I'm curious in that myself too. I'm more interested in the cosmic/celestial bosses and their story. That's not something I would expect to see in this kind of game and I'm really happy they weren't afraid to do it. The Daughter of the Cosmos is just fascinating.
Ok, at this point I have so many possible options that it seems overwhelming. I've beaten four bosses, and haven't touched chalice dungeons so far. At this point, the paths I have available to me (that I know of) are:
Hypogean Gaol
Hemick Charnel
Forbidden Woods
Lecture Building
Which way should I go, or should I do chalice dungeons? I'm trying to avoid doing harder harder areas first, so which of these are harder or easier than the others?
I've got what I now need from blood starved beast to create/enter a dungeon. Now is this randomised every time I access it? In regards to accessing others is that basically a case of completing my first one and getting items from it to access another?
I'm curious in that myself too. I'm more interested in the cosmic/celestial bosses and their story. That's not something I would expect to see in this kind of game and I'm really happy they weren't afraid to do it. The Daughter of the Cosmos is just fascinating.
I mention it because of "Fear the Old Blood", the Lovecraftian connections of ancient god-creatures transcending dreams, nightmares, dimensions and so on. I don't think it can simply be chalked up to a a coincidence.
Ok, at this point I have so many possible options that it seems overwhelming. I've beaten four bosses, and haven't touched chalice dungeons so far. At this point, the paths I have available to me (that I know of) are:
Hypogean Gaol
Hemick Charnel
Forbidden Woods
Lecture Building
Which way should I go, or should I do chalice dungeons? I'm trying to avoid doing harder harder areas first, so which of these are harder or easier than the others?
It's strange because the blood transform does less damage than the normal form.
I don't know if it's because the blood form switches to bloodtinge stats, which I have very little, where my skill stat is so high so maybe that buffs the normal form more.
Ridiculous. I have tried the beckoning bell three times and nobody shows up. Online is broken. I am stuck on the blood beast and have died 20 times easy. I need help and the system doesn't work. I am getting close to quitting the game.
I'm having so much trouble with Gehrman even though I feel like I shouldn't be. I'm constantly parrying him and getting hit at the same time which keeps fucking me up because I'm wasting vials I shouldn't be. Anyone have advice?
I was in the same spot last night, frustrated and out of vials. I did an optional area and came back, put in the work and realized that his attacks are actually dodgeable, and require very fast timing.
It was a combination of parrying and dodging that saved me, but it takes a few tries to learn his patterns and attacks. Keep at it! Don't be afraid to take a break and explore something else. You can stock up on vials for mutliple attempts with a few thousands souls from an optional boss.
I'd recommend fighting him and willingly ignoring your vials until you get a sense for his speed.
It's strange because the blood transform does less damage than the normal form.
I don't know if it's because the blood form switches to bloodtinge stats, which I have very little, where my skill stat is so high so maybe that buffs the normal form more.
Are there times when you die and cannot recover your souls? I know they're typically with the enemy who killed you (or a surrounding one) or on the ground, but I just lost 20k souls and they're nowhere in sight. -.-
Ridiculous. I have tried the beckoning bell three times and nobody shows up. Online is broken. I am stuck on the blood beast and have died 20 times easy. I need help and the system doesn't work. I am getting close to quitting the game.
Just wrote up a big post on my thoughts of the game now I've beat it, then realised it is littered with spoilers everywhere. What do you guys think about making a new spoiler thread for people that have finished the game to swap secrets and discuss their feelings overall feelings on the game without resorting to a big mess of black bars?
Just wrote up a big post on my thoughts of the game now I've beat it, then realised it is littered with spoilers everywhere. What do you guys think about making a new spoiler thread for people that have finished the game to swap secrets and discuss their feelings overall feelings on the game without resorting to a big mess of black bars?
I mention it because of "Fear the Old Blood", the Lovecraftian connections of ancient god-creatures transcending dreams, nightmares, dimensions and so on. I don't think it can simply be chalked up to a a coincidence.
Ridiculous. I have tried the beckoning bell three times and nobody shows up. Online is broken. I am stuck on the blood beast and have died 20 times easy. I need help and the system doesn't work. I am getting close to quitting the game.
Ridiculous. I have tried the beckoning bell three times and nobody shows up. Online is broken. I am stuck on the blood beast and have died 20 times easy. I need help and the system doesn't work. I am getting close to quitting the game.
I managed to solo him after dying a good 7-8 times. The fire paper made it much easier. I made it past his first phase without getting hit, then used 2 papers to finish him off fairly quickly.
Opposite side of where you see the body containing the hat. You'll see a small gap with a huge fall that leads to spore mobs I believe. Do a running jump to cross that gap.
this morning. Holy hell the atmosphere of that place!!
So after the Shadows i'm going into Bygenworth or wherever. Finish that up tonight with the boss, go back to the Cathedral and cross my fingers that E
ileen Crow
shows up as hostile so i can fight and get the gear I want so desperately!!!
a few quick questions for anyone who might know -
1. Concerning a weapon
I want those twin swords but Eileen or whatever her name is never showed up in the Tomb area fighting an NPC hunter. I've look around online and the only thing for me to do now is to warp back after my next boss fight and pray that she spwns as hostile? Has anyone had this happen to them? is there a decent chance she'll spawn? I want those swords...
2. Concerning a world event... thing -
Why is EVERYWHERE dark and moonlight and gloomy all the time now? I killed Amelia and the BSB the Witches and the Shadows and continue to unlock and explore new areas but it's always gloomy as shit now. Does this change soon?? Atmosphere is dope and all but i'd love a change of pace away from the gray for a bit...
3. Concerning a place ....
Cainhurst. FUCK. THOSE. SPIDER PEOPLES.
I walked in there at first around level 50ish feeling very confident and made it out barely with my life! I feel like i'm gonna love hunting here but i'm curious - about how long is it to get the optional boss/join the Vilebloods or whatsits and get dat dang ol Katana???!!!
This game is facking amazing. Can't stop playing no matter how hard I try. So. Glorious.
Any more word on that patch? Perhaps at least a mention as to the fact that getting together with friends via the PW is fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckin slow and oftentimes straight up broken? I'd love to get into the Chalice or even out in the open of the world with a couple of my buddies but it's like a 1 in 100 shot that we ever actually connect up our games....
Let me start of by saying that I'm extremely tired as I'm typing this. As many of you may already know by now, I haven't slept much these days. Bloodborne was released 25th and it's currently 28th. I'm currently on my NG+++ playthrough and I can safely assume that I'm now able to give my honest reactions and opinions of this game. A few people did ask me what I thought about the game when I had beaten it once, but for me, I wouldn't rate a game like this based of one playthrough.
Now before I start listing and rating stuff, let me just point out that I have not done more than 6 chalice dungeons. I also have not engaged in a PvP battle yet (I'll be doing a PvP-character after this and that's when I'll be slaughtering some Moonbros). So basically, this review/summary is strictly for the PvE-content of Bloodborne.
As many of you already know by now, I rate the current Souls-games the following way: Demon's Souls > Dark Souls 2 > Dark Souls... the specifics being DeS (10), DkS2 (8), DkS (6). A brief summary of these games for me would look like this:
Demon's Souls
+ Flawless, balanced PvE content
+ Controls are the most quick and responsive controls in the entire franchise
+ The bosses average out of to be the best in all the Souls-games
+ Atmosphere is the best
+ The NPCs
Dark Souls
+ The music outperforms both the other Souls-games
+ World structure and pacing
+ Has the best boss (O&S) in the franchise
- After 50%>, the game becomes absolutely garbage
Dark Souls 2
+ The PvP is the most fun I've had in all Souls-games
+ There are no bad zones in the game. Everything is straight up from "good" to "really good".
+ 60fps
- No map really stands out. There's no Undead Burg or Boletarian Palace in this game
- That Souls-leveling-saving mechanic
Now with that out of the way, let us continue with the important part, shall we?
Bloodborne
=========
+ The atmosphere is absolutely phenomenal. When I was playing Dark Souls 2 recently, I realized something. I told myself "huh, this really doesn't look or sound like something from a Souls-game". The raw density of the atmosphere in this game, the horrifying screams and cries you hear from inside the building, the constant nagging from the enemies, the wind, the footsteps... everything in this game absolutely oozes with atmosphere. It's absolutely drenched in it, and it strongly reminds me of the powerful zones in Demon's Souls.
+ The music is god damn amazing. If you watched me live stream, then you probably remember my reaction when I was fighting Father G(regory). When he transitioned to phase 2, the song also transitioned and the entire experience of that fight tripled in epicness. The boss songs are all very memorable and even though it doesn't exceed the quality of Dark Souls 1, I truly do feel that I will hold it deep in my heart. The orchestra team deserves a raise, because the music adds up to what Bloodborne is trying to achieve.
+ The controls are on par with Demon's Souls. We've finally gone from being fat (DkS2) to quick again. The fluidity and the amount of "control" you have over your character is perfection. Every weapon has their own move-set; every action has its own hitbox/hurtbox and its own recovery-frames. All of this, while being fully cancellable at (almost) any given moment. You can charge up an attack and at the last frame of that animation, you can switch the position of the attack by 180 degrees. Basically, you've got full fucking control over your character.
+ The bosses are intimidating again, yay! If anyone's been following my Souls-story for the past 5 years, they'd know that one of my main complaints of Dark Souls 1 and 2 is that they never really managed to make me feel terrified by the bosses. Not even Ornstein and Smough did that to me (although the actual fight was godtier). Bloodborne gives me those Demon's Souls shivers when I enter the mist. The cutscene triggers and I'm absolutely terrified by what's about to come at me. All bosses look gruesome in some way, shape or form - and all of this, blended with the awesome soundtrack just makes the bosses an awesome experience overall. A more detailed list of what I think of the bosses exists at the bottom of this summary.
+ I'm one of those people who rage-quit Dark Souls 2 for PS3 very early on (10h in) because the framerate was absolutely shit. I just couldn't stand it. A few days later, the PC-version got released and suddenly the game became awesome. With Bloodborne, I can safely say that the framerate is perfectly acceptable! It only bothered me a few times; usually when the game combined lots of fire, dust, smoke and enemies at the same time, it goes down to ~15-20. But overall, I felt that it never really hurt he experience - which is why I'm putting a + on this.
+ The weapons are fucking amazing. I've played around with almost all of the weapons and I can easily say that I prefer quality over quantity. To be fair, I've only used like 10 out of the 190284 weapons in DkS2 and the same goes with DkS1. In Bloodborne, I'm falling in love with every weapon I decide to try out (I wish they would allow you to respec, god damnit!). Like I previously said, every weapon has its own unique set of animations and everything that includes with it; like recovery-frames, hurt/hitbox etc. It all blends in so well with what the game wants to be (QUALITY-content, not quantity!).
With all of the above being said, let's head over to the negatives!
- Major glitches are automatically going to be put in the negative-side of this summary. I've had two things happen to me multiple times throughout my 4 playthroughs. One being that my echoes completely disappears when I die. I kill every single enemy in that area, while looking at every corner - but they're just gone. I've lost over 3mil souls from this glitch and it's occurred (I think) 4 times now. The other glitch has to do with enemies falling under the ground. The loot disappears and restarting the game won't give me the loot. This is a smaller issue than the one above, but definitely a minus nonetheless.
- Loading times. One of the obvious minuses of Bloodborne - and although they are going to patch this (by how much, 5? 10?) - it's still a minus considering the first couple of days for a game are the most important ones. There has been multiple occasions where I just light up the lamp and continue on without spending my echoes - solely for the reason that I want to avoid having to go through the loading times. Thankfully I didn't die much during my playthroughs so I'm not complaining as much as some other people are.
Nitpick - I miss the fact that you could see small images of the location you are headed when teleporting! This was in both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 2. I mean, it obviously encourages you to remember the names of the places - but come on
BOSSES
I felt that I needed to give some small feedback regarding all of the bosses - for multiple reasons. I would love to compare these to the other bosses in the Souls-franchise. The list below contains plenty of spoilers, of course.
Before I start handing out scores left and right, let me just give you guys a few bosses from the Souls-franchise so you get some perspective.
Ornstein & Smough is my favorite boss in Souls. That fight is a 10/10
Flamelurker is one of the best boss as well. That fight is a 9.
Penetrator is an average boss. A well deserved 5.
Leechmonger is a really bad boss, it gets a 2.
Pinwheel is an abysmal boss, hence a 1.
-
Cleric Beast - 9/10 Blood-starved Beast - 9 Father Gascoigne - 9 V
icar
A
melia
- 9
Don't we all love when a game starts of with just pure madness? The above bosses are the first ones that you engage (well, Cleric is optional, but...). And the first bosses are actually the most superior ones in the entire game. They're hectic, the music is easily the best and their transition phases are heavily recognizable and fun to adapt to.
D
arkbeast
P
aarl
- 8 S
hadow of
Y
harnam
- 8 G
ehrman
- 8
The above are just absolutely amazing. They're all extremely horrifying in completely different ways. One is
a lightning-infested skeleton-beast that wants to rip the shit out of your entire body with its bony fingers
while the other bosses
wants to incinerate, stab and shoot you in the face.
The above bosses requires you to play smart (unless you're over-leveled but that's irrelevant to this review) and take advantage of every mechanic you've used up until that point.
M
artyr
L
ogarius
- 7
M
ergo's
W
et
N
urse
- 6
I'm a huge fan of fighting
on top of roof.
It just adds to atmosphere that only video games can create. I
specifically remember how much I loved it in the Onimusha-games.
This boss oozes with atmosphere and it's really hard until you get the parry-timing in. Until then, he's a really hard boss considering you
can't attack him from distance and his melee attacks are one of the strongest in the game.
W
itch of
H
emwick
- 5
M
oon
P
resence
- 5
E
brietas
- 4
The above bosses are all average. They're really nothing special whatsoever, but at least
W
itch of
H
emwick
is extremely atmosphere-filled and has one deadly move.
M
icolash
- 3
O
ne
R
eborn
- 3
A
mygdala
- 3
C
elestial
E
missary
- 3
R
om
- 3
All above is next to trash-tier. Considerably less amounts than DkS2 (that game had like 25 bosses or something though).
With all of that being said, my official list for the Souls-franchise including Bloodborne is: Demon's Souls (10), Bloodborne (9), Dark Souls 2 (8), Dark Souls 1 (6).
And that's it guys! That's my opinions in very brief detail. Hope you guys enjoyed it I know I'll be saving this post for future copy-pastes. Guess I won't be drinking my own urine this time, huh? Awesome!
