Bloodborne review

[briareos_kerensky]

Ta, will try the middle distance thing. Can't do axe strategy as I've blown my chunks on fast-but-too-weak whip and strong-but-too-slow kirkhammer, and can't be bothered now to farm for more upgrade materials.

I've used the Kirkhammer sparingly, maybe its two-handed charge attack has similar properties to the the Axe's own, ie staggering the enemy with a powerful blow. I think that the strategy I used would work with Ludwig's Blade, the charged thrust has the same properties as the axe's.

[Golgo]

Finished him with whip and hammer and the blind luck not to be hit with his one-hit-kill airstrike. Final-final boss after that was a pushover.

Game over. Ending cutscene turned me into

->Open Spoiler<-

a celestial slug

- yay! Had maxed-out 99 awareness plus madman's change to spare in my inventory. Not sure what that was all for.

Thoroughly enjoyed the game, although I have the same reservations as many. My concluding gob****ery:

RPG elements, especially for defence, were under-developed. Came down to mix-and-match of items making your character look like a tramp in borrowed bit-and-pieces, with a few defensive/resistance buffs from runes. There was bit more to do with offence, but I ended up sticking with my random first choice weapons for most of the game, and although I tried everything available I didn't see much benefit or appeal in changing. The only stat I neglected was Arcane, and although that left me in the endgame with about six interesting- looking items I couldn't use I don' t know if I'll run through again just to level that up and try them out. The lack of RPG things like, for example, having to calculate your stamina against what kinds of armour/weapons you could reasonably heft, just made me feel less connected to the world. Felt more like I was floating through it.

Did all this streamlining/taking focus away from RPG elements, particularly when combined with the 'aggressive play gets your health back' mechanic, make for a more action-oriented game - which was the whole point? Not really; not for me anyway. The window for reclaiming life, and the amount reclaimed, was pretty negligible. Much easier to pick off your opponents and health-up on one of the many blood vials they'd almost invariably drop. There's simply too much health available to make this mechanic work. A quick sprint through Cathedral Ward will re-stock you from zero to twenty in under 2 minutes.

Bosses, although thankfully an improvement - at least in terms of spectacle - over Dark2, are getting more-and-more formulaic: usually large, fast moving creatures able to lunge the distance of the arena and take most of your health in one attack, that reliably go mental at one third health left and start flying, turn invisible, spamming difficult/impossible to avoid AOE instakills, or all three. Cue much hacking away head-down at feet (or their equivalent), wrestling with camera, and simply hoping the boss doesn't resort to the one-hit cheapness. Not a patch on Demons for the variety and inventiveness of bosses, for me anyway, and the game environment itself - while beautifully put together - lacked the variety and bizarre inventiveness of Dark.

All that said, I thought it was great game. The classic Souls incidental/environmental/suggestive storytelling is as good as it gets: loved the details like

->Open Spoiler<-

the crows' pebble being fossilized eyes, the fact that you must have had the Vileblood Queen's invitation to Cainhurst Castle on your person when you went for the treatment at Ionefska's, etc.

. And most enjoyable were the 'standard' enemies, which I don't think have had enough praise. These had great variety, worked brilliantly together to create an ever-changing challenge, and - while not perfect - were not anywhere near as laughably dumb as those in all previous Souls games.

Where next? Back to a proper, full-fat RPG a la Demons, I'd hope. Maybe a new setting: the European feels a bit rinsed out. Onimusha-esque would be nice. Or ...IN SPACE!! Perhaps also continue to develop this 'action' strand as a sideline, and get some tips from Platinum and Sony Santa Monica about how to do it right.

[Lebowski]

Finished this up last night after taking a week off it for Destinys Iron banner event, It's been very much a game that I've played to death at first then got a bit bored with towards the end to the point where i hadent touched it for a few weeks, All the bosses where pretty much a push over once past a certain point, Martyr Logarius and Rom gave me the most trouble, some bosses fell first time too like Germen as you could viscreal attack him dead easy and he was no more difficult than father Gascoigne

I soloed the whole game too as I had ongoing issues with getting help, it would just boot me back to the title screen so I gave up, not sure if i can be bothered with the challece dungeons I've done a few and found them a bit dull, and i doubt i will new game+ it as its a case of been there done that now.

I really liked the combo of the riffle spear and cannon, but also used the gun and saw blade I levelled these three up equally and got them, all to lvl 9 and the saw blade to lvl 10 by the end of the game

[Atticus]

Rom gave me the most trouble

I'm struggling with Rom. The third phase always gets me. Had a good number of attempts and burned through dozens and dozens of blood vials. Bah. Time to do some grinding I reckon.

[Lebowski]

My tactic was clear out all the first wave of spiders, fire paper, (bolt paper, or the tonitrus was killing them in two hits), then once the spiders are dead get about mid body on rom and use the flame sprayer on her. You can take of half her energy off before she teleports.

for the second phase locate her and get in close as fast as you can, don't worry about the second lot of spiders get back to her side and hit her, if she rolls on her back move back to midrange as her mele hits hard, watch the floor for the underground attack and don't go to far from her or you could get hit with the sky attack, it's very unpredictable and can inst kill you if it hits you wrong.

[Atticus]

Cheers Lebowski I'll buy the flame sprayer and head back in for another go (or 10 ).

[briareos_kerensky]

You can also prevent Rom from teleporting if you hit her hard enough. Works once with the axe, maybe if you have a huge amount of stamina you can pin her down and completely avoid the second phase.

[Atticus]

Haven't got the axe but Ludwig's Sword seems to do big damage in its secondary form. Might try a Phase 1 pin-down with a couple of heavy blows.

[briareos_kerensky]

Yeah, the blade's very similar to the axe in poise damage (using Souls terminology here...). The charged two-handed R2 is incredibly powerful.

[Golgo]

Lebowski's strategy looks fun but I can recommend a different Rom strategy, as given to me by Mr Bubbles. Don't approach Rom at all in any of the three phases until you've killed all of the guards - rear attacks or bait them to headplant themselves. Once cleared, pile in and melee Rom. Take it all real slow, patient and tactical. Roll away from the arcane attacks in phase 2 (aerial ones clearly telegraphed by Rom's belly flop, ground ones by telltale glow, both easily avoidable) and also beware Rom's hopping around when you get close in phase 3. Chuck a few molotovs at this stage if you don't want to get too close. I really enjoyed this boss battle (using cane/whip primarily and kirkhammer) as one of my favourites as you can work through even though it's tough. Managed it on 3rd attempt. You don't have to rely on luck that the boss doesn't suddenly spam unavoidable AOE instakills when it gets to 1/3 health, as in many other bosses.

[Atticus]

Left the game alone for a couple of days, put it on tonight and killed it first go (pretty much the Lebowski method in the end). Now I'm getting my ass kicked by something(one) else, haha

[Atticus]

Double post

[Uli]

my guide showed up, 5 weeks late but better than never i suppose. anyone else using it already?

here's an unboxing incl. showing off the free dynamic theme that comes with the book.

[MrKirov]

I've bought it, but already platinum'ed it when I bought it so it's still sealed. I've heard it's very in depth in info, but lacking a lot of discussion on lore and story.

[Atticus]

I got invaded last night at Mergo's Loft and the dude proper played me like a cat with a ball of wool. He turned up, made his presence known, then seemed to relax, watching me battling all the baddies in the vicinity. Then when I went to go up an elevator he stood at the door and his stance changed. I died. Gotta love this game for all its moments, even the painful ones. All I can say is it's a blessing finding and killing a sinister bell ringer who doesn't respawn.

Still my favourite game since Demon's Souls.