From Software 'n such

[DestroyTheCore]

Bloodborne felt super fresh to me, I wouldn't mind a sequel of that.

I understand the simplified RPG aspect was welcome but the combats were clearly dumbed down compared to Dark Souls. The stamina bar and the dashes affected the depth of the game in a bad way because you could abuse dodges, the stamina bar recovered too quickly and blood vials were too easy to use during fights. I played the whole game while attacking enemies mindlessly and it worked. I prefered when when each hit could make a difference in Dark Souls.

I thought the combat was a massive improvement. Particularly the heavy charge attacks, the trick weapons, the gunshot parrying (I like parries being easier but limited), and the addition of ranged weapons.

I can't say I share your experience otherwise. I never found dodges abusable, I still got hit a ton even with them. I honestly find that they change the game most by making it easier to flank enemies, cause enemy chains are still really tight and difficult to straight up i-frame through in my experience. I never had too lengthy a stamina bar but the longer and more agressive enemy chains made the stronger dashes feel balanced out too. Blood vials are not hard to use yeah, but I don't think they're supposed to be. You die real quick and blood vials are more extensions of your hp. It's more a risk/reward type thing where the game is asking if you if you have the balls to get a free recovery by attacking instead of blood vialing after you get hit. Vialing itself is not supposed to be the challenge, I think.

I had a helluva lot harder time then then just attacking mindlessly, I tell you. I mean, I'm trying to get better at the game right now (low/no death run), and I'm not finding spam dodge or spam attack to be very helpful at all. Panic mashing seems to be more a cause of death then anything, as per usual for the series (unless you're really high level?).

Given the slightly faster speed and the greater number of combat options, I honestly find it the best combat engine in the franchise. By far, even.

It's a matter of preference: it's actually great if you loved Bloodborne. I think my overall appreciation of the Souls series relies too much on my first experience with Dark Souls 1.

[Blinge]

I recently played all of the first King's Field, JP only and FromSoft's first game.

It's slow as molasses, controls are awkward as hell at first. The game could've really used a run button too..
Lack of a dash ability makes it somewhat harder to do the classic KF circle-strafe enemies and stunlock them tactic.

Still, it's a solid game and I enjoyed it. (hurr fanboy hurr).

If anyone's interested in trying the series I wouldn't go for this one first.
I'd recommend KF2 (just King's Field in the West) over this because it sees improvement in every area.

[Imhotep]

cool, I have a KF2 on the way

how high is the language barrier in KF1?

[Blinge]

Nice, lemme know how it goes.

Not high enough to stop a translation patch

[Squire Grooktook]

Made it to the Night Moon Phase in Bloodborne from a new game deathlessly. That's about...1/3rd of the game deathless, I think.

Pretty intense. Boss #3 (BSB) is probably the most dangerous due to its last phase and the nearly one hit kill grab attacks. I usually like to raise* my Vitality to 18-20 beforehand, and then focus on raising attack before the next boss (VA). VA kinda fluctuates for me between super easy (I've speed killed her in minutes a few times) and a dangerous draining fight. Depends on what moves she decides to do.

Next part is probably going to be pretty nasty. I think I can deal with SOY and RTVS, but the former is the kind of boss who's never really a safe bet, and I'm particularly afraid of dealing with the Byrgenwyth NPC. I've been advised to run past her, but if she casts Nova/Taito Bendy Lasers when I'm climbing the ladder...

I might start streaming these attempts too, if anyone is interested.


*For the record, I don't grind, I just kill everything on the path from point A to B and then choose carefully how I spend what I get.

[Necronopticous]

@Squire: You don't even have to aggro/engage the Byrgenwerth hunter at all. Allow her to walk down the stairs and turn around and she'll hang out near the treasure chest facing away from you allowing you to walk right by. By the way, did you happen to see my earlier post about No Hunter's Dream? We have BSB down to an absolute science and rarely take even a single hit. Check it out! We're trying to get more people interested in this particular challenge since we're the only ones working on it right now as far as I know. Super fun stuff.

[Squire Grooktook]

@Squire: You don't even have to aggro/engage the Byrgenwerth hunter at all. Allow her to walk down the stairs and turn around and she'll hang out near the treasure chest facing away from you allowing you to walk right by. By the way, did you happen to see my earlier post about No Hunter's Dream? We have BSB down to an absolute science and rarely take even a single hit. Check it out! We're trying to get more people interested in this particular challenge since we're the only ones working on it right now as far as I know. Super fun stuff.

Yeah, I saw your video and was actually watching your wife's stream a day or two ago. Very impressive! I actually picked up some strategies watching that.

For myself, no hunters dream is a little too hardcore for me at the moment. Besides, I like the feeling of doing big chunky damage to enemies and surviving hits with a somewhat leveled character :3 Might come back to that later though.

About Bygenwerth Hunter: So just hide under the stairs or something on the bottom floor, wait for her to walk over to the treasure chest on the bottom floor, and then walk up the stairs and climb the ladder?

[Immryr]

The speed run strat to get past that hunter is to just sprint past, up the ladder, then instead of climbing back down the ladder after grabbing the key just drop down on to the stair case. At this point the hunter should have walked round to where the ladder is and your route to the door will be clear.

[Necronopticous]

The speed run start to get past that hunter is to just sprint past, up the ladder, then instead of climbing back down the ladder after grabbing the key just drop down on to the stair case. At this point the hunter should have walked round to where the ladder is and your route to the door will be clear.

I'm sure this works too, but if you're not in a hurry and want to play it super safe:

About Bygenwerth Hunter: So just hide under the stairs or something on the bottom floor, wait for her to walk over to the treasure chest on the bottom floor, and then walk up the stairs and climb the ladder?

What I do is open up both doors downstairs, then go like you're going to walk up the stairs but immediately run completely out of the door to the outside and hide behind the wall with your camera peering inside so you can keep an eye on the hunter. She'll walk down to the bottom of the stairs and turn around and slowly walk back up them. Once she is out of sight you're free to casually walk upstairs (I've never tried running, so I recommend walking) to the ladder to grab the key, and then back to unlock the big door to the balcony without disturbing her at all. My wife & I practiced this way and verified that it worked so that we'd have a good plan in place for the rare occasion when we manage to beat Shadows of Yharnam.

[Strider77]

I'm trying to get into Dark Souls, I really want to like it but so far I'm only, kinda liking it.... I have a feeling I'm going to fall off though.

Is Bloodborne a little more liniar and is it a faster paced game combat wise?

[Squire Grooktook]

It's faster paced yeah, but incrementally. The "medium speed" Bloodborne weapons are probably closer to the "fast" weapons in Dark Souls, for instance. It's a little bit more linear and the rpg elements are streamlined. I like them all but I mostly enjoy Bloodborne's combat the most because I feel like you have way more options available and it feels more dynamic and creative as a result.

That being said, stick with Dark Souls would be my advice. I think it's kinda common to feel like dropping it at first, but once you get into the rush of it, it becomes difficult to put down.

[Necronopticous]

That being said, stick with Dark Souls would be my advice. I think it's kinda common to feel like dropping it at first, but once you get into the rush of it, it becomes difficult to put down.

Can definitely vouch for this. Basically forced myself to play for 10 hours before having any enjoyment at all, now it's one of my favorite games of all time, and certainly of recent history.

[Marc]

Same here. Originally I made it to boss of the first level proper, decided the game way way too big and long for me and shelved it. Went back three months later and it just clicked.

[DestroyTheCore]

Yeah I think I ragequit 2-3 times at the very beginning of Dark Souls because I went straight to New Londo Ruins and the cemetery and thought the game was ridiculously hard. The game clicked with me once I beat the Taurus Demon.

[Strider77]

I'm pissed... I've killed a few bosses, played for about 15 hours,

and accidentally killed the blacksmith playing with a spear I had just equipped. Please tell me there are more than 1 blacksmith in the game.

[Squire Grooktook]

There are 2 (3?) more at least.

[Strider77]

I've killed those two gargoyles on the roof, the butterfly in the forest, some headless... whatever that shot lightning bolts near the blacksmith, some other demon thing I had to leap off a tower to kill...... right now I'm trying to kill this demon that has two rats in a small enclosed area as soon as I go threw the door.

[ryu]

If you killed Andre - you need that guy around to upgrade weapons on the normal upgrading path beyond +5. Getting weapons to +10 asap can be useful, but you can do without the further upgrades. You'll want to decide on a dragon or boss weapon eventually, because those don't require Andre to be upgradeable all the way.

[Obscura]

Something I just realized after finishing a Dark Souls 2 run last night: Aldia is Dracula's first form from Castlevania. I guess From was listening to those comparisons!

[Strider77]

I don't remember his name, he's right by the entrance to the woods.... the only entrance that I know of right now anyways. So now I can't upgrade weapons anymore? No more blacksmiths or the other suck?

[Jonathan Ingram]

Play the game and find out on your own. What's with the silly questions?

[ryu]

I don't remember his name, he's right by the entrance to the woods.... the only entrance that I know of right now anyways. So now I can't upgrade weapons anymore? No more blacksmiths or the other suck?

The others can upgrade your weapons to +5 on the standard upgrade path and further on special upgrade paths. The special paths aren't very great overally and are usually only good against certain enemies.

[Strider77]

Play the game and find out on your own. What's with the silly questions?

ask your mom

[Immryr]

I don't remember his name, he's right by the entrance to the woods.... the only entrance that I know of right now anyways. So now I can't upgrade weapons anymore? No more blacksmiths or the other suck?

Yep you killed Andre. If you're doing a straight up melee strength or dex build you might as well restart your game imo. Why on earth did you kill him?

On my first dark souls play through I remember I didn't know that weapon durability didn't reset at bonfires and after going through the depths and finally getting to the second bonfire in blight town, my only upgraded weapon broke. I felt so scared, I thought there was no way I could make it back up to Andre to repair my weapon, so I just started trying to run past everything and find a way out. Eventually I made it back to fire link, but it took a lot of deaths and retrying.

[Obscura]

No need to restart -- there's no way he has STR or DEX anywhere near 40 this early.

Time to switch to a VIT/END build and go lightning IMO.

(I actually had the same experience with weapon breakage on my first playthrough. Literally, the exact same. Apparently, it's pretty common. Once I got back to the Depths, I used my soul items to get a Crystal Longsword, which was enough to carry me back to Firelink.)

[Blinge]

right now I'm trying to kill this demon that has two rats in a small enclosed area as soon as I go threw the door.

Lol "rats"

[guigui]

I also thought those were rats first time I came in.

Strider, this boss is certainly the most random of the whole game, its design is very debatable. General strategy is to rush to the small stairs on the left, kill the dogs once upstairs, then play with the demon and the stairs when is alone. No way you can kill him while the dogs are still alive.
If you die, just retry.

This guy gives a key that, big spoilers :

Spoiler

opens the door to The Depths, which leads to Blighttown, then to the second bell you have to ring. Fun part is that you can skip this whole part entirely (Boss + Depths + Blighttown) provided you have the master key, this key opens a door up New Londo ruins (you dont have to explore New Londo) which leads to the other side of Blighttown then to the second bell.

[evil_ash_xero]

I don't remember his name, he's right by the entrance to the woods.... the only entrance that I know of right now anyways. So now I can't upgrade weapons anymore? No more blacksmiths or the other suck?

You messed up, dude. I would think about restarting. The blacksmiths have specific upgrades, only THEY can do. So, if you kill one, you lose the ability to upgrade certain things.
And Andre is the most "all around" blacksmith. The others are more specialized. So, you kind of killed your all around upgrader.

Supposedly, he shows up in part III. So, perhaps you should apologize to him then.

Here's what Andre, and the other blacksmiths upgrade.

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/andre-of-astora

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/rickert-of-vinheim

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/giant-blacksmith

http://darksouls.wikidot.com/vamos

[Eaglet]

Bought a PS4 with Bloodborne in prep for DS3 a couple of days ago. Is it just me or is this game much easier than the Souls games?
Haven't played any of them since the release of 2 but I've already beat two bosses and only died twice. Both bosses were brought down on first encounter.
I read online afterwards that Gascoigne was supposed to be hard and could be nerfed by a playbox but I didn't pick that up along the way. Just punished him with my firearm and got crits all the way.
"Parrying" is so much easier in this game than it was in the Souls games.

[Squire Grooktook]

Boss #3 is a bit of a difficulty spike and tends to be a "noob killer" for a lot of people.

I think how easy you find these games is going to depend on your experience with the franchise, though. Everyone always seems to think the first Souls game they played is the hardest and all subsequent ones are vastly easier.

To me, Bloodborne's difficulty is juuuuust right (along with nearly everything else, I love this game). It's also very fun to play for a 1 life clear, as the previous discussions attest.