Bloodborne

I cant remember what got me into Demon's Souls in the first place but the idea of a 3D action game reminiscent of the Zelda games of that time but more moodier, atmospheric and "hardcore" seemed intriguing enough to pick up and at best give it a shot. While initially hating the esoteric and challenging experience, eventually I caught the bug and Demon's Souls, even to this day, competes for my 5th slot in "5 favorite games of all time". Flash forward 7 years and we're now at Bloodborne, technically the fourth game with the Souls formula but treated as a separate IP. And despite playing prior entries, it's remarkable how, even with gripes, Bloodborne followed the exact same pattern: initially not digging the game until it became a game I warmed up to as time went on.

Playing as a Hunter, slayer of beasts, you find yourself in Yharnam, a city reminiscent of Victorian England meets Gothic architecture, you'll come across crazed people, other hunters and some completely deformed and magnificent beasts reminiscent of the best of Lovecraft. While this is the most simplest of explanations, Bloodborne is basically the opposite of Bioware worlds: instead of complex codex entries, it's 2 sentences found on an item. Instead of long cutscenes and lengthy conversations with NPC's, NPC's are not quite as chatty and are even vague with their intentions. While it's not hard to get the basic gist of the world of Bloodborne, it doesn't make it easy to do so though it's worth exploring to find it out.

The world of the game is semi open-world as you make your way through areas, exploring nooks and crannies and defeating your enemies on the way to the area's boss. The interconnected design of having everything loop around and shortcuts and alternate pathways can really impress at just how meticulously constructed everything is. The detail put into this world is also put onto the display as the various ruins and vacated streets of Yharnam really bring the player into a world that you'd rather not be in but always presents the pull to explore and find what it has to offer. The only real downside I feel to the world is despite all this, I wouldn't say it's as straight forward as prior games with many times me going "okay, now what?" While it's easy to marvel just how much things are in the game, it's almost just as easy to straight up miss what it has to offer.

The action of Bloodborne is much more faster and requires a bit more reactions on the player's part and I'll absolutely admit the pacing didn't click with me at first. Many bosses from before were much more lumbering, gigantic dudes that can easily be baited into attacks while you hacked away at their misses but many enemies and bosses require quicker thinking and faster reflexes so while you can be the patient type, being more nimble is just as effective. However, this change starts what's probably the most exciting and (hate to use the word since it is so overused) but "intense" combat in the series. The sighs of relief upon vanquishing a foe seem almost louder given the quicker fights and the stylish presentation of the game really does give you that "I'm a slick and well-dressed badass" feeling compared to before where you were "a dude in armor".

That being said, some things in Bloodborne actually started to grate and strangely enough makes me less enthused about further playthrough because of them. One is handling the healing so a bit of context for prior games. In Demon's Souls, healing was done via a grass consumable with different kinds offering more healing (similar to potion, hi-potion, and x-potion from traditional rpg's) and levels were structured sort of like a Mega Man stage: you had to make it from the beginning of the level to the end and beat the boss in one life with a death putting you back at the very beginning, no checkpoints. However since you made your way through the entirety of levels, you'd likely replenish and even stock up more on healing grass and increase your stock and there was no limit to how many you can carry on you since they weren't that much of a burden on your item weight. In Dark Souls, you had the estus flask: a consumable with charges that can not only be upgraded to increase the charges but increase the amount of healing provided but the big one was that they replenished your charges either upon death or touching a bonfire.

In Bloodborne however, likely done since it's seen as a new IP and not technically part of the Souls series, came up with a new system: blood vials and had the 2 prior systems combined yet seems to have backfired and had all the drawbacks that came with both. While you can farm the vials as you progressed in the game, you're limited to how many you can carry on you with extra vials put automatically into a storage chest back in your hub. While they did scale off more health you have (40% of max hp) you couldn't permanently increase the charges or potency unless you equipped special runes and enchantments which takes away being able to equip other items in those same slots. Very needed in the early game given you weren't equipped with amazing gear or stats yet but in the late game they're super trivial to get, doubly so if you purchased the DLC. Added to this, any amazing farming spots were somehow more tedious given enemies didn't refresh and revive a la Dark Souls' bonfires but now it's a loading screen back to a hub and a loading screen back into the world. It's kind of a system that felt like a constant hassle as opposed to just being a minor inconvenience I'd get used to.

DLC Review:

Similar to the "Artorias of the Abyss" downloadable content released for Dark Souls, "The Old Hunters" is also new content that isn't a drop down from the main menu or a flashing "NEW!" gravestone in this case but rather requires specific steps. Upon vanquishing the boss Vicar Amelia, an area opens up which takes you to the Hunter's Nightmare, a rather lengthy dlc which adds some new weapons, bosses and areas to explore. Some bosses aside (**** you, Ludwig), the quality of the DLC is quite exceptional and the new weapons and what they offer to different builds makes it worthwhile but there's one gripe: depending on if she was 3rd or 4th boss, Vicar Amelia is fairly early into the game yet the DLC seems almost scaled higher than the level you'll likely be upon killing the boss. This can make the DLC tough for early playthroughs and is just as tough even if you're at an appropriate level. Unfortunate since the whirligig saw (dubbed the "pizza cutter" by the community) became an instant favorite, the rakuyo is a complete beast of a skill-based weapon and the boss fight in the clocktower (no spoilers here) actually rivals Artorias as the funnest/coolest fight in a Souls game. It's worth purchasing but maybe hold off before entering it if you're early in the game.

While it took a while, the wonders and enjoyment that can be had with Bloodborne eventually started to come to me and while it won't dethrone Demon's Souls, it's a game that did click. While the urge to replay the Demon or Dark is quite strong and would likely not think twice should another playthrough come my way, certain sections (the frenzy bridge...*shudder*) or bosses or the handling of the blood vial system make me less enthused to replay the game, the other experiences surrounding the game make it a worthwhile endeavor anyway.