Bloodborne

[HylianMogget]

So I thought I'd give this game a try since it gets a lot of praise and it seemed like a good game to get in the Halloween mood (I started it at the beginning of October). I was kind of ambivalent about picking it up in the past because I thought it'd be too hard and/or scary (I like horror aesthetics, but stuff like the Re-dead in OoT still kind of creep me out, so I avoid horror elements in games ). I didn't realize this was kind of akin to, like, a 3D combat-focused Metroidvania, though... I love it. The levels are really neat and learning patterns and getting better at the bosses is so satisfying. Upper Cathedral Ward was the only area, so far, that was 2spooky for me - I did do it, but I had to look up the first part of the interior (the wolves) beforehand and I cheesed that one brainsucker with the key through the door because fuck those things. Was worth it for the choir set, though, love the hat in particular.

I just beat Micolash in the main game and Ludwig in the DLC and I'm gonna be sad when it's over (I know there are lots of chalices, too, and I've gotten up to the point where you fight the Bloodletting Beast in those, but the levels just aren't as interesting as the main game stuff IMO). Music was hype af in Ludwig's second phase, and I'm really looking forward to the other DLC bosses, especially Lady Maria, since everyone seems to like that fight. It's too bad there's no boss rush mode or anything. Getting to replay the fights would be fun. I guess that's what co-op is for, but I don't have PS+ and I'm assuming it's pretty dead at this point, anyways.

I wish I could've gone in without knowing the turn the game takes towards the middle, and I've been dumb and spoiled myself accidentally on the final boss(es) and bits about the secret ending/stuff in general by browsing Reddit threads, but I'm still looking forward to seeing how it all comes together. I assume things'll be pretty vague rather than spelled out, but I really do like lore as a way of telling a story. My favorite part so far was finding

Spoiler

the abandoned workshop

which I didn't see coming and was really unsettling. I kind of knew about the

Spoiler

clinic

shortcut beforehand - but I don't regret that, because it was hard to find even knowing where to look and I definitely wouldn't have had the patience for that area after getting the loot there, otherwise - but that was really cool, too

Spoiler

I assumed Iosefka was the guy from the opening cutscene, given the clinic name, so that threw me off, as well

.

tl;dr I feel silly for sleeping on this game, it's great.

 

[Celes777]

I like the idea that you thought

Spoiler

Iosefka is the guy in the opening cutscene lolol that would be such a plot twist

 

[X-SOLDIER]

That would be especially interesting given where you find

Spoiler

Ioesefka's Blood Vial

Max's Lore Playthrough of Bloodborne has been running as some of my background entertainment since he uploaded it a few weeks ago, so I'm back thinking about this game a lot again. I'm still really intrigued with how many pieces in the game have points of visual/thematic overlap with what we see again later in Sekiro, despite it apparently being something separate.

Spoiler

A special lineage of Blood for immortality, the Mist Nobles looking Ebrietas Kin-like, Infested having Vermin-in them, having a tainted Cainhurst-like bloodline, Ashura manifesting as a beasthood-like transformation, having a legend around a giant Snake beast, using bell a bell to summon things, etc.

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[Celes777]

It is almost like some equations you can draw for his game

Spoiler

the hollowing = the beast plague
Lord of cinders = great ones
Finding the firelink shrine in which fire is gone = finding the abandoned workshop
Etc etc

I'm just BSing but I think there are some interesting parallels going on

 

[HylianMogget]

I don't know whether I should click spoiler-tagged things so I'm gonna hold off for now, but I'm looking forward to digging into the lore once I finish my playthrough (though I'd like to avoid finding out what goes down in the other endings, since this is actually a game I can see myself replaying, so maybe I should wait?). I didn't know Sekiro had thematic similarities with BB, makes me more interested in potentially checking it out in the future. I've seen some gameplay clips and the traversal and fast pace/speed look appealing, but is stealth a big element? Stealth's never been my thing, it's one thing if it's an option, but I'm bad at forced stealth.

I'm going through the Research Hall and I am really enjoying the DLC a ton, more than the post-Rom/late game levels (though I've not done anything after Micolash in Nightmare of Mensis yet). I'm sure it's by design, but it felt like I was rushing through stuff after Rom since Yahar'gul, the Nightmare Frontier, and the first part of Mensis throw all sorts of nasty stuff at you like the bell ringers/respawning enemies, frenzy, and poison. I didn't necessarily dislike it, because it was still pretty fun dealing with those challenges (well, less so the frenzy and the poison, those just kind of suck), but I did prefer the pace of the earlier parts. Those levels also felt a lot more disconnected from each other than the ones earlier in the game, too. The DLC has tough enemies, but, at least so far, it has been giving me more breathing room to orient myself and explore, which I enjoy more than the frantic pace of the late-game stuff. The lore is also really interesting and feels more prominent than it's been in the late main game, but, again, late-game is probably meant to be disorienting. I'm sure it'd be even cooler if I was going in truly blind and didn't know what (or who) Maria looked like beforehand, but it is what it is - I gotta admit I'd've been at least somewhat less interested in checking the game out if I didn't know it had a sword-wielding anime lady, so it balances out .

 

[Celes777]

If you are at Micolash, you are pretty close to beating the game. There are a few optional bosses you can do.
The DLC is really fun! I personally like the DLC more than the game.
Oh Maria, lady Maria Where do I even start with this woman. When I fought her I had a friend helped me. Her character looked like Vincent Valentine and dressed in Gehrman's old hunter set. She was using the bowblade and the katana. I pretty much just sat aside and watched her fight Maria. It was like seeing the two dance Waltz in blood and fire, with that epic music. It is really one of the greatest fights I've ever seen

 

[Celes777]

I didnt know frenzy becomes deadlier as your insight goes up. I chewed my 40+ madman's knowledge and went to nightmare frontier and mensis

 

[X-SOLDIER]

There're lots of other interesting things that happen with increasing your insight, like being able to see the Amygdala early and whatnot. The lore interplays with the gameplay elements are pretty dang interesting.

Also, with Sekiro, stealth is an element, but it's still very combat focused. It's much more focused on understanding the cadence and patterns of the enemies with the way the parry system is designed rather than just centering focus in on dealing damage. If you like the Miyazaki wandering around massive twisting levels that slowly deliver lore in bits and pieces approach to things a lot in Bloodborne, it's probably at least worth checking out to see if the gameplay is your jam.



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[Cthulhu]

Aah, Kos, or some say Kosm...

I didn't poast in here I thincc but I finally finished the DLC earlier this year, shit's dank, Maria is a bitch but it's a very satisfying fight.

Final boss:

Spoiler

Cheesed him with two other players. Mind you I had quite a lot of attempts, helped out other players as well.

I did kinda have fatigue of the game in the end though. But I'm sure at some point I'll replay it again, because idk, need to do an Arcane character,

 

[Celes777]

Aah, Kos, or some say Kosm...

I didn't poast in here I thincc but I finally finished the DLC earlier this year, shit's dank, Maria is a bitch but it's a very satisfying fight.

Final boss:

Spoiler

Cheesed him with two other players. Mind you I had quite a lot of attempts, helped out other players as well.

I did kinda have fatigue of the game in the end though. But I'm sure at some point I'll replay it again, because idk, need to do an Arcane character,

Hey, Cthulhu! aren't you also a great one (no)

 

[Celes777]

Who's the hardest boss for everyone?

I vote father gascoooooooooooine

And Lawrence the first vicar

 

[HylianMogget]

Beat the DLC and the main game. Loved it, Bloodborne 2 when I'll likely try Sekiro and Souls at some point, but probably not right away. I'll miss the rally mechanic in combat, though. And the setting. There really aren't that many games that do gothic horror, are there?

Spoiler

The Maria fight absolutely lived up to the hype, definitely my favorite boss fight of the game, possibly in any 3D game. All her attacks were so cool looking and, even though I died quite a bit, it was always fun learning how to dodge her moves. It just really felt like a fair, straightforward duel. Plus, she doesn't gun spam (unlike that Bloody Crow of Cainhurst asshole), the camera behaved, and there weren't really any weird nooks in the room specifically designed to troll you (like with Ebrietas). Laurence was making me genuinely salty, though. It was fun dying to Maria, it was no fun dying to Laurence (and the run back to him is awful). Probably the only boss I won't fight again. I beat him eventually, but it felt like luck - I had no vials left and he had a tiny bit of health left so I decided to do some last ditch R1 spam and luckily he did his fire breath attack so I was able to kill him. Also, Laurence just seemed a bit disappointing from a lore/story perspective, too - Ludwig's appearance is truly grotesque, Maria is Gehrman's student and the inspiration for the Doll, Orphan of Kos is an orphaned Great One, and Laurence is... the Cleric Beast on fire. The Orphan of Kos fight was also frustrating, but it does have a unique rhythm to it with all the delayed dodge timings and I eventually got pretty good at the first phase (at least with the glitch that lets you regain increased health/bullets from visceral runes, but it's fair since he can animation cancel ). Felt like I got lucky with the second phase with him, as well, but I'd fight him again before Laurence. But yeah, the DLC was great, loved the areas, bosses, weapons, and what it added to the lore - the game would feel a bit incomplete without it, IMO.

I got the ending with the cords in the main game. I kind of knew what was going to go down because of the spoilers, but it was still pretty obtuse, but I like how it leaves a ton open to interpretation. I'm not actually super into Lovecraftian/cosmic horror, it can be kind of hit or miss for me, but I really enjoyed Bloodborne's take on it for some reason. The buildup is very well done, what with it being like "oh, yeah, just go kill some werewolves " with hints at something more. I'm not really familiar with Lovecraft, so maybe I'm wrong about what constitutes "classic" cosmic horror, but I like how the game seems to put its own spin on things, and the big emphasis on dreams and nightmares was giving me some Lynchian vibes, too. There's some major parenthood/childhood theme going on that I wasn't anticipating and I'm not quite sure what to make of but I find it really interesting. It kind of makes the Great Ones (at least a little bit) less totally incomprehensible than I was expecting (Lovecraftian horror is typically about deities completely beyond human understanding who are indifferent to humans, right?). Also, I'd like to believe Gerhman wasn't a total creeper and the whole thing with Maria was parental rather than romantic. Like, the Doll was like a Victorian mourning doll-esque thing, not a, uh, waifu thing, right... right?

Also, that guy at the beginning is really just some rando blood minister after all, huh? Also, it never occured to me to go back to the clinic to check out the closed doors until the clinic shortcut, so I didn't quite get what all the Imposter Iosefka talk online was about, since it was already the imposter by the time I got there, but, dang, that's brutal.

There're lots of other interesting things that happen with increasing your insight, like being able to see the Amygdala early and whatnot. The lore interplays with the gameplay elements are pretty dang interesting.

Yeah, I thought the insight mechanic was really interesting. I wish they did a bit more with it though, since it seems like post-Rom it just becomes a gameplay and currency thing, since all the world-altering effects happen automatically after that boss fight, I think. Would've been cool if, like, at really high insight there would be subtle changes in the Hunter's Dream, or if consuming the cords had unique effects on what you could see.

Who's the hardest boss for everyone?

I vote father gascoooooooooooine

And Lawrence the first vicar

Definitely Laurence, IMO, along with OoK. In the base game, I thought Logarius was quite tough. His first phase can be done with minimal or no use of vials after you learn how to dodge the magic, but he's super aggressive in his second phase, and I had tons of trouble before looking up that you can make him parryable by stopping his power-up. Even then, the second phase is tricky because he hardly gives you time to heal, you have to watch how many bullets you use for parrying because you ALSO need to stop his sword plant thing, he can spam the sword plant, you have to be aware of the slope of the roof/your positioning (again, due to the sword plant), and the camera can screw you over when he does his flying charge attack.

Gascoigne is definitely tough, especially for being the first mandatory boss. I feel like some of the difficulty comes from the fact that the i-frames of the quickstep/dodge aren't really explained, and, as a beginner, it feels counter-intuitive to dodge INTO attacks. Like, you can straight up quickstep into sprays of bullets without taking damage, so it's really quite like a late-game dash-dodge in a 2D Metroidvania where you can dash through things. But he's still legit difficult and he prepares you really well for the rest of the game.

 

[X-SOLDIER]

Yeah, I thought the insight mechanic was really interesting. I wish they did a bit more with it though, since it seems like post-Rom it just becomes a gameplay and currency thing, since all the world-altering effects happen automatically after that boss fight, I think. Would've been cool if, like, at really high insight there would be subtle changes in the Hunter's Dream, or if consuming the cords had unique effects on what you could see.

Being able to intermittently hear Mergo crying so long as you're outside the hunter's dream being the only thing for passing 60 insight, is a neat and very subtle detail, and I do wish that there were a few other things somewhat like that, especially in the different areas. I like how it alters enemy behaviour andgives the impression that some things become a threat just by having the knowledge you're being exposed to an awareness of them that normal people can't even experience. I think it's something that could definitely have been done with some of the other things like the cords as well.

Mildly related: Moons of Madness had a quote about losing yourself to madness from Lovecraftian Knowledge that I really liked:
"…But it’s saturated my mind too much. A page dipped entirely in ink is as blank as a white page. Meaningless. Madness…."

I think it'd be interesting to've seen really high Insight start to make some other mundane things other than enemies function totally differently. Something that would start to give a sense of what it's like to transform into a Kin and be exposed to their reality that continually obscures details of the reality that others experience, especially since one of the things about the Old Ones in Bloodborne is this strange connection between them and the humans.


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[Celes777]

The closer you are to the truth, the closer you are to madness

 

[Celes777]

Didn't find a post for DS3 so can anyone place a summon sign for me outside the champion's gravetender in paintings of Ariendel
Just WTF

 

[Cthulhu]

Is that the dude and his oversized dog? That one's a prick, . I forgot whether I managed to beat him on my own or if I had help, but it was one of those where I had to step away for a good while before retrying.

 

[Celes777]

Is that the dude and his oversized dog? That one's a prick, . I forgot whether I managed to beat him on my own or if I had help, but it was one of those where I had to step away for a good while before retrying.

Yes, it is him. That dog is such a troll. He touches me twice (3 times on ember form) and I'm dead

 

[HylianMogget]

A free top-down Zelda-esque remake (Central Yharnam level only):

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1284545585970851842

It's cute! The map is adapted quite closely to 2D, and there's visceral attacks, rally, and an i-frame roll. And just like in BB proper the dogs are obnoxious (possibly even moreso here because bullets/bloodtinge don't knock them down ). It's too bad you don't get the PREY SLAUGHTERED message after beating the bosses, though.

(Also, in case anyone else is on a Mac - it does work on a Mac, just download the Solarus launcher and load the data.solarus file through it.)

 

[Wol]

A free top-down Zelda-esque remake (Central Yharnam level only):

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1284545585970851842

It's cute! The map is adapted quite closely to 2D, and there's visceral attacks, rally, and an i-frame roll. And just like in BB proper the dogs are obnoxious (possibly even moreso here because bullets/bloodtinge don't knock them down ). It's too bad you don't get the PREY SLAUGHTERED message after beating the bosses, though.

(Also, in case anyone else is on a Mac - it does work on a Mac, just download the Solarus launcher and load the data.solarus file through it.)

WtF

GOTY.

I wish it was a bit darker though.

 

[HylianMogget]

Yeah, the color palette is kind of off, and it would've been cool if it had some other details, like hearing the Cleric Beast scream when you climb the first ladder, but I think the generally accurate feel of the map and the translation of some of the signature mechanics make up for it. The balance of rally is quite nice, IMO. Like, you can kind of get away with trading blows and regaining health 1v1, but multiple enemies can easily wreck you if you try to just mash attack, just like the OG .

 

[Cthulhu]

I got the platinum last night, . Last trophy to get was

Spoiler

Queen Yharnam[/quote], but I already had most trophies from previous playthroughs; the main ones I got this time was getting all the weapons from the main game + DLC, the aforementioned one, and I missed the trophy for the first ending when I went through all of them the first time.

 

[HylianMogget]

Well, this ended up being the first (and likely to remain only) game I ever platinum'd; last trophy was the first ending which was pretty fitting. I did all the story chalices a while ago, so I had the hard part out of the way. And since I can't get enough of this game I did all the story chalices again at BL43 so now I have a nice template for my Holy Moonlight Sword invader/co-op character. The HMLS is such a fun weapon. BotW's Master Sword was so disappointing (IMO) in terms of beam attacks, but this, now THIS is what a sword with beam attacks should be.

Invasions are TONS of fun, I'm so glad I decided to try online. The game definitely has balance issues - I try to nerf my weapons as appropriate to make for good fights, but with the matchmaking level range being so huge you never know who you're up against and it's not uncommon to see summons able to two-shot you (even using, like, a saw cleaver sometimes)... and there's always gun spam to worry about - but when you get a good invasion it's an absolute blast (especially when you manage to win ), probably the most fun I've ever had with a game.

Also, the lore and how everything fits together is just so great in this game, especially with the DLC. My favorite detail is the layering of the nightmare areas.

Spoiler

The beginning of the Hunter's Nightmare is at the bottom (a snail lady drops down on you at one point), then you climb the Research Hall/clocktower which opens to the Fishing Hamlet, in the Hamlet you can look down and see the city underneath, then in the Nightmare Frontier you can see the ships from the Fishing Hamlet, and then in Mensis you can see the Frontier in the distance.

Such a clever detail (and despite the game almost literally hitting you over the head with that snail lady, I only learned about it after reading about it online lol).

Also, if anyone's interested, there's pre-orders up for the re-run of the Hunter Figma with more weapons.

 

[Wol]

If there is a game that deserves the effort to get platinum is Bloodborne. Congrats, hunter.

 

[Deleted member 13557]

One of the first games I platinum'd.

Best FromSoft game, don't @ me.

 

[Lulcielid]

Fan game Bloodborne PSX demake is out now:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1488195375248805889