Bloodborne

[CMoon]

Ugh, I haven't played the game in a week. Need to get back to that sl4 run.

[jepjepjep]

I finally beat Watchdog of the Old Lords in Cursed Pthumerian Defilement Layer 2. I'm playing a glass cannon character of sorts (mainly just glass at this point) with 50 points in skill, 25 in arcane, and base stats otherwise. Level 62 total. With base life/stamina, it doesn't feel too different from my level 4 game, except that I can kill things more quickly and use the Blade of Mercy effectively. It took me about 4 hours of attempts to finally down this guy. I uploaded the vid from my PS4. I don't know how to cut it, so there are a couple of failed attempts in the video prior, but I'll link to the specific time where my successful attempt starts.

https://youtu.be/_EB8BcAoS_o?t=522

Nice going man! I noticed your health bar is really small, is that the effect of a cursed rune or is there something else going on?

Ugh, I haven't played the game in a week. Need to get back to that sl4 run.

I think I'm going to join you CMoon. I started my second playthrough last night and I was steamrolling the early areas. I think I'm up for the SL4 challenge.

[Cata]

Didn't play at all this past weekend...too many other things popped up. Would like to finish this before Witcher 3 comes out but honestly I'm OK with putting off witcher until I finish this if need be

Last time I was playing though I had just reached Cainhurst and finally switched weapons from the saw cleaver to ludwigs holy blade. Definitely a lot slower of a weapon but man does it pack a punch. I'm so used to just sticking with R1 on the saw cleaver that changing things up feels pretty good and adding a little bit more variety to the combat. I take it everyone is pretty much solely using the two hand version of this, though, since the one-hand form doesn't scale nearly as much damage even though its much quicker

[jepjepjep]

I found the two-hand attacks to be really great for the stages, but during boss fights I was using 1-hand 95% of the time because the two-hand attacks were just too slow to be effective. The two-handed R2 thrust is really great through doorways:).

[Necronopticous]

I noticed your health bar is really small, is that the effect of a cursed rune or is there something else going on?

It's a combination of 10 vitality and the 1/2 HP effect of the Cursed Pthumerian Defilement chalice.

[Necronopticous]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdOvBFhysTM

In which I demonstrate how to cheese Amygdala.

[Necronopticous]

This is the hardest thing I've ever done in a Souls game:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUGfmKre3PE

[CMoon]

So I'm hitting the 'first stagnation' with Bloodborne and need to start playing it different ways (like sl4.) The chalice dungeons are unappealing, but that's about all that's left for my arcane build. Not a fan of NG+, but the game seems to be all about pushing you in that direction. Ugh.

So I started thinking about things I'd change, since ultimately BB feels like a great game with some things unfinished. Hopefully DLC will resolve some of this.

1. More areas, obviously. More importantly, more areas that come after the point where you are getting a maxed out weapon and/or getting some of the more useful gems. For me, the nightmare of mensis feels almost like a mid-way point, not the culmination of the game. Like others here, I'm not always into just pumping levels to become super-powerful and would rather play a glass cannon. Getting really powerful through items doesn't come until nearly end-game though, implying you should just start ramping up for ng+. Maybe I'm wanting too much, but at least one substantial level after Nightmare of Mensis instead of crappy chalice dungeons would have been nice. Maybe a real catacomb to explore underneath Byrgenwerth?

I'm really bummed that some of the bosses which really are part of the story line can only be accessed by burning dozens of hours in the chalice dungeons.

2. More build variety. I think the best way to implement this would be the addition of items through DLC. I don't think BB will ever have the same build variety as DS, but still...
a. More runes with offensive abilities, such as the red tearstone ring (I don't care if they already have beasthood; stacks for true hyper-mode). Runes that give bullets special properties, like pierce, knockdown, poison, etc. The more creative the runes are, the more potential build variety.
b. Weapon (or rune, buff, etc.) that inflicts frenzy (which is really bleed.)
c. Seriously, more hunter tools.

3. More NPCs and longer quest lines. More NPCs to rescue from the town.

4. Have ways to make powerful weapons that are not dependent upon blood chunks and/or chalice dungeon gem farming. Example: DS had black knight weapons, or you could use the pyro flame like a powerful weapon, especially in combination with RTSR or power within. These options offered a quick alternatives to +15 weapon for speed running because they used alternate resources and/or not running back to a blacksmith.

Gets a lot harder from here, but suggestions for Bloodborne 2:
5. Drop the vial system for estus, or at least offer a buffer. Upon spawning you will always start with 5 vials and 5 bullets.
6. There should be some way to bypass the earlier chalice dungeons once you've reached certain points in the game.

I'm sure you guys can think of more. Some ideas clearly wouldn't work, and I wouldn't want to turn this game into DS2, but I think items that introduced the widest variety of playstyle would be a no-brainer to introduce in DLC.

[evil_ash_xero]

Yeah, I'm fried. There's not much else for me to do. I'm trying to do the CDs, but I hate them.

DLC...much needed.

Why do you think this game was so short, anyway? Cost of production on a new system?

[Marc]

Short? I'm just about to wrap at 60 hours, and I haven't done half the Chalice Dungeons. More than long enough for me, given the slight lack of variety when compared to a Souls.

And fuck Gherman, shit head is severely difficult.

[Immryr]

my advise for gehrman is to make blood bullets and just practice parrying his first form - don't even bother trying to fight him normally until you can consistently parry one or two of his attacks. this way you're not losing anything with each try. once you get him to transform his weapon to the short version the best strategy is to just keep on top of him and be very aggressive. his roll attack is easy to parry in this form too.

[CMoon]

Expansion confirmed:

https://twitter.com/yosp/status/601186946988244992

[evil_ash_xero]

Expansion confirmed:

https://twitter.com/yosp/status/601186946988244992

PLEASE don't be more Chalice Dungeons. Oh please oh please....

[CMoon]

Expansion confirmed:

https://twitter.com/yosp/status/601186946988244992

PLEASE don't be more Chalice Dungeons. Oh please oh please....

Would be cool if it was a real dungeon under byrgenwerth.

[CMoon]

More good news...patch 1.04:

Password matching can now be done regardless of level.
Password matching can now be done even if registered to a different oath.
Quicksilver bullets and blood vials can now be stored up to 600 (the previous limit was 99) in the storage in Hunter’s Dream.
Weapons and hunter tools have been tweaked, it will be mostly buffs.
A bug of the Rifle Spear has been fixed.
A bug with Blood Gem Imprints has been fixed.
Boss rewards in the Chalice Dungeons will be improved, they will now drop blood gems randomly.
Chalice dungeons will now include Blood Stone Shards at Depth 1, Twin Blood Stone Shards at Depth 2, Twin Blood Stone Shards and Blood Stone Chunks at Depth 3, Blood Stone Chunks at Depth 4 and Blood Stone Chunks and Blood Rocks at Depth 5.
Other bugs have been fixed.

source: http://www.dualshockers.com/2015/05/23/ ... -after-e3/

There are a lot of implications here being hashed out on reddit at the moment, however I'm left thinking that this is much like the 'harder' version of Dark Souls we all played prior patch (although crystal shield and dwg ring ftw!).

The change in vials and bullets is positive, but still a work around for a system that's inferior to Estus. Seems like grinding for vials/bullets should be a thing of the past.

I like the fact they are giving us a reason to play the chalice dungeons (the bloodstones are nice, but getting good blood gems would give a lot more incentive for slogging through it.)

No idea yet about the weapon/hunter tool buffs.

[evil_ash_xero]

Short? I'm just about to wrap at 60 hours, and I haven't done half the Chalice Dungeons.

If the Chalice Dungeons were ANY good, which they are not, then I would add them to the "total package". And that would add some hours to the game.
And yes, if the Chalice Dungeons were ONE big dungeon with variety, and proper level design, that would be fine. But it's not. It's filler. Big time.
Worse than "fetch quests", by a good margin.

But the game is short, compared to Demon's and the other two Dark games. If this had come out of nowhere, I wouldn't have thought so. But compared to the other 3, it's short.

I'm really hoping the DLC gives us one or two good sized areas. That would be great.

The patch with the 600 vials and bullets is GREAT. I was so sick of farming that junk. I saw the same stretch over and over, just getting stocked up, after every couple of hours.

[Cata]

Gonna be jumping back into this tonight and just stocking up on blood vials for a good long while while listening to a podcast or something. It'll be great to not have to worry about these guys (hopefully) again

Also really looking forward to whats in that expansion! Haven't beat the main game yet but I'm always open for more (good) content for this game

[Neo Bliss]

To those who haven't succumbed to the temptation of endless torture yet, Amazon currently has this on sale for $40.

I'm looking forward to giving this a go in a couple of days.

[dunpeal2064]

To those who haven't succumbed to the temptation of endless torture yet, Amazon currently has this on sale for $40.

I'm looking forward to giving this a go in a couple of days.

Thanks for the heads up, was just about to toss $60 on it today.

[Cata]

Damn, took me a few nights of playing for an hour or two practicing on Martyr Logarius. Took me about ~30ish tries or so but finally took that fucker down last night and man it felt good. Getting down enemy patterns and really knowing the enemy is probably the most satisfying thing about this game to me other than exploring new areas.

After this I jumped back into exploring the unseen chapel where I then stumbled upon Paarl. Took her (?) down in one try

I think the only criticism I now hold of this game is having to farm out blood vials. Before my attempts at Martyr Logarius I spent a good hour or two just listening to some podcasts collecting vials so I could just practice the boss ad infinitum.

[Immryr]

yeah farming blood vials is pretty annoying on your first play through. much less so thereafter, especially if you're willing to buy blood vials with some of your boss souls, or when you have just cleared an area out for the first time and warp back to the dream.

I haven't played much at all after basically finishing up my second play though but today I decided to slog through some chalice dungeons on my second character and, my god, rom seems super annoying in such a small space. this was the first boss from the main game I had fought in a challace dungeon, which I dunno if that's normal or in any way randomised, but it definitely sucked dealing with all of those spiders plus the fairly difficult to dodge magic in an enclosed space.

[Cata]

Yikes, I couldn't imagine pulling that fight off in such a closed space considering the large amount of space I was having to use when I initially fought him

[DestroyTheCore]

Report: Dark Souls 3 will be announced at E3

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/2/8707135 ... nced-at-e3

[Necronopticous]

Feels too early for an announcement. I guess we'll see what they say, but I can't imagine we'll see a new full-fledged FROMSOFT game until at least 2017, especially with the Bloodborne expansion already confirmed in the works. Anyway, super stoked of course, but I guess it is pretty obvious they'd keep going after Bloodborne's success.

[CMoon]

Report: Dark Souls 3 will be announced at E3

http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/2/8707135 ... nced-at-e3

Yeah, I really am hoping this is not true, or if it is, it is an announcement of intention. If there is legitimacy to it, maybe it would be to keep connections with namco/bandai alive? I worry (especially after DS2) of them spreading themselves too thin.

Meanwhile, any real thoughts about the BB 1.04 patch? I got detoured by Dragon Age Inquisition for a bit, but am slowly working on my level 4 run.

[evil_ash_xero]

I don't see them as spreading themselves too thin. It's two separate teams.

A Team:
Demon's Souls 2009
Dark Souls 2011
Bloodborne 2015

B Team:
Dark Souls 2 2014
Dark Souls 3 (?)

I mean, it has killed off the other franchises from From, like Armored Core...but those games just weren't doing that great.

[CMoon]

B Team:

I don't know if it is that simple anymore. If they are making this many titles, I'm sure all of their staff are involved with all of their titles. Probably more like various modules being developed by different people. DS2 definitely has a 'team b' feel, but bloodborne has a few ds2 moments. No real way to know unless the developers actually disclose everything.

[BrianC]

I'm also certain B. A. Baracus, Hannibal Smith, Howling Mad Murdock, and Templeton Peck had no involvement in any of the souls games.

[Acid_Rain]

Finally done with this one…

Char1: ng, ng+, most of the chalice dungeons
Char2: ng

What do you think about the different endings of the game?

[CMoon]

What do you think about the different endings of the game?

I've seen all three. It is interesting that the 'bad' ending (yharnam sunrise) feels the most comforting, but you've fixed nothing and ultimately are in the same position as the other NPCs you run into. The other endings are ultimately disturbing. The best ending is the most disturbing, which maybe is in keeping the the dark lord ending in Dark Souls. When it comes down to it, the endings are pretty thoughtful.