Bloodborne review

[Brad]

Any world tendencies stuff?

[J0e Musashi]

Insight affects the world. All manner of odd stuff was happening at 99, so I just got rid of it down to 11. I don't know if it has a bigger effect outside of that though. It probably does.

[Lebowski]

I said ten hours, not nine. Now if you look at the trophy list, you'll see that there are only three secret areas in the game. One of them has zero enemies, one has enemies who are so easily killed, it offers hardly any challenge, and the third I have not been to, but I can't see that adding ten hours to a playthrough. The only things I've not discovered are items, which is evident from the trophy list. Oh and that door I spoke of previously. Whenever you get in a lift, turn around. Many of them have secret exits to places.

From themselves have said that the game is to be played hastily and aggressively. Not only is the world WAY smaller than Demon's and Dark, but 90% of the enemies offer zero challenge due to the riposte. If you play how the game intends you to play, you make massive progress in next to no time at all. There is absolutely no point at all taking the softly softly approach. You are the hunter, not the hunted. I'm inclined to think that you are taking too long to play myself. There isn't that much area to explore at all. I don't know why it's taking you so long (outside of boss fights). It's a given that the exploration isn't going to be anywhere near the level of the Souls games. There is absolutely no upgrading of armor to be done, and weapon upgrades follow a linear path. What exactly are you trying to find that is taking all of this time? All you need to do is find the boss, kill it, then find the next one. The journeying in between takes seconds as you can mow down enemies as though you are a God.

I can see a three-hour run being entirely possible. This game is tiny.

I think your mixing my post up with someone else, id say 20 hours is more what most people will do it in like you said your rushing through so not sure what where arguing about, There are quite big areas in each level with enemy's and items in that can be easily missed so like I said if you don't explore you miss picking up weapons and armour and finding little secrets, the enemy's once worked out don't slow your progress, i agree the game rewards aggressive play but there's still your stamina to take into account and you still need to one on one for a risk free kill, Also I like to get to know and fully understand the level layout.

there seem to be a lot of us that are new to these games myself included so we are taking a bit longer on the bosses too, which adds to the playtime. Exploration x deaths x repeting areas = a 20+ hour playtime easy.

The first full set of Hunter Armour can be found in the sewer as well as the Saw Spear but these are in a hidden part of the sewer not accessible from the, main part, there is armour and weapons to be found in each area if you look for it, some are very cleverly hidden too.

[J0e Musashi]

I think your mixing my post up with someone else, id say 20 hours is more what most people will do it in like you said your rushing through so not sure what where arguing about, There are quite big areas in each level with enemy's and items in that can be easily missed so like I said if you don't explore you miss picking up weapons and armour and finding little secrets, the enemy's once worked out don't slow your progress, i agree the game rewards aggressive play but there's still your stamina to take into account and you still need to one on one for a risk free kill, Also I like to get to know and fully understand the level layout.

there seem to be a lot of us that are new to these games myself included so we are taking a bit longer on the bosses too, which adds to the playtime. Exploration x deaths x repeting areas = a 20+ hour playtime easy.

The first full set of Hunter Armour can be found in the sewer as well as the Saw Spear but these are in a hidden part of the sewer not accessible from the, main part, there is armour and weapons to be found in each area if you look for it, some are very cleverly hidden too.

I didn't realise you were a new player. What you are saying is entirely understandable now. 20 hours would be a fantastic time for someone who has never played before. You have to take into account that I am a hardened Souls player, and only died to one boss in Bloodborne. Plus whenever I die, I run straight back to that point to collect my souls instead of re-fighting all of the enemies up to that point. All of this stuff will contribute to my fast time. I don't doubt that there is a fair amount of the game that I am yet to see, but that can wait until later. My style is to bulldoze through the first playthrough in order to reach NG+ as soon as possible. NG+ is where the game actually starts. I am exploring a lttle more this time however. I will cover 100% of the map by the time I'm done with the game.

Stamina can be obtrusive at the beginning. I tend to work on both that and strength when I'm starting out. Once you can successfuly chain five hits together and still have enough to do a quick back dash, you're in a great position to take on mostly anything. I gave the Saw Spear a try, but I'm not the biggest fan. I'm working on a Katana+10 and then I'll move onto the Threaded Cane. I didn't realise just how awesome a weapon that one is at first. You can do some major damage to bosses with it.

[Brad]

Talk to everyone until they start repeating themselves. A female hunter gave me a cape waving emote by doing this. I'm certain it will aid me in killing the final boss ;-)

[Supergoal]

Can confirm game doesn't play a 10 hour game but more like 20,30 plus. I'm at 40 hours in and at forbidden forest. Not looking for everything either but replaying a lot of the boss fights as some are tricky.

I think if you're doing it in 10 hours or less then you surely must be missing something. How else are people spending lots more hours and yet to finish the game?

[J0e Musashi]

I'd say because they are:

A) Playing like it's a Souls game and being overly cautious.

B) Wasting time by continually repeating areas when they die instead of running to the exact spot they died at to regain their souls and progress from there.

C) Fighting every single enemy they come across.

D) Rubbish at Bloodborne.

Bloodborne is like a slightly more grown up version of Bayonetta. The reason that there is no shield is that you are supposed to attack everything in sight. Kill before you are killed. Once you have the riposte perfected, you will cut deaths down by a staggeringly incredible amount. The game simply isn't as difficult as people think UNTIL they get their heads around the fact that it is not Dark Souls III and they are creeping around trying not to be killed unnecessarily.

[hudson]

I'd say running past baddies you got scared of fighting like you did, J0e, makes you option D haha

[J0e Musashi]

.....

[J0e Musashi]

That is what makes me good at Bloodborne. The wise man runs until he is levelled up enough to easily beat an enemy. The unwise man thinks he is Rambo and dies continually trying to beat the same enemy. Then he gets massively frustrated and moans that the game is too hard. Only a fool would make an already difficult situation even more difficult.

[Uli]

let's all agree that Joe's playtime of 10h is not the standard but i think it's totally doable, as you can see from the 15 minutes run to beat the second boss. it would just not be fun though. for me at least.

i've already put in more than 20 hours and i am sure i will end up at 60h+ as i am playing slowly and exploring areas as best as possible.


@ Lebowsky,

i was also under the impression that some enemies were shy of fire but i have tried putting away the torch and the lesser beasts in Old Yharnam backed off anyway. honestly i am a bit disappointed how underused the torch is here - again. not only visually as it's not casting any shadows but also gameplay wise. the damage output is poor and while you can set enemies on fire they wont go down burning. a shame.

[J0e Musashi]

When you guys get to the end, you're going to be all "J0e was right". I fear you're all treating this as a Souls game. All this exploration is just for completist's sake. The reason for that is that the Cainhurst armour set is the best in the game. As there is zero customisation, your ultimate goal is to get it as soon as possible. That and a +10 weapon.

My strategy is to get to Cainhurst ASAP, and get a +10 weapon ASAP. As long as you don't fight the last boss, you are free to explore for all the other inferior armour as you see fit. You could also collect as many weapons as possible, so you can choose another to reach +10 on NG+. All of this slowly slowly explore every corner stuff is pointless. Do that after you have the Cainhurst set. You'll die less that way too.

If you knew that Bloodborne was highly flawed in that way, you'd play it differently. It is not a Souls game, but everyone is treating it as such.

Elements are also pointless. Just buff your weapon, and it's over twice as strong. There is so much pointless stuff in Bloodborne. It's all there just to waste your time.

[hudson]

I think I'll carry on playing it as I intend. Taking in the surroundings, lore, atmosphere, combat strategies etc. I presume you knew this "flaw" you mentioned before you ventured out, hence running straight to some armour. Haha Or maybe that's your play style. Fair enough I say. You ran through the courses of Everybody's Golf without taking a shot lol.

[Uli]

i don't think so Joe. for me the exploration and sucking in the atmosphere of the detailed setpieces is what makes me enjoy the game most. Bloodborne is clearly designed to offer these values just like the Souls games before.

did you play Lords of the Fallen by the way? in terms of combat gameplay i consider LotF much superior. especially fighting the bosses was a lot more fun compared to the the first few bosses i have encountered in Bloodborne.

[J0e Musashi]

Bloodborne is nowhere near as deep as you think. It is well below the Souls games in terms of deepness. It's a cross between Dynasty Warriors and Bayonetta. It is not designed to offer anything that the Souls games did. It's a simple hack and slash boss rush game with some RPG elements as filler and a supposedly high difficulty. Dante's Inferno on the highest difficulty is way more difficult than this game is.

As soon as I realised there was no customisation, and that the emphasis is on aggressive play I decided to take a totally different approach to how I had played the Souls games. Everything that applied there does not apply here. The scenery is nice, but the entire game looks the same barring the forest, and the atmosphere is the same from the first second until the end. Harsh. The only set piece in the game is the flaming ball on the bridge. There are only two combat strategies in this game. One is to get the first hit in for a combo and the other is to riposte if you aren't going for a combo. You could have way more fun if you played aggressively instead of passively IMO. It's the very reason that you have no shield after all.

High Physical DEF, R-Hand WPN 1 ATK, Stamina and HP are all you need to worry about. The other stuff is again just filler.

I haven't played LotF Uli, should I give it a try?