1804

I just loaded up my old guy and was annoyed to discover I apparently missed the Holy Moonlight Sword.

1805

That’s one of the few weapons in my inventory I can’t use. I think it has a high arcane requirement, or something like that. I remember my old character could use it. Gosh, what an unfocused mess my first character must have been, since she could use almost any weapon in the game. My stats must have been dumped into everything.

1806

Bloodborne is the real 50 shades of gray.

1807

The chalice dungeons are a bit of a grind, but if you’re already on depth 4 then you should be able to meet your goal. Not much left for the regular game and you’ll be so overleveled anyway.

Just don’t do the last fight. The game goes straight to NG+.

1808

Oh damn, is that true? Crap, I guess I won’t be able to chalice dive with my old guy after all. I figured it was a triggered ng+ like some of their other games. I mean ds2 had that for crying out loud. Why did they force it in Bloodborne? I’ll never understand these guys.

Edit: oh, apparently ng level doesn’t affect chalice dungeon summoning. Nice

1809

This is actually a pretty short game if you just beeline it from beginning to end. There are something like 33 unique bosses in the game, but only 7 are required to see it through to an end.

1810

Yeah, but anyone playing the game naturally without a Wiki isn’t going to know that. How can you possibly know while playing the game that Old Yharnum is an optional area? It seems like it’s part of the natural progression. Same with Nightmare Frontier. Same with a lot of optional bosses, it seems reasonable to assume that wherever you end up is part of the game’s progression. It’s only when you realize that you’ve reached a dead end that you go “oh oops, I guess I can’t go any further here”.

1811

You might just buy the badge that gets you through the Cathedral Ward gate? I could see finding and going into Old Yharnam, but maybe backing out at Djura or something.

1812

One thing I’ve gotten surprisingly good at doing in this game that I never quite did well in other Souls games is to constantly lock or unlock the target when the situation demands it. It felt more important in this one because of the difference in player behavior, you sidestep when locked, you roll when unlocked. But at the end of the game here, I’m also finding the lock/unlock helping a LOT with the camera system. In that Orphan fight, I usually wanted to be locked, but the camera went berzerk when the enemy jumped up in the air, so I immediately unlocked the target and rolled away.

It’s interesting, I’m also wondering if this newfound skill will actually help me in other From Software games, or if it’s a one-off that will only really help in Bloodborne.

1813

I think it would help even more in, e.g. DS3. There are more BIG enemies and enemies with aerial patterns. Man, there is so much optional content in this game. Did you do Upper Cathedral Ward?

1814

Oh wow, the locked door from the early part of the game! I’d forgotten about that. I wonder if I have the key for it now? Apparently it was in one of the cells, so I should have it now.

No, I haven’t been there. I forgot all about that locked door.

1815

There’s also content relating to people in their homes that I missed this time around, I think. I might be misremembering since it was a long time ago, but I remember in my first playthrough wondering more often if I should tell people about the church or if I should keep it to myself. But in this playthrough I only encountered two people, both of whom I told about the church. One was a younger lady and one an older lady. And in this playthrough I found the first clinic and have the option of telling people about that instead. But I never did find anyone to invite there this time. I wonder what I missed, or maybe I waited until too long in the events of the game to go back through and knock on people’s doors again.

1816

My first playthrough I sent three people to the Oedon Chapel (and one to the clinic, hehe). Sounds like there are six people total you can send to either place.

1817

Some interesting stuff in here:

1818

That is one of the strange things about the DS games. I am sure some of it is what your build is but there must be more to it than that.

1819

There does seem to be a kind of Dark Souls parabola where you waltz into a new boss, do pretty well, think “oh this isn’t so bad”, and then proceed to get your ass whipped relentlessly until you finally master it. It’s when you think you know more than you do that you really get in trouble.

1820

Yeah a known problem. Miyazaki didn’t get this right until DS3.

Chalice dungeons carry over so that’s okay. I can’t remember if you have to unlock them again.

1821

I did it. Shadow of Yharnam down. I helped others to get a bit of experience how to fight them. I died 5, 6 times on my own. But there was always a good chance, I felt. So I kept pressing. Killed the Katana guy first, then it was easier… it felt like when I killed the Gargoyles in Dark Souls the first time. Took like 2 hrs…

Then I found by accident Iosefkas clinic (interior). But she scared me, I suspect a giant spider. I fled. I am now back to the unknown city, because the pig scarded me many hours earlier. Now I have pigs for dinner. I farmed then for vials on my boss run to the Shadows…

First this, and then Byrgenwerth. Cool name, by the way.

1822

Thanks for telling me about the Upper Cathedral Ward. I explored it yesterday. Very neat area! I loved the actual cathedral a lot. Very spooky. And I love the way they did the whole bit with how all the lights go out.

My only question is with the location of this Cathedral. Whoever built it was crazy. The only ways to get to this cathedral are either from a rotting beach or to climb up a tower of another cathedral? What the heck? What kind of a place is that to build a cathedral?

1823

I would not spend too much time thinking about the layout of the world in general. You may think it all a mere bad dream.