Sima Tuna wrote:Learning to play unlocked is very important in Bloodborne because of all the giant monster bosses.
Blinge wrote:Yeah i used to fight unlocked on bosses but now i think the way is constantly switching.
This is one of the most valuable tips not just for BB newcomers, but Miyazaki newcomers in general (I was both, as you recall ;3).
BB's lockon complicates all the massive-yet-agile bosses fought at close range. If you don't understand the role of free movement, and lock onto them as a matter of course, you'll feel like your head is being yanked about.
Don't lock on to Paarl at this range, you'll end up like them thar Japoneses who hurl @ Quake! Not until you know what you're doing, anyway!
Man Parl taught me a lot. RIP prison homie. 3;
As Burinju says, lockon should be deployed purposefully, say when you're going in for an opening and want Quickstep readied.
With crowds, much the same. Use lockon to assassinate, or to enable Quickstep; don't treat it as a prerequisite. You're much better-off figuring out your weapons' movesets, and manually steering your R1 strings to hit as many targets as possible; also using your most crowd-pleasing attacks, where tactically viable (eg, not when a backstabber is waiting to punish you). Hoonter Axe 2H/R2 is an early asset:
Four deads are better than one
Don't underrate the plain' ol diveroll! It's every bit as useful as the cooler Quickstep. Use it RITE, and in short time, you will sympathise with those screams of
"OH GAWD! HELP ME!" and
"BEAST! A FAHL BEAST!" from the ill-fated dogman hordes
Unlocked movement also lets you freely pan the camera about, which you should be doing as a matter of course (these are very much twinstick games, ala the similarly quickstep-geared PS2 Shinobi).
NINJAMAYNE THE AHT-SAIDAH in: Sear-chin'-4-rooove~
Even unlocked shooting is viable, once you've absorbed the game's handling. I used to consider it a showy trick, too unreliable for general use, but nah - it is legitimately lifesaving to pivot 180' and blast that Bricky in the nuts as he tries to cave your head in. V-ATK the floundering cunt as his bros dogpile onto your i-frames, then roll outta there.
There is also a third way, of sorts; using locked-on attacks deliberately placed to catch adjacent enemies. Good when you want to hammer a priority target while tearing up his supports.
NINJAMAYNE THA FAHL BEAST in: SEX WORKER RESCUE
Or hitting two big buggers for the charge+END cost of one:
In Soviet Yharnistan, VEGETABLE eat YOU
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Going from 8 loops of BB, to DS1, was a refreshing experience.
Most rewarding, being able to get all up in boss's faces with a defensive option, riding the green bar to the edge of exhaustion and oblivion like mahfuckin Psyvariar
Returning to BB a year on, with its narrower "everyone is some variant of Samurai Gunslinger" build range, and effective absence of block, I wondered if it'd feel one-note.
NO LMAO The variety is in the weapons themselves, a willfully idiosyncratic lot. As for the lack of shields... it's impressive how seamlessly Miyazaki and co translated DS1's sword+shield ethos over to BB.
"How do you parry enemies in this game, then?" "You shoot them in the motherfucking face tbh" "Oh." Sounds alien, but the way you've got to on-fly calculate your draw, the bullet's flight, and the enemy's state is superbly analogous to DS1's parry; just like the revised backstab mechanic, which might seem laborious at first, until you grasp how explosively the Quickstep can put you at an enemy's back while they flail at the empty space you once occupied.
Fuck I love these two games.
I would rank them with Silent Hills 1 & 2 amongst gaming's best double acts.