Zero Punctuation: Bloodborne - Bloodly Dark Souls

disgruntledgamer

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Design wise it's closer to Demon Souls than Dark Souls a step in the right direction IMO but Demon Souls was still a bit better.
 

marioandsonic

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So it seems like Yahtzee likes Bloodborne.

But it doesn't justify forcing us to buy a clunky new console with no backwards compatability!
 

Adeptus Aspartem

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09philj said:
Souls, along with Half Life, falls into the category of games I respect but don't like. (As opposed to, say, Assassin's Creed, which I don't respect, but like, FFVI, which I respect and like, and The Last of Us which I neither respect nor like.) I can see what people like about them, and appreciate what they have done for gaming, but ultimately don't actually enjoy them.
For god's sake, we're on the internet! Could you stop being so reasonable and empathic? This is ruining the whole shebang for everyone here.
 

jhoroz

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Despite the few steps back in terms of bonfire system and healing items, I prefer this over Dark Souls. The world, level design and atmosphere is astounding in Bloodborne and I actually prefer the trick weapons over the countless minor variations that Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 vomits at you. I never understood what people yammered on about when talking about the "massive variety" in weapons DS 1.
 

Casual Shinji

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lassiie said:
I agree 10000000000% about the Estus mechanic being gone. Honestly, I thought Estus was one of the best mechanics in Dark Souls and was extremely sad to see it leave. One of the things I loved about Souls games is I never felt like I was FORCED to farm. Maybe I needed just one more level so I farmed an area for a few minutes to get the souls, but it never felt forced. Until NG+ I had to farm blood vials at least 5 times which was extremely annoying. Once I got to level 120ish I just started buying all my vials and bullets at the shop in the Dream because at that point blood echoes become useless.
The Estus mechanic wouldn't have worked in Bloodborne, because the game is way faster and you're required to pop health more frequently.

If you had to take a swig of Estus during a Boss fight in Bloodborne you'd get killed in like 2 seconds. By giving you the ability to quickly pop a blood vail they were able to make the fights much faster and intense. However, because you're popping them so frequently they couldn't just have them respawn indefinitely otherwise there'd be no risk for consuming health whatsoever. The risk in previous Dark Souls games being finding that lull inbetween enemy attacks. This hardly exists in Bloodborne since the game moves so fast.

And I really never found myself needing to farm health untill the very, very end. Every new area drops them at such a generous rate the first 5 times you replay them that you'll build up a substantial supply in no time at all. And I don't know what Yahtzee was talking about with sections that don't drop blood vails, because there isn't a section that doesn't. If it was bullets, sure, since only enemies with rifles or arcane weapons drop that. But in every area there's a certain amount of enemies that will drop vails. Even with the bullets there were plenty of times where even the storage box reached its limit.

The only thing I would criticize is the over reliance on Beast creatures for the Boss fights in the first 1/3 of the game, and the kinda unsatisfying ending considering the game was reaching for cosmic hellish heights. Other than that, this is probably my favourite Souls game.
 

Evonisia

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Johnny Novgorod said:
You can tell Yahtzee likes a game when he spends less time talking about its flaws and more about the context (PS4 vs. PC) in which he played it. I don't get where the PC entitlement comes from, by the way. PC has its exclusives, consoles have their exclusives...
It just came off as yet another excuse to shit on current gen consoles like he does at any opportunity, which is very funny considering how the ports of both Dark Souls and Dark Souls II were atrociously awful. It's like how fanboys ignore reality so as to have their ideal world reign supreme.

OT: Given that Dark Souls II (from the looks of it) earned its low place on Yahtzee's Top 5 for 2014, I wonder whether Bloodborne can reach an equal or greater position given how miffed he sounded about it at launch.
 

Rowan93

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Johnny Novgorod said:
You can tell Yahtzee likes a game when he spends less time talking about its flaws and more about the context (PS4 vs. PC) in which he played it. I don't get where the PC entitlement comes from, by the way. PC has its exclusives, consoles have their exclusives...
When a game is exclusive to PC, that's usually for completely different reasons to when a game is exclusive to a particular console, so I'm not sure you can compare them like that. Console exclusives are usually because the owner of the console wants anyone who wants to play the game to have to buy their product to do so, but no-one owns the PC platform so that motivation can't show up. And it's mostly because exclusives existing for that reason is bullshit that people feel "entitled" to having the games be available on their platform.

I mean, maybe there are some developers who are enthusiastic about the "PC master race" and advertise the fact that their game is only available on PC just to spite console gamers, in which case they can go fuck themselves, it's not "entitlement" for any console gamer to think it should be available on their preferred console. But I think the fraction of "PC exclusive" games where it's something like that behind it are a tiny percentage, it's mostly things like "would this even work without a mouse and keyboard?"
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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marioandsonic said:
So it seems like Yahtzee likes Bloodborne.

But it doesn't justify forcing us to buy a clunky new console with no backwards compatability!
*slap*

We only think that to ourselves. Call yourself a fan? Pfff!
Ok, you may not have called yourself one, it just felt like a formal necessity.

Unfortunately, it did justify me buying a clunky new console with no backwards compatability. Amongst other growing reasons. And the lack of BC really is glaring when it gives you options to buy games digitally for the previous console, on the more powerful console you cant play it on. Money must be pretty fckin tight for these publishers.
 

lassiie

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Casual Shinji said:
lassiie said:
I agree 10000000000% about the Estus mechanic being gone. Honestly, I thought Estus was one of the best mechanics in Dark Souls and was extremely sad to see it leave. One of the things I loved about Souls games is I never felt like I was FORCED to farm. Maybe I needed just one more level so I farmed an area for a few minutes to get the souls, but it never felt forced. Until NG+ I had to farm blood vials at least 5 times which was extremely annoying. Once I got to level 120ish I just started buying all my vials and bullets at the shop in the Dream because at that point blood echoes become useless.
The Estus mechanic wouldn't have worked in Bloodborne, because the game is way faster and you're required to pop health more frequently.

If you had to take a swig of Estus during a Boss fight in Bloodborne you'd get killed in like 2 seconds. By giving you the ability to quickly pop a blood vail they were able to make the fights much faster and intense. However, because you're popping them so frequently they couldn't just have them respawn indefinitely otherwise there'd be no risk for consuming health whatsoever. The risk in previous Dark Souls games being finding that lull inbetween enemy attacks. This hardly exists in Bloodborne since the game moves so fast.

And I really never found myself needing to farm health untill the very, very end. Every new area drops them at such a generous rate the first 5 times you replay them that you'll build up a substantial supply in no time at all. And I don't know what Yahtzee was talking about with sections that don't drop blood vails, because there isn't a section that doesn't. If it was bullets, sure, since only enemies with rifles or arcane weapons drop that. But in every area there's a certain amount of enemies that will drop vails. Even with the bullets there were plenty of times where even the storage box reached its limit.

The only thing I would criticize is the over reliance on Beast creatures for the Boss fights in the first 1/3 of the game, and the kinda unsatisfying ending considering the game was reaching for cosmic hellish heights. Other than that, this is probably my favourite Souls game.
It doesn't have to be an Estus flask, but why not have the messengers refill your blood vials when you die. I'm sure there is something lore-wise that could've explained it. And yes, I never really had to refill blood vials while I was just progressing through the game, but anytime I started to explore, like the Nightmare areas, I found myself running out very quickly. It just seemed pointless to take away a great mechanic and replace it with farming.

Chalice Dungeons are another area that are infuriating if you have to leave to farm blood vials. I would rather have no blood-vial drops from enemies and have it refill at the lantern. QSBs were fine, but blood vials sucked. Especially in something like the Defiled Chalice where you ALWAYS had to heal to full health otherwise you would get 1-shot, and even at full health it would happen sometimes. So you end up using 2 vials anytime you only needed one.

Ultimately, my point was that in Dark Souls 1 or 2 I never felt like I had to farm unless I wanted to. This game, you will HAVE to farm at some point.
 

Casual Shinji

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lassiie said:
Chalice Dungeons are another area that are infuriating if you have to leave to farm blood vials. I would rather have no blood-vial drops from enemies and have it refill at the lantern. QSBs were fine, but blood vials sucked. Especially in something like the Defiled Chalice where you ALWAYS had to heal to full health otherwise you would get 1-shot, and even at full health it would happen sometimes. So you end up using 2 vials anytime you only needed one.
I honestly never really bothered with the Chalice Dungeons. The first one I entered was so bland and obvious stitched together that I thought 'Fuck this, I'm going back to the part of the game that actually has quality.'
 

lassiie

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Casual Shinji said:
lassiie said:
Chalice Dungeons are another area that are infuriating if you have to leave to farm blood vials. I would rather have no blood-vial drops from enemies and have it refill at the lantern. QSBs were fine, but blood vials sucked. Especially in something like the Defiled Chalice where you ALWAYS had to heal to full health otherwise you would get 1-shot, and even at full health it would happen sometimes. So you end up using 2 vials anytime you only needed one.
I honestly never really bothered with the Chalice Dungeons. The first one I entered was so bland and obvious stitched together that I thought 'Fuck this, I'm going back to the part of the game that actually has quality.'
The first one you get is bland. It gets much better after that as they can be huge and have multiple secrets to find. Not to mention it's really the only difficult part of the game.
 

Sheo_Dagana

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zegram33 said:
One From software game?
what about Armored core?
I dunno, I feel like From Software has forgotten how to make a decent Armored Core game. I like that there's some variation between the entries but the fifth game is kind of where it all went off the rails for me since they took a step back and made the mechs control like vacuum cleaners again.

OT: I'm also extremely irked that this is a console exclusive, and only one console at that. I know the PS4 just HAS to have more exclusives than the XBone (new Gundam game... exclusive to the PS4. Fuck you too, Japan) and all that but with the remastered Dark Souls II hitting shelves this week for both consoles it kind of makes me feel even more cheated, especially since, and this is just my opinion, Bloodborne is really the only exclusive that the PS4 has that you can point to and say that it makes owning a PS4 over an XBone or high-end PC worthwhile. Not that the XBone has anything, but until now, I've not really cared all that much about the exclusive titles for either system.

It's pointless to complain about and it doesn't make Bloodborne any less of a good game, but I just can't help but feel like the sales for the game would have been even better if it had been published through Bamco again and made available to both systems and PC. I'm sure I'll have a similar complaint when the new Tomb Raider comes out.
 

stringtheory

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lassiie said:
I agree 10000000000% about the Estus mechanic being gone. Honestly, I thought Estus was one of the best mechanics in Dark Souls and was extremely sad to see it leave. One of the things I loved about Souls games is I never felt like I was FORCED to farm. Maybe I needed just one more level so I farmed an area for a few minutes to get the souls, but it never felt forced.
Eh, I'm on my first playthrough of DS1 and I do feel there's some forced farming if you lose all the required items for an area (Transient curses, humanity etc.), or have to farm for titanite if realize you picked the wrong upgrade path for your weapon.
 

marioandsonic

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Xsjadoblayde said:
Oh deary double post. Thatll learn me for using a phone! (He replies, cautiously through his phone)
Oh, is that why you slapped me twice?

*slap*

There, now we're even.

And no, I'm still not convinced to buy a PS4 because of this one game. Then again, I've honestly never played a Dark Souls game anyway.
 

Darth_Payn

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Well don with the missing illustration message. Surprised there are some lines Yahtzee wouldn't cross, but then I remember this one bit from his video about Webcomics, bringing up the infamous miscarriage arc from Ctrl+Alt+Del. I also laughed at the many monsters described with having genitals everywhere, and comparing the PS4 to an overly jealous clingy girlfriend.

captcha: harp on
harp on, indeed. Yahtzee, we love you on the Escapist. Please don't leave!
 

OtherSideofSky

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I'll grant Yahtzee that King's Field has a lot in common with the Souls games, but I think Yahtzee is stretching a point to suggest that Armored Core, Otogi, Spriggan, A.C.E., etc. are all the same game. I mean, they released Verdict Day in between Dark Souls and Dark Souls II, so he can't even reasonably claim that they only make one game at the moment, let alone ever.
 

Sniper Team 4

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OuendanCyrus said:
I still don't understand why they removed the item descriptions for the loading screens? because of spoilers? because there aren't enough items in the game?
Because they hate you, they hate me, and they don't want people to figure the story out as fast this time. Because that is the only reason I can come up with for why they would do this. I know that the game is called 'Bloodborne' guys. You don't need to remind me every time I die or warp. Sheesh...

Anyway, great review. I haven't laughed so hard at a ZP in a long time. Yahtzee nailed this game perfectly I think.