Bloodborne Options

[Scan_Man]

Played 15 hours straight. A few impressions and points.

Killed only 3 bosses. This game man, this game! It's a Souls game that feels fresh. The level design is top notch, I mean they went all out here. The level of details is the best From Software has ever done.


More difficult than Dark Souls/2 and Demon's Souls. Even with 3 Souls under my belt, I am getting owned hard. The shit they throw at you it just insane. I hit a point where things are just totally unknown, and with the difficulty, it is feeling like my first experience with a souls game; which was Dark Souls. I am dying a lot, I can only imagine if this was my first game in series. Holy shit! This is in contrast to Dark Souls 2, which a bit predictable if you played a Souls game. In that game the developers seemed to have said "we know you know what is coming, so we will just throw many many enemies at you at once, that should make it hard!" Unlike Dark Souls 2, this Souls lets you know it's the real deal.

Also, this game punishes you for being passive. You know if you turtle (hide behind a shield) or circle strife around a boss or enemy to wait for an opening or moment to heal. Yeah will get destroyed for doing that here I have found.

I don't know what later in the game is like yet but in terms of design, level design, and atmosphere it's been consistently like the best parts of Dark Souls and Demon Souls. The best way to describe what they are doing with the level design here is if they took Undead Burg and surrounding areas (you know the looping on it's self and short cuts), basically the first 3rd of Dark Souls, and mixed it with Tower of Latria from Demon's Souls. Yes! So far the level design and atmosphere has been like that throughout.


Combat is fresh. Mostly because it's faster. The gameplay feels more action oriented at times, it gives a rush sometimes. But still has that tight, weighty, and deliberate feel from previous Souls games.

Chalice Dungeons is interesting. I did the first floor of one so far. It's basically another option for endgame in addition to NG+. Randomly generated dungeons with exclusive bosses and loot.Potentially, if they continue to expand on it, it will be fleshed out game on it's own. Talking about Souls combat, traps, enemies, and difficulty with Diablo-esque dungeon crawling. They do the whole random monster affix thing here with the enemies that are normally found in the main game too.

I did not know it was possible in a Souls game, but somehow they made this one hold your hand even less than the previous titles. My god! There is not even a tutorial in this one, and getting to the first boss is an achievement on its own. I like it!


Negatives:

Loading times. Terrible. The game should be called LoadBorne. And it sucks that you have to go through two load screens just to warp. You can't just warp from the Lantern, Bloodbornes version of Bonfires. You have to warp back to the hub, Nexus-like, world and then you can select which Lantern to go to. It would be fine, if the loading was decent. And the loading screen is a major step backwards. In previous Souls games you got descriptions of items or NPCs in the case of Demon's Souls. You got to see artwork and read the lore. Here the load times are up to 45 seconds in some cases and just has the Bloodborne title. What the fuck? The loads times are very bad for this type of game. There is suppose to be a patch at some point to fix this. But holy shit, why?!

The UI. It's another step backwards. Dark Souls 2 fixed a lot of the issues UI and improved on it. They reverted back, and in some cases made it worse than Dark and Demon Souls. They kept the quality of life improvements from Dark Souls 2, like being able to consume multiples of an item at once.

This one started off negative for me, but I think will be one for a lot of people. Farming and grinding for Health Potions, Blood Vials. So it's kind of like grass from Demon's Souls, in that the Blood Vials are farmable. However, you can only carry a max of 20 on you. You burn through these quite fast if you are not careful, and they are a bit rare. So you get into situations where your progression is halted and you have to go farm/grind. Add in that you may die or burn through your Blood Vials while farming because of the difficulty of the game. Then add in the load times. It can be miserable.

I see where they were going with the health potion system here. They wanted a higher damage, aggressive-combat-heavy game (think Bayonetta on highest difficulties). But also, want you to think about using a health potion and "get good" with a limited quantity of healing items like Estus. But I think it will be a turn off for a lot.

For me it sucked bad when I was stuck on the 2nd boss. But, now I am having fun farming. It's giving me time to fine tune my skills and playstyle. Figure out the new combat systems. I find the combat fun, so it is not a problem. I look at it as preparing for the next battle. And I make sure I do it before I hit a wall. I found some really good farms spots and developed a system. I think the initial frustration comes from the fact of not understanding drops and drop rates, so if you are not paying attention you have no idea what to farm. Lastly, helping people in multiplayer is a great way to get those items you need and rewards you with its own currency that can buy exclusive items.


Lastly is NPCs. The NPCs in this is the worst in the series so far. If you thought NPCs in Dark Souls 2 were forgettable and uninteresting, you don't know yet. At least Dark Souls 2 had Gavlin! Of course this can change by the end, however EpicNameBro (one of the top Souls series youtubers, that help write the official strategy guide by FuturePress for both Dark Souls 2 and Bloodborne) says it's disappointing. From what I have experienced so far I agree.




Final thoughts: It's interesting because next gen consoles games have been disappointing so far. People have been craving a truly great game on these consoles for a year and a half. This is the first game that is getting attention for being excellent, and hype. There is a lot of people looking to buy a great game on their PS4, and this is it. However, there is going to be quite a few "victims" that have no idea what they got themselves into. Already seeing the backlash on twitter and forums. Hahahaha. The good news though is there will be a few that discover this series and love it, like I did with Dark Souls. I am already planning what I want to do in NG+.

This game so far is pure gameplay and combat that I love about the Souls series.

Alright back to playing. Will be back when I complete the game or to answer questions.


Edit: Forgot to mention they added a ton of horror elements to this. Like there are moments that remind me of Bioshock, Resident Evil 4, and Dead Space. It has a bit of a survival horror thrown in there, with managing resources (health potions and bullets and other consumables) and figuring out how to access new areas. A bit unrelated, but want to mention, there seems to always be multiple ways to tackle an area and I am not just talking about how you combat enemies. And it's not always just a choice between two options either; it's more than that. It's like there seems to be two or more of the following present in areas: a brute force way, a stealth way, a short cut way, and a secret passage way.

[HC82]

This game... is... soo hard... until I figured out you need to be evasive-counter-aggressive as fuck without being greedy for too many hits.

Actually I just found the beginning to be hard trying to adjust to the game play. In Dark Souls I learned the timing on invincibility frames during dodging and was able to essentially perfect dodge most enemy hits and attack them from the side. Dark Souls 2 added that ridiculous stat where I-Frames were nerfed if your stat was below a certain level, so I had to sword and board.

This time the timing on ripostes are easier since its linked to your gun, and I-frames on dodges are generous. Since there is no blocking or real magic attacks, the combat is structured around evasion and aggressive reprisal, making it easier to conqueror but super punishing if you fuck up (like multi-combo-OHKO BS). The enemy AI is much less forgiving, overly aggressive and punishes you terribly for mistakes. Your stamina bar goes a long way and rolls/side steps take less stamina. If you make no mistakes then you can punish the enemy badly, right back... but you will make mistakes, and you will die terrible. Once you familiarize your self with enemy play styles you can jump in balls first, dodging and countering like a mofo. Ripostes make you invincible so its abuseable in groups.

This is a "GET GUD" game.

The game is not in anyway forgiving at all. It's funny, the game is less forgiving, but it makes the game easier because the combat is limited in scope to one play style. Ergo you must learn to play and master essentially one play style (evasively aggressive with ripostes), where as in DS you could have multiple play styles causing you to lose focus and just "play it safe" with a shield. So if you're used to playing an aggressive shield-less build in DS, you'll find this game comfortable.

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Finally snagged a PS4 for cheap with a Christmas sale, got some Bloodborne going down along with Destiny (boys playing that mainly sofar).

Bloodborne is just so good. The selection of build variety and subsequently the weapons to go with are great, even the Tools look (and work) fantastically. Plus I get to murderize things with a flame thrower, which is always a bonus. The beautifully designed interconnected Gothic world that just exudes dread every step you take thru various parts of the world. I've already started suffering from the multi build sickness having 3 chars all quite early in the game still; but the fun of arcane, or the pimp cane just screams 'try me'. I almost need a second PS4 just for myself at this point. hahaha

[AC9breaker]

Oddies, whats your PSN? I need to add ya, or add me. AC9Bizzle

[Oddies da Nerfed]

Oddies, whats your PSN? I need to add ya, or add me. AC9Bizzle

Tossed you an invite from Oddies123. Just be aware it is a shared console so its not always me on it.