Playing Bloodborne 1, and going through the part where
the veil is torn asunder and the world is exposed in all of its eldritch horror
was one of the greatest "WTF" gaming moments (in a good way) that I've ever experienced.
And it made me realize, how is there not a survival horror game set in that kind of world?
It just seems like a perfect fit.
Heck, From Software is so good at world building, they might even be able to pull off a really good survival horror game even though that genre isn't in their normal wheelhouse.
Post-game spoilers
Bloodborne is the greatest representation of a Lovecraftian mythos in game form outside of Eternal Darkness. Even the fact that you can "beat" most enemies in the game doesn't deter from the fact that your character is being played by outside forces. Even in the "good" ending, your character is transformed into something inhuman.
Uh but
The good ending is taking Gehrman's deal and waking up.
Yeah, for your character I suppose..... and the wheel just keeps on turning.
I'm so confused
So I fought the Moon Presence and got the "secret ending". Apparently, that's you that gets turned into a new Great One? I thought it was like a surviving part of the Moon Presence or something that you chopped off. Even with the Doll implying it I totally didn't get it. So, is the entire game a dream or no? I watched the other 2 endings you can get, and the one where you wake up, you wake up in Yharnam? It's not clear to me at all what's going on. In the beginning of the game, the cut scene, whoever that guy is puts you into the dream?[ Or is this like a Total Recall type of thing where it's all ambiguous and up to the person to decide?/spoiler]
The guy with the bandages at the beginning is the Blood Minister. He is completely unimportant to the story. I know, right?
In one ending you wake up and are no longer bound to the dream. This happened to Eileen the Crow and Djura as well. They make allusions to this if you listen carefully.
In the next one you kill Gehrman, but don't have the power to beat the Moon Presence. So with Gerhman gone it just sucks out all of your blood echoes and locks you inside the dream as his replacement. This makes it seem like getting you (or hunters before and after you) to go out and obtain blood that it can then absorb from you is its main desire.
In the one you got, you've absorbed all of the eldritch goop from the umbilical cords which theoretically gives you a ton of Insight on top of all of your blood echoes. You're now too powerful and too similar to the Moon Presence for it to drain you and control you. So it just wants to kill you. You win, but you're too far gone, and absorbing the Insight and blood from the Moon Presence is the last straw that turns you into a full on Great One. Or at least a baby One. Thankfully the Doll is there to help you. Why might that seem familiar...?
"Every Great One loses its child, and then yearns for a surrogate."
God DAMN! Mobs in this game are a PITA. Is there any way to clear out the lot of them quickly? Or am I forced early on to pebble and ambush them?
Depends, you usually want to take encounters on terms more favorable to you so either by luring them with pebbles, finding alternate routes, luring them into a choke point and using wide attacks (easier depending on weapon, which do you have?) or find some way to cull their numbers. Running can be fine too.
The guy with the bandages at the beginning is the Blood Minister. He is completely unimportant to the story. I know, right?
In one ending you wake up and are no longer bound to the dream. This happened to Eileen the Crow and Djura as well. They make allusions to this if you listen carefully.
In the next one you kill Gehrman, but don't have the power to beat the Moon Presence. So with Gerhman gone it just sucks out all of your blood echoes and locks you inside the dream as his replacement. This makes it seem like getting you (or hunters before and after you) to go out and obtain blood that it can then absorb from you is its main desire.
In the one you got, you've absorbed all of the eldritch goop from the umbilical cords which theoretically gives you a ton of Insight on top of all of your blood echoes. You're now too powerful and too similar to the Moon Presence for it to drain you and control you. So it just wants to kill you. You win, but you're too far gone, and absorbing the Insight and blood from the Moon Presence is the last straw that turns you into a full on Great One. Or at least a baby One. Thankfully the Doll is there to help you. Why might that seem familiar...?
"Every Great One loses its child, and then yearns for a surrogate."
Paleblood Hunt is fantastic and well worth a read, but bear in mind that it's no more of an authoritative account of the history and events of Yarnham as any other.
I say this from the point of view that the inherent ambiguities in From games' lore are a strength in that they can give rise to multiple valid but conflicting accounts!
God DAMN! Mobs in this game are a PITA. Is there any way to clear out the lot of them quickly? Or am I forced early on to pebble and ambush them?
You don't have to kill all of them, if you're talking about that first big "bonfire" with all the huntsmen around it. You can run past that area once you find the exit, and the vast majority of them will not follow you.
You can use your gun to draw mobs to you as well, as long as you don't care about pulling a few at a time. It's all about what you're comfortable with.
God DAMN! Mobs in this game are a PITA. Is there any way to clear out the lot of them quickly? Or am I forced early on to pebble and ambush them?
You don't have to kill all of them, if you're talking about that first big "bonfire" with all the huntsmen around it. You can run past that area once you find the exit, and the vast majority of them will not follow you.
You can use your gun to draw mobs to you as well, as long as you don't care about pulling a few at a time. It's all about what you're comfortable with.
What weapon did you start with, out of curiosity?
This is the equivalent to saying you don't have to order 35 boxes of thin mints when those little she-devil hustlers are outside your grocery store.
+5
Ninja Snarl PMy helmet is my burden.Ninja Snarl: Gone, but not forgotten.Registered Userregular
God DAMN! Mobs in this game are a PITA. Is there any way to clear out the lot of them quickly? Or am I forced early on to pebble and ambush them?
Navigating the maps and fighting enemies are really more of two separate things in these games. Fighting enemies get you echoes to level up so you can kill better and survive better, but most of advancing the game is pushing through to the next lantern, plus the occasional boss fight.
Getting hung up on fighting every enemy actually slows your progress down considerably, especially early on since you don't start with the ability to level up and thus are stuck with really low stats and no way to improve them. You can start leveling once you find your first boss (though you don't have to actually win the fight first, you can die and still level afterwards), but you could easily spend hours trying to grind your way through all those early enemies safely, whereas running past them all can find you the first boss in like 5-10 minutes and then you can start leveling to stay alive better.
Though groups of enemies will virtually always be a threat, that's just how these games are. Even the weakest enemies can usually stun-lock you to death if there are enough of them.
Cleric Demon down within ten minutes, breeze to Gascoigne. Get him under 50% first time. Think I'll quit while I'm ahead and tackle him fresh in the morning.
+2
GoodKingJayIIIThey wanna get mygold on the ceilingRegistered Userregular
It's funny what bosses give people trouble. It's different for everybody.
I've never had trouble with Cleric Beast. Gascoigne on the other hand just destroyed me up and down my first play. I almost quit the game he killed me so many times. I'm glad I didn't, but... fuck, that was a rough go.
Also, Bloody Crow of Cainhurst... *shudder*
Battletag: Threeve#1501
PSN: Threeve703
+1
FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
edited January 2018
Bloody Crow I've killed on my first try every playthrough, but no matter what that shitty-ass poison beast in Old Yharnam kills me at least once or twice every playthrough unless I summon Alfie. I know its attacks by heart but I inevitably get overconfident and get caught in that heatseaking fly across the world grab and shit on your day move it does.
Also kind of a cool thing for Djura's progression, not really a spoiler and I've said it here before but spoilers anyway I guess:
You can go all the way through Old Yharnam killing whatever and beat the boss, just don't go up to him. When you trigger the part where you can get killed by spooky bagman and taken to the secret Gaol, do that and run through and trigger the fight with the electric beast. you don't even have to beat it, just walk in, spawn the boss, and hunter's mark out. after that, you can go back to Old Yharnam from the Church lantern and run up to Djura and he'll be totally fine with you and give you the emote. After that it doesn't matter if you kill him, which I always do because I think he's just in a fantasy land and doesn't realize that even though Old Yharnam was a tragedy, there's no changing it (really I just like his hat a lot and want it). Fastest way to get his stuff if you want it but don't necessarily want to progress in that direction just yet.
Frei on
Are you the magic man?
+1
FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
also playing a female character right now, don't think I have before in BB. like how several of the outfits are changed a bit depending on gender. Yharnam Hunter and Cainhurst Knight are both great looking.
Are you the magic man?
+3
KlatuAussie Aussie AussieOi Oi OiRegistered Userregular
The first time my missus picked up the game and I let her stumble in to cleric demons room without telling her (teehee), she started to panic and I just told her to fight cleric demon like she'd run past El Gigante in RE4. She instantly understood what I meant and got in under the sack and 1shot him.
also playing a female character right now, don't think I have before in BB. like how several of the outfits are changed a bit depending on gender. Yharnam Hunter and Cainhurst Knight are both great looking.
the starting outfit is slightly changed too (different pocket position for pocket watch)
God DAMN! Mobs in this game are a PITA. Is there any way to clear out the lot of them quickly? Or am I forced early on to pebble and ambush them?
There are really only a few full mobs of enemies that I can think of in the opening areas:
1. The group slowly milling their way up the road towards the bonfire. Yeah, toss a pebble at one and kill him and any stragglers that may come along. Just need to bait them into an attack, then punish their cooldown.
2. The bonfire group. You can just run past most of them. But if you want to take them out, my path has almost always been to run along the right elevated side to kill the guys up there. Then (if they haven't spotted me yet), get the attention of some guys by the fire who rush up to their doom. Jump down at the back of that elevated walk (watch for two guys coming out from the big wooden door), and slowly make your way behind the wagon. The dog there will turn to attack you once you get close. Slowly walk up the stairs, kill everyone up there (charge/visceral attack the sniper on the wagon). Then go back down the stairs, and charge/visceral the other guy with a gun whose back is to the big wooden door. Pitchfork guy facing the door should spot you at this point and come to say hi. After that, kill the non-shield guy, then the shielded guy (I find that shield guys spend more time being defensive than offensive, so worry about the one trying to actually kill you).
3. Not long after that area, there will be 4-5 guys and two dogs. Just pebble who you can and take it kind of slow. There's a big dude with a brick over there banging on the door. If you don't kill him first, I think he comes over to join the fight even if you're nowhere near him. Happened to me twice recently.
So ... no, there isn't really a fast way unless you have a long, wide-sweeping weapon that can one-shot them. And you clearly don't have that yet.
I was well on my way to manage "personal worst attempt at BSB", when it suddenly wasn't. So I took the occasion to see if I could get uploading from the PS to work and I could.
I was well on my way to manage "personal worst attempt at BSB", when it suddenly wasn't. So I took the occasion to see if I could get uploading from the PS to work and I could.
It's the day's second attempt and I blame being out of practice for the first bit of it.
Lulling the enemy into a false sense of security by catching every attack with your precious fleshy face before deciding to just humiliate the opponent? Classic.
i think that was my tactic for BSB on my first run
i got him first try, then keeled over four seconds later from poison
0
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
Are most bosses like the Blood Starved Beast in terms of health or like Paarl?
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
So my computer "died" (not sure what is wrong with it) a few days ago so I'm focusing on my Bloodborne run (damn you all over the Holiday Forums). Trying to get all the weapons since I missed out and saw I need to do a chalice dungeon for the beast claws. I only did the starting one and lack some serious ritual supplies to do the ailing dungeon (have the chalice already), any recommendations for getting the supplies would be appreciated.
So my computer "died" (not sure what is wrong with it) a few days ago so I'm focusing on my Bloodborne run (damn you all over the Holiday Forums). Trying to get all the weapons since I missed out and saw I need to do a chalice dungeon for the beast claws. I only did the starting one and lack some serious ritual supplies to do the ailing dungeon (have the chalice already), any recommendations for getting the supplies would be appreciated.
that kind of depends. did you do all the previous chalices that lead up to aling loran yet (pthumeru, central pthumeru, and lower pthumeru)? basically you'll always have enough mats for the next chalice if you fully clear them as you go, doing the side areas before the lantern on a floor and before the boss (not all levels have these, but when they do you should do them). the only exception is aling loran and level 4 ritual blood. you may need to farm some of the bag men in lower pthumeru (I think you need 16 total).
I think the only boss I've encountered in Bloodborne with an excessive amount of hp/defense was Laurence, but he's optional so *shrug*. Everything else seemed to take enough damage to make me feel like I was making progress. I did appreciate that a lot of the massive beast bosses have big juicy weak points that can allow you to stagger or even stunlock them if your damage is high enough (and you can keep the camera from wonking out).
I kind of want to do an unarmed run, as the punch animations in Bloodborne are really cool. Though for the sake of sanity, I think it would have to allow pistols or arcane tools to not be entirely dependent on viscerals. Un-parryable bosses will be a special kind of fun...
I kind of want to do an unarmed run, as the punch animations in Bloodborne are really cool. Though for the sake of sanity, I think it would have to allow pistols or arcane tools to not be entirely dependent on viscerals. Un-parryable bosses will be a special kind of fun...
You could do a fist arcane run by using the last dlc boss weapon without the milkweed rune, but that would be more of a NG+ run.
I kind of want to do an unarmed run, as the punch animations in Bloodborne are really cool. Though for the sake of sanity, I think it would have to allow pistols or arcane tools to not be entirely dependent on viscerals. Un-parryable bosses will be a special kind of fun...
You could do a fist arcane run by using the last dlc boss weapon without the milkweed rune, but that would be more of a NG+ run.
Rushing the final DLC boss for a weapon is probably possible, but given that I suck at BB, it's probably more pain than it's worth. I'm already struggling with the first DLC boss with a properly leveled and equipped character...
Chikage update: After acquiring THE BLADE I promptly went and murdered BSB, Amy, and the Shadows, hot damn that's a good weapon. Now to take a 'break' and do chalices before DLC and Byrgenwerth.
+1
FreiA French Prometheus UnboundDeadwoodRegistered Userregular
Chikage update: After acquiring THE BLADE I promptly went and murdered BSB, Amy, and the Shadows, hot damn that's a good weapon. Now to take a 'break' and do chalices before DLC and Byrgenwerth.
my favorite move in the game is when you press transform on chikage without moving and you put the hand on the hilt, hold it for a moment, and then swipe out with a super fast slash that you can then transform back into a normal slash. so good.
Everyone needs to stop posting here because I'm getting a serious itch to beat the game for the 5th time and my backlog is full of other great games.
+7
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
So firstly, I'm up to Amelia I think, I don't know when you start being able to access the DLC stuff, and I haven't done the first Chalice yet, should I be doing them as I get them or holding off? Also I kind of want to use the Tonitrus because it's frickin cool, but I haven't been building for Arcane at all, this being my first run and all. Is it worth picking up anyway, or should I buy Ludwig's holy blade and build a bit of Arcane to use Tonitrus when you find it later on.
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
You have to beat Amelia to unlock the DLC. But you shouldn't really bother with it until level 70 or 80 or so. Unless you want to just run in and grab items on the ground, which is what I did.
If you plan to do all the Chalice Dungeons, I'd say to do them between levels of the game. If you go back at the end to clear them all out for Trophies (like I did) the first chunk of them are way too easy. If you go back and forth they'd be more challenging and give you some useful rewards.
I wouldn't recommend that weapon or build your first time through, personally.
Putting some points into Arcane won't hurt mind, especially if you're using two-handed weapons a lot. I think if you get 18 you can use the Augur of Ebriatas, which can parry enemies like a gun while you continue to just wield a two-hander. Going for it to use the Tonitrus is probably not super useful, but if you end up liking the hunter tools, then going Strength/Arcane is not bad. Especially once you acquire a particular DLC weapon.
The slug buff item is also a good reason to splash in some Arcane. I used that a ton. But I just love temporary buffs like that in games.
0
Lord_AsmodeusgoeticSobriquet:Here is your magical cryptic riddle-tumour: I AM A TIME MACHINERegistered Userregular
Sooo I think I might have accidentally screwed myself out of getting one of the people for the Oeden Chapel. I went to the Hypogean Gaol to fight Darkbeast Paarl, but I never got the lamp there, I was too focused on killing him and talking to Djura
Now when I get killed by Snatchers... I don't go to the Gaol. Can I not ever get there again in its current form or will it just take a loooong time now?
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. - Lincoln
Posts
I'm so confused
In one ending you wake up and are no longer bound to the dream. This happened to Eileen the Crow and Djura as well. They make allusions to this if you listen carefully.
In the next one you kill Gehrman, but don't have the power to beat the Moon Presence. So with Gerhman gone it just sucks out all of your blood echoes and locks you inside the dream as his replacement. This makes it seem like getting you (or hunters before and after you) to go out and obtain blood that it can then absorb from you is its main desire.
In the one you got, you've absorbed all of the eldritch goop from the umbilical cords which theoretically gives you a ton of Insight on top of all of your blood echoes. You're now too powerful and too similar to the Moon Presence for it to drain you and control you. So it just wants to kill you. You win, but you're too far gone, and absorbing the Insight and blood from the Moon Presence is the last straw that turns you into a full on Great One. Or at least a baby One. Thankfully the Doll is there to help you. Why might that seem familiar...?
Depends, you usually want to take encounters on terms more favorable to you so either by luring them with pebbles, finding alternate routes, luring them into a choke point and using wide attacks (easier depending on weapon, which do you have?) or find some way to cull their numbers. Running can be fine too.
Also, here's a great analysis of the game: Paleblood Hunt.
I say this from the point of view that the inherent ambiguities in From games' lore are a strength in that they can give rise to multiple valid but conflicting accounts!
You don't have to kill all of them, if you're talking about that first big "bonfire" with all the huntsmen around it. You can run past that area once you find the exit, and the vast majority of them will not follow you.
You can use your gun to draw mobs to you as well, as long as you don't care about pulling a few at a time. It's all about what you're comfortable with.
What weapon did you start with, out of curiosity?
This is the equivalent to saying you don't have to order 35 boxes of thin mints when those little she-devil hustlers are outside your grocery store.
Navigating the maps and fighting enemies are really more of two separate things in these games. Fighting enemies get you echoes to level up so you can kill better and survive better, but most of advancing the game is pushing through to the next lantern, plus the occasional boss fight.
Getting hung up on fighting every enemy actually slows your progress down considerably, especially early on since you don't start with the ability to level up and thus are stuck with really low stats and no way to improve them. You can start leveling once you find your first boss (though you don't have to actually win the fight first, you can die and still level afterwards), but you could easily spend hours trying to grind your way through all those early enemies safely, whereas running past them all can find you the first boss in like 5-10 minutes and then you can start leveling to stay alive better.
Though groups of enemies will virtually always be a threat, that's just how these games are. Even the weakest enemies can usually stun-lock you to death if there are enough of them.
The score, as it stands right now after starting over for the third time in the last three years:
Cleric Demon - 20
Me - 0
I know I can beat him because I've gotten to at least the Blood-Starved Beast before, but god I hate this game I love this game.
Cleric Demon down within ten minutes, breeze to Gascoigne. Get him under 50% first time. Think I'll quit while I'm ahead and tackle him fresh in the morning.
I've never had trouble with Cleric Beast. Gascoigne on the other hand just destroyed me up and down my first play. I almost quit the game he killed me so many times. I'm glad I didn't, but... fuck, that was a rough go.
Also, Bloody Crow of Cainhurst... *shudder*
PSN: Threeve703
Also kind of a cool thing for Djura's progression, not really a spoiler and I've said it here before but spoilers anyway I guess:
the starting outfit is slightly changed too (different pocket position for pocket watch)
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
There are really only a few full mobs of enemies that I can think of in the opening areas:
1. The group slowly milling their way up the road towards the bonfire. Yeah, toss a pebble at one and kill him and any stragglers that may come along. Just need to bait them into an attack, then punish their cooldown.
2. The bonfire group. You can just run past most of them. But if you want to take them out, my path has almost always been to run along the right elevated side to kill the guys up there. Then (if they haven't spotted me yet), get the attention of some guys by the fire who rush up to their doom. Jump down at the back of that elevated walk (watch for two guys coming out from the big wooden door), and slowly make your way behind the wagon. The dog there will turn to attack you once you get close. Slowly walk up the stairs, kill everyone up there (charge/visceral attack the sniper on the wagon). Then go back down the stairs, and charge/visceral the other guy with a gun whose back is to the big wooden door. Pitchfork guy facing the door should spot you at this point and come to say hi. After that, kill the non-shield guy, then the shielded guy (I find that shield guys spend more time being defensive than offensive, so worry about the one trying to actually kill you).
3. Not long after that area, there will be 4-5 guys and two dogs. Just pebble who you can and take it kind of slow. There's a big dude with a brick over there banging on the door. If you don't kill him first, I think he comes over to join the fight even if you're nowhere near him. Happened to me twice recently.
So ... no, there isn't really a fast way unless you have a long, wide-sweeping weapon that can one-shot them. And you clearly don't have that yet.
It's the day's second attempt and I blame being out of practice for the first bit of it.
Lulling the enemy into a false sense of security by catching every attack with your precious fleshy face before deciding to just humiliate the opponent? Classic.
i got him first try, then keeled over four seconds later from poison
It is a cool sword and stylish as fuck.
bosses get more health as the game goes on
paarl is probably the strongest of all the available early game bosses
that kind of depends. did you do all the previous chalices that lead up to aling loran yet (pthumeru, central pthumeru, and lower pthumeru)? basically you'll always have enough mats for the next chalice if you fully clear them as you go, doing the side areas before the lantern on a floor and before the boss (not all levels have these, but when they do you should do them). the only exception is aling loran and level 4 ritual blood. you may need to farm some of the bag men in lower pthumeru (I think you need 16 total).
Still I'm a sucker for fist weapons.
Also finally doing some jolly cooperation. Not as bad as I remember but probably because I have some decent Vitality.
You could do a fist arcane run by using the last dlc boss weapon without the milkweed rune, but that would be more of a NG+ run.
Rushing the final DLC boss for a weapon is probably possible, but given that I suck at BB, it's probably more pain than it's worth. I'm already struggling with the first DLC boss with a properly leveled and equipped character...
my favorite move in the game is when you press transform on chikage without moving and you put the hand on the hilt, hold it for a moment, and then swipe out with a super fast slash that you can then transform back into a normal slash. so good.
If you plan to do all the Chalice Dungeons, I'd say to do them between levels of the game. If you go back at the end to clear them all out for Trophies (like I did) the first chunk of them are way too easy. If you go back and forth they'd be more challenging and give you some useful rewards.
I wouldn't recommend that weapon or build your first time through, personally.
Now when I get killed by Snatchers... I don't go to the Gaol. Can I not ever get there again in its current form or will it just take a loooong time now?