BLOODBORNE given Feb '15 Euro/NA release date, deemed worthy of own thread by ilxor

I have played and beaten Bloodborne and it’s a magnificent game in every way but this is still the first thing I think of every times it’s brought up.

https://youtu.be/HPjJCVylFBo

Sound needs to be on btw

lol, I forgot about that

LOL WANT.

I think I'm starting to get the hang of it a little, enough to do a little grinding for blood echoes to upgrade my attire. However, I have forgotten where the first big, nonhuman enemy is, so I haven't really tested my new combat skills yet.

Playing late at night was a little too intense, though.

I've kind of figured out how to play this (at least the beginning), i.e. I can avoid dying when facing mobs of human enemies.

Now I just need to figure out where to go.

Found the Cleric Beast but as you might expect I died. Then in my haste to try again I kept dying in the beginning of Central Yarnham -- SUPER frustrating. Are there any checkpoint lanterns in between so that I don't lose so much progress every time I DIED?

There's only one lantern iirc, but there are doors/shortcuts that you can open up that make it a quick trip (maybe that house that's very dark inside?).

in my haste to try again I kept dying

souls games in a nutshell ime

There's only one lantern iirc, but there are doors/shortcuts that you can open up that make it a quick trip (maybe that house that's very dark inside?).

I found the house that lets me avoid the two werewolves(?) on the bridge right before the boss, but I was hoping to avoid the part where I had to get past the guys at the gate staring at the big bonfire.

I might be misremembering, but I think you can go out a downstairs door of that house and head right up to the starting lamp?

you're not misremembering, that's the shortest path

Cthulhu help me, I'm looking at a walkthrough right now.

cleris beast is optional (:

I realized that except for the blood echoes (because you know why) I have resources now to upgrade my stats and my weapon (axe). I've read that health and weapons should be prioritized, so I'm just going to grind the starting area for the echoes needed.

I also encountered my first NPC that isn't locked behind a door!

Beat the Cleric Beast! It didn't feel so overwhelmingly hard once I got a feel for its attack patterns an be after I gave up trying to land visceral stacks on it.

Father G on the other hand feels like I should try for visceral stacks when I can. Haven't had much luck against him so far.

Picked this up again and after the requisite period of remembering the controls, I managed to beat Father G. So, nice that I can explore a new level. The controls did feel a bit wonky during the boss fight, like when trying to dodge, my character would do to moves after soon he initial delay (probably me button mashing).

Bought to the Kirk Hammett Hammer with the process (and selling his the saw blade I found), then realized that I didn't have enough strength to world it.

*two moves

Maybe you were out of stamina (and mashing)?

It's not worth selling weapons imo, there aren't that many of them in the game, and it's easier to kill enemies to get currency. You might want to use it later (or not, but still).

I kind of had that thought about stamina too, so I upgraded it. Haven't had much chance to fully test drive yet.

Good point on weapons, I even found a path that's not too hard for farming blood currency.

So I ground enough enemies to buy that Hunter emblem to open a big gate that leads to Vicar Amelia (fight her twice to no avail, even with an NPC buddy, I've heard that you should only tackle her at around level 25?), and I've found the way to Old Yarnham (the farthest I've traveled there is that plaza where the Hunter enemy keeps trying to do a hot and run against me).

However, I'm not sure which area to go and/or focus on next.

I always got super turned around in Cathedral Ward tbh. It's been awhile, but iirc Old Yarnham is technically option but leads to some other optional areas (chalice dungeons, another one that should be a surprise), and beating Amelia is the way forward.

She's one of the few Souls bosses that never quite clicked with me, I think I summoned help every time. I love the fight with the three npcs down in the cemetery (?) below though.

Hm, I was kind of stuck on Cathedral Ward -- there didn't seem to be any other way for me to progress besides either going into Old Yarnham or sinking 10000 echoes to buy the Hunter Emblem Key.

I know from looking at the wiki today that if you do go into Old Yharnam and beat the boss there, a door opens up by the Cathedral Ward lamp and then there's a tricksy way to avoid having to get the Hunter Emblem.

God this game. I started playing but I'm still stuck at Vicar Amelia, PLUS I've also lost 9 insight. I keep thinking this is just not my game but then I read others going nuts over it and revisit and I end up grinding my teeth.

Lesson learned from Dark Souls is there is no shame in searching for help and hints.

my lesson learned was there is no shame in searching for other games

there is no shame in summoning help

I summoned Henriett, can't summon real players because I don't have PS+.

Meanwhile, this article seems to be implicitly calling me out: https://kotaku.com/bloodborne-has-clicked-for-me-and-it-only-took-four-ye-1831951256

And I just realized that my revival post didn't mention that I now have ZERO insight.

have you gone through old yarnham and hemwick yet? they're optional but leveling up may help

I got some part of the way into Old Yarnham but the sniper annoyed me and I gave up. I know that BSB lives in OY but I didn't reach it. No Hemwick, either.

they’re fun as well!

i am v much looking forward to sekiro:shadows die twice. hoping activision hasn’t fucked with the magic.

"as well" doesn't apply as I don't think I've enjoyed the game so far.

ah yes. i meant more - as well as levelling up they are fun levels, but i can how if the general aesthetic isn’t serving you that’s not going to fly. AWAY! AWAY!

agreed, if it's a slog just drop it. ciderpress otm

I loved the atmosphere of Dark Souls, which is partly what kept me going. I look forward to this one, which looks even cooler, even if I admit at my rate I won't get to it until they remaster it or something.

Should I start a new game from scratch? (Lost all of my insight to an enemy without realizing it.)

Nah. What do you want insight for, buying things or summoning help? If you really want more before progressing, you can try to help players beat bosses (although idk how active the game is these days).

Don't you need Insight to level up? I also don't have PSN so summoning isn't in the picture.

Nope, you only need it to summon helpers and to buy things at that one messenger bath (up top, overlooking the main one). Souls/blood echoes are used to level up.

yeah, echoes are souls, insight is the humanity of bloodborne. it has... properties i won't spoil but i sure as hell wouldn't restart because of it

OK, I think I am closer to starting this than not (which means in the next couple of months, give or take a Batman and/or Ori). Apologies in advance, since I do tend to overthink these games, if only because they are pretty big commitments, but my first big question is if it's essentially (that is, more or less) like Dark Souls. And the other (related) is if I should go in more or less blind or keep a guide handy. Now, I like to be surprised as much as the next guy, but I can say with certainty that some of my favorite parts of Dark Souls 1 & 3 I would have totally missed had I not followed any sort of guide - and in turn likely never experienced, barring a replay - and similarly there were some parts I might have *hated* had a guide not given me a heads up. So Bloodborne, is it just as frustratingly rich and varied in secrets and secret levels/bosses/weapons/skills? Would it behoove me to follow some sort of a guide, as opposed to checking out walkthroughs only when I'm stuck? I don't really want to get in a situation where I find out, a few hours in, that I can't do the awesome thing with the thing because I didn't do the thing at the beginning, which Dark Souls is rife with. Oh, and I will be playing it offline as well again, too.

Am I ever going to feel like a failure when you inevitably beat this!

inevitably is a long way away

-gandhi

i could maybe replay this

The format is extremely Dark Souls. One the one hand there are some good surprises that I wouldn't want spoiled, but on the other there are some secrets and quests that affect the ending (including a boss fight) that I never would have known about if I hadn't looked them up.

Maybe a good compromise is playing the first couple hours blind (unless you get stuck), and then looking up guides without shame. Nothing early affects the end.

Still hovering in pre-game research mode here (and i'm sorry, but these games do benefit from at least some basic spoiler-free research). I saw a nice guide that more or less translated each starting class into its Dark Souls equivalent, so I'm leaning toward Military Veteran (warrior) or Lone Survivor (tank knight). The problem (which is a good problem to have) is that what you pick at the start potentially plays a big role in *how* you play, and once you start allocating stats it's pretty hard to change direction mid-course. Of course, that's a good thing for replay, as there are so many variables, and, as fans of DS and this one seem prone to say, pretty much any build with any weapon can get you to the end. But some builds are definitely more forgiving at the start than others. Starting Knight in DS3 was a big help, for example, because you begin with a good weapon. In this case, it seems the way to go in the beginning is butcher saw or axe.

bloodborne was my first souls game and used a dex build with the cane whip. dex much more viable as a starter build in bloodborne than DS i’d say (though strength builds also v good obv).

So that would be more Warrior/Lone Survivor, right?