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

I’ve loved the aesthetics of both Yahar’gul and the Nightmare of Mensis, but I feel like the enemy design and placement has forced me to just sprint through the areas and so I’m sure I miss a lot in terms of items, locations, and envirmental detail.

howlongtobeat.com says Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls 3 are comparable. The chalice dungeons in Bloodborne pad out the time a bit. They have unique bosses, but otherwise they kind of suck. The DLC is pretty hefty too.

Be sure to explore, especially up the elevator by the lamp in Cathedral Ward (you’ll need the Upper Cathedral Key) for some really important and amazing side areas. You’re about to end the game when there’s an obvious change in The Hunter’s Dream. Unfortunately, this is one of those Souls games that ends immediately after the final boss.

Interesting–thanks! I haven’t played Demon’s Souls, but I do feel like I’m moving through this much more quickly than DS3.

I did purchase the DLC… Will I find that naturally, or is it pretty well hidden?

If you’re planning on playing the DLC, be sure to stop right after killing the wet nurse. Like Tim says, you might’ve missed some optional areas somewhere in the mix because there are a lot of them! I completely missed at least a few on my first playthrough but caught them this time around.

The DLC has been really interesting so far so I’d definitely recommend it. I’ve taken out one boss and it was a fun fight, even though it took me a few tries. I didn’t feel cheated for the most part, except maybe a couple one-shot kills that I may have slightly objected to! Seeing familiar areas adds a lot to the experience I think.

Noted! Will I be likely to stumble across it on my own, or will have have to look up how to access the it?

Yeah, it’s tough to just happen across so you’ll need to look it up when you’re ready.

You don’t have to do this, but the best way would be to backup your save, end the game normally, then reload and go back to the DLC. The base game is such a nice tight experience, and the last boss is so good. The DLC feels like an additional experience. Don’t worry about it if you’re not comfortable with save backups and such.

Try to visit that hidden area I mentioned before doing the DLC. Otherwise things might seem a little weird.

Mergo’s Wet Nurse is down, and I’m on to said hidden area. Definitely had to look up how to access that because Im not sure I would have found it otherwise. I think I’ll finish with this before pressing any further into the DLC.

The look and atmosphere of the Upper Cathedral Ward is incredible, but those brainsucker guys are really demolishing my will to push on. Lengthy grab attack, get hit with a stun before I regain control, another lengthy grab attack, and I’m dead. I’d much rather just get killed in one shot so I can get back to playing right away.

Maybe I’ll head off to the DLC for a bit.

Yeah they’re one of the hardest enemies in the game.

The first section of the DLC should be fine if you need a break. Not that it’s any easier. But do try to finish Upper Cathedral Ward before you go to the second section of the DLC. You haven’t quite seen the whole picture yet.

It just bugs me when the game takes control away from me. Grab attacks and stunlocks are incredibly frustrating.

So how does the DLC compare with the rest of the game in terms of difficulty?

Tip #1 - don’t fight those assholes! Just run by. They’re not worth it. There’s an easily missed area later, where you get the upgrade for a +10 weapon, with four of them but you can run by. Just hit your sedative and keep healing.

Also, Insight really decreases your resistance to frenzy so spending most of it beforehand really helps.

You’re thinking of the brain dudes that he already met in Nightmare Frontier. This is the Cthulhu stuff.

The DLC is very difficult compared to the regular game.

Ah you’re right, the brainsucker guys were a definite pain. I used columns to block their magic then whipped them to pieces with the cane.

Am I really missing anything if I skip the Chalice Dungeons? I breezed through the first one because I didn’t check it out until I was close to level 90, but I didn’t seem to find much of interest. Are the others any different?

The dungeons themselves are very boring and repetitive. There are a couple unique enemies I think.

The real problem is there are some amazing unique bosses in there. You also have to finish it to get all the achievements. There is an extremely difficult dungeon that halves your health too.

I would definitely skip your first time through. They also don’t adjust for NG+ so you could beat the game and blast through them. (Need to find some chalices again in the world I think.)

Overall they are one of the big missteps of the game.

I would’ve loved a progression of random chalice dungeons if they were actually worth doing. Just terrible rewards for all the crap in them.

I agree you should skip the rest for now!

In my game I’m down to the final DLC boss, one optional DLC boss, and the final main game boss. Plus that asshole martyr up on the rooftop.

Do you mean the guy in Cainhurst, or the machine gunner?

Re: the Gatling gun guy

You can actually befriend him if you approach things right.

Cainhurst… though that reminds me that I need to go back to the gunner before I’m done!

I don’t know why they thought it was a good idea to force you to go through a non-random layout at each depth and type before any random stuff. With the low number of room types players were worn out before they even tried any variations.