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

There should be a shortcut near the poison stream you’re talking about I think. Open that before you go exploring at least.

I unlocked the shortcut, yes. Right to the area where the guy pushes you into the poison river the first time. I voluntarily jump every time after that from the same spot just so that I orient myself correctly.

The boss at the end(?) of the forest. Third mandatory boss I’ve hit.

Speaking of which, I’m finally at a point where I think I know what to do. I just need to execute the plan. Last run I had 2 of the Shadows down and was moving to the 3rd when I missed the timing on my dodge (when he does his special lone Shadow move). So close. Figuring out the mechanics of this fight has been frustrating and fun – just the way these games can be.

Haven’t been able to play much, so my progression is slow; which I think is ultimately a good thing. I’m savoring it.

Thanks for the info. I’m not there yet, but I can see how farming echoes could be significantly more efficient.

The Shadows are down!!! The fight is a nice combination of the tactical and the technical. I lost exact count of my tries, but I think it was about 6. It took the first 4 or 5 to get an idea of how I was going to do it. And while it seemed like there was an optimal path for the way I play, I could see others doing it differently. Very happy with this boss.

The Spider boss is down and I’ve died once to a boss on a rooftop.

The Spider fight was slightly less interesting to me than the Shadows fight. I ended up killing all the adds while dodging ranged attacks. It took some tries to get the execution down, but it was pretty clear from the first couple of deaths what I needed to do.

One thing that bothered me was how quickly the Spider boss came on the heels of the Shadows fight. I spent some time pondering before jumping because I really didn’t think From would put another boss fight so close to the last one. And the Shadows were a doozy, too.

Meanwhile the optional(?) castle zone is absolutely fantastic. The sounds are chilling and the architecture is amazing, both aesthetically and in terms of level flow. I’m almost sorry I’ve now found the quick route to the boss. I could have explored that level style for many hours and been pleased.

Bloodborne does a much better job than the Souls games of giving quick boss runs which, on one hand is a little sad because it makes the levels so much shorter (i.e. one spends much less time in them), but on the other is great for reducing the frustration of learning boss fights. Remember the Spider in DS2? Man, I hated that run to the boss.

You guys have a most dreaded Soulsborne boss run?

p.s. one of the reasons I decided to do this optional area now is that I started the next progression area and saw that it makes liberal use of a conceit that’s been in every Souls game: the deeply embedded reanimator enemy. I have to say I’m a little tired of that mechanic – all the mobs in the level getting resurrected until you find the necromancer responsible.

Wow, none of what you’re describing rings a bell at all.

I guess the good news about that is that if I ever replay this game, it will be all new to me again, since I can’t seem to remember any of this. Or your description doesn’t match my memory. Or you’re fighting bosses that I never saw.

All of them.

They get better each game, plus I’m getting better too, so it’s tolerable now.

For me it was the boss in the church in 3-1 in Demon’s Souls. Such a long run to get to him/her every time. And I had no idea what exactly I was supposed to do, and why I was dying. So it was really frustrating. That was the first time I finally gave up and just asked what was going on here at Qt3. Once Qt3 members told me that there was an enemy that was replicating and where there was an area where I could take cover, I could at least survive long enough to figure out how to beat the boss myself.

Wow. I actually had to refresh my memory about that boss. I think, whenever I did it, I ended up killing the dude up top and never knew he resurrected the boss.

About the run, though, did you have to pass through a staircase area with all sorts of arrows shooting at you? Then there was an extremely fast red phantom before the doors who would poison you or something? I can’t vividly remember the run.

I do remember having a pretty easy time with the fight, itself, tho.

You’re bringing back memories of other terrible boss runs in Demon’s Souls. Remember 2-2? The “shortcut” had you dropping down a long mine shaft where you had to memorize a number of the leaps. Then the boss itself was one of the most difficult I had ever fought. That was brutal!

I’d love to go back and see how Demon’s Souls feels now.

I never discovered the “shortcut”. I saw plenty of messages saying “drop here”, but when I followed that advice I ended up dead, so I thought they were malicious messages meant to kill you.

So i went down there the long way each time, fighting worms and other things along the way. But I had fun with that run each time. Lots of souls, lots of interesting fights that weren’t too tough.

I actually found the shortcut there first and accidentally ignored the whole level for a long time. Didn’t go back until much later in the game when I was searching for upgrade materials.

I just remembered there’s a boss run in the Bloodborne DLC that is quite nice! That one gets a pass.

I’ll leave it for you as a surprise.

It’s been a while since I updated.

I killed a Martyr on a roof. That was an excellent fight with a great sense of accomplishment when completed. My first couple of attempts resulted in deaths that made me feel like I had no chance.

Then I started running around making sure I did all the little things that opened up from that accomplishment and others completed earlier.

Then, I started Chalice dungeons. I did Pthumerian depths 1 and 2, after googling advice on when to start them. I could see how boring they could get, but I enjoyed myself. It was a nice respite from story progression. And, although they were very easy comparatively, they still followed the “any mob can kill you” design of the whole series.

I killed 3 assholes in a church, then explored and explored. Started the Upper Cathedral. Started the Nightmare frontier. Then went back and one shot a reborn beast.

Finally, I have both Lecture Hall floors accessible. And now I’m farming echoes to complete my armor collections.

After that, I guess I’ll finish the Frontier and the Upper Cathedral Ward before progressing the story.

I’m still loving it; and am happy that I’ve taken my time.

I got tired to going into the poison river. The whole nightmare area, I just can’t get my brain around what it looks like, I can’t visualize the area in my mind so it just feels too big and too open to me.

So I decided to start the DLC today instead.

So far, I’m really loving it. This is a great cure for the Nightmare areas. It’s linear, there’s only two ways to go, mostly, and the two paths often merge, going towards the same goal. Such a great change compared to the areas I was in.

Plus these new enemy hunters are pretty bad ass. It almost feels like I’m playing multiplayer, fighting fellow hunters. Very cool.

This is a spoiler for the area you are talking about:

The Nightmare of the Frontier is an optional area.

I figured as much. When an area is that open, it’s usually filled with optional secret stuff, and that’s what that felt like. Of course, that also means that I have no idea which places are optional and which area is where I’m supposed to go to finish the game. So you pretty much have to try them all, and hope you get the optional areas first, and then the non-optional ones. That way you get to see everything.

I was listening to the Bonfireside Chat wrap-ups of each game the other day and decided to give this a go again. I finished the game but haven’t touched the DLC yet. Will replay it then move on to the DLC at the right time. Anyone still playing or replaying?

I’m about to fire it up for the very first time now, as a matter of fact.

Ooof. These load times are rough. My odds of sticking with this appear to be slim.