Bloodborne gameplay : The first 18 minutes

For me this is one of the many reasons why Dark is superior to Demon's. The feeling you get when feeling trapped and then surpassing the obstacle is insanely good. In Demons you just go select another stage like a Megaman game.

Sort of. You would face a much tougher challenge if you warped from 1-2 immediately to 4-1 for example. The enemies were much tougher, but with persistence you had a chance. World 5, if you tried it early on, was a bit of a stretch for early players.

I think it was just the illusion of choice that made Demons a much better ride for me. These games are built on the challenges you face from the world, and those challenges in Demons Souls were downright brutal. The entire game worked around making it harder for you to progress. Unlike Dark which did not punish you at all for being in Soul form, in Demons you had you health halved. And then you had the world tendency system working against you as well. The more you died, the darker the WT got and the tougher the enemies became because of that. Mixed with the half health and having no way to just replenish a flask for health, I hit times when I was in pure black WT ( meaning sections like 4-1 had Red Phantoms immediately on you ) with no health items, couldn't afford health items because no soul currency and only half my health because i was in soul form and no stone to get my Humanity back. It really stacked things ontop of you in Demons. So the ability to jump around from section to section ... kind of kept your sanity and made it easier to work toward progression. Each section was challenging, but you never got completely stuck in one zone facing the same enemies over and over and over creating that redundancy that can get people complacent and bored and frustrated and ultimately leaving, or restarting.
 
Imru’ al-Qays;150369260 said:
Your theory regarding bloodtinge is the best one I've heard so far, but if you're right the stat seems pretty useless. Seems like it would always be preferable to have more health in the first place than to increase the amount of health you could potentially regain via counter hits.

I edited and I think it could also modify the healing you receive from blood vials as an additional benefit.

Quoting for new page

My guess for stats would be

  • Vitality = health
  • Endurance = stamina
  • Strength = damage for str weps (possibly also diminishes effects of higher weight classes on mobility)
  • Skill = modifier for dex type weapons (possibly impacts damage of parry attacks)
  • Bloodtinge = determines how much health you can regain from counter hits and health regained from blood vials
  • Arcane = modifier for mystical damage on items and weapons.

I think they may have entirely eliminated item burden and equip burden in favor of weight classes on armor and weapons that factor into dodge and backstep distance as well as swing speed. This would fit with their aims to make the game more fast paced and focused on dodging and avoidance over blocking. In such a game you must ensure a certain baseline of dodge and avoidance for all players regardless of stat weight since they can no longer rely on blocking or heavy damage reduction to counter the lack of mobility.

The only real mystery is Arcane. My assumption is that it operates similar to faith or intelligence from past games with its effect on items and weapons but without the added utility of spells utilizing the stat as a damage modifier as well.

I'm still a bit perplexed by Arcane though. As I have it it seems like a really odd stat but im not sure what else it could be given the world and confines of the game.

Someone said they were edited in the video.

T_T How incredibly disappointing. ONe day loading times will be a thing of the past and on that day I will rejoice heartily.
 
the "downgrade" craze reminds me of the infamous U3 "downgrade" pic that were from per-rendered cut scenes that still gets brought up time to time as a example of a downgrade.
 
Imru’ al-Qays;150369260 said:
Your theory regarding bloodtinge is the best one I've heard so far, but if you're right the stat seems pretty useless. Seems like it would always be preferable to have more health in the first place than to increase the amount of health you could potentially regain via counter hits.

What is a Souls game without a dump stat, lol
 
Alright, finally got around to watching the video uninterrupted on my TV. Good lawd.

Here are my thoughts on the actual game.

1.) Combat looks absolutely phenomenal. Looks fast paced and downright brutal. I LOVE THE AUDIO OF THAT BLUNDERBUSS. It is loud as fuck, and echoes through the environment. I cranked my surround up and holy shit, fantastic ambience.

2.) This is the same hub system that is in Demons Souls, no doubt about it. When entering the Dream Refuge you can see 5-6 other tombstones that the character uses to warp into Yharnam. And when he unlocks Central Yharnam and reaches that checkpoint he is then able to warp to it ala 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 which worked the same way in Demons Souls. I couldn't be happier with this as getting trapped in a section in Dark Souls and really having no way to get to a more interesting area besides trudging through the current section or backtracking for awhile was downright frustrating. I loved just being able to hop around to different areas of Demons Souls if I got bored of one or got stuck or whatever.

3.) The daylight is interesting to me and here is my theory. I do not think this is a day/night cycle, but a return of the World Tendency system that is used in Demons Souls but now it is much more visual. Instead of just having a little orb on a character portrait show the world tendency or player tendency, now it changes the entire aesthetic of the world itself. When you are just starting, as this player is, you are in a dawn type ambience within the world. As you die and the world tendency drops, the world begins to slip into a bleak darkness. As night reigns, things begin to change within the world. Enemies get stronger and harder to kill, but drop better loot ( ala Demons ). If the players are winning and bringing World Tendency toward the light, the outside world begins to brighten and get more sunny. Enemies are weaker and easier to kill, but drop worse / less loot. This could be completely wrong, but is my current thought process on the situation.

4.) It is interesting how the intro has the character getting a blood transfusion and put into a dream-like state before he is visited by the bloodhound and then surrounded by those ghoul creatures that are the messengers as well. And then you awaken in the Clinic again and must die before being transported to the Nexus. I wonder who that Doctor was and what exactly is being done to you at this time.

5.) It is quite interesting how the populace seems to have their wits about them. They talk as they attack you and banter back and forth. And YOU are thought to be the Beast and the evil one here. Very interesting twist that is. You are called the Hunter. But the hunter of what exactly? Blood?

I hope your theory is correct about the day/night cycle. I think someone else brought this up as a possible world tendency indicator as well, and it would make sense. Also, I could swear that I read an interview awhile back that mentioned that not only would there be variations in the time of day, but also the weather. I can't find it now.
 
the "downgrade" craze reminds me of the infamous U3 "downgrade" pic that were from per-rendered cut scenes that still gets brought up time to time as a example of a downgrade.
Or that Second Son picture highlighting the loss of a shadow when in reality the light source was different and the shadow was to the left, absolutely killed me.
 
Just keep telling yourself it will get better. It won't. I was as disappointed as any that DS2 fell short of their initial tease, but that didn't stop me from getting Platinum trophy and I doubt it will stop me here.

There is no reason to believe they will release a technically superior game than what we just saw. There is no reason they would have a more expansive teaser like this (more complete game world than previous alpha tests) that is earlier in development. This is the most up to date build and it is a technical mess.


Any Link/Quotes Confirming this? At the start of the video it is clearly mentioned, It's Alpha.Or they Are lying?
 
I edited and I think it could also modify the healing you receive from blood vials as an additional benefit.

Quoting for new page



I'm still a bit perplexed by Arcane though. As I have it it seems like a really odd stat but im not sure what else it could be given the world and confines of the game.

There are arcane, fire, "bolt" damage adjustment values in the character stat screen as well as (presumably) on weapons. But you're right that having an entire stat devoted to increasing elemental damage on exotic weapons would be a bit odd.

Having bloodtinge increase the healing done by blood vials definitely makes sense: the amount that they heal at the beginning of the game is clearly not sustainable for the entire game.
 
Or that Second Son picture highlighting the loss of a shadow when in reality the light source was different and the shadow was to the left, absolutely killed me.

I love this one from a guy on GAF making fun of people claiming downgrade and it will then be brought up in other threads about Uncharted 4. Hilarious

8IF06MZ.jpg
 
the "downgrade" craze reminds me of the infamous U3 "downgrade" pic that were from per-rendered cut scenes that still gets brought up time to time as a example of a downgrade.

To be fair, Fromsoft kinda brought that on themselves with DS2. While I'm sure the game will be fine, I am almost expecting it looking worse than the first videos/pictures we saw. We'll see I guess.
 
I didn't read it, I am friends with several people on the Bb team (I've also played the latest builds, but obv I can't break NDA on that)

If you really heard it from friends on the dev team in passing then they probably wouldnt make you sign an NDA... smells fishy.
 
Is this going to be a thing for every PS4/Sony exclusive now? Just people concerned about graphics?

The game looks freaking awesome! And I applaud the people looking deeper into the lore with the few minutes we were shown! Bravo on you guys!
 
Just keep telling yourself it will get better. It won't. I was as disappointed as any that DS2 fell short of their initial tease, but that didn't stop me from getting Platinum trophy and I doubt it will stop me here.

There is no reason to believe they will release a technically superior game than what we just saw. There is no reason they would have a more expansive teaser like this (more complete game world than previous alpha tests) that is earlier in development. This is the most up to date build and it is a technical mess.

tales from my ass, tales from my ass
 
Imru’ al-Qays;150370583 said:
There are arcane, fire, "bolt" damage adjustment values in the character stat screen as well as (presumably) on weapons. But you're right that having an entire stat devoted to increasing elemental damage on exotic weapons would be a bit odd.

Exactly we know for a fact that weapons use Arcane as a damage type but we also know, if statements form the developers are to be beleived, that players will not have access to magic in this game so I'm completely at a loss for what the stat could other than modify that particular damage branch on weapons and items. I'm hoping someone else has a better idea as to what it could be.

Imru’ al-Qays;150370583 said:
Having bloodtinge increase the healing done by blood vials definitely makes sense: the amount that they heal at the beginning of the game is clearly not sustainable for the entire game.

Yep I think it makes sense to have bloodtinge modify both blood regain and health regain from blood vials. Will be interesting to see if I'm right when the game releases.
 
I hope your theory is correct about the day/night cycle. I think someone else brought this up as a possible world tendency indicator as well, and it would make sense. Also, I could swear that I read an interview awhile back that mentioned that not only would there be variations in the time of day, but also the weather. I can't find it now.

It would create an interesting dynamic between the different player Hunter's in the world too. Those who love the darkness would try to actively change the online world to their liking, while those Hunter's who love the Light would actively seek to fight to get the world to what they desire.

The only reason I think of this type of thing being the reason for the different time of day in this video is because there is no other reasonable explanation. UNLESS, you start in this area in this time of day, but any future visits perhaps puts you in a different / random time of day. So you exit and spend some time in the Nexus and then return to Yharnam, and it puts you at a different time.

We shall see. It would be a pretty slick way to represent the World Tendency system though if it changed the dynamics of the world itself. And perhaps entering Pure Black tendency creates storms and shit and creates entirely new challenges and creatures within the world
 
wonder if this game will have "armor" in any sense -- ie, more protective things you can put on that reduce mobility, the regular deal from dark souls.
 
if every area of the game is looking as good as this from an art-perspective, I don't mind the aliasing. but please don't give me another Lost Izalith.
 
Exactly we know for a fact that weapons use Arcane as a damage type but we also know, if statements form the developers are to be beleived, that players will not have access to magic in this game so I'm completely at a loss for what the stat could other than modify that particular damage branch on weapons and items. I'm hoping someone else has a better idea as to what it could be.



Yep I think it makes sense to have bloodtinge modify both blood regain and health regain from blood vials. Will be interesting to see if I'm right when the game releases.

I just watched the video again, note when he chooses his weapon at 3:55 or so. The stat screen has the following values:

Physical, blood, arcane, fire, bolt attack.

Attribute bonus: strength, skill, bloodtinge, arcane.

Attribute requirement: strength, skill, bloodtinge, arcane.

"Blood" damage is represented by the same icon as the bloodtinge stat. Arcane damage is, oddly, represented by a different icon: a star for the damage value, an apple for the stat.

So whatever the relation between the arcane stat and arcane damage is, it seems likely to me that the bloodtinge stat will function similarly with relation to blood damage (whatever that is).

Also, check out the special attack icons: poison and bleeding, presumably, followed by a crescent moon with a slash through it and a wolf with a slash through it. The wolf must be additional damage against beasts, but what would the crescent represent? Is "moon" or "night" the opposite of "beast" in the game's metaphysics?

Edit: Also, guns require bloodtinge to equip and deal blood damage rather than physical damage! Seems likely that we're looking at two defensive stats (vitality and endurance, governing HP and stamina respectively) and four offensive stats (governing strength, "dex," blood, and arcane damage). Whatever "blood" damage is it clearly has something to do with guns. Arcane damage seems to include elemental damage to a certain extent - firebombs scale significantly with the arcane stat.
 
Alright, finally got around to watching the video uninterrupted on my TV. Good lawd.

Here are my thoughts on the actual game.

Thank you for your intelligent thoughts on the actual game. Gonna try and use some page real estate on posts like this instead of giving graphics whores the time of day (hah, you see what I did there).

1.) Combat looks absolutely phenomenal. Looks fast paced and downright brutal. I LOVE THE AUDIO OF THAT BLUNDERBUSS. It is loud as fuck, and echoes through the environment. I cranked my surround up and holy shit, fantastic ambience.

Yes! The blunderbuss sounds fantastic in the heat of battle, and it's just a starter weapon! I can't wait to experiment with the other firearms.

2.) This is the same hub system that is in Demons Souls, no doubt about it. When entering the Dream Refuge you can see 5-6 other tombstones that the character uses to warp into Yharnam. And when he unlocks Central Yharnam and reaches that checkpoint he is then able to warp to it ala 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 which worked the same way in Demons Souls.

Hold your horses there, it could well be a mix of the two styles. I.e. Warp to a major location (from a separate hub area) and then travel around the map as it unravels.

I have good reason to believe that those other tombstones you saw are to do with the Chalice Dungeons and associated rituals.

I also have good reason to believe that the hub area itself will have a few interesting nooks and crannies to explore... There's just no telling right now if it's completely disjointed from the rest of Yharnam or not.

3.) The daylight is interesting to me and here is my theory. I do not think this is a day/night cycle, but a return of the World Tendency system that is used in Demons Souls but now it is much more visual.

Interesting theory. I see nothing right now that could prove it either way, but I like the idea. We shall see.

4.) It is interesting how the intro has the character getting a blood transfusion and put into a dream-like state before he is visited by the bloodhound and then surrounded by those ghoul creatures that are the messengers as well. And then you awaken in the Clinic again and must die before being transported to the Nexus. I wonder who that Doctor was and what exactly is being done to you at this time.

It is a puzzling intro (just the way one likes it!) and I can't wait to dig into it more on my own time.

However, I have reason to believe that you don't *need* to die and/or return to the "Nexus" straight away. It may well be quite open-ended like the "tutorial" areas in the Souls games.

5.) It is quite interesting how the populace seems to have their wits about them. They talk as they attack you and banter back and forth. And YOU are thought to be the Beast and the evil one here. Very interesting twist that is. You are called the Hunter. But the hunter of what exactly? Blood?

Yeah, it gives me those RE4 vibes. Not just mindless zombies, but infected/derranged citizens... "Friends" refer to you as Hunter, while "foes" refer to you as Beast... very interesting.

And jesus fuck you people need to get over this downgrade stuff. Its become a sort of cliche at this point.

There's really no sense in humouring people anymore.
I've never used GAF's ignore function, but I think it might be time to start in order to improve my browsing/discussion experience.
 
Looks fantastic but regarding the graphics, I know it states it's from an early build but how "early" can it be? Why would they send IGN code from long enough ago that it won't reflect release quality so close to release? Makes no sense. Surely they're aware of the insane scrutiny games go under these days?

Anyhow I love how it's shaping up. Can't wait. I thought the Dark Souls 1 graphics looked like shit when I first played it so I'm really not bothered how it looks.
 
The gameplay looks good. I'd have preferred if the systems in place were a tad more removed from the Souls series, but I guess that's just From Software's unique flavor. Might have to save up for a PS4 if this game continues to impress.
 
Hmm I personally do not go into the XB1 threads often since I do not own one... but I thought XB1 exclusives were generally praised, like FH2 and Sunset Overdrive....

ok well if you've never been in those threads, I can tell you those two games have gotten plenty of criticism/discussion of their graphics on GAF

tons of posters complained about SO being 900p and FH2 not looking as good as Driveclub
 
I always found these From games interesting but never bothered to get the console I needed to play them. (No Windows here either so I can't play the PC ports). I really need to get around to checking them out. This looks like fun and is sure to be challenging from everything I've heard about the DS games. It looks slightly worse graphically than when I watched demo footage before. I watched that up to the fight with Cleric Beast and the game was dark but quite stunning due to texture details. The difference could be due to poor capture quality in the IGN video.
 
As for why blood damage is related to guns - I'm not sure. I have a theory, though. I find it telling that the only sort of bullet available so far is the quicksilver bullet. Quicksilver is mercury, and the bullet is depicted as being filled with that substance. Perhaps in Bloodborne the reason guns do "blood" damage is that they fire bullets formulated to counteract the victim's diseased blood, of which quicksilver bullets are only the most basic sort. You're firing "medicine," basically, that disrupts the tainted blood, the source of your enemy's power: dealing damage to the blood, rather than "blood damage," so to speak. And because you're firing medicinal, fluid-filled bullets rather than solid metal bullets your gun doesn't do much actual physical damage to the enemy's body.

Why exactly the stat governing such damage would be called bloodtinge, though, I can't say.

Also, the blunderbuss seems to do significantly more damage to the infected dogs than to other enemies. Since guns do blood damage, this implies that the dogs have particularly low blood defense. Now, it could be the case that the dogs just have low defenses overall so it's best not to read too much into this, but it does seem possible that "blood" damage is more effective as a general rule against enemies that are more bestial.
 
Imru’ al-Qays;150372698 said:
I just watched the video again, note when he chooses his weapon at 3:55 or so. The stat screen has the following values:

Physical, blood, arcane, fire, bolt attack.

Attribute bonus: strength, skill, bloodtinge, arcane.

Attribute requirement: strength, skill, bloodtinge, arcane.

"Blood" damage is represented by the same icon as the bloodtinge stat. Arcane damage is, oddly, represented by a different icon: a star for the damage value, an apple for the stat.

So whatever the relation between the arcane stat and arcane damage is, it seems likely to me that the bloodtinge stat will function similarly with relation to blood damage (whatever that is).

Also, check out the special attack icons: poison and bleeding, presumably, followed by a crescent moon with a slash through it and a wolf with a slash through it. The wolf must be additional damage against beasts, but what would the crescent represent? Is "moon" or "night" the opposite of "beast" in the game's metaphysics?

Edit: Also, guns require bloodtinge to equip and deal blood damage rather than physical damage! Seems likely that we're looking at two defensive stats (vitality and endurance, governing HP and stamina respectively) and four offensive stats (governing strength, "dex," blood, and arcane damage). Whatever "blood" damage is it clearly has something to do with guns. Arcane damage seems to include elemental damage to a certain extent - firebombs scale significantly with the arcane stat.

Good catch! Can't believe I didnt notice the bloodtinge scaling with guns. Sort of an odd stat to modify weapons damage. Perhpas it is specifically for the blunderbuss as its more of a flechette style weapon that launches a wide area of shrapnel like a shotgun. Did the pistol also scale with bloodtinge or is it just the Blunderbuss?

It's likely that arcane will have some other function aside from a damage modifier if bloodtinge is also modifying damage in conjunction with modifying regain and health regen from vials. I wonder what secondary functions arcane could offer to make it a compelling stat. Maybe it just scales much faster granting more damage per point spent than Bloodtinge?

Curious to find out what the crescent moon modifier is all about. Perhaps does more damage to creatures that specifically come out after dark? or maybe more damage when used at night.
 
My guess for stats would be

  • Vitality = health
  • Endurance = stamina
  • Strength = damage for str weps (possibly also diminishes effects of higher weight classes on mobility)
  • Skill = modifier for dex type weapons (possibly impacts damage of parry attacks)
  • Bloodtinge = determines how much health you can regain from counter hits and health regained from blood vials
  • Arcane = modifier for mystical damage on items and weapons.

I think they may have entirely eliminated item burden and equip burden in favor of weight classes on armor and weapons that factor into dodge and backstep distance as well as swing speed. This would fit with their aims to make the game more fast paced and focused on dodging and avoidance over blocking. In such a game you must ensure a certain baseline of dodge and avoidance for all players regardless of stat weight since they can no longer rely on blocking or heavy damage reduction to counter the lack of mobility.

The only real mystery is Arcane. My assumption is that it operates similar to faith or intelligence from past games with its effect on items and weapons but without the added utility of spells utilizing the stat as a damage modifier as well.

The first four should be pretty obvious, and I'm fairly certain Arcane is probably spells.

But I'm thinking Bloodtinge might be the new attunement? Like for spell slots to use whatever blood magic, it could also double for what you said about health regain.
 
People caring about graphics in a souls game..... also people getting surprised about a downgrade in a souls game....

Still is not excuse to deliver such methods of physics in some scenes in a current gen game but yeah they are still lazy in their development.

EDIT: Wow at previous pages, just wait till the final build videos.
 
Good catch! Can't believe I didnt notice the bloodtinge scaling with guns. Sort of an odd stat to modify weapons damage. Perhpas it is specifically for the blunderbuss as its more of a flechette style weapon that launches a wide area of shrapnel like a shotgun. Did the pistol also scale with bloodtinge or is it just the Blunderbuss?

It's likely that arcane will have some other function aside from a damage modifier if bloodtinge is also modifying damage in conjunction with modifying regain and health regen from vials. I wonder what secondary functions arcane could offer to make it a compelling stat. Maybe it just scales much faster granting more damage per point spent than Bloodtinge?

Curious to find out what the crescent moon modifier is all about. Perhaps does more damage to creatures that specifically come out after dark? or maybe more damage when used at night.

The pistol and the blunderbuss both deal exclusively blood damage, and they both require a (low) bloodtinge value, but on closer inspection neither of them appear to actually scale with the bloodtinge stat. . .very curious.

I wonder if the "night" modifier doesn't have something to do with all this talk of the nightly hunt, this night of all nights, etc. Maybe ghosts or spiritual creatures like the messengers, who seem to be opposed to the "blood-elemental"/diseased enemies?
 
Imru’ al-Qays;150374522 said:
As for why blood damage is related to guns - I'm not sure. I have a theory, though. I find it telling that the only sort of bullet available so far is the quicksilver bullet. Quicksilver is mercury, and the bullet is depicted as being filled with that substance. Perhaps in Bloodborne the reason guns do "blood" damage is that they fire bullets formulated to counteract the victim's diseased blood, of which quicksilver bullets are only the most basic sort. You're firing "medicine," basically, that disrupts the tainted blood, the source of your enemy's power: dealing damage to the blood, rather than "blood damage," so to speak. And because you're firing medicinal, fluid-filled bullets rather than solid metal bullets your gun doesn't do much actual physical damage to the enemy's body.

Why exactly the stat governing such damage would be called bloodtinge, though, I can't say.

Also, the blunderbuss seems to do significantly more damage to the infected dogs than to other enemies. Since guns do blood damage, this implies that the dogs have particularly low blood defense. Now, it could be the case that the dogs just have low defenses overall so it's best not to read too much into this, but it does seem possible that "blood" damage is more effective as a general rule against enemies that are more bestial.

perhaps bloodtinge is related to your own blood levels and how bestial you are as well as modifying your damage dealt to creatures with tainted blood. SO many awesome viable possibilities. I am so excited to get my hands on the game and dig deep to figure everything out. Exciting times ahead!

Imru’ al-Qays;150375263 said:
The pistol and the blunderbuss both deal exclusively blood damage, and they both require a (low) bloodtinge value, but on closer inspection neither of them appear to actually scale with the bloodtinge stat. . .very curious.

I wonder if the "night" modifier doesn't have something to do with all this talk of the nightly hunt, this night of all nights, etc. Maybe ghosts or spiritual creatures like the messengers, who seem to be opposed to the "blood-elemental"/diseased enemies?

Hmm so its a gating stat but not necessarily a damage scaling stat? Curioser and curiouser. I think youre right about the blood damage being related to creatures with tainted blood.
 
Top Bottom