I'm going to get this put of the way now: I have finished Bloodborne, and I fully intend to discuss SPOILER stuff. I'll try to remember to say SPOILER before that stuff, but really, if you intend to play the game, or are in the process of doing so, don't let me, of all people, spoil it for you. Go play it. Or play it when you have the chance. Then come back and read this, if you still want to.

I PlayStation Shared a short video showcasing the return of corpse physics to Bloodborne. Couldn't be happier about that.

Anyway, I went into Bloodborne with high expectations, and still came out the other end impressed. Honestly, impressed is putting it lightly. I think Bloodborne is one of the best games I've ever played. I feel confident in including it amongst my favorite games of all time. I think it's fantastic, incredible, and I absolutely adore it. It captured and retained my interest throughout the 40 plus hours in a way that few games have. This probably sounds hyperbolic, but I'm not kidding. It's an amazing game that I couldn't get enough of. I'll be playing it again in New Game Plus in the near future, and probably starting another character in a month or so (I promised a friend I would play co-op with her once she gets her PS4).

Speaking of, that reminds me of a difference with how I played this game, compared to Dark Souls and Dark Souls II, which I think might have helped improve my experience. I went into Bloodborne knowing as little as possible, and I didn't look up anything about the game, other than how the co-op works. Which I only did to find out if there's level limits on who you can summon, like in the Souls games (there is). I also didn't summon anyone to help me with any bosses, unlike both of the Dark Souls games. I did get summoned once to help someone with a boss, but I died midway through the fight, so I have no idea how it turned out.

But that sense of mystery and discovery through the entire game really added a lot to the experience. This wasn't like Dark Souls, where I had (foolishly) watched a lot of footage of it before playing it (including speed runs, because I'm a dope), or Dark Souls II, where at a certain point I kinda gave in and looked up some stuff. And I also summoned a fair amount in both of those games, including for a couple of boss fights that I just felt like were beyond my ability to accomplish on my own. Manus from the Artorias DLC and that one Dark Souls II boss with the fire belly that he sticks his sword into (you know what I mean if you've played it, but I can't remember the name) are the ones that come to mind immediately, in that regard. I'm not sure if it's because Bloodborne has easier bosses, or if it's because I just managed to get better at this game, relative to the others, but I never felt the need to summon.

Regardless of my skill level, I definitely enjoyed the combat more in Bloodborne. As much as I did enjoy the slower paced, more passive style of playing with heavy armor and a shield in the Dark Souls games, I'm glad that Bloodborne forced me out of that play style. There's no heavy armor, and the one shield in the game is in there as a joke. In fact, there's no weight associated with any of the "armor" in the game, and no durability associated with it either. You can just equip whatever you want, which in theory encourages switching to whatever has the highest resistance for a particular thing, rather than just equipping the one with the highest physical defense stat.

But in practice, I just stuck with one that had a high physical defense stat and looked nice for most of the game. The only times I really changed up my gear was when I was in areas with a lot of poison. Not that poison (now broken up into two categories: Slow and Fast) is especially deadly, but you can only carry ten antidotes at a time. Some enemies drop them, but it's still safer to keep your poison defense as high as you can. Actually, now that I think about it, I never let my Fast Poison meter fill all the way, so I don't really know how deadly that stuff is. I do know that there were times when the "Slow" Poison didn't feel especially slow to me.

There's also no weight or anything associated with the weapons, which I liked, but can lead to some situations that look a little silly. I love how fast the dodging in the game is, and things like seeing your character's long coat trailing behind as you dash around enemies. There's just enough motion blur on some of the stuff that it just looks cool. But it also looks a little silly when you have one of the heavier weapons, like the Kirkhammer, equipped. It's a weird situation where a lot of the animations look appropriately slow, and your character really looks like a lot of effort is needed to swing that massive thing. But then a second later you're dashing around just as quickly as if you had a light saw cleaver equipped. I mean, given the choice between that, and having some of the weapons slow you down, I'll take the game looking a tad silly in spots.

But I bring it up because it's a small thing that sticks out just a tad from a game that, otherwise, is very consistent. When I write about games, I usually just write about the mechanics, mention if I enjoyed the story stuff or not, and then move on. Bloodborne's a bit different though, because I feel like a lot of its themes in the story, and just the general setting, mood, etc, all fit cohesively in a way that most games don't. There's a lot of games that immerse you in the world, up to a point where something game-y gets in the way. Don't get me wrong, Bloodborne is definitely a game-ass game, and there's a couple of game-y things in particular that I do think get in the way, but I'll get to that stuff later.

Which I guess means I'm delving into talking about the themes and stuff earlier than I expected. You've been forewarned!

One of the main themes in the game is the transformation of man into beast. It's all throughout the story, the dialog, the enemy design, and even the world itself. But it's also in the game play, both in some direct and indirect ways. Indirect ways like how most the primary (right hand) weapons transform, and those that don't have some other function that is pretty similar. Some are relatively simple, like the saw cleaver that transforms between a fast and powerful version with short range, and a slower, slightly less powerful version with longer range. Others are more complicated, like the aforementioned Kirkhammer, which switches between a hammer and a sword, or the rifle spear, which switches between a spear and a "rifle" (though it's really a blunderbuss with a short range spread shot). And there's other, even more elaborate ones in there, that I didn't really use enough to understand, or didn't use at all. Of course you can switch between the weapons' two forms mid combo, which leads to cool stuff, and just helps make the combat more fun, and deeper.

But there's also a system in the game where, apparently, you can literally transform into a beast. I say apparently because, in true From Software fashion, I never really understood what was going on it with, and the game didn't do much, if anything, to explain it. I know there's a stat that governs it in the character screen, I know that if I use a Beast Blood Pellet, and attack enemies, a meter appears on the screen (in addition to the Pellet increasing my attack strength, which helped during a couple bosses). But I never managed to fully fill the meter. I think a third, or maybe half was the best I ever managed. I'd think that all you would need to do would be fill the meter, but I dunno. And what does this (literal?) beast mode entail? No idea. I wouldn't be surprised if it was just a stat boost, I also wouldn't be surprised if it actually entailed a physical change in the appearance of your character.

I guess I just never fully succumbed to the allure of the beasts. You know, as I was playing the game, I actually ended up thinking about a few different authors, and their works from around the actual historical period that some of Bloodborne is inspired by. Specifically it was Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and (and this is getting into later game SPOILER stuff) some HP Lovecraft style stuff. Though, to be fair, I've never actually read any of Lovecraft's work, not that "Lovecraftian" stuff isn't common enough that anyone can notice it when they see it.

The themes about the beast within man, and the push and pull between that, and trying to maintain oneself as a human being just felt super DJ and MH-ish to me. Yes, that's how I abbreviate Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I thought of it last night and I'm sticking with it. And honestly, I feel like with it both being modern, and on a larger, more fantastical scale, that Bloodborne tackles some of those themes better than DJ and MH does, but I'm also not a huge fan of some of the ways in which books from that time are written, so that's probably just me.

Or maybe not, as there's something to be said about the way in which Bloodborne (and the Souls games) tell their stories. Yes, there are cut-scenes (Bloodborne indulges in these slightly more than From's last few games), and straight up dialog from NPCs, but a lot of it is told through the environments. It's subtle, and there are intentional gaps in it throughout, but to me it works so much better than older fashioned narratives, at least for this type of story. In a lot of ways, it works because those gaps exist. You don't get the full story, and I wouldn't be surprised if we never do, just like in the previous From games. In real life there are gaps in stories, gaps in some of the things we know about history, and I really appreciate that From keeps making games like Bloodborne that understand how effective not telling the full story is.

Speaking of, I guess I'll get into full blown story SPOILER stuff here, and discuss my theories on what was going on. Keep in mind, I've intentionally not read up on this stuff from outside of the game. I will after I post this, so feel free to comment on your theories, but this is just me theorizing.

So, the fairly obvious story stuff in the later parts of the game is that some sort of ritual is taking place, with the goal of contacting or summoning the "Great Ones" (a phrase very similar to Lovecraft's Old Ones, or at least my brain made that connection). What are the Great Ones? I'm not sure. I know a couple of the bosses were Great Ones, from the Trophy descriptions, of all things. But, it's fairly easy to say that they are seen as gods of some sort to the group that is summoning, or trying to summon them into Yharnam.

But why are they being summoned? Well, that ties back into the stuff about the transformation from man to beast, but with an added third layer, with the Great Ones on top. Bloodborne continues the Dark Souls tradition of having at least some aspect of some part of the story focused on the quest for knowledge, but going way too far. And in true Lovecraftian fashion, the quest for knowledge of things beyond the human realm, and into that of the Great Ones does not exactly end well for the humans, or other creatures in Bloodborne. I mean, Bloodborne even goes so far as to have one of the status ailments be "Frenzy," where you just straight up die if you get frenzied. At least some of the time, I think there was at least once when I still had a little health left, and could have used a sedative to save myself if I wasn't also being attacked by a horrible monster. If you have zero familiarity with Lovecraft's work, then you should take a few minutes to read up on stuff like Cthulhu, which could drive people mad simply be being near them.

That stuff's all, at least somewhat obvious. But there's something more. I can just barely see it, just below the surface, but I can't make it out clearly. There's things like all the references to dreams, and nightmares. There's even an area called The Hunter's Dream, and another area called The Nightmare (part of which is a lost lecture building from a university, which I think is funny that there's a university in The Nightmare). But, is it all a dream? Are the Great Ones invading people's dreams to make them do their bidding? Do the Great Ones even exist, or are they a part of someone else's evil schemes? And what's up with that spider dude in the lecture building? He seemed to think of himself as a god, at least until I *almost* killed him. Kinda wish I had, in retrospect. I guess there's always new game plus.

One thing I do know is that I have to keep exploring the world in Bloodborne. I have to go looking in wikis, reading up on things, theorizing with people. Well, I mean, it's not like I'll DIE if I don't, but I really want to. So many games are so cut and dry with their stories that there's no point to stuff like this. The closest they get is stuff like making dumb theories about the next Metal Gear game before it's out. And as much as I enjoy doing stuff like that, I feel like combing an existing game for clues about what's really going on is more interesting.

And more fun, because I wanted to get into the story stuff so badly that I kinda skipped over how much I really enjoy the game part of Bloodborne. I'd still have enjoyed the game if the story, the world, and all that stuff was the same, but the game was kinda clunky. But the fact that it has all that amazing stuff, and I absolutely love the combat just, like I said, elevates it to all time favorite status for me. There's just a thrill to dashing around enemies, attacking when I can, backing off, then moving in for a swift kill that just feels right. Something about the counter attack to get health back that is just so bloody brilliant. It lets you regain some health if you're fast, but also punishes you if you're careless, and get hit again.

The weapons all feel good, and they all feel unique too. Well, aside from weird stuff like there being a torch that basically does no damage, and a "Hunter's Torch" that looks exactly the same, but inexplicably does more damage. I've definitely seen some people complain about the game having fewer weapons than the Souls games, but I definitely prefer how Bloodborne handles it. Rather than having a large number of very standard, and ordinary weapons (aside from a handful of rare ones that most people probably never ever found), Bloodborne has a small-ish number of weapons that all feel different. All the primary weapons transform, and they're all different from each other. Yes, there's some similarities. The saw function of the saw cleaver and the saw spear are pretty much the same, and I imagine the sword functions of the weapons with a sword mode all feel pretty similar. But no one is going to mistake the whip function of the Threaded Cane for the hammer function of the Kirkhammer.

I've also seen people complain about the lack of diversity in character builds compared to the Souls games. And, yeah, that's true. I don't think it's possible to build a viable ranged focused character, let alone one that is purely ranged. You simply don't carry enough ammo, never mind that the guns don't do enough damage (aside from the literal cannon, which consumes ten bullet per shot). Never mind the fact that, unlike the Souls games, the weapons are all locked to either your right arm, or your left. No duel wielding guns. And no guns that feel like they'd work at long range, either. I did find one "rifle," (aside from the rifle spear) but was really disappointed when it was just another blunderbuss, and had lousy damage.

Conversely, I really like the interplay between the guns and the melee weapons. The guns are good for stunning enemies, or for doing that last bit of damage on an enemy when you're too afraid that moving in for the kill will end up with you dead. It's also how you do Bloodborne's version of parrying and riposting. Rather than deflecting an enemy's attack with a shield, in Bloodborne you shoot an enemy during their windup, which staggers them (and gives a noise to let you know you did it right). If you move in close and hit R1, you can do a visceral attack for a ton of damage. Visceral attacks also replace the Souls series' backstabs, though in that case you have to charge up an R2 attack to stun from behind.

One thing that I do think is weird about the visceral attacks is that rather than having a unique animations for every weapon, instead the weapon in your right hand just disappears. Then you just punch into the enemy. On the one hand, I think that's kinda extreme gruesome, just sticking your hand in and ripping at the enemy's innards. On the other, it's a bit weird to just see the weapon disappear.

And I've also seen people complain about the "lack of environmental variety," and the "dark color palette," or whatever. Frankly, it's kinda true. But it's all in service of an aesthetic that I adore. Bloodborne is a beautiful game, both technically, but especially in terms of art. Mostly because the framerate gets a little spotty in a few areas, but it never gets Blight Town bad. But I just cannot overstate how much I am in love with the look of the game. The architecture, the environments in the less "city-ish" areas, the enemy design, the lighting, it's all incredible. Yes, the different parts of Yharnam the city all look kinda similar, but it's a look I love, so I'm not complaining.

And the enemy design, oh my god. Early game, it's fairly standard stuff. Dirty look angry mob type guys, werewolf looking stuff. But as the game progresses, it just gets more and more grotesque in ways that, frankly, I don't want to spoil for you if you haven't played the game. You just gotta see some of that stuff for yourself. I will say that I do appreciate that it's not just grotesque for the sake of being disgusting. There's a logic to it, even if it's not apparent at first. That's just another thing that makes me love this game more, that it makes that stuff make sense, at least within the context of the nightmarish world the people at From concocted.

The music too, doesn't really have any one particular theme, or song that stuck with me, but it's still really good. Fits the tone of the game well, and it helps make the boss fights feel appropriately epic, or mysterious, whichever the case may be. The sound design though, is just as incredible as the visuals. It just goes to show how important ambient sound is to a game. Cries and screams in the distance go a long way toward giving you a feeling of unease, but not nearly as much as when they stop after being present for most of the game.

There's so many specific, little things I want to talk about, but I'm just writing a blog, and should probably wrap this up. But first, I'll at least mention my issues with the game, which really only stand out because of how fantastic the rest of it is. Running out of health items is bad. I don't mean running out mid fight, I mean when you don't have enough blood vials in storage to fully restock after banging your head against a boss fight for a while. Then your options are either play without carrying your full stock of healing items (probably not going to work well if you're in a situation where you are using them frequently), or go out and farm for items, or for Blood Echoes to use to purchase the items from the messengers (which I never mentioned, but they're the best and I equipped mine with cute little top hats). The same thing applies to your bullets, but I never needed those as much, and the game has a system where you can use up some health to give yourself five extra (and if you're fast, you can attack an enemy to get that health back).

Then there's the load times. Yeah, they're long. I wouldn't mind them so much if you didn't have to warp back to the Hunter's Dream to do things like level up, upgrade weapons, equip runes, etc. I don't know why From Software has a fascination with talking to a lady to level up, but I wish it would stop. Dark Souls didn't have that, and I don't know why they felt the need to include it in Dark Souls II, and include it again here. It's also extra weird that they hired the same woman who voiced the level up lady in Demon's Souls to voice the level up lady in Bloodborne. Fan service or something, I guess.

And there's the Chalice Dungeons, which I've managed to not mention yet. I did two of them in the 42 hours I spent playing the game. The first, I later found out, was one that everybody sees the first time they do one. The second I played much later in the game, only to realize it was made using the same room sets and same enemy level as the first, so it was mad easy. I didn't really fool around with it much more, because I didn't really find many chalices in the game. I found a couple in that first dungeon I did, but they were for the same type of dungeon, so I figured they used the same room sets. I did find one for a different named dungeon, or whatever, which I assume would have different rooms and enemies. But I never had enough of the materials needed for the chalice ritual, and I didn't want to go looking up how or where to find them.

That said, as much as I would like to experience the different chalice dungeon types, if they do have different rooms, and different enemies, I also don't know how well the Bloodborne experience transfers to a procedurally generated setting. It works sometimes, but other times it just seemed like it resulted in big open rooms with only one or two enemies, and maybe an easily avoidable trap or two. A great idea in concept, but from the little time I spent with it, it seemed like it needs some work.

I should probably end this blog at some point. I might read like a meandering mess, but I just have so many things to say about the game, and you know how great I am at organizing my thoughts in a clear, well thought out manner. Anyway, I'm not kidding when I say it's one of my favorite games of all time. I'm not going to sit here and say that absolutely everyone should play this game, and will enjoy it. I'm not even going to say that everyone that likes the Souls games should play it, because I know one person who liked those games but gave up on Bloodborne because he didn't care for it. But he also says Dark Souls II is his favorite, so clearly he's not to be trusted.

Thanks for reading! Check back next time for something about Axiom Verge, or whatever else I may play in the mean time.

Do you think you could have even enjoyed this game if you hadn't played a Souls game before? It sounds like you absolutely loved Bloodborne, but that is largely because this is the first Souls game that you went into with both a blank slate and a mastery of the basics. I've heard a ton of effusive praise for Bloodborne, but it seems like it is largely coming from people who have finally gotten on the Souls bandwagon after DS2 and came into Bloodborne with both curiosity and an acceptance for the game's controls and brand of difficulty.

I don't have a PS4 so I'm not going to be playing Bloodborne, but just listening to it being discussed gives me flashbacks to the MTG set Time Spiral a decade ago. All of the people who go on gaming forums love the game and talk about it incessantly, but more casual game fans have little to no chance of enjoying Bloodborne at all because it has too much rules baggage from earlier games. So the people who love the game really love it, but it doesn't reach a larger audience because new players run away after a few hours of fumbling about.

I would love to see what the return rate is for a Souls game at Gamespot.

A good write up, sir. I'm gonna speak about some of your story stuff, so be forewarned that there are spoilers in the following stuff.

The Great Ones are definitely real. They are physical beings that exist on a different plane of existence (the Nightmare areas) and have crossed over into the real world by people wanting to make contact with them after finding a corpse of one in the Chalice Dungeons and finding about their blood. It's why Micolash wears that hat, it's why there are rows of people wearing those hats before a boss chamber, and it's why the statues before Amelia are statues not of angels or something that a Church might have, but statues of Great Ones. It's why there are two Great Ones in the Upper Cathedral, because the Choir (the head Church posse) made contact with Ebrietas and the Emissary is the go-between.

The goals of the Great Ones and those that called for them are what people are delving into, but it definitely has to do with reproduction. It's why there's always a sound of a crying baby, it's why one of the last bosses is a wet nurse, it's why the woman in white has a bloody stomach and is gazing longingly towards the Wet Nurse boss chamber, and it's why the Umbilical Cord is the way to the hidden ending, it's why the prostitute you can save will wind up pregnant with a non-human fetus. Great Ones wanna reproduce and sometimes they use humans for that purpose. Clearly it hasn't worked out very well for either side yet. Old Yharnam is fucked, and the Hidden Village abducts women for the purpose of making sweet Great One babies. Because everyone wants the power of a Great One for their own reasons, the Healing Church, the Mensis people, thee Byrgenwerth crew, Cainhurst. When messing around with cosmic shit you don't understand, stuff gets fucked up. And injecting cosmic blood into yourself is probably not the best idea but hey, hunter's gotta hunt or something.

Granted, all of this is still in the theoretical phase, but essentially..Great Ones are real and Great Ones want a baby.

@donchipotle: Yeah, that all lines up with what I was reading on a wiki the other day. I really need to get going on New Game Plus, because I missed stuff like the Upper Cathedral boss(es?), and Cainhurst Castle.

It also makes me wonder, can the Great Ones not reproduce on their own? I don't see how they would benefit from using humans for reproduction unless it was their only option. Like, a half human half Great One would be like, a Mediocre One or something. I'd assume, at least.

@thatpinguino: Hm, it's hard to say. I mean, I'm pretty sure I would find the core combat and exploration enjoyable, even if this was my first one. And it is a simpler game in a lot of ways than the previous ones. Not in terms of obfuscation, but there's fewer stats to put points into, and I think if you take a minute to hit R3 in the menus and check what things mean, it explains that stuff well enough to get by.

Well, let me put it this way: It's no harder a game to jump into without knowing anything than Dark Souls, and I'd say it's a tad easier in some ways. So, I think it'd be possible to enjoy it if it was your first game of this sort. Not saying that everyone will, because some games just aren't for some people.