Bloodborne

If this game got a sequel it would be more than a masterpiece. And I do believe it. The game has a lot going for it despite it having a lot of flaws, if I’d written this post a few years ago I think it’d be different but having now played through Sekiro, Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 (I’ll go back to ds1 and 2 eventually)

I can say that while this isn’t my favorite game fromsoft has made it is still amazing and still holds up even after all these years. Though it’s being heavily held back by the lack of a rerelease on better hardware. I actually tried replaying the game before writing this post but I just could not do it—30fps is just too shit to do this game justice.

The Gameplay

It’s the main appeal of any fromsoft game… obviously you don’t play this game for the story. ¹

Bloodborne compared to the other games fromsoft has made is unique, not quite as unique as Sekiro which I consider to be a completely different genre but in comparison to the Dark Souls trilogy it is different.

The most obvious difference is the setting, but I will talk about that a bit later.

The Combat

Bloodborne’s combat is fast paced compared to Dark Souls 1 and 2, the main dodging mechanic when locked on goes from a roll to a dash—everyone’s already said this though.

And the weapon mechanics are completely different, as every weapon has two modes—this adds a lot more to the movesets compared to the Dark Souls games where each weapon has a pretty simple moveset.

The weapon I ended up using the most during my 150 hours of playtime was the saw cleaver as it’s probably one of the best weapons in the game. The transformation attacks are powerful and build up beast blood meter quickly and all that—plus the extra damage against beasts is nice.

Beast blood pellets increase the damage you do at the cost of increasing the damage you take as well, and they are the most broken item in this game by far allowing you to melt bosses and stun lock some with limb breaks. It’s what makes the saw cleaver such a good weapon as the transformation attack R1-L1 allows you to build up beast blood meter quickly, the higher the bar the more damage you do but also the more damage you take.

The game has a unique limb break mechanic which allows you to break a boss’s limbs and stagger them, this mechanic is absolutely broken and allows you to stun lock certain bosses.

The Bosses

This is the base game’s worst area in my opinion—there’s just not that many good bosses compared to the bad ones, and the really good bosses you might just miss if you don’t explore enough. I don’t have the DLC so I’ll only be talking about the base game bosses. From what I’ve seen the DLC doesn’t have this issue and it has some of the best bosses.

Martyr Logarius is in my opinion the best boss in the base game, and it is an optional boss that’s actually easy to miss as it’s a pain in the ass to even get to him. You have to parkour over rooftops and all of that in an optional area.

And his run back is absolutely excruciating but it is absolutely worth it as this boss is actually awesome.

Some other good bosses include:

• Blood starved Beast, which is optional but you probably won’t miss it on your first playthrough and it’s a boss that’s even fought in the speedrun of the game because it allows access to a shortcut.
• Father Gascoigne obviously duh
• Gehrman the First Hunter obviously
• And the Shadows of Yharnam

As for the worst boss in the game the award has to go to—not Micolash, I actually quite like his fight but rather it goes to… The One Reborn.

This boss just sucks, it’s not hard, it’s not unique it is just meh. It can be annoying as he can do super bullshit moves that you can’t dodge, you have to kill stupid mages at the top every time if you want to do that though it’s just a waste of time because you can melt the boss in seconds with limb breaks and beast blood pellets.

It’s essentially just the limb break boss.

The Setting

The setting and the levels, along with the lore in this one is top notch. I didn’t really care much about Dark Souls 3 lore or Elden Ring lore, but Bloodborne is the only fromsoft game where I actually cared about the lore.

I don’t really remember anything since it’s been so long but the lore for this game is actually really awesome, and I just think the lovecraftian type stuff it’s got going is really cool.

The thing I don’t like about the levels is that it is always just so dark and gloomy… I know that that’s how it’s supposed to be considering the game takes place at night, and the night doesn’t end until you finish the game.

But I just tend to hate when stuff is always dark and gloomy without any break from the gloominess. It’s just a me issue though.