Bloodborne review

[Brad]

Thanks guys

[Golgo]

Slight spoiler here, Brad, re. the area with those hunters, so don't read it you don't want...but

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it's probably not worth you going down there yet unless you've got a peculiar stone from someone standing at a lit window in Central Yanrham: the area where you first meet the devil crows, up the steps to where the little girl was playing her music box, ladder down and there's a house with light on near a bridge. I found/investigated this house by chance long after hitting a lethal dead end in the area after the two hunters, and the object you get from the house allows you to proceed, after a fashion...

[Brad]

I've not even seen

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the little girl or the music box

. I've clearly missed something as I've heard people discussing using that on Father Gascoign!

[djtickle]

Got up to and killed Rom last night. Not sure I'm feeling this much though anymore. Its starting to feel more like a chore than what was the excitement at the beginning. How far through would you say I am? Just wondering if I should stick with it or not.

[Golgo]

I've not even seen

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the little girl or the music box

. I've clearly missed something as I've heard people discussing using that on Father Gascoign!

It's a fairly touching mini-quest/storyline

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involving the girl and her parents. Speak to her at the lit window where you hear music and it goes from there. You probably found a pendant on the roof after Gascoigne? That's part of it.

[Shozuki]

Got up to and killed Rom last night. Not sure I'm feeling this much though anymore. Its starting to feel more like a chore than what was the excitement at the beginning. How far through would you say I am? Just wondering if I should stick with it or not.

depends - you can probably end the game relatively soon, unless you want to see all the optional bosses/areas...

[djtickle]

depends - you can probably end the game relatively soon, unless you want to see all the optional bosses/areas...

Thanks, guess I might stick with it as I have come so far see if I might get back into it or not.

[Golgo]

From need to sit down and play a God of War game to learn how to handle a camera in fights with massive bosses. There's too much of this 'get in close and hack away at ankles' crap, where you can't see the tells from the bosses, or indeed enjoy the spectacle of the fight. Just done two in a row,

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Ebrietas and Amygdalla.

[briareos_kerensky]

Amygdala is the worst offender of the two, mostly because she doesn't take much damage aside from the head. Against Ebritas I won by forcing her head slam, being close also mafe her blood attack useless.

[briareos_kerensky]

Game completed, and taken on the Cleric Beast on NG+.
The last session in NG was a straight line from

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Mergo's

, through

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Gerham

, to the

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Moon Presence

; I'll probably continue on NG+ for a while, maybe focusing on the Chalice Dungeons, being The Pthumerian Queen the only boss I haven't slain. Chalice Dungeons are kinda samey and not that interesting, continuously removing the chalices to reset status in order to farm materials is boring. Thankfully a lot of items are carried to NG+, cutting down time to get things going: having badges, full workshop and rune capabilities should allow to concentrate on mandatory bosses.

Anyway, I liked the game a lot. At first it was kinda difficult, always having faced the Souls games as a knight (therefore with the heaviest shield I could find/use), but then it clicked and started enjoying it thoroughly. Possibly due to some grinding the latest bosses weren't particularly challenging, but at least their design was far more inspired than DS2. I would have also liked more expansive environments, Yharnam feels a bit small for the sprawling city the game shows.

[MrKirov]

I went through the chalice dungeons and faced Yarnham, Pthlumeriam queen yesterday. The dungeons are quite boring, but straight forward to run through/ you start seeing the same map design after a few goes so it's easy to know where to go.

Some of the new bosses are quite good, such as bloodletting beast- and its headless version. There was about 10 new bosses in the chalice dungeons that I saw. Pthlumerian queen was difficult, and quite tricky to get your head around as it relies on audio cues to dodge- but not enough that I couldn't do it. Just got to beat Mergos wet nurse in my NG++ game and I've got the platinum.

For reference with the chalices, this is the route to the secret boss Pthu>Central Pthu>Lower Pthu>ailing loran>defiled chalice.
Doing them will give you everything you need- chalices and items- to get to the final dungeon.

Defiled chalice was probably the worst, you have half health, and practically everything one shots you- including some NASTY bosses.
I was really happy to make it through tbh!

[Golgo]

Woohoo, boss who turns invisible for one-hit kills, following on from another boss who did much the same!!! ...any tips for spanking

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Gehrman?

[briareos_kerensky]

Woohoo, boss who turns invisible for one-hit kills, following on from another boss who did much the same!!! ...any tips for spanking

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Gehrman?

I abused the axe's charged two-hand swing: he walks rather slowly even in his third phase, and staying at mid-range won't trigger many of his attacks, and he'll just walk up to you. The idea is to hit him with both attacks in the swing, but just the last will send him to the ground, allowing for healing or one-two more hits.
It is kinda risky, but more often than not we would both land a hit, sometimes he'll just bypass me completely when using his lunge attack. I think the most dangerous attack he has is when he uses his scythe to "grab" you, but you can actually escape the second hit by mashing the dodge button.
If you stay too far he'll start zipping around, which are hard to predict and dodge; stay mid-range and wait for an opening; you can try with Visceral Attacks, they are relatively easy to land in the first two phases of the fight...during the third you must have very good reflexes. He can also be staggered easily, the axe's two-handed strikes (overhead and side swings) interrupted most of his attacks. And don't forget to score a few hits when he charges up between the 2nd and 3rd phases.

[Golgo]

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.

[MrKirov]

Platinum get