Bloodborne - Demon's Souls Spiritual Successor's Spiritual Successor

Soooo… that Ebrietus is sure something.

I actually managed to get it down to about 15% health on my first try, which was a bit surprising and seems like it must be a fluke.

That one took me a few tries - I appreciated the short boss run though! I used the NPC summons quite a bit on this run through, mostly as a distraction while I wailed away on the bosses.

Also, I realized I wasn’t almost done with the DLC as there was a bit more past what I thought was the final boss. Ooops!

Ah, if only all of the boss runs were like the one for Lady Maria.

I finished this up today after a rather lengthy session, and I feel pretty comfortable saying it’s my favorite of the series–or, at any rate, it felt like the easiest. I managed to beat about half of the bosses without summoning, and I could probably count on one hand the combined number of bosses I’ve beat solo in the rest of the series. I have some complaints, but overall it was a pretty stellar experience.

A few highlights:

  • My unexpected trip to Yahar’gul.
  • Alfred’s quest line.
  • The revelation of the Amygdalas.
  • Making contact with the Brain.
  • Micolash. Maybe not the most challenging encounter in the series, but I absolutely love the look and lore implications. Reminded me a bit of the architect from Ghostbusters.
  • And finally, beating Gehrman and The Moon Presence on my first attempt. That left me shaking.

Nice! Sounds like you had quite an experience.

I love the little voiceover ending for the last DLC boss too. It feels like a such a great sendoff for the game.

Just realized why my replay of this was a bit easier for the boss fights. They added NPC summons to a lot of them with the DLC! I thought it seemed weird to see all this help available.

I managed to kill Gehrman and MP on my first try too which kind of surprised me.

Then I returned to a Dark Souls replay last night and wow, the graphics are just terrible after coming from Bloodborne! Got past the two archers and messed around a bit before calling it a night.

It turns out that this game requires PS+ in order to play online. I had no idea. That kind of sucks. Oh well. Offline it is, I guess.

Damn consoles.

If it makes you feel any better, it’s probably the worst multiplayer in the series. You do miss the messages though.

Yeah, messages are the only reason I play these games online.

I tried summoning people to help me with Kalameet in the Dark Souls DLC area, but no one ever came to help. I think that’s the only time I tried looking for help. I did join other people in Dark Souls 2 once or twice, but it wasn’t very fulfilling.

I too tried to summon help for Kalameet but nobody arrived to help and I’m not sure why. It was frustrating as hell because Kalameet was the hardest DS boss for me.

You always need PS+ to play online with other players on PS4.

Not a big loss. Bloodborne multiplayer was just plain broken for me. It worked about one time out of ten and things like quickmatch never even worked once. I only got invaded once, so I guess it sort of evens out.

And to view messages from players, apparently. That’s the only part I miss.

Not quite always. You can play F2P games online without PS+.

I was more than happy to not have actual multiplayer. I have no interest in the PvP and having the crutch of co-op available is what killed DS2 for me. But having the messages be blocked behind PS+ was indeed a real bummer.

I made some progress in the start of the Hunter’s Dream last night. (The DLC area). These new whip/shotgun enemies are pretty tough. The shotgun makes it hard to approach them without some cover, and then when you engage, it turns out they have a lot of hit points and can take a lot of damage before they go down. I can usually take down the first 5 or so, but then I get killed in the next area where they’re above and below me.

It feels so good to be able to get my feet under me, and learn this combat system again, without fear that the enemy will stop spawning like in DS2.

The message writing animation is the best, that finger snap.

I just started a new playthrough. Really annoying and frustrating, and then I remembered how to stagger enemies, and then I remembered that I need to fight my natural impulse to play defensively, and now I’m making decent progress again.

For some reason I remembered the Witches being really easy, so I rolled in, got wrecked by the summons, and died to the spell that freezes you in place.

The DLC area is so good in this game, you guys. I mean, I still haven’t found a second save spot in the DLC yet, so I always start over from the beginning, but I have opened a shortcut, and there’s no limited spawns in this one like in Dark Souls 2, so there’s no impending sense of a time limit, as in, I can take my time and suck for a while, and get better slowly, if I want. I don’t feel rushed like in DS2, where I could always feel the clock ticking.

So be honest, when the huge guy with an axe opens the door and slays the guys who have been giving you some trouble in one slash and charges towards you, did you guys run or fight?

For me, for the first time since Dark Souls 1, I just kind of grinned and went forward to meet him. (He wiped that grin off real quick though, and next time I ran away).

It’s a great DLC! And yes, a long run to that next lamp.

When I ran into that super-fast lady with blades at the end of her hands, it was so thrilling. She kind of reminds me of some kind of comic book super hero or super villain, but I can’t quite put my finger on who, since I’m not a comics expert. In the video game realm, she kind of reminds me of Voldo from Soul Calibur, except female and really fast compared to Voldo. Just seeing her animations was so cool, I almost forgot to fight her.