Bloodborne Review - Full of Dark Souls

[Mitchell Saltzman]

Bloodborne Review - Full of Dark Souls

This has all the markings of the Demon's Souls and Dark Souls games without the name. But make no mistake: The game will beat you senseless ... and you will enjoy it.

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[snekadid]

Great, I'll wait till its on PC or the PS4s price starts dying off.

 

[CrossGuard]

Great, I'll wait till its on PC

Don't hold your breath. This game was co-developed by Japan Studio and published by Sony.

 

[meiam]

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?

 

[debtcollector]

I remember going to 1-3 and killing those blue eye knight so often it became silly

I've been playing Demon's Souls for the first time the past few weeks and I am right with you. But that problem was quickly alleviated by my own stinginess. See, I was only using Crescent and Half Moon Grass to heal, and then suddenly I realized that I had 90+ units of both Late and Full Moon Grass, and then I was fine for the rest of the game. I sure this strategy will avail me well in Bloodborne (I don't think it will, actually).

Anyway, I'm down with the shield removal for the most part, but I am concerned about magic. Is there magic in this game? Now I think of it, are there any long-range weapons at all? I know about the guns, but those seem like pretty close-range guns...

 

[Remus]

Hmmm hardcore Van Helsing fantasy.....I was hoping the brutal difficulty wouldn't be as present, but it was expected. I'll still try this one out.

 

[EternallyBored]

Great, I'll wait till its on PC

Don't hold your breath. This game was co-developed by Japan Studio and published by Sony.

Yeah, much like Demon Souls, there is very little chance this thing is ever coming to PC. Now, if the game sells well, we might end up with the same situation as Demon Souls, with a very similar sequel ending up on multiple platforms.

 

[Erttheking]

Got this thing pre-ordered on Amazon. Can't wait to play it. Pitty I have to stay all day at school tomorrow running my Deathwatch campaign.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

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!

 

[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

 

[Schmeiser]

Heh i bought a ps4 just for bloodborne and UPS better be as early as possible tomorrow with my delivery. Game will be awesome guys, miyazaki-san delivers

 

[Bob_McMillan]

You know the author loves the game when the article is more than 2 pages. Nah, I'm not masochistic, I'll pass on Bloodbourne. Nice to see though that not all the exclusives so far are mediocre to horrible.

 

[Shinkicker444]

Sigh, wish this was on PC. I'd buy it then. But being PS4 only... nope, sorry no sale.

 

[ghalleon0915]

Well, looks like my PS4 will finally see some usage, glad to see the game seems to be mostly good. While I will await a couple more reviews, it does seem promising. I was hoping the loading times wouldn't be an issue though, that's a kick in the nuts.

 

[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.

 

[loa]

Too bad it won't ever be on the pc, I'll probably never play it then.
All in the name of making a black box relevant so it doesn't have to convince people based on its own merits which helps me... wait it doesn't it only helps sony.

 

[EternallyBored]

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.

Now, I've only played the last two hours or so, so take this with a big grain of salt, but I can say it is pretty hard, but it's a different kind of difficulty than Dark/Demon souls. The combat is much faster, and by extension, enemies seem to have much smaller health bars, if you press the attack you can usually off any smaller enemy fairly fast compared to the Souls series.

The dodge mechanic and lack of blocking makes the whole thing feel like playing a high dex build in the Souls series, so if you are used to that build, this game is pretty immediately familiar and easy to adapt to. If you are used to blocking and heavy armor, it will likely start off pretty hard as the game will punish you heavily if you try to play too defensively. If nothing else, they delivered on their promise to make the game much more aggressive than the Souls series. I can sort of see where the "easier" comments are coming from though, once you get a hang of the dodging and using your gun and transformation attacks to interrupt, you can mitigate damage significantly.

 

[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

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.

 

[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!

 

[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

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.