I was watching a video of a guy fighting OoK and he ran out to the sea where he hit an invisible wall with a note which said that, I couldn't stop laughing.
to phase 2 about 90% of the time. but 3 times now in phase 2 i get him near death then he backs into a wall and i cant dodge around him anymore and all i see is textures and then death...... getting a tad anoying.
with a flaming LHB at level 155, NG+. Pretty sure the neighbors heard me down the block when that bastard went down.
Edit: holy crap, forgot to adjust my runes. Took him out with more echoes/more echoes/more items and vial HP recovery up. This could have been a lot easier than it was.
There are some problems wit hthe DLC...bosses mostly...but I really love the amount of character in the DLC and the more explicit story. Hope that carries into DS3
Solo'ed Ludwig with a flaming LHB at level 155. Pretty sure the neighbors heard me down the block when that bastard went down.
Edit: holy crap, forgot to adjust my runes. Took him out with more echoes/more echoes/more items and vial HP recovery up. This could have been a lot easier than it was.
This, Valtr is great in Phase 1 but dies almost instantly in Phase 2, leaving you to deal with a buffed, lava-spewing abomination. One tip to make this fight easier is that you want to be close in Phase 1 and far in Phase 2.
So this is also the first time playing Bloodborne post patch. I've noticed the load times are faster. It takes me 5 seconds to get back to Hunters Drwam and about 7 seconds to re spawn from death.
I wish it was like this when I put 70 hours into the game pre patch.
yeah, it's really great. at least we'll get ds3 soon to tide us over until a sequel
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i'm ringing by the gate, spartan. i have until the top of the hour, then i have to head out
I was watching a video of a guy fighting OoK and he ran out to the sea where he hit an invisible wall with a note which said that, I couldn't stop laughing.
Now that I've had time to fully digest this DLC I can offer some thrilling final thoughts on it.
Bloodborne itself has been an odd game among my group of friends who all love Dark Souls, I didn't get my PS4 until July this year so by the time I got around to BB they'd all played through it already and the consensus was pretty much indifference at best with the game being viewed as something of a disappointment.
I figured that with the benefit of tempered expectations I'd likely enjoy it more than them yet I can't lie, when I first finished BB over the Summer I left thinking it was good but I didn't love it as much as I wanted to.
So far I'm the only one of us who actually picked up The Old Hunters DLC and I'm glad I did as it gave the whole game a second chance to impress which it damn well did.
Well i'm not about to go into whole details of what I like and dislike about the entirety of Bloodborne, instead I can just start with this second run unsurprisingly going a lot smoother throughout the main game content, I'd finally clicked with its more aggressive twist on the souls style combat and I felt like a big man.
Then I started the DLC and was reduced back to being a mere boy.
In my mind The Old Hunters is definitely what I'd consider endgame content, I first dropped in after tackling Rom and struggled my way to the first boss and it quickly became clear that I wasn't going anywhere beyond that point. So each to their own and all but I think the whole DLC package works out better for the player left as something right for the back end of a run, and even then it still kicked the crap out of me at points.
I can almost imagine the devious chaps at From called a meeting to decide the general direction of the DLC content here and one bright spark had their eureka moment, "what if...we made some of the most ball breaking bosses Soulsborne has ever seen!", okay so they wouldn't use the term soulsborne but sweet merciful Kos this batch of bosses seeked to make me a broken man.
While this means the accomplishment I felt having bested them is up there with the top challenges I've tackled in video games it's also felt overly brutal at times. Personally I feel like some dialling back wouldn't have been amiss, be it some of the health bars being too large or that the optional boss is just an annoying git. It's something of a shame that while I want to recommend my friends give this game another shot with the DLC to boot it's likely gonna be a hard sell when they find out just how swiftly these bosses can tear through an entire health bar for one mistake.
Hot damn though you've got some of the best bosses lurking in here, rating them I'd order them as...
1. Lady Maria
I think one of the great points here is that while Maria offers a challenge she does so in a number of ways that cut down on being too overwhelming. In a sense she reminds me of what happens when a Bloodborne hunter opponent plays closer to the nearly obligatory similar rival foe trope that occupy character action games.
Her moves are well telegraphed but require careful timing to dodge (notably on the most obvious and dangerous ones), in general she's similar to the player at first before making use of the phases BB loves so dearly to mix up her existing attacks in both deadlier and even more stylish ways.
Put simply she strikes that balance of fun and challenge that I wasn't even mad when I fell short of besting her on my first attempt leading to many more as per series tradition.
2. Orphan of Kos
It's been a while since I've had to use the old phrase of "my hands were shaking" but when I finally toppled this manic mutant they were indeed shaking and with good cause.
OoK feels like he has the health and relentless assault of Manus from Atorias of the Abyss along with more erratic movement and projectile focused attacks that can make a man shit bricks.
First time I saw that lightning storm move I let out an audible "WHAT THE SHIT IS THIS?!", safe to say I got jolted and while stunlocked I got flattened into a fine paste of blood echoes by a following lunge attack.
speaking from an animation standpoint I love the heft and weight of his attacks with whatever that grotesque organ like thing he wields, I especially like how its almost elastic string of flesh allows it to be a potent medium/long range weapon with sweeping strikes.
Hits like a bloody freight train though, so tough but oh so rewarding to have bested.
3. Ludwig
Funny how some things work out, my early assessment of Ludwig was like a more flailing Vicar Amelia took tips from Ebrietas (who was the bane of my life in my first playthrough) on how to ruin ones day.
Usually when you knock a boss down to their next phase it's a shit got real moment, except that while Ludwig still packs a punch with sword in hand I'm so much more comfortable with tackling his second phase. Reverse dificulty curve aside it's a stellar encounter with two great music tracks backing up the action.
But fuuuck that dash attack.
4= Laurence
Well they can't all be winners, finishing the DLC with this was a bit like finding my complimentary post dinner "after eight" was in fact a square of turd and not minty chocolate goodness, sure the whole meal was delicious if a struggle to digest at times but even if it's just a small bonus that could've easily not been offered at all to no issue I'm still thinking "that last tidbit tasted like shit".
So if OoK was a challenge I was raring to tackle again even if it was riling me up a bit defeat after defeat then Laurence was just the boss that pissed me off without the redeeming factor of enjoyment.
I was close to just knocking it on the head at one point but forced my way through his literal hot mess of a boss fight.
Never again!
4= Living Failures
Not much a fan of enemy mob bosses, better than Celestial Emissary mind you but lacked an interesting gimmick. It's rather inoffensive, being placed with an excellent boss immediately afterwards softens the blow.
To think there's still so much I could say regarding the weapons, enemies and locations, Boom Hammer left me disappointed but the pizza cutter brought redemption.
Instead I'll just describe where the DLC gave me one of those visual "I love videogames" moment.
The Lady Maria fight was one heck of a ruck in my mind and I do dig my clock tower settings so the boss arena was already quite striking to me, I had no idea what the next area of the DLC was going to look like nor where to access it. Of course immediately after the boss you get the amulet that causes the clock face to start whirring away which was already getting me hype just as a method of opening a route (sure beats another lift!).
Stepping into the light only to emerge in a stormy rundown fishing village with wrecked ship masts lining the coast, I was not prepared, I basked in the moment as long as I could, I slowly stepped forwards whirring the camera around at the scene around me, this may be my favourite visual moment from the Souls/Bloodborne games, you could say this was my Anor Londo moment.
In conclusion this was a great yet punishing DLC, I feel almost drained now but it was not only worth it as an excellent addition to the existing Bloodborne content, it was also worth it in making me revisit the game and realise just how great the whole package actually is. Dark Souls is still my favourite Miyazaki work (I imagine that game may reach ocarina of time status with me) but Bloodborne does a fine job of getting close.
depends. personally i think this is a million times better than dark souls. but dark souls are still great games. the gameplay in this just resonates with me way more.
Dark Souls 2 is a GREAT game, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. But I think the real question is, between Witcher III and Bloodborne, will it just collect dust? It goes on sale often so don't feel pressured to get it NOW. Maybe save it for a drought.
True but I'm worried I'm not going to like it as much. I've tried to go back to DSII after playing Bloodborne but it feels so slow in comparison. I hope DSIII is a little bit faster.
Dark Souls 2 is a GREAT game, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. But I think the real question is, between Witcher III and Bloodborne, will it just collect dust? It goes on sale often so don't feel pressured to get it NOW. Maybe save it for a drought.
depends. personally i think this is a million times better than dark souls. but dark souls are still great games. the gameplay in this just resonates with me way more.
True but I'm worried I'm not going to like it as much. I've tried to go back to DSII after playing Bloodborne but it feels so slow in comparison. I hope DSIII is a little bit faster.
I found it really hard to play them back to back earlier this year but given a month of time between them it was easy to get back into Scholar and I did a 100% complete NG before The Old Hunters came out. I think the worst part of dark souls 2 is the start. The best early areas, Huntsman Copse and No Man's Wharf, are super good though!
Having played the beta, I think DS III might be too fast if anything! It felt great though. Like a mixtape of the best aspects of the four previous games.
