Bloodborne review

[J0e Musashi]

It relies on Skill mainly. It has an A rating for Skill and a C rating for Arcane.

[Panta Rhei]

The chalice dungeons are definitely the biggest grind for the platinum; a lot of them are easy, but some are mega rough (defiled chalice in particular) and you do have to farm a bunch to get the mats together. You can do all of it with comrades though, which although time-consuming (as you'll need to clear each area & boss for each player) makes progress more steady and is infinitely more enjoyable.

BB is one of the easiest Platinums I think. Took me well under 100 hours to achieve. Its my only PS4 platinum so far.

Defiled Chalice has 2 hard bosses, but they can be beaten pretty much foul proof with the right strat. You don't really have to farm mats, you only have to beat 2 layers of Ailing Loran for Bastard items. Isz and Hintertomb worlds can be completely skipped, and since the change to the co-op ritual, Hintertomb is useless in its entirety

The fun starts when you have cleared all Chalices (which isn't required for the trophy), root chalices are very rewarding. Got lots of 27.2 phys gems, 31.5 blood gems and Blood Rocks from it. I think my Lost Chikage has close to like 1000 blood attack. It does break the game, I think the Loran Darkbeast went down in under a minute.

[Shoju]

Played a bit of NG+ and it's a lot easier now that I'm better adjusted to how the game works. Beat the first two bosses with no trouble and but can't be bothered to play on with that character. I've started a second playthrough with a different build instead. The last one was Dex/Bloodtinge this one will be Strength/Arcane which I think will be more interesting considering the items I picked up with the other character. I'm also finding it a lot easier with him so far. Beat the first 3 bosses so much more easily. Gascoigne in particular went down quickly on the first try. A strength character with the strength focused starting class and hunter's axe really does carve through things early on. Having that weapon and a blunderbuss also helps with recognizing Gascoigne's attack patterns and animations. I can see when he's going to shoot, where he's wide open and when to counter him. I want to beat the DLC as early as possible now for the arcane goodies though that will be really tough. It has some of the hardest bosses in the game.

[bcass]

I got back into this recently, having gotten as far as the Nightmare Frontier late last year. In the space of the last few months, I've finished it off, gone through NG+ and have cleared every single non-root chalice dungeon. I'm now hopelessly addicted to farming for the best gems with the help of the infamous google spreadsheet. The foetid, rotted, cursed dungeons are so much fun, especially in coop. If Dark Souls III wasn't just around the corner, I could see myself leveling up the best version of every weapon in the game, kitted-out with all the best gems.

The gem system is satisfyingly complex, especially when it comes to elemental weapon builds. Sure, the dungeon layout design can be repetitive, but the core combat is still in-tact. I'm currently working on a fire build for my Lost Church Pick for fighting against beasts/beast bosses. This weapon has serration damage in both forms, fire + serration = massive increased damage against beasts. Same gems can be used on the Lost Threaded Cane, which also does serration damage in its transformed state.

[Brad]

Never finished this originally so have just started it again. Have they made the game easier in the past couple of years? Seems to be more checkpoints for example but maybe my memory is failing me.

[briareos_kerensky]

Never finished this originally so have just started it again. Have they made the game easier in the past couple of years? Seems to be more checkpoints for example but maybe my memory is failing me.

Nah, it's still pretty much the same, but past experience with the game itself and other Souls games make it easier.

[DaytimeDreamer]

Never finished this originally so have just started it again. Have they made the game easier in the past couple of years? Seems to be more checkpoints for example but maybe my memory is failing me.

Add me on PSN if you get stuck. I've played this game to death, even before it came out (used to work at SIEE back then) More than 300+ hours on it.

[Brad]

Cheers chaps. To be honest though it's just making me want to get dark souls 3 I think!

[Yakumo]

I started playing this yesterday and it is trully pissing me off. Now I'm not the ultimate gamer but then again I'm not terrible. Finished both Dark Souls 2 and 3 but this game is relentless. I can't even finish the first area. 5 f***ing hours of doing nothing but dieing over and over again. The furthest I got was the big bridge that has the two terror dog things on it.
What am I doing wrong.? This is the first game in 20 years or so that almost had me throwing the controller at the TV. Probably would have done in my younger days.

[briareos_kerensky]

Pretty much nothing, it's supposed to be like that, even with other Souls under the belt
The initial hours were pretty brutal for me too, the two werewolves were a hurdle as high as the boss. Well, almost.
It pays a lot being aggressive in Bloodborne, it's often better keep an assault going than backing up as you will regain some of your health.

[endo]

And bear in mind that you can often just run past whole mobs of enemies if you're in a tight spot.

[gordon]

You can also avoid the dogs altogether by taking a shortcut / secret path just past the bonfire area at the beginning. That effectively just leaves you with the big guy and the crows before the boss fight. IIRC the boss fight is when you get some extra help, too, in the manner of the DS games.

[Atticus]

Get out of the Souls mode is my advice. Fast and aggressive beats slow and methodical in many cases.

[Yakumo]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll give it another go at the weekend.

[Golgo]

^ Are you using the Threaded Cane? If not, try it. I felt it worked really well for the faster pace of this game that Atticus mentions.