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GAME: Bloodborne




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Kougeru



Joined: 13 May 2008
Posts: 5516
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:19 am Reply with quote
NEver understand why people thought/think these games are hard. I don't consider "1-hit" kills as "Hard" though. Assuming you're aware of the environment, I've never had a hard time with these games. They are a lot of fun though. But the pvp is still awful and too easy to exploit.
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Merxamers



Joined: 09 Dec 2013
Posts: 720
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:21 am Reply with quote
Dang dude, that review must be at least 3000 words! Very well written and thought out review. I've never played any of the Dark Souls games (from the streams i've watched i have no frickin clue how they work), but this game seems pretty cool. I love atmosphere in my games, plus cosmic horror is always cool. If i see this on sale, i'll try picking it up Smile
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Ambimunch



Joined: 30 Aug 2012
Posts: 2012
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:05 pm Reply with quote
Good review, I was expecting moaning from casuals about the difficultly, glad we can avoid that.
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jmfsilenthill



Joined: 31 Aug 2009
Posts: 1863
Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 3:27 pm Reply with quote
I played Demon's Souls, but skipped the Dark Souls games and came straight to this one. It's tough at times but it's easily the best game I've played in PS4 thus far.
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bs3311



Joined: 07 Nov 2011
Posts: 416
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 5:08 pm Reply with quote
Loading is always the biggest issue. I even have an HDD with double the cache space that can shorten load times, but this is still to much. I wanna feel punished by having to die and go back to light post with adds respawned. Not die, wait for 30sec-1min, then play back at the light post with adds respawned. I don't feel mad at myself, I feel mad at the game since when I die. I gotta wait.

Plus character creation and models is kinda stupid and silly. Burly men arent even burly if were comparing gothic british witchdoctor men. MAKE ME BUFF, NOT A TWIG!!!! Anime hyper

Overall, I do like the game and review.
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Bonham



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 419
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 6:06 pm Reply with quote
Dave Riley wrote:
With limited weapon selection, and with most outfits working on a slight tweak of the Brotherhood of the Wolf trench coat and tricorne ensemble, one wonders if we'll ever see the sort of silly cosplay builds these games always manage to descend into.

Well, people have already created Nigel Thornberry, and I'm pretty sure the Doll Set is gonna be used for some goofy shit.

Honestly, the small variety in weapons and gear, as well as fewer NPCs/covenants* are the only serious concerns and complaints for me (there's minor stuff like the weird AA going on with the graphics). Variations in build options for subsequent playthroughs and versatility in PVP are two of the biggest reasons why the Souls series has people playing these games for hundreds of hours (damn near 400 for myself in Dark Souls), and I'm not sure how it's gonna pan out.

Well, that and how mixed PVP is at the moment. Fights themselves are amazing, though they can turn tedious as soon as the player I invaded (or who invaded me) starts to spam blood vials. You can parry that, but the window is small enough that it's much harder to do than when they attack.

Anyway, fantastic review. Hits a lot of good points, particularly about how absolutely focused and unified the game is. I loved the diverse environments in previous games, but here having that "theme park" approach would detract from it. There's still a lot of subtle and important distinctions between areas to where it never feels monotonous, which was my only concern about the environment going into the game... Honestly, the art direction is wonderful, and it probably has the best level design out of all the Souls games. Finding the multitude of shortcuts in Forbidden Woods provided some of the most satisfying moments in the series for me, and navigating Yahar'gul and Nightmare Frontier is absolutely insane. Then when the world changes after you beat a certain boss (or gain enough Insight)... it's absolutely incredible and terrifying.

Speaking of, you mentioned Latria in your review. I know Miyazaki said they were going for something similar, but I didn't know they were gonna make it THIS nightmarish. The atmosphere is genuinely horrifying and oppressive. It's the prisoners and experiments of Latria turned up to 11, with the cosmic horror adding an additional element of the unknown and uncanny. Then there's areas that are absolutely terrifying to explore, like the Upper Cathedral Ward, or, as someone with arachnophobia, the first building in the Nightmare of Mensis. I absolutely wanted to avoid dying—not in fear of losing my blood echoes, but because I did NOT want to go through those areas again. It can be really overwhelming.

Kougeru wrote:
NEver understand why people thought/think these games are hard. I don't consider "1-hit" kills as "Hard" though.

There are very few things that will actually one-shot you, though. Outside of maybe spoiler[Blood-starved Beast's third phase's grab] and spoiler[Ebrietas's grab which can induce Frency], I don't recall any bosses or enemies killing me in one shot. You can get combo'd, but it's easy to get out of those situations as long as you aren't greedy.

*Especially since they introduce a fair amount of NPCs in the first fourth of the game, with heartbreak happening very early on, too. It would have been great to encounter more NPCs having their own lives and goals like Eileen and Alfred, but the second half of the game feels strangely empty and lonely in comparison.
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KH91



Joined: 17 May 2013
Posts: 6176
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 7:58 pm Reply with quote
Good review. Just loving all the positive reviews coming from this game.

jmfsilenthill wrote:
I played Demon's Souls, but skipped the Dark Souls games and came straight to this one. It's tough at times but it's easily the best game I've played in PS4 thus far.


If you started with Demon's Souls, you're alright with me. Its fine as long as your previous game was directed by Miyazaki. lol
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Via_01



Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 9:35 pm Reply with quote
bs3311 wrote:
Loading is always the biggest issue. I even have an HDD with double the cache space that can shorten load times, but this is still to much. I wanna feel punished by having to die and go back to light post with adds respawned. Not die, wait for 30sec-1min, then play back at the light post with adds respawned. I don't feel mad at myself, I feel mad at the game since when I die. I gotta wait.

Plus character creation and models is kinda stupid and silly. Burly men arent even burly if were comparing gothic british witchdoctor men. MAKE ME BUFF, NOT A TWIG!!!! Anime hyper

Overall, I do like the game and review.


Fear not, for they are releasing a patch to fix the loading times!
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BadNewsBlues



Joined: 21 Sep 2014
Posts: 5873
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 9:54 pm Reply with quote
Ambimunch wrote:
Good review, I was expecting moaning from casuals about the difficultly, glad we can avoid that.


Anyone complaining about the difficulty wouldn't necessarily be a casual gamer by default, just saying.
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Wandering Samurai



Joined: 30 Mar 2014
Posts: 875
Location: USA
PostPosted: Thu Apr 02, 2015 12:16 am Reply with quote
I have not upgraded to the next gen consoles yet, but Bloodborne is probably going to do it for me. I've heard so much good stuff about it, and with this review too I will start saving up my money to finally get a PS4.
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CrownKlown



Joined: 05 May 2011
Posts: 1762
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 12:15 am Reply with quote
KH91 wrote:
Good review. Just loving all the positive reviews coming from this game.

jmfsilenthill wrote:
I played Demon's Souls, but skipped the Dark Souls games and came straight to this one. It's tough at times but it's easily the best game I've played in PS4 thus far.


If you started with Demon's Souls, you're alright with me. Its fine as long as your previous game was directed by Miyazaki. lol


I first played Demons Souls as well, and both of the Darks Souls game just felt like "imitations" of it. I mean every boss battle felt like it had already been done in Demons Souls, at least mechanic wise. Plus I felt they over spammed the "knight bosses", feels like every other boss is some form of knight. I still think both Dark Souls games are really good, just not as good as the original .
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Bonham



Joined: 20 Nov 2010
Posts: 419
Location: NYC
PostPosted: Fri Apr 03, 2015 1:27 pm Reply with quote
CrownKlown wrote:
Plus I felt they over spammed the "knight bosses", feels like every other boss is some form of knight.

Except that's not true for the first Dark Souls. There are only three bosses that could be called "knight bosses" in the game: O&S, Gwyn and Artorias. Every other boss is fairly diverse, sans the two reskins of the Asylum Demon. There are also only a few being callbacks to Demon's Souls (Pinwheel and False Idol, Gwyn and Allant, Iron Golem and Tower Knight, and Bed of Chaos and Dragon God). Even Bloodborne has a few bosses like that (Witch of Hemwick is an actually dangerous Pinwheel, Ebrietas is a far, far more difficult Gaping Dragon with lasers, etc.).

Personally I prefer Demon's Souls atmosphere, hub and tighter level design, but otherwise I prefer Dark Souls overall. Even so, they're both amazing games, so I don't really care about arguing which is better.
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