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

Cosmic Spider fight I only finally won by doing the *opposite* of a lot of the advice, which said to kill the baby spiders first. I fared better just going straight for the big guy after luring them away.

The brick trolls iirc are among the easier big enemies to parry. Martyr Logarius is the one on the roof, right? First, he's optional, so you can always come back later. Second, he was probably the hardest boss fight, or up there, but he *also* can be parried relatively easy. However, as I remember it he took almost all of my blood vials to kill, and adding insult to injury there's no way to even get to him without taking a little bit of guaranteed damage at least twice, once getting up that latter while an asshole spits darts at you and the other dropping off the other roof to get to the other ladder to get to him. Oh, and yeah, there's no way out without warping, which is its own troll move.

But yeah, go back to Roof Boss when you're stronger. Three phases, I think. The first favors hit and run tactics plus parries, the faster second one mostly favors parries, the third ... there's a magic sword involved that you have to either shoot or hit, I think, to limit one of his more annoying attacks.

Yeah, Marty is the jerk on the rooftop, and getting him is definitely annoying. I take out the spitballer on my way there, and *think* that I was able to reduce the drop damage once by landing on one of the wall spikes, but seeing as I actually fell off the wall once before, am willing to pay the health tax.

I think that I have a decent grasp of the his first phase, but I've been trying to replicate a visceral cheese, to no avail, although I do have a rune that lets me regain health for visceral attacks, which would mitigate my current vial crunch. I got the storm of swords phase.

https://bimmydraws.tumblr.com/post/639044491113873408/fun-outfit-idea

The Healing Church believes that any inquiries into blood ministrations will only further divide Yharnam: the city has been devastated by The Hunt, and we should be looking for unity and healing, not the divisive killing of the Old Ones and their spawn.

— Tyler Dinucci (@TylerDinucci) January 11, 2021

Some background: Rob, a Playstation Youtuber who is famously known for not being good at skillful games, has been stuck in Old Yarnham since the game came out, and so his cohosts, one of whom is hilariously overleveled, decided to help him beat it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b0BZJu-9ew

So I rage quit this for I few months? But I picked it up again and Yahargul some more after watching a stream; got to the One Reborn and on my third time I got it down to an inch of health before it puked on and killed me. But I punted around in Upper Cathedral Ward and to grind another level up, and I fortified my Tonitrus and was able to take OR down in relatively short order.

Marty Loggans -- DEAD! I leveled up 4 times since the first time I fought him, mostly prioritizing skill, but otherwise I'm not sure how I had such an easier go when I put him down. I did manage several visceral attacks, and I read about how to dodge his airborne attacks.

Sounds familiar. I think he was easily the most frustrating boss, but of course these games are great at telling you when you're not ready for something. Making him optional and kind of hard to get to was certainly one clue.

Hah, killed Amygdala in one go! Once I figured out how to get directly behind it, it was just a matter of swinging and its tail.

Love to see it, gg Leee. Btw this might contain a few boss spoilers for you if you're not done yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TuqsXZhYWo

This game really doesn't help you does it? O find it frustrating that I had to go online to find out how to use the UI to equip a weapon after I'd been killed by the first werewolf 20 times

So I've decided if I'm going to play a Soulslike, it's going to be this one. I found Dark Souls 3 as beautiful and absorbing as I did grimly frustrating. I didn't really get far in it at all. I need a feeling of purpose, of progress, and the annoying things about these games is that they wilfully explain very very little to you, and so the urge to continue with them really depends on how much you enjoy doing the same thing over and over again until you get it exactly right. But yes, despite still being basically at the beginning I'm kind of enjoying this.

I think I may fall into the "'Bloodborne' is the best one" camp. Certainly its enemies and mythology and world building are much more novel and interesting than "Sekiro" (so far). I liked "DS3" a lot, though, too.

I find the impenetrability of the interface (the lack of tutorial) comforting in a nostalgic way, like 8-bit graphics emulation in other games. I don't know whether it is by design or by accident or a combination of both but I love this aspect of From games and games inspired by them

Yeah but those 8Bit/16Bit games usually came with some sort of small manual telling you a bit about the controls and the UI. I was so pissed off about that werewolf decking me over and over again - "Surely this game can't be THAT hard?". I knew I'd picked up a weapon, but learning how to actually equip these just wasn't intuitive in the least (you have four squares, the leftmost two are for your right hand, the rightmost for your right, but you're just meant to work that out yourself).

I think there's a controls diagram in the settings? Or if not, Google is your friend with these games. I'd like to think that collective puzzle-solving aspect is part of the design. Or at least I appreciate that they keep immersion-breaking in-game tips & tutorials to a minimum.

i don't have online subscription. will that be a significant problem or obstacle?

Not in this game I don't think. As long as you can google or follow a walkthrough/guide you'll do fine. Conversely, and to your point, in my experience *none* of these games are playable without a guide, and insult to injury if you do the wrong thing early that could affect your game hours later. It's one thing to require you to fight certain enemies again and again, but I'll be damned if I play the entire game again and again just to get different endings, different NPC interactions, discover new stuff, etc. That's a job for the obsessives that write the guides that make it easier for people like me.

And just to be clear, all the inscrutable NPC side quests are optional, it doesn't really matter if you complete them or ignore them entirely. But yeah, if you want to do it all in one playthrough, you definitely need to use a wiki.

Grrr... I'm only in Central Yharnam and there's a bit where a lot of zombie men are standing round a fire. I can't seem to kill them all. What I'm finding especially annoying is that even if I'm locked on to someone, my character will often just swing (or shoot) in a completely different direction

That's at the start, right? Lure them out one at a time by hitting them with a pebble.

If the lock-on is switching when you don't want it to, maybe go into settings and try turning off 'Auto-Target'?

Also sometimes with groups it's better to not lock on at all, once you get used to aiming swings without it.

But step #1 is definitely to lure out one at a time, and also you can just run past them all if you just need to get to the next area. :)

It would be nice if I had some pebbles of course. Every time I die I have fewer and fewer items at my disposal.

Really am getting tired of doing the same thing over and over and over again

The hardest part of any of these games is the beginning, when you don't have much in the way of resources and you haven't got the feel of things yet, and the hardest From Software game is always the first one you play.

You don't necessarily need pebbles, just attract one enemy's attention, and lure them back into a safe area where you've already killed the enemies. And it should be easier once you learn their placement in a given area, and also their attacks so that you can dodge/wait until they're done swinging/etc. It can be helpful to move into their range to trigger an attack and then back out of it, then attack when they're done, etc. Or, interrupt them right away if you can (though bigger enemies may not be able to be interrupted).

I haven't played BB for awhile, but even though it rewards aggression and swinging into enemies to get your hp back after getting hit, sometimes it's better not to get hit at all. You can do it!

(what weapons did you choose btw?)

The big saw (cleaver?) And the blunderbuss

I'm still stuck at this bonfire. I'm trying to lure them but there's a guy with a gun who shoots me when I try to lure out the strays. Oh and a big wolf who is a pain too

I just don't understand why dude will just randomly turn the opposite direction when I'm attacking an enemy. I haven't got the lock on

Solid, if you were using the cane I would suggest a different one for the first time through.

Oh yeah the dogs are always the worst in these games, at least in BB you can shoot them to knock them out of the way.

xp

Oh, are you moving the left trigger unintentionally? That'll always dictate the direction of your attacks I think.

Also more often than not when I try to lure one guy out I get three chasing me and then I'm doomed

Not sure what I'm doing, whether I'm accidentally pushing the direction in the wrong way but he never seems to want to face the way I want

Might be helpful to look up a playthrough/walkthrough on youtube and see how someone else plays it?

Argh Soo close!

Got killed by the last one

It's getting that close and having to do everything again which is the pain, but I guess that's more like how games used to be

Okay so the people who invented this game need to go to jail for a very long time.

https://www.pcgamesn.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/sekiro-genichiro-ashina-cheese-900x506.jpg
Hold my beer.

Still stuck right at the start of Central Yharnam. In fact it seems to be getting more difficult. Enemies I had no trouble killing with one strong punch suddenly seem to need many more hits. And I swear I'm being swarmed more whereas before I was able to pick one guy off at a time.

I did get very very close to wiping all the bonfire baddies out but got stabbed at last minute.

I am getting a little tired of my man suddenly deciding he's going to swing in a completely different direction to the enemy that I am directly fucking facing though. That's when I get fed up and want to rage quit

You also get these sort of sleeping/crouching enemies bit for some reason you can't actually kill them until they've started getting up, so even though I know they're there, it feels arbitrary as to whether I can kill them while they're getting up. More often than not, my hit will go right through them and then as I'm recovering, they'll be up and at them, my hit will have pushed me past them so they just one punch me in the back

Once you know where everyone resets, the trick with this game and others like it, at least as I play it, is to never fight more than one enemy at a time. Always find a way to separate them apart or lower them to a safe fighting area where you can control the environment.

I should also stress that if I can play it, anyone can play! I've been following a YouTube walkthrough of Sekiro for help, and the dude makes it look so easy. Out of curiosity I went back to an initial let's play of his, when he was still getting used to the game, and it was very encouraging to watch his ass get beat over and over again by the same enemies he was blasé about killing in the walkthrough.

I am trying and trying and trying. I swear it's not my imagination but enemies I've beaten dozens of time with just one or two hits are now taking up to five. Have I changed the difficulty somehow??

Did you change weapons, or accidentally unequip something?

No still using the cleaver

I've watched vids of people doing this level and they're just running around killing everyone like it's easy. I'm doing the same things as then but just getting mobbed.

I'm still at the first lamp in central Yharnam btw

Can't even get past the first two enemies who I used to OP any more. I am currently seeking legal advice against From Software

Hmmm, wish I could see what you're doing and do Souls tech support!

Oh! Your weapon is broken! You need to repair it:
https://twinfinite.net/2018/03/bloodborne-repair-weapons-how/

There's a degradation mechanic, which is pretty lame tbh. I forgot it was in BB too.