Review: Bloodborne

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Review: Bloodborne

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Mon Apr 02, 2018 12:28 am

I tried to decide whether to put this in my review thread or dedicate a whole thread to it, and I decided it was a big enough game that I had so much to talk about that I might as well give it it's own thread. The other thread's more dedicated to little games I play here and there between the big ones. I thought it'd take me longer to beat this, but I went from the lantern I was at to the final boss within an hour, so here we are.

Anyways, this is Bloodborne.

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I wanna start out talking to the people who have played it to measure dicks, then I'll get into the good/bad of it.

For those who have played before: I took a build that split all my levelup points between stamina, strength, and vitality. It was my second playthrough, because I realized I missed some people for the chapel and wanted to do that part completely, so I restarted my first playthrough before the Witch, and everything after was a blind play. I lugged around a Kirkhammer but tended to just use the Sword of Elendil that it offered me as a regular weapon. The hammer itself only came out with the slower bosses or against mobs (though I somehow managed to get in a few hits on the vanilla end boss with it).

So, a quick breakdown of my thoughts on the bosses:
Spoiler: show
Cleric Beast -Introduces you to the big stompy boss that you'll see many times through this series. Is one of the easier bosses, if still a pain in the ass so early on (though you can technically do the whole game without fighting it). One attempt.

Father Gascoigne – The boss that introduces you to what this game's REALLY about: evasion and speed. Actually one of my favorite bosses, but he's much easier once you get used to fighting fellow hunters. By the second run through, I obliterated him without much in the way of trouble. One attempt.

Vicar Amelia – The awesome one. Seriously, her character design was so dope. Was one of the first bosses I felt bad for, and the one after Gascione that made me realize that bosses had tics in combat that were related to the story. One attempt.

Blood-Soaked Beast – The first wakeup call of the game, where you really have to start getting the hang of the speed and how to fight things up close that will fuck you up in one combo. Another one a lot of people have trouble with, and I did too until I realized that the way to fight this thing was just to counterintuitively back it into a corner and dodge around while getting what hits you can in, since his primary mode of operation is to hit you and spring eight miles away out of your range. Two attempts.

Witch of Henwick – The one that makes you realize that not all the bosses are going to be straightforward battles and might require some wits. One attempt.

Shadow of Yarnham – The one that tests if you've been learning how to take down groups of scrubs while keeping spacial awareness. A lot of people seemed to think these three were hard, but the method of “Get a hit, get out” let me punch my way through them the second time in. Two attempts.

Darkbeast Paarl – This one is also one a lot of people find frustrating, but I think because I had chosen the strength build and was lugging around the Kirkhammer, I easily stunned him over and over again and just murdered his ass. Probably wouldn't have been so simple if I hadn't chosen the build at the beginning of the game that inherently lets me kick his ass. Two attempts.

Rom, the Vacuous Spider – The second and final wakeup call of the game, and kinda the point where everyone seems to decide whether or not to keep playing this game. Also, I felt bad for killing her. Everyone else comes after my ass, she's just a big spider thorax that backs away when you come after her. It's the first boss where I kinda felt like I was the bad guy. Four attempts.

The Bloody Crow of Cainhurst – Technically not a boss, but is the hardest boss in the game. Fuck this guy. Not really, it was a good fight, and I realized that I could simply let him use his self-damaging weapon, then use his single heal, then let him use his weapon some more, then came the showdown when he was at his final half of life, with me at my full health and all my blood vials. It felt like one long samurai showdown, which was badass. I'm not sure why Eileen decided she was getting too old to fight when she gets hit by this guy, considering that the end boss would have a lot of trouble with him. A lot of attempts.

Amygdala – The “Are you sure you've learned to fight the big stompy bosses?” boss. Two attempts.

Marty Logarius – This one I had a bit of difficulty with, but it still took me...three times, I think? A good fun boss, and I like that he's one of the few bosses who made very clear what his purpose was in relation to the story (in that he guards the way against the vampires spreading) unlike...say...that locket that Vicar Amelia was carrying. Three attempts?

One Reborn – The “Kill the Adds First” boss. One attempt.

Celestial Emissary – the “So easy it's silly” boss. One attempt.

Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos – The “Holy Shit, this one is Hard” boss. Thank Christ Almighty that my NPC companion managed to keep her busy through the vast majority of her lifebar the time I won. A lot of attempts.

Micolash – The easy but annoying one. One attempt.

Mergo's Wet Nurse – The easy but super cool one. Also one I kinda felt bad killing. She's just trying to help birth Eldritch Gods, why can't we all just leave her alone? One attempt.

Ludwig, the Holy Blade – The one that makes you realize how difficult this DLC is going to be in comparison to the base game. Six attempts.

Living Failures – They're like the Shadow of Yarnham, not that hard if you just assume there's an enemy behind you at all times and operate as such at all times. Followed Doods' tried and true Rule of Two Cuts and Dodge Away, and as long as I found a good hiding place for the meteor, it worked out just fine. Surprised me when I walked out of this boss fight and was like "Oh, I have enough blood vials to keep plugging away into the next area" only to stumble immediately into another (and best) boss fight. Two attempts.

Lady Maria of the Astral Watchtower – The other awesome one along with the final boss of the vanilla end and Vicar Amelia. Is my favorite boss of the game, and the one that made me say “Wait, what's Olivier Mira Armstrong an anime character doing here in Bloodborne?”. She and the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst are the ones that test how well you've learned how to fight hunters. To my eternal shame, both this and the next two bosses required some player help for me to beat, which is weird, because this is the one everyone found easy and I found difficult—compared to how I found many bosses easy that other find difficult. Side note, her line of “You should leave corpses well enough alone” was the most ridiculous line in the game. Lady, have you seen this game? Being dead means NOTHING here, and frankly only seems to give you more superpowers. You're only dead when I get your blood echoes. Four attempts.

Laurence, the First Vicar – Like the Cleric Beast, but on crack and also a Balrog. This one kicked my ass, but half the reason I called someone to help me finish him off after the first try was because there's a big axeman in front of him that's a pain in the ass to beat, and I just wanted to stop making the trip up there. Also, it was late and I wanted to get to sleep. Three attempts.

Orphan of Kos – Holy fuck. The first form of this boss was bad enough, a wildly unpredictable and heavy-hitting speed demon on crack, but the second form is somehow even worse. Again, I had another player help me out that must've gotten frustrated with me or something, because they ran off when the orphan was almost dead, but fuck me if that last sliver of health after he left wasn't one of the most heart-pounding moments of the game. Five attempts.


WARNING. If you haven't played yet, next bosses spoilered for being...spoilers.

Spoiler: show
Gehrman – I actually beat this boss on my third try after expending all my heals and with only a sliver of my health left, and it was the best feeling in the world. Unfortunately, it was followed up immediately by another boss who rocked my face and immediately killed me in one hit. Still, this entire game plays out like a fight between samurai, with you circling enemies and waiting for them to make their move so you can utterly fuck them. This is basically the fight with Gehrman, but faster, where you have to jump all around and wait for one of you to miss so you can get a single cut in on the other one, then move out. It's a shame he has the Magic Bullshit Gun of Always Stunning You no Matter What You're Doing, while your gun is always very particular about when it wants to stun (more on that in the combat section). Three attempts.

Moon Presence - Easy once I realized that I could just dodge out of the way, get a good swing with my Kirkhammer, then dodge away again. On the off chance it's not obvious, I got the secret end my first playthrough, where I turn into a baby Cthulhu and the Doll becomes my mommy, and I was kinda surprised that Gehrman was bookended by two very easy bosses. Two attempts, or one if you don't count him insta-killing me because I exited the last boss with .1% health and no vials.


Anyways, with the obligatory dick-measuring out of the way, to the review.

I've played some of Dark Souls 2 and 1, and I've seen an LP of 3. Those games frustrated me in a way I reaaaaallllly hated, but this one doesn't as much. I'm actually kinda warm on the game--I'm not gonna consider it worthy of the 9s and 10s that every reviewer in the world did, but I will say it's a huge step up from Souls. Perhaps part of that is simply that I was better at this game, for some reason. Combat flows a lot quicker here than in Souls, and it encourages a very countering/offensive mindset in comparison to the more lumbering Souls series. It's also a tad more forgiving of mistakes in boss battles, where you're not immediately fucked for making a mistake or two. Rather than playing the boss perfectly, you just have to learn them to an extent that you can time your heals to make up for any mistakes.

You have to get into a certain mindset with this game. I would get cocky occasionally and say "I'm better than you" as I killed an enemy I was farming for blood vials, then I'd be like "Don't do that, Doods. This game hears you when you get cocky and spring an executioner down on you for your sin." I rarely get this intense and careful in a game.


THE GOOD

I adored the actual fighting of it when it wasn't being a dick. I said at one point that I realized you gotta play this slow, but that's wrong. What it actually is with this game is that you have to be PATIENT, and it's a big difference. When someone attacks you, you have to move at lightning speed to get away, but you also have to accept that sometimes you're out of position at the end of an enemy's combo and can't strike back without getting hit, so you circle around and wait for another attack or opening. This plays like Dark Souls on fast forward, where the biggest and slowest bosses (with the exception of Rom) still fling themselves at you at warp speed.

The bosses almost all require wildly different approaches. Some like the Shadow of Yahrnam require you to keep your spacial awareness about you without actually requiring anything too complex. Some are big and stompy, requiring a lot of movement. Some summon adds, requiring you to go around murdering the adds while keeping one eye on a boss that's trying to fuck you (or lure the adds away so you can get at the boss for a couple hits). These were some of the best designed boss fights I've seen (Except for a couple [Merolash, the Celestial Emissary]).

The world of Bloodborne and the music is incredible, and most of the bosses (Maria, Vicar Amelia, Rom, and Ludwig in particular) stand out visually. The music is some of the best I've heard in a while, and there were several times I just had to stop and stare at the distant scenery, always exciting because like Skyrim, if you see it you can eventually go to it. The OST was good in the core game but mind-blowingly awesome in the DLC, with Maria's fight in particular receiving an awesome track for its efforts.

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Even though I'm going to criticize the story, I also liked that this one took strides forward compared to Dark Souls. Where the others told you NOTHING about what was going on, this one at least dropped a lot of clues right in front of you. The lore itself is excellent. Lovecraftian horror is not a new setting, but it's rarely done in a way where it doesn't feel like a direct rip off, and it wasn't here. I like the idea that humanity (and to an extent, you) are the ones causing all the problems. Humans decided to start looking into Eldritch gods, so they decided to lock all that shit down in return. Then you start kicking open their doors when they're just trying to do their thing. Can't we all just coexist side by side, Great Ones and humans? That said, I never...really understood why I was killing them. It took me forever to realize what the Hunt was about, and once I was there, I was like "Wait, then why am I just kicking in the door of cosmic beings and murdering all of them?" I think it has something to do with that woman who keeps showing up with her stomach all messed up and the baby cries, but it took me literally until typing this sentence to string the whole deal together. I'll get more into the plot in the bad section, too. Favorite character: Eileen the Crow. I know they leave her fate ambiguous in the end of her questline, but I like to think she made it.

I also really liked the way the maps looped on themselves. You navigate using lanterns as 'save' points where you can return to the home base to level up/buy/upgrade shit, and the way each area works is it's a very long distance to run through from the beginning to the boss, but there are always locked doors and elevators that drastically shorten the trip to the lantern if you can find them, thus making the trips from lantern to boss less painful. It was excellent design, and I'm really glad they did it this way rather than forcing me to run through entire mobs of enemies.

Enemy variety was also fantastic here. Every area I went to had something new for me, and though some were complete pushovers, others would completely blow me away every time I tried to fight them, and I kinda like that dichotomy. Except for an area leading up to the Orphan of Kos where boulder throwing giants are just covering each other's back as you take insanity damage, I never felt the need to bypass anything.

Exploration is also greatly rewarded. Exploring every nook and cranny nets you items (though I had enough insight by the end to just blow them all on gear) and sometimes gets you little tidbits of lore. I always like a game that gives you room to explore.

The co-op component is really cool. I like helping people out with their bosses, and I ended up often switching between them to get gud. That said, there was one funny moment where I dropped in on somebody who was an opposing faction from me (I became a vampire) when he was looking for someone to fight Maria, surprised him, and quickly murdered him. I would've felt bad, but the nearest lantern was like...two feet away.

Character builds can be hit or miss, and it was a shame there wasn't really magic in this, though there are some items you can use that compensate(a bit). It really feels like there's a superior build (the one I inherently went after) and everything else just makes the game inordinately difficult for you. Things like the Daggers of Mercy are really cool, it's just a shame they make every fight take ten times as long if you use them. The variety of armors and such, however, are pretty cool.

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The Bad

The plot. I have gone on about how much I hate the praise this and the rest of the Souls series get for the plot. I was talking to somebody who's also a huge nerd where games are concerned, and he was like “You know, you love Transistor, which is super opaque, why do you hate Souls storytelling?” and I had to think about it. At the end of the day, it's because I have a very clear objective in a game like Transistor: Go kill the guys that tried to kill you, or they'll get you first, while all the themes and lore outside the main plot are very opaque and require a lot of thought/puzzling together, but that's fine when it's garnish around a core story. Here, I didn't really understand what I was actually doing as a character all through this game. Why is my character just suddenly up and murdering people en masse? What's the Hunt? Why are monsters murdering other monsters? What are these hunters supposed to be hunting and why are the vast majority of them attacking me? Why am I (as in, this character) going through all this instead of just getting in a carriage and going home? It's funny, because I actually got a lot of the lore where I didn't get much of the main story.

Speaking of opaqueness, this is a Japanese game through and through, which is to say: The same as it's evasive about its story, it's also very evasive about where sidequests and optional bosses are. It's one of those games that are like: “This quest opens up for five minutes and requires you to search a guy you already searched or it's in a part you already cleared and have no reason to revis...okay, never mind, you killed another boss and now you can't do it anymore”. I was following a guide and still completely missed a guy in the DLC that will die in the end and give me his weapon before the final battle, thus missing me a trophy. It's frustrating, basically, because it's a difficult enough game in it's own right, and it's irritating to miss things in a game that really disincentives backtracking through areas you've already cleared.

Different factions are cool, it's just a shame they don't really reward you for joining them. Once I started giving the vampire queen more blood sperms I ripped off people(no, really), I realized I wasn't going to get anymore rewards after the second one.

Also irritating are enemies with what I call the “Technically Not a One-Hit KO Combo”. This usually comes in the form of the giants, who will set a combo that will utterly fuck you if you get hit from the outset, either because your character takes forever to get up from the last hit, or because you don't have time to skip back and heal between hits. It gets very annoying. It's made worse by the character taking their sweet time to heal, needing about twenty meters of clearance on each side before they can heal without just getting hit again. Many enemies won't give you that, or you'll need to heal right there to survive the next hit so that you can then heal for real.

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I like the idea of the parry using your gun, it's just a shame that as you progress through the game, getting those shots become increasingly difficult even on normal enemies. I eventually just gave up on the gun and primarily used my sword, because it just felt like there was no point to trying anymore. It was especially galling in the final few boss fights, where they have eight million moves and only one of them actually gets stunned with the pistol, and you rarely know which one they're going to use before it's already on its way. On the rare occasions I would get the parries, it wouldn't let me activate the heavy-damage-dealing visceral hit unless I was in the perfect spot for it, which also bugged me.

I often hear people call Dark Souls and Bloodborne “Tough but Fair”. There is literally nothing fair about Bloodborne. Enemies will jump out from behind doorways you just passed through and grab you to cut your throat. Some enemies can potentially call players to come kill you. Still others will be waiting near a cliff or high place for you to walk by, trying to get you to either dodge to your death or just outright hit you to your death. Sometimes the shining glowing item will catch your eye and you'll go to grab it...and an enemy will jump down and begin thrashing you. Sometimes enemies will be set up so that you'll fight one in front of you, but there's a little alcove behind you with his friend waiting to jump your ass, and there's rarely a way to know until they're directly on top of you.

There are items and mechanics I never cared to use, like stopping people from healing, the Beast Mode, daggers, and basically just skipped most of the items because I felt like they didn't really give me a noticeable edge in combat, except for the ones that healed status effect and applied buffs to my weapons. Also, sometimes I'd use a pebble to throw at somebody if I wanted to lure them away from their big buddy.

Then there are the chalice dungeons. Like much of this, it's less bad design so much as personal preference. The chalice dungeons are just procedurally generated levels that end in a boss before leading to a lower procedurally generated level, all the way down until you beat the final boss. There are 7 of them, I believe. I got through one, hated it and never did another one. There are people that like this kind of design, but I prefer journeying through a world than just going from one level to the next.

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All Told

I think the only thing that kept me going with this game was the realization that I was really digging the aesthetic (Seriously, this may be one of the best Gothic horror settings in a long time), and by the time I'd gotten to Rom I was invested in completing every boss in this game so nobody could question that I'm at least a step above an average scrub when it comes to games. Now though, I kinda wanna play it to get the vanilla ending and to learn up on some of the lore. Maybe I simply beat it in a battle of attrition, but now I've gotten Stockholm Syndrome'd by it and wanna keep going.

So in the end, I don't think this was a perfect game, but I still ended up enjoying it far more than I thought I would--even with all the drawbacks. However, I think it far outstrips the Dark Souls series (though, let's be real, it's still a Dark Souls game). I'd recommend people who like difficult games or Lovecraftian horror to give it a shot. If they make a second one, I'm in.
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Re: Review: Bloodborne

Postby Anglerphobe » Mon Apr 02, 2018 10:29 pm

The fact that you beat Orphan and Laurence with a Kirkhammer is pretty impressive. One of the things I particularly liked about Bloodborne compared to the Souls series was that all of the weapons feel somewhat distinct and viable without being cheap. Dark Souls is rife with overpowered generic sword clutter and Demon's Souls has weapon balancing so bad it's legendary. Regardless, the Kirk is horrifically bad for the DLC bosses. I did fuck around with the Kirkhammer at one point, and I have to admit that landing the fully charged R2 on a boss feels glorious, but that's because it's so difficult. I ran Beastcutter/cannon for the DLC in NG, and a Reiterpallasch and Bowblade in NG+ which was amazing.

I really enjoyed Bloodborne, but then I'm a Souls player of many years so I was indoctrinated long ago. My main problem was the tedium of some areas, enemies, and bosses. The Living Failures have about three times more health than I would care to put up with, for example. The fight doesn't become interestingly challenging because reducing the boss' health to zero is a marathonic undertaking. The Nightmare of Mensis and Hemwick Charnel Lane areas are tedious and unpleasant for a similar reason, having stubborn enemies in large numbers and an awkward, repetitive pathway. They're no Blighttown or Valley of Defilement, but they're not a fun way to spend my time.
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"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,
Thou, teaching thrift, thyselfe couldst never thrive.
So, like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others, when themselves are blunt."

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Re: Review: Bloodborne

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Tue Apr 03, 2018 12:39 am

Anglerphobe wrote:The fact that you beat Orphan and Laurence with a Kirkhammer is pretty impressive. One of the things I particularly liked about Bloodborne compared to the Souls series was that all of the weapons feel somewhat distinct and viable without being cheap. Dark Souls is rife with overpowered generic sword clutter and Demon's Souls has weapon balancing so bad it's legendary. Regardless, the Kirk is horrifically bad for the DLC bosses. I did fuck around with the Kirkhammer at one point, and I have to admit that landing the fully charged R2 on a boss feels glorious, but that's because it's so difficult. I ran Beastcutter/cannon for the DLC in NG, and a Reiterpallasch and Bowblade in NG+ which was amazing.

I really enjoyed Bloodborne, but then I'm a Souls player of many years so I was indoctrinated long ago. My main problem was the tedium of some areas, enemies, and bosses. The Living Failures have about three times more health than I would care to put up with, for example. The fight doesn't become interestingly challenging because reducing the boss' health to zero is a marathonic undertaking. The Nightmare of Mensis and Hemwick Charnel Lane areas are tedious and unpleasant for a similar reason, having stubborn enemies in large numbers and an awkward, repetitive pathway. They're no Blighttown or Valley of Defilement, but they're not a fun way to spend my time.


The funny thing is, I rarely used the actual hammer portion (although, in my climactic battle against the final boss where my health was at .1% and their at 5%, I finished them off with two hits from the actual hammer portion, somehow, and I attribute that to 100000000000000% luckskill). The sword always felt to me like the perfect balance of power, speed, and reach.

But as I think on it, it's because I kinda play Bloodborne the way most people play Dark Souls. Instead of getting in close and being evasive while getting my cuts in--like I've seen most people do--I pace out of range, wait for the slightest twitch in a boss, then dance around until they're done, get a couple hits in, and get back out of range for another round. It's slow but methodical, and it never failed me once I'd learned a boss' combos and their tells. Everyone talks about being aggressive in this game, but I was more about waiting on them to make a move before I made mine.

Thinking about it, though, that makes me respect it more. Many games boast about the variety of strategies their games offer inherently through their leveling and weapon systems, but few actually pull it off. Perhaps I simply adapted my play style to my preferred weapon, rather than adapted my weapon to my preferred play style. I don't know, but I do know that I played it pretty unorthodox compared to most people I've watched playing it.

The cannon I could never do simply because though I gave up on trying to get viscerals after a point (probably why Maria gave me so much trouble), I still used it a lot to break up an incoming attack when I felt like I couldn't dodge it, so I needed that ammo. Especially against the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst. Because of my play style, weapons with slower swings or shorter reach were out, so the Beastcutter was a no-go. I was interested in the bowblade, but I got it too late in the game to grind it all the way up, and I decided to do another play instead of NG+. I'm gunning for that platinum trophy.

Also, fuck that Nightmare of Mensis part where the Eye of Sauron is inflicting madness at you while boulders are being thrown at you. I straight ran past that part until I got to the spiders. Charnel Lane isn't bad except for that one bit where there are a ton of gun-toting dudes and dogs in a small area. My least favorite bit was the runup to the Orphan of Kos, with those giant shark-mouth guys that always seem to hit you no matter what you do.

But yeah, I felt the same way about the Living Failures. There were some bosses where it became more tedious beating them than challenging. The Witch and the Shadow I would put in here, too. Oh, and Micotash or whatever his name is, but more for the reason that he's just annoying and I would've preferred the fight not take half an hour.
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Re: Review: Bloodborne

Postby Anglerphobe » Tue Apr 03, 2018 1:41 am

I find it highly amusing that you consciously avoided slow weapons with bad reach and played through with the Kirk Van Hammer. I get the feeling that you may have spent entire days killing Laurence and Orphan with that thing.
The bowblade is sick, but it does make some bosses too easy so I tended to use it more for annoying general mobs. Speaking of trivialising boss fights, I genuinely felt sorry for Gascoigne in NG+ when I rolled up with a Reiterpallasch and a cannon and just wrecked him with ease. The poor guy didn't stand a chance.

I would say my biggest overall problem with Bloodborne was the grind. Grinding out healing items wasn't the part of Demon's Souls I enjoyed, and it's no more fun now than it was then. Bloodborne isn't that bad, but it's much grindier than any Dark Souls title, at least with reasonable builds. I've spent my fair share of time killing giant leeches in Blighttown swamp over and over for rare upgrade drops, of course. Bloodborne's stat system and all-consumable healing push you towards an almost unavoidable level of grinding which seems excessive to me.
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"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,
Thou, teaching thrift, thyselfe couldst never thrive.
So, like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others, when themselves are blunt."

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Re: Review: Bloodborne

Postby Doodle Dee. Snickers » Tue Apr 03, 2018 10:56 am

Anglerphobe wrote:I find it highly amusing that you consciously avoided slow weapons with bad reach and played through with the Kirk Van Hammer. I get the feeling that you may have spent entire days killing Laurence and Orphan with that thing.
The bowblade is sick, but it does make some bosses too easy so I tended to use it more for annoying general mobs. Speaking of trivialising boss fights, I genuinely felt sorry for Gascoigne in NG+ when I rolled up with a Reiterpallasch and a cannon and just wrecked him with ease. The poor guy didn't stand a chance.

I would say my biggest overall problem with Bloodborne was the grind. Grinding out healing items wasn't the part of Demon's Souls I enjoyed, and it's no more fun now than it was then. Bloodborne isn't that bad, but it's much grindier than any Dark Souls title, at least with reasonable builds. I've spent my fair share of time killing giant leeches in Blighttown swamp over and over for rare upgrade drops, of course. Bloodborne's stat system and all-consumable healing push you towards an almost unavoidable level of grinding which seems excessive to me.


Well, like I said, it was a compromise. There are weapons with greater reach and speed that also hit the enemies with all the devastation of a fly landing on them, so the sword just felt like a reasonable balance of reach and quickness that still had some weight behind it. The Orphan and Laurence didn't take that long...and I did pull out the hammer for the last phase of Laurence, since he slows down. Now that I think about it, I actually used it for Ebrietas, the Cleric Beast, Amygdala, and Vicar Amelia, so I suppose I did use the hammer more than I thought.

And yeah, Gascgoigne. That dude gave me so much trouble when I went through my first time, but then when I restarted, I crushed him. Still wasn't as pathetic as the Celestial Emissary. Which boss gave you the most trouble?

As for the grind, I think I missed it because I enjoyed using the secondary bell.
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Re: Review: Bloodborne

Postby Anglerphobe » Tue Apr 03, 2018 5:27 pm

Hard to say. I played mostly blind and ended up quite underleveled for some bosses, including Ebreitas which was consequently the one I struggled with the most. I assumed I was overleveled for Emissary, but of course it turns out that he's just a bitch. Taking into account reasonable level and build, Orphan is very definitely the hardest boss in my opinion. He killed me a lot at first. His fight is one of the best in the series but it's really tough however you approach it.
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"Tusser, they tell me, when thou wert alive,
Thou, teaching thrift, thyselfe couldst never thrive.
So, like the whetstone, many men are wont
To sharpen others, when themselves are blunt."

Anyone who has any kind of opinion fucking disgusts me.
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