vials, you just make it needlessly hard on yourself. Congratulations on making another assumption, that it was about "git gud". BB was my first proper Souls experience, so there was a plenty of gnashing of teeth on my first playthrough, and several times I thought I'd never be able to reach the end. The thing is, I just tend to plan ahead to avoid depleting the supply of necessary items.

? If you really did look at my profile you would see that my most recent thread is a lttp of the Uncharted collection and Uncharted 4, so I have no idea what you are on about.
 

Melchiah

Member
Here is the thing : I also did exactly that and still had to grind for echoes to buy more vials multiple times. While it didn't take long, I like to get in a flow when attempting a hard boss and being forced to break that flow sucked. I understand not everyone will have that problem, but I did and it harmed my enjoyment of the game.

? If you really did look at my profile you would see that my most recent thread is a lttp of the Uncharted collection and Uncharted 4, so I have no idea what you are on about.

No, I was talking about the other user's profile, whose post I originally replied to, not yours.

I did deplete the supply of items like Bolt Paper, when I fought against Rom for example, which is why I switched to Tonitrus for the fight. I didn't have the same issue with Blood Vials, especially after the stock limit was increased from 100 to 600. I tried not to spend too many vials, when I was still learning the bosses' attack patterns.
 

Hjod

Banned
Damn OP, now I need to replay BB again.

The Hunt calls once more.

I can agree, it's the greatest game ever made, the atmosphere alone makes it a winner in my book, best designed game ever made maybe would be more apt.
 

roytheone

Member
No, I was talking about the other user's profile, whose post I originally replied to, not yours.

I did deplete the supply of items like Bolt Paper, when I fought against Rom for example, which is why I switched to Tonitrus for the fight. I didn't have the same issue with Blood Vials, especially after the stock limit was increased from 100 to 600. I tried not to spend too many vials, when I was still learning the bosses' attack patterns.

Ah, I see. The post you responded to had quotes of you responding to multiple people so that confused me. Sorry about that!

And yeah, I get that many players never run into the blood vial problem, but I did run into it, and it wasn't fun. I find that a lot of people that never run into the problem can be very dismissive about other people who DO have the problem, which honestly kinda annoys me. Just because you never run into it doesn't make the complaint invalid for people that did. (not saying that you are one of those people, just a general thing I run into in bloodborne threads).

I will give you that the separate healing button is a nice improvement, even though panicking during a boss fight and accidentally throwing the "hello" voice stone instead of drinking my estus flask does have a weird hilarious charm to it :)
 

Dimorphic

Member
I bought it during an EB Games sale last year and it is still in shrink wrap in my pile of shame.

And I won't get to it anytime soon unfortunately. :(
 

Breads

Banned
I love all the stuff OP mentions, I just wish it were more of an RPG and also that it had better NPC quest lines. Oh and that hunters weren't such bs.

Bloody Crow of Cainhurst should not be allowed to have unlimited QS.
 

Izuna

Banned
From software's titles have always had simplistic combat mechanics especially when coming from ninja gaiden. You're a character action person first and foremost but unfortunately that genre is pretty much dead outside of platinum. From soft titles performance wise have always been pretty rough even with demons and I don't know why they insist on having an obligatory swamp area if they can't optimise it. Maybe they think constant framedrops are akin to being in a swamp. And you like the level based structure of demons and Nioh more than the exploration needed and offered in dark souls and bloodborne. People like getting lost and the sense of discovery that comes from it. All this means that the game isn't for you, and guess what...that's totally okay.

I just think that the series hasn't really improved since Demon's Souls, which I super adore.

But really, the performance in BB needs addressing. And not any specific area, everything.

DkS3, from what I played is fun but it doesn't hold me like DeS did. I guess that yeah, BB is more interesting in terms of appearances... But the main problem with the way the level structure is, is that doing the same thing or fighting something optional sucks because it isn't that fun doing it.
 
GAF is the only place where I see this insane, constant amount of enthusiasm for Bloodborne this far after launch. It winning GOTY over Witcher 3 here despite being only being on one platform kind of speaks for itself. It's probably had the most LTTP threads and they're all non-stop hyperbolic gushing. It was a good game but definitely not perfect, and not universally better than any of the Souls games. It did somethings better, and quite a few worse.

Nothing hyperbolic about it. Game is fucking out of this world.
 
I just beat the last Chalice Dungeon (well, kind of the last since you can do the root, but y'all know which one I'm talking about if you got a plat) yesterday, and now I've been helping people with Chalice Dungeons and doing the Level 5 dungeons I skipped. I'm on NG+ and beat a couple bosses at the beginning, but I think I'm going to spend a lot of time on the dungeons.

Damn, what a fine game. Still, I want to start a new playthrough of Horizon soon, so maybe I'll do that once I've had my fill.

Blood rocks can now be purchased at the Insight shop, which was added in a late patch.

I thought that was added with the Old Hunters, but I could easily be mistaken.

I really wanted to like this game. I ended up just getting tired and frustrated. I just couldn't defeat the Blood Starved Beast.

You don't have to defeat it; it's optional. ;)

Do the required stuff; you can always come back for revenge.
 

DaciaJC

Gold Member
Bloody Crow of Cainhurst should not be allowed to have unlimited QS.

As far as I know, computer-controlled enemies in these games have always had unlimited ammo. It would be weird to make an exception for a single character. I would just reduce his total HP by a bit, it seems somewhat excessive for a non-boss human enemy.
 
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