Bloodborne Review - Full of Dark Souls

[jhoroz]

Hey all! Mitchell here! I wrote this review, and if anyone has any questions regarding anything Bloodborne related that wasn't addressed in the review, I'll do my best to answer it here. I've also got a youtube channel where I'm currently playing through the game at youtube.com/jurassicrabbit

I have heard some people say this is easier than DS and DS 2. How do you find the difficulty compared to previous Souls games? It's not a make or break thing for me, since the Souls games are much more than simply difficult games, but I'm curious to find out.

So at the beginning of the game, I was ready to say that it was definitely harder than the Dark Souls games. The game does not ease you into it at all, and honestly, some of the hardest bosses and enemies in the game are thrown at you right from the start. As the game goes on though and you start to get down the timing required to execute gun parries (hitting an enemy with a gun shot just before their attack hits you) as well as how to balance your offense and defense in combat, the game kind of clicks and it becomes much easier.

The combat system is much more reflex intensive than the Souls series, so if you were the type that preferred to hide behind your shield instead of dodging, you'll likely have a tougher time with Bloodborne. If you're good at dodging and picking up on enemy cues, there's a good chance that it'll be easier.

Another question: In the most non-spoilery way possible, how many bosses are there, how are their designs (both visually and mechanically) and is their a good sense of variety? Dark Souls 2 was heavily criticized for having a lot of dudes of armour. Is there something similiar in Bloodborne? Thanks a lot!

I'm honestly not sure how many bosses there are. I know I missed a couple in my playthrough. I can tell you that I fought about 14 by the time I beat the game.

And that criticism absolutely does not apply to Bloodborne. There's a great variety in the bosses, just like there was in Dark Souls 1.

Awesome! I'm really looking forward to it! Also heard From Soft is working on a patch for those loading times, so hopefully we won't have to suffer that long staring at the Bloodborne logo.

 

[lassiie]

I was REALLY hoping this game would be shitty so I didn't have to go buy a PS4 today....but it looks like I have to now. All the reviews so far have been extremely positive. I only ever played high dex/int builds in DS1/2, so it seems like it will be pretty easy for me to pick up on. Hate that I have to drop $400 on a PS4, but I need something good to restore my faith in the video game industry as it has been pretty shitty as of late. Will be wasting the rest of break on this game.

 

[P-89 Scorpion]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but at least this game got reviewed here. Seriously, unless I missed them all, Battlefield: Hardline, Final Fantasy Type-0, and Resident Evil: Revelations 2 all came out last week and I didn't see a review for any of them--unless you count Yahtzee's, but still. This is a video game website. I was starting to wonder if Bloodborne would get a review here.

Anyway, on to the actual review. As if I needed another reason to buy this game. Everything I was expecting it sounds like. I am totally going to use that whip cane thing as my main weapon. Puzzling Sword, but done right!

The Escapist hasn't been reviewing most games for ages they are a 'media' site now.

 

[Mitchell Saltzman]

Hey all! Mitchell here! I wrote this review, and if anyone has any questions regarding anything Bloodborne related that wasn't addressed in the review, I'll do my best to answer it here. I've also got a youtube channel where I'm currently playing through the game at youtube.com/jurassicrabbit

First question - Do you want me to craft you an Avatar?? Anything you want, just name it!!

Bloodborne questions:

• - Can you customize your character, and if so... is there variety in the creation for males + females?
  
  - Apart from having to kill your enemy when they steal your stuff, do you become more hollow / weaker / beast like?
  
  - What is your favorite aspect / mechanic in the game overall?
  
  - Is it worth buying a PS4 just to play this game? .. I really want it >_>
  
  - Do you plan on reviewing Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin when it comes out?

Any feedback would be mostly appreciated of course!!

Aw thanks for offering. That's okay though, I already have an avatar that I usually use that someone made for me. I just never got around to uploading it.

As for your questions:
1. Yes, and the character customization in Bloodborne is actually the deepest it's ever been for a From Software game. Tons of sliders to make your character as ugly or as beautiful as you want.
2. No, there is no penalty for dying outside of dropping your echoes (souls), which is honestly a good thing in this game.
3. My favorite aspect of the game is the world design. I didn't mention some of the places you'll visit in the review because it's better to leave it for people to discover themselves, but some of the areas in Bloodborne are just so damn cool, and I love how the world is so interconnected.
4. I personally never think a console is worth buying for just one game, no matter how good it is. But if you're looking for a reason to get into the current gen of consoles and you're debating between an Xbox One or PS4, Bloodborne is a pretty compelling reason to get a PS4.
5. Right now, I have no plans on reviewing Scholar of the First Sin. Honestly, I'm pretty happy with Dark Souls 2 on the PC and don't really feel an urge to play it again on the PS4 or Xbox One.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Dammit, dammit, dammit, now I want this game so badly! I can't really remember the last time I was this pumped for a new release. But one excellent game still doesn't warrant a 500 ? purchase for me. Let's hope the PS4 gets some more worthwhile games soon...

 

[major_chaos]

No blocking, pary mastery is 100% essential, all defense reliant on dodging (Which in souls has never been "dodging so much as timing your Iframes to clip through the attack),only one healing item and it's noxiously rare, significantly reduced RPG elements (is there even any armor drops, or are you stuck with the goofy coat?), and reduced variety severely limiting your ability to play with different builds? Yea no thanks, I'll wait and see how Scholar of the First Sin turns out for my souls fix. Bloodborn IMO represents the series going in exactly the wrong direction and giving up a lot of what I enjoyed in the process.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

So when is this coming to PC? I still have DS2 ahead, waiting for it to fall in price a bit on Steam but in no hurry, plenty else to play in the meantime.

 

[jhoroz]

So when is this coming to PC? I still have DS2 ahead, waiting for it to fall in price a bit on Steam but in no hurry, plenty else to play in the meantime.

Hate to break it to you, but this game is developed and published by Sony. It's not coming out on anything else but a Sony platform.

 

[jhoroz]

No blocking, pary mastery is 100% essential, all defense reliant on dodging (Which in souls has never been "dodging so much as timing your Iframes to clip through the attack),only one healing item and it's noxiously rare, significantly reduced RPG elements (is there even any armor drops, or are you stuck with the goofy coat?), and reduced variety severely limiting your ability to play with different builds? Yea no thanks, I'll wait and see how Scholar of the First Sin turns out for my souls fix. Bloodborn IMO represents the series going in exactly the wrong direction and giving up a lot of what I enjoyed in the process.

Honestly, Scholar of the First Sin represents the worst direction the Souls series and its IP could go into. I'd trade all of the things you mentioned for the atmosphere, level design and boss design that Bloodborne has in spades over Dark Souls 2.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

So when is this coming to PC? I still have DS2 ahead, waiting for it to fall in price a bit on Steam but in no hurry, plenty else to play in the meantime.

Hate to break it to you, but this game is developed and published by Sony. It's not coming out on anything else but a Sony platform.

That's sad news :-( It's probably the closest to a system seller there is on the PS4, but still, they'd make millions from other platforms too. Will be interesting to see how it sells, and how many console bundles it shifts.

 

[jhoroz]

So when is this coming to PC? I still have DS2 ahead, waiting for it to fall in price a bit on Steam but in no hurry, plenty else to play in the meantime.

Hate to break it to you, but this game is developed and published by Sony. It's not coming out on anything else but a Sony platform.

That's sad news :-( It's probably the closest to a system seller there is on the PS4, but still, they'd make millions from other platforms too. Will be interesting to see how it sells, and how many console bundles it shifts.

I feel ya. The fact that there are serious loading issues and occasional frame drops will be a hard adjustment for me, considering I've been playing DS2 on the PC for so long.

 

[Schmeiser]

The devs are working on a patch that will improve the loading time on death

No blocking, pary mastery is 100% essential, all defense reliant on dodging (Which in souls has never been "dodging so much as timing your Iframes to clip through the attack),only one healing item and it's noxiously rare, significantly reduced RPG elements (is there even any armor drops, or are you stuck with the goofy coat?), and reduced variety severely limiting your ability to play with different builds? Yea no thanks, I'll wait and see how Scholar of the First Sin turns out for my souls fix. Bloodborn IMO represents the series going in exactly the wrong direction and giving up a lot of what I enjoyed in the process.

Dude you are so misinformed you made me laugh out loud.

 

[Ishal]

Everything I've seen so far hasn't grabbed my interest.

- Sick-dark Victorian fantasy, basically Van Hellsing. Yharnam looks interesting, but not as interesting as DKS. It just seems to lack the variety that made DKS interesting.
- Less weapon variety than the previous Souls games ("but this isn't a Souls game" Yes it is.) means less room for interesting builds
- Less content than the previous Souls games, likely due to the Chalice dungeon procedural stuff that frankly shouldn't even be in a game with devs renowned for their level design
- Fast gameplay encouraging R1 spam. Even if it's well timed, it's still R1 spam.
- Frame skips in several areas.
- 30fps. Honestly of all the Souls games that shouldn't have had it, it's this one. Fast jumping around and dodging should be in 60fps. Especially on a "next gen system" cough* cough*
- Speaking of that, finally a game that makes a PS4 worth it. That took, what? 15 months? It's finally not a PS3 remake machine. Congratulations.

I hope everyone enjoys it. As it really is a good thing to finally have something of worth on the PS4. But I can't justify buying a console for just one game. After playing on consoles for almost my entire life up until a few months ago, I can't go back.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

My biggest worry with bloodborne has to do with removing shield, which means relying more on dodging. In theory I don't mind that, but I didn't really like dodging in demon souls and dark soul and really didn't like it in dark soul 2 because it mostly relied on exploiting the invincibility frame to counter the insane tracking the enemy could do (the enemy spinning around on himself so his attack home in on you even if you're behind him). I never liked the idea that I had to memories exactly at what arbitrary point I became invincible and what point I arbitrary became vulnerable again and I alway felt like I was cheating when I would roll dodge into the enemy weapon, knowing that it wouldn't hurt me, just so I'd come out of the dodge behind the enemy to strike him easily. I guess that's something I'll have to figure out playing it to see.

Also I'm quite disappointed they removed estus flask, it was such a good addition moving forward from demon soul since you didn't have to grind for healing item anymore while making the game more challenging in interesting way. I remember going to 1-3 and killing those blue eye knight so often it became silly. Similarly removing text from loading screen seems incredibly counter intuitive, especially if those ridiculous loading time are real, the game that would have benefitted the most from it is the one in the series that doesn't have it, in what universe does that make sense?

Pretty much my thoughts on the game. It's more that I enjoy parrying with a shield than anything, not that I'm worried about it being hard. I love the feel of deflecting a hit with a shield, and tailoring the game so that's not really the way to go just puts me off it. Agree with the Estus flask, and removing the load text just seem backwards tbh, where's the benefit?

The game does look stunning, truly stunning and I'm looking forward to playing it. But from what I've heard about the actual gameplay I'll wait until I play a friends copy first before considering purchaing a PS4.

 

[jhoroz]

Everything I've seen so far hasn't grabbed my interest.

- Sick-dark Victorian fantasy, basically Van Hellsing. Yharnam looks interesting, but not as interesting as DKS. It just seems to lack the variety that made DKS interesting.
- Less weapon variety than the previous Souls games ("but this isn't a Souls game" Yes it is.) means less room for interesting builds
- Less content than the previous Souls games, likely due to the Chalice dungeon procedural stuff that frankly shouldn't even be in a game with devs renowned for their level design
- Fast gameplay encouraging R1 spam. Even if it's well timed, it's still R1 spam.
- Frame skips in several areas.
- 30fps. Honestly of all the Souls games that should have had it, it's this one. Fast jumping around and dodging should be in 60fps. Especially on a "next gen system" cough* cough*
- Speaking of that, finally a game that makes a PS4 worth it. That took, what? 15 months? It's finally not a PS3 remake machine. Congratulations.

I hope everyone enjoys it. As it really is a good thing to finally have something of worth on the PS4. But I can't justify buying a console for just one game. After playing on consoles for almost my entire life up until a few months ago, I can't go back.

-Medieval fantasy setting was already tired and used to the point of tedium in DS 2.
-Less weapons, but more focused weapon builds, with more interesting combos and customization. DS (and especially DS 2) had way too many weapons, with way too many of them being similiar variations of each other.
-It has about the same level of content as Demon's Souls judging by impressions and reviews. DS 2 was filled with the brim with forgetable bosses and areas, and Dark Souls later areas felt were really hit or miss, so I more than welcome quality over quantity.
-Yeah DS1 was so well optimized for the PC. Footage has been really stable from streams and harldy seems an issue. This obsession with everything being 60 FPS has always been excessive.

 

[Ishal]

-Yeah DS1 was so well optimized for the PC. Footage has been really stable from streams and harldy seems an issue. This obsession with everything being 60 FPS has always been excessive.

It's honestly just as well that From didn't port BB to PC, cuz they're pretty terrible at it. Would've taken another user to mod it to make it work, probably.

60fps is not an obsession. And this is where I'll never understand people. This is where I have a disconnect.

These systems were marketed as "Next Gen." Their performance was a big point, otherwise, why have a new generation of consoles at all? So when games are releasing on them, that are 30fps and 720p, same as last gen... it's a problem. Next gen, yet the the games aren't performing. So... what's the point?

I know, I know. There are several other things about BB that you like. Several other things that appeal to you, so the fps issue doesn't matter to you. Honestly, that's fine. I'm not about to tell you how to spend your money. But can you at least admit it's a problem? Meet me halfway here. Wouldn't you prefer 60fps?

 

[jhoroz]

Hey all! Mitchell here! I wrote this review, and if anyone has any questions regarding anything Bloodborne related that wasn't addressed in the review, I'll do my best to answer it here. I've also got a youtube channel where I'm currently playing through the game at youtube.com/jurassicrabbit

Sorry if this is off topic, but holy shit, I didn't realize exactly who you were until I saw your avatar! I loved the videos you did with James for Dark Souls! One of my favourite LPs of that game in fact. I don't know if you two are still in touch, but do you have any plans on doing another "expert" walkthrough for Bloodborne?

 

[jhoroz]

-Yeah DS1 was so well optimized for the PC. Footage has been really stable from streams and harldy seems an issue. This obsession with everything being 60 FPS has always been excessive.

It's honestly just as well that From didn't port BB to PC, cuz they're pretty terrible at it. Would've taken another user to mod it to make it work, probably.

60fps is not an obsession. And this is where I'll never understand people. This is where I have a disconnect.

These systems were marketed as "Next Gen." Their performance was a big point, otherwise, why have a new generation of consoles at all? So when games are releasing on them, that are 30fps and 720p, same as last gen... it's a problem. Next gen, yet the the games aren't performing. So... what's the point?

I know, I know. There are several other things about BB that you like. Several other things that appeal to you, so the fps issue doesn't matter to you. Honestly, that's fine. I'm not about to tell you how to spend your money. But can you at least admit it's a problem? Meet me halfway here. Wouldn't you prefer 60fps?

Yeah, honestly I would. Going from DS2 PC to this will be rough, but suffering through Dark Souls PC pre durante patch has made me grateful for ANY FPS that is more consistent than that.

 

[Mitchell Saltzman]

Hey all! Mitchell here! I wrote this review, and if anyone has any questions regarding anything Bloodborne related that wasn't addressed in the review, I'll do my best to answer it here. I've also got a youtube channel where I'm currently playing through the game at youtube.com/jurassicrabbit

Sorry if this is off topic, but holy shit, I didn't realize exactly who you were until I saw your avatar! I loved the videos you did with James for Dark Souls! One of my favourite LPs of that game in fact. I don't know if you two are still in touch, but do you have any plans on doing another "expert" walkthrough for Bloodborne?

Aw thanks! No plans in place right now. We might do some one-off videos where we guest on each other's playthroughs of the game though. We each have our own youtube channels now. His is youtube.com/therealjamesheaney and he also appears on youtube.com/theadventurebits, and mine is youtube.com/jurassicrabbit.

 

[antidonkey]

Well, looks like it's time for me to start resisting the urge to get a PS4. I'm sure once I find the various game play videos that will surely be strewn about YouTube my resolve will be greatly weakened. If only this could get a PC release. Le sigh.