So yeah. You folks seem to have had a chronic lack of any topics for discussing The Old Hunters since its release last week. Thought I'd go ahead and get the ball rolling at least a little bit on that, considering how enjoyable the DLC has been along with my second playthrough of Bloodborne to prepare for it.
I'd say there really are a lot of things to talk about and muse over with this content, such as new weapons (a pleasantly substantial amount of new ones) general difficulty, bosses, what impact The Old Hunters has on the overall story of Bloodborne, level and world design, and so on. So I'm kind of looking for alternate perspectives on how much you have or haven't enjoyed playing The Old Hunters recently, or whatever moments you've experienced while playing that you find to be worthy of mentioning.
I would very much appreciate that if we want to delve into story or even boss content, that we keep the spoiler tags handy, for those who have interest in playing The Old Hunters eventually but may not have already bought/played it.
So, all warnings hopefully considered, here's a few (read: a lot) of my overall thoughts.
I probably got a little out of hand with this goddamn short essay on my perceived merits of The Old Hunters, but my main point is really that I feel I got more than my money's worth. The most negative thing I can say about it is that it feels too short in gameplay time, but that probably comes from having experience and being rather quick about finishing areas.
So what are some thoughts you guys have had?
I'd say there really are a lot of things to talk about and muse over with this content, such as new weapons (a pleasantly substantial amount of new ones) general difficulty, bosses, what impact The Old Hunters has on the overall story of Bloodborne, level and world design, and so on. So I'm kind of looking for alternate perspectives on how much you have or haven't enjoyed playing The Old Hunters recently, or whatever moments you've experienced while playing that you find to be worthy of mentioning.
I would very much appreciate that if we want to delve into story or even boss content, that we keep the spoiler tags handy, for those who have interest in playing The Old Hunters eventually but may not have already bought/played it.
So, all warnings hopefully considered, here's a few (read: a lot) of my overall thoughts.
Without a doubt, I'd have to say that some of my most enjoyable experiences of The Old Hunters have come from the sheer weapon variety that I didn't expect to see in a DLC. Every new weapon option that I've taken the time to mess with feels fleshed out in some way that makes each one feel quite unique, whether the feeling came from the design of the weapon itself, or its moveset, or both (to me personally) with a weapon such as the Amygdalan Arm, which functions as a blunt bludgeon, a sweeping scythe, and, of course, a Lovecraftian cosmic horror being's fucking arm that you've decided to wield because you're probably just a little bit cuckoo.
I've also gotten ridiculous amounts of use out of the Beast Cutter, which can function as a surprisingly long-range safe option for characters who didn't typically have such options before. Of course, such safety is balanced with pretty slow animations that you take quite a while to recover from should you miss (a turn of events which will likely result in you getting diced to bits).
All in all, many weapons added in The Old Hunters seem quite fun while also exhibiting clear disadvantages you will have to adapt to. Much like a number of weapons in the base game, but essentially, From keeps doing what they were already doing in terms of weapon design, and I mean that in the best way possible. While also making those weapons more interesting in a general sense.
I've also gotten ridiculous amounts of use out of the Beast Cutter, which can function as a surprisingly long-range safe option for characters who didn't typically have such options before. Of course, such safety is balanced with pretty slow animations that you take quite a while to recover from should you miss (a turn of events which will likely result in you getting diced to bits).
All in all, many weapons added in The Old Hunters seem quite fun while also exhibiting clear disadvantages you will have to adapt to. Much like a number of weapons in the base game, but essentially, From keeps doing what they were already doing in terms of weapon design, and I mean that in the best way possible. While also making those weapons more interesting in a general sense.
Certainly wouldn't be a From Souls-style game without some semblance of difficulty. And dear baby Jesus, did they make some of the bosses a pain in the ass to fight. The areas definitely feel more difficult to adjust to than anything in the base game, but not overwhelmingly so. Unless you play on NG+7 or something (I must ask,"Dear God, why?").
Speaking for specific bosses:
Ludwig: It sure was nice to see the horrible monstrosity that Ludwig, one of the Healing Church's most revered hunters, became under the influence of the Hunter's Nightmare. By which I mean quite saddening and heavily revolting, like you come to expect from Bloodborne if you've played it before. Even with that said, nothing else in the game really comes close to how disturbing Ludwig's boss room just feelsto me, save Yhar'gul and The One Reborn. Mechanically, a very difficult fight which does seem to frustrate many players, but definitely not an insurmountable challenge. And his second phase is a great callback to a staple weapon of Souls games. Being able to talk to his disembodied head afterwards is a nice touch. What is not so nice is that you walk a line between expressing honesty in telling that his Church hunters certainly have not followed a noble path since his passing, and lying in saying that they did, allowing him a final peace and release from his beastly prison. Not a game-affecting decision in any capacity, but it resulted in a surprising emotional impact for me.
Living Failures - honestly pretty disappointing mechanically (ease of difficulty, lack of attack variety), but a nice conclusion to the absolute horror of the Healing Church research laboratory. Perhaps showing a possible result of what some patients in the laboratory would eventually become. Likely precursors to any successful conversion of a human to a Kin able to communicate with Great Ones. Of course,the name does kind of give that away wholesale. Overall, a meh boss.
Lady Maria of the Astral Clock Tower - Like any other "hunter" boss in the game: exceedingly fun, though not particularly difficult. She definitely adds some very tangible elements to Bloodborne's murky lore, the most obvious being the Plain Doll's extreme resemblance. Regardless of difficulty, her fight works very well as a "cinematic" boss of sorts (difficult to describe, not sure how else I would put it into words). She is certainly no pushover, but not a particularly harrowing boss.
Orphan of Kos - fuck this boss. He goes hard, you will get no breaks, and without exceeding attention and a decent bit of luck, it may take a while before you make progress at all. COOL DESIGN THOUGH GJ FROMSOFT. Also the boss of one of the best areas in the game, though it is basically just Innsmouth with maybe a Junji Ito reference sprinkled on the end.
Laurence - Cool boss in some ways, pretty lame in others. A bit of disappointment stems from the reused Cleric Beast model, but he does have several attacks unique to him, many more so in his second phase. Much more interesting in terms of what role he plays in the story and within the Hunter's Nightmare - the item used to access this fight is Laurence's human skull. A fragment of the humanity he can never grasp again given his seemingly eternal residence in the Nightmare. Not to mention the whole being very dead on our character's plane of reality thing. Like Maria and Ludwig, very expositional fight in a game that very often lacks heavily expositional fights. Unlike them, kind of uninspired and a little bland mechanically. Laurence is meh, but he is a degree of meh above the meh of the Living Failures.
Speaking for specific bosses:
Ludwig: It sure was nice to see the horrible monstrosity that Ludwig, one of the Healing Church's most revered hunters, became under the influence of the Hunter's Nightmare. By which I mean quite saddening and heavily revolting, like you come to expect from Bloodborne if you've played it before. Even with that said, nothing else in the game really comes close to how disturbing Ludwig's boss room just feelsto me, save Yhar'gul and The One Reborn. Mechanically, a very difficult fight which does seem to frustrate many players, but definitely not an insurmountable challenge. And his second phase is a great callback to a staple weapon of Souls games. Being able to talk to his disembodied head afterwards is a nice touch. What is not so nice is that you walk a line between expressing honesty in telling that his Church hunters certainly have not followed a noble path since his passing, and lying in saying that they did, allowing him a final peace and release from his beastly prison. Not a game-affecting decision in any capacity, but it resulted in a surprising emotional impact for me.
Living Failures - honestly pretty disappointing mechanically (ease of difficulty, lack of attack variety), but a nice conclusion to the absolute horror of the Healing Church research laboratory. Perhaps showing a possible result of what some patients in the laboratory would eventually become. Likely precursors to any successful conversion of a human to a Kin able to communicate with Great Ones. Of course,the name does kind of give that away wholesale. Overall, a meh boss.
Lady Maria of the Astral Clock Tower - Like any other "hunter" boss in the game: exceedingly fun, though not particularly difficult. She definitely adds some very tangible elements to Bloodborne's murky lore, the most obvious being the Plain Doll's extreme resemblance. Regardless of difficulty, her fight works very well as a "cinematic" boss of sorts (difficult to describe, not sure how else I would put it into words). She is certainly no pushover, but not a particularly harrowing boss.
Orphan of Kos - fuck this boss. He goes hard, you will get no breaks, and without exceeding attention and a decent bit of luck, it may take a while before you make progress at all. COOL DESIGN THOUGH GJ FROMSOFT. Also the boss of one of the best areas in the game, though it is basically just Innsmouth with maybe a Junji Ito reference sprinkled on the end.
Laurence - Cool boss in some ways, pretty lame in others. A bit of disappointment stems from the reused Cleric Beast model, but he does have several attacks unique to him, many more so in his second phase. Much more interesting in terms of what role he plays in the story and within the Hunter's Nightmare - the item used to access this fight is Laurence's human skull. A fragment of the humanity he can never grasp again given his seemingly eternal residence in the Nightmare. Not to mention the whole being very dead on our character's plane of reality thing. Like Maria and Ludwig, very expositional fight in a game that very often lacks heavily expositional fights. Unlike them, kind of uninspired and a little bland mechanically. Laurence is meh, but he is a degree of meh above the meh of the Living Failures.
A lot of them came from bosses in some way: how Nightmares in Bloodborne may work; explicit character details; the nature of older generations of hunters. I definitely would say that it makes a meaningful contribution to the overall lore provided one's willingness to put the pieces together. Though, yes, some things are left cryptic in typical From fashion.
I probably got a little out of hand with this goddamn short essay on my perceived merits of The Old Hunters, but my main point is really that I feel I got more than my money's worth. The most negative thing I can say about it is that it feels too short in gameplay time, but that probably comes from having experience and being rather quick about finishing areas.
So what are some thoughts you guys have had?
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