Bloodborne (PC)
And done. I cleared Defiled Chalice ver. of Amygdala as god intended: By never, ever engaging him in his weak spots unless I knew I had a clean swing. His arm flailing is just too dangerous and I got caught out enough trying to roll back behind him to safety. Of course, as anyone who's attempted this fight knows, there is no true safe spot against this boss. His arms reach to his tail too, but those attacks always come after the ones in front (and don't have that many active frames), so they're easy enough to predict, as are his regular leaps which he also does frequently when you're behind him. These leaps are a one-shot in Defiled Chalice as I experienced many times, but timing my rolls to when after the literal dust from the jump clears usually worked. Otherwise I just downed a beast pellet and kept attacking his butthole for piddling damage because that's way safer in the long run, even accounting for the raw number of attacks - however unlikely to hit - I had to dodge.
And I killed the Queen, Orphan of Kos(m), Gehrman, and Moon Presence too, but those fights were way less stressful.
And so I'm done with Bloodborne again. There's some stuff I don't like, such as
how punishing Frenzy is - damage buildup on top of status buildup before the explosion from Winter Lanterns is overkill, but so many of the systems are great. Everyone loves Rally, of course, for incentivizing you to get right back into the fight, but also for some reason Bloodborne is the only, modern Fromsoft game that practically permits multiple equipment loadouts. Of course, Dark Souls and its ilk have equipment loads to consider, but this has never been a reason to not count
only the weight of the currently equipped weapon. Being able to quickswap between weapons enables more play variety, and not being punished for it because you're obv. not using that other weapon (as opposed to the dozens in your pocket dimension that don't just happen to be equipped to some slot) is just great.
Other than that, enemy speed and capability in this game seem about right - probably about as close to the sweet spot as we've seen. Faster than Demons Souls & Dark Souls 1 without BS countermeasures from Dark Souls 2 (i.e. those turtle shell mofos intended to prevent backstab cheese) and more importantly enemy attack strings don't push the limit on dodging that starts becoming an issue in the backend of Dark Souls 3 and is an absolute, disastrous pandemic in Elden Ring. Throws with generous hitboxes and active frames are a nuisance too but not as bad as some enemies in Dark Souls 3 who can literally 180 no-scope in a single frame to throw you. Low boss and stage variety and overall easiness are still demerits against the game though. Even after replaying Dark Souls 3 a year and a half ago, I'm still not sure... mmm... Dark Souls 3 is probably the best, by a hair? It's really close. --- Those two are in a tier of their own imo, cleary better than the rest of From's stuff.
No, new game-breaking bugs, although I did suffer through a white screen a couple more times forcing hard resets.
That score implies that the game is completely unremarkable despite the game being polished and designed better than most releases in the genre. It even one ups Symphony of the Night in mechanics and presentation but just does not feel as adventurous or open ended.
P.S. The game had a great level of challenge but it is still easier than Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. If somebody asked me for a game like Symphony of the Night this would likely be my first recommendation.
Same. Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth tops my list of 'Metroidvanias to recommend'. It's short, fantastically beautiful, very fun to control and play. I only wish there was more of it, but I'll always take finely polished, small games over boring, gargantuan ones.
