So hey, we've got a bunch of separate topics going on right now from people who have been having insanely hard times with specific bosses, many of whom seem to want nothing more than a place to express how much of a fucker of a time they're having with Bloodborne. So I figure this thread might be a productive way of both limiting how many of these similar discussions we've got, and maybe be therapeutic for those who would be comforted seeing others just as enraged as them by the game's wonderful bullshit. So here ya go; vent away! Together we can heal. Together we can learn.

First section of Nightmare of Mensis was bullshit. Unseen Village should be erased from the game. Ebrietas can die in a burning pit of garbage.

Defiled Chalice is the king of bullshit mountain though. Oh my god that place..

Good luck to anyone who is still chugging along.

Fuck frenzy

The last boss of that cursed dungeon is the worst. So many one hit kill attacks and so much HP. Totally manageable until the third phase, so like 8-10 minutes into the encounter. That way you end up wasting so much time on its first and second fase. I'm at attempt 20+ now. It's some hot bullshit.

@canteu: MAn I can deal with halved health but frenzy just kills you SO fast. It's a terrible status ailment.

Unseen Village is so good though. It's such a great place because of how insane it is. That place is FUCKED in the best possible way!

Rom fat lard spider drained my patience! I could help people but no one was summoning into my world?!

In hindsight he wasn't hard but I didn't unlock the rune tool because I had completely missed that area. Went back and slotted some runes and won.

Unseen village is no joke it forces you to move quick and precise.

I found that abandoning the actual strategy in the third phase was the key to success with that fight. You basically have to give up doing any kind of meaningful damage and just stay behind him and chip away at his ankles. He takes barely any damage from behind so it takes a while, but you're much safer doing that than trying to score big hits on his head in phase 3.

Brains were dumb.

I will say that I enjoyed my time with Bloodborne overall, from the otherworldly setting to the precise combat, but if we are getting complaints with the game off our chests, I just want to say how bullshit the collision detection can be with weapons and enemies. This was my first From Software Souls experience, but what a bitch-and-a-half it was to learn what walls my Hunter Axe can clip through and still cleave my target, or to learn what pillars bosses like the Blood-starved Beast can grab me through and make me gargle poison. Imagine my irritation when I would need to retreat for just a moment, just to recover some lost health with a blood vial, when suddenly a decrepit claw rakes across my character's face through a foot of stone. Also, those frenzied brain spawn can rot in whatever Bloodborne's twisted version of purgatory may be.

Fuck Gehrman and The Blood Starved Beast. Only bosses I had any issue with, but man, I must have had at least 30 deaths on that Gehrman fight :p

Entirety of Mensis wasn't fun in the slightest. And yeah Frenzy is a stupid ailment.

I don't think I've ever failed as much in any souls game as I have in the Defiled Chalice dungeon. That fucking dog man. I can't even think about Amygdala because I'm too busy being annihilated by that stupid fucking dog. All I wanted to do was to see the final boss of the chalice dungeons, but it honestly feels like I will never beat this thing. If I even manage to get him into his third phase I can barely find any openings and get killed by the jump attack. That is, if I'm not getting pinned to the wall or caught on his legs as his aoe goes off or being stomped on.

This is the first time I feel like something is genuinely unfair in one of these games. Halving your health and pitting you against bosses that have enough strength to one-shot you with multiple attacks is a new level of cruelty from From.

I don't know, I thought the game was easy as shit. And now that I'm playing through again with a weapon other than the Threaded Cane, it feels like easy mode. The defiled chalice dungeon was a bit of a motherfucker, but it mostly felt cheap, not hard. I guess this makes me sound like an asshole, but it's how I honestly feel about Bloodborne.

@theblue: I found the best strategy with the Watchdog in the defiled dungeon is to stay in front of him at a medium distance to bait his basic head-swipe attack, back away when it comes, then strong attack once and dodge backwards. In later stages he will add attacks to his basic combo, which will end with a sort of head thrust forward and to the left. At this point you should back away from all his attacks until that one comes, and hit him once with R2 again. Breaking his head armor will give you an opportunity to do crazy damage to him so focus on his head, not his legs.

His charge is easy enough to dodge as he shakes like a wet dog before doing it and only charges directly forward. Outside of that, the only attack you really need to worry about is his fire-burp chomps that can stun-lock you.

@spoonman671: Yeah, I know all of this, it's just a matter of execution.

You'll get there. I put a lot of time in on him, but when I beat him, I did it with like 15 or 16 blood vials left over. He's a "solvable" boss.

I think I have a character around level 130 or so who could help you if you want. I've never fought the Watchdog in coop, so I don't know if it's actually any easier.

Rom is a shitty Phalanx fuck Rom oh my god fuck him

Don't worry, the boss after that is much worst.

@theblue: yah Bloodborne is the game where I felt like "this is kinda bullshit" the most often out of the entire series. The whole "hard but fair" has never been really true but it was true enough where you could kinda go along with it. Bloodborne has plenty of moments where you feel like thats certainly not the case, mostly because of technical issues, but sometimes simply from game design.

The Pthumerian Descendant and Bloodletting Beast in the Pthumerian Ihyll Chalice can go fuck themselves. Also that cursed chalice where you have half health. The Chalice dungeons are way harder than the main game and were the hardest part of getting platinum.

Also, fuck frenzy.

God dammit, I finally beat that dog. I used the Threaded Cane Whip to stay out of range and chip away at his health. I don't feel good about it, but I did it. I thought Amygdala was going to be even worse, but strafing to his left and right and slamming his head and hands when he leaves openings ends the first phase quick. As for the second phase, apparently if you just stick underneath him and chip away at his health by attacking his legs, he will only either stomp you which generally won't kill you, or jump and land a bit away from you.

Fuck that dungeon though, never doing that ever again.

Yeah that is the biggest problem with Bloodborne. It isn't "hard but fair" many parts of the game are downright cheap, gamey, or just unfun. Like the cursed dungeon, the first area of the Mensis Nightmare, or the frenzy status effect in general. Out of all the Souls games I had the least amount of fun playing it, I don't even like Lords of the Fallen much and I probably had more fun with that.

The camera is the goddamned worst.

The Unseen Village makes me want to set a fucking nursing home on fire. While the game hasn't exactly been a walk in the park up until this point, I haven't had that much trouble getting anywhere. This level is brutal, though. I really want to see this game through to the end, but at some point I'm just not having fun.

The developer seed for the Ailing Loran Chalice Dungeon. There's one section with 2 bell maidens in one room. They summon up to NINE, count 'em, NINE red spiders. They all attack you at once. They can gang up on you and kill you instantly. You can never kill them quickly enough because there are nine of them, and they are summoned immediately after one of them dies.

Also, you have to open the shortcut door while dodging the nine spiders through tiny doorways in order to access this room and murder the bell maidens.

That part was annoying but totally doable. Oh, and there's multiple parts where 2 bell maidens summon nothing but spiders. You just ignore the spiders, hit and run on the maidens until they're both dead.

Does anyone else really hate some of the boss encounters in this game? I'm only up to Vicar Amelia, but I really don't like her or the Undead Giant in the first chalice dungeon. I've played Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 and 2, and I've never been more consistently angry than when I'm playing Bloodborne. Every time I die to a boss in this game it doesn't feel like it's my fault, it feels like shitty design. I feel like From heard the complaints that you could just stick to a boss's ass and kill them, so instead of solving the problem they gave every boss an attack that hits in front and sweeps all the way around to the back. Bosses are also killing me in one or two hits, even though I'm currently level 31 with 20 vitality. It's just crazy.

I really enjoyed Father G, and oneshot the Cleric Beast, even though I found him kind of boring. The Blood Starved Beast was pretty fun and challenging, but then both Undead Giant and Vicar just have ridiculous attack range that forces you to dash in, hit twice, and dash out. So then the fight drags on and I inevitably get tagged and oneshot, or stunlocked to death. I feel like more fights rely on blind dashing luck and can be over from one mistake way too fast. I expect that towards the end of the game, but if every fight is like this I'm seriously questioning whether I want to keep playing or not. Does it get better? (By the way, I'm fine with the game being hard. I just feel like giving every boss a ton of health, a huge attack radius, and super powerful hits is cheap)

Sidenote: Running out of blood vials is the most demoralizing thing. Killing enemies to grind and buy vials isn't challenging, it's just busywork. What the hell made them decide to make them consumable I'll never understand. I thought they learned their lesson from Demon's Souls.

Final sidenote: I just recently ragequit because after killing the Undead Giant I ran into the Merciless trio or whatever you want to call them. After feeling out the fight, I basically had it on my second attempt. Killed the first watcher and had the second down to visceral kill range when I parried. Ran up to him and the visceral decided not to come out like it does maybe 30% of the time even though I was PERFECTLY SQUARED AND HAD MY FACE INSIDE HIS BODY. So then I got shot and slashed to death and angrily shut off the game. I think I have 3 blood vials left, so I'm looking forward to a fun next session of farming.

I reached Gehrman tonight and just died to him about a dozen times. I am intentionally not using vials to save them for when I actually have a chance but I can't get more than like an 1/10 off his health bar before I'm dead, so....

@quid_pro_bono: I feel you. This game, while great is not nearly as good as Dark Souls or Demon Souls. Can't put my finger on it, but it seems way more forgiving than any of the previous iterations.

Man fuck Amygdala in the third level of the defiled chalice dungeon, been fighting that bitch for 2 nights and fuck. The first two are easy its just when she pulls her arms off where i cant get a good attack in. I

I wasted all my consumables on my first fight with the Cleric Beast only to die over and over again trying to figure out how to stagger him (It turns out you can't parry him, he just gets staggered ONCE when you do enough damage to his face with a gun) He somehow ended up giving me more trouble than almost any other main storyline boss in the game, I even steamrolled Gehrman and the Moon Presence one after the other on my first go. I just parried Gehrman like 5 times, and then when he started some charging thing (I never saw it finish?) I stabbed him until he died. I guess it definitely helped that I've played so much of the old Souls games, and that might have explained why I had so much trouble getting used to the new systems/controls just at the very start.

Otherwise, the only parts that have stuck me for more than a couple of deaths are Ebrietas and some of the later level chalice dungeon bosses. I still haven't beaten Cursed Defiled Pthumerian Amygdala, because I can't figure out how to reliably avoid that bullshit offscreen 1-hit KO jump. The second Watchdog of the Old Lords felt like total bullshit for ages, but once I got his pattern down I actually found him totally beatable and it was just a case of not screwing up. I usually like absurdly hard stuff, but I'm really not having an enjoyable time with the later chalice dungeons, everything moves so quickly, has so much health, and can kill you in 3 or less hits, and it really does feel just plain unfair and unfun, the level design in the dungeons is terrible and monotonous and filled with cramped corridors for you to get swarmed in too. I was intending to get the platinum on this game, but I don't know if I'll bother at this point, the chalices have been so much of a slog that I've just burnt out on the game completely.

OBVIOUS BRAGGING: I managed to beat the third Blood Starved Beast encounter (I forget which level of the Pthumerian dugeons) without taking a single hit or getting poisoned, which I am ridiculously proud about.

Its sad that the crappiness of the last few areas caused me to miss a bunch of shit (because I ran through them). I'm going through ng+ with a guide and feel no shame

Biggest problem I have it trying to setup co-op with a friend and how the game does everything it can to stop you playing with friends.

@bceagles128: I fought him with Bolt paper on my weapon all the time. It seems to stagger him more when you hit him with normal attacks. Also, key to this fight is your gun! Parry and visceral, then roll to him and slash him one more time. Somehow I found him getting easier when he enters the later phases.

You just have to hack at the ankles in the third phase. It's sort of a cheese but it totally works. She just can't kill you when you're in close because she's missing her short range arms.

I've broken through my hate and am having a ton of fun again. This game is so weird.

I did a bit of grinding for blood vials (remote play is a godsend for this), and happened to unlock Ludwig's Holy Blade. I went and bought that, and now I am absolutely wrecking fools. I went in and killed Amelia on my first try today (eleventh overall), and then ripped my way through Hemwick Charnel Lane. I stopped so I could come watch UPF before fighting the boss, but I feel like I probably should have been in that area before Amelia. Considering how many Twin Blood Stones I got, those upgrades would have been really useful on her.

Either way, this game definitely induces more rage in me than the previous games, but I'm starting to love it again. We'll see how it goes.

I've also been keeping track of my death counts on bosses, so that'll be a fun post when I beat the game.

I don't dig how weapons are locked behind a pretty steep progression barrier. Started a new character, aiming for the Chikage. Fastest way is to skip Cleric Beast, immediately buy the emblem for 10.000 Echoes, immediately defeat Amalia, then run through half of the Forbidden Woods, open up the way to the Clinic, get the summons, run through the Witch section to get to Cainhurst Castle, defeat Longarius, join the Vilebloods and then go and grind for roughly 30 minutes to obtain enough Echoes to buy the Chikage. I did the match, it will probably take me around 3-4 hours to do that, and this is the fastest way I can think of, thus I'd be grossly underleveled.

So, I'm going for option B, which is just playing the game regularly but making my way to Cainhurst Castle as soon as 'comfort' allows me to. Will probably take a couple of hours longer. 5-6, somewhere around there... to get the Chikage. That's way too long.

You actually can't buy the emblem while Cleric Beast is alive.

I personally didn't find the first area of the Nightmare of Mensis to be that hard, especially since the grey beasts can be parried quite easily. However, the bridge leading to the giant brain reminds me of the ramp with the archers in Anor Londo, except worse. The brain enemies were indeed the worst; they drop really good gems though. Overall, the game was so much fun, that I rarely, if ever, got frustrated.

Since this is a venting thread, I thought I might as well mention that it can get a bit annoying how a lot (certainly too many) threads end up one way or another becoming a Bloodborne vs. Dark Souls vs. Dark Souls II debate.

Welp, I just got the true ending. I felt that none of those two final boss fights had the gravitas or enormosity that Gwyn did in Dark Souls, but I was very impressed by the game as a whole.

It is certainly easier, but the movement and ability you gain from all of its concessions made it worth it. The speed and fluidity of Bloodborne made the game fantastic to play, even when it lacked in diversity or boss design. I never want to fat roll again. I never will.

I only had to summon for one boss, which was quite an accomplishment for me given how poor I was at Dark Souls. The boss at Cainhurst was terrible, and I could not breach their second form. Still bummed about that surrender.

Genuinely fed up with Bloodborne. Would be interested in hearing if it's even worth me pushing forward.

Right now I'm stuck in two spots and have three total options before me:

1. Martyr Logarius in Castle Cainhurst
2. The dumb always-be-frenzying brain guys in the Nightmare Frontier
3. The Lecture Building 2nd Floor just following the One Reborn (which I know is the "main quest" critical path).

I went into Bloodborne hoping to love it. That didn't happen. So then I told myself I'd just get through all the areas required and optional at least once and make peace with a single playthrough. Now, that's looking unlikely. I'm not grasping the parry mechanic reliably, and I have an almost-constant wrestling match with the camera, which means Martyr Logarius is a typhoon of defeat time and time again.

Coming off a little ragey after some umpteen failures to beat him, I moved on to the Nightmare Frontier, where these Starship Trooper-looking motherfuckers Frenzy or grab me before I can make significant headway past them. I think, with some patience, I could probably rush my way through their ranks and try my hand at the boss of the area at least once.

Or, I could just plow through the main storyline and call it. At this point this has probably a 65% chance of being the actual result. I struggle with the mechanics, I struggle with the camera, I don't want to farm for items but I more or less have to for the time being. But that's all beside the point. I'm not having a good time. Is it worth seeing this thing through to the end? Or should I just move on?

P.S. -- I loved Dark Souls and enjoyed Dark Souls 2. Bloodborne has very rarely hit the peaks of those games, in my mind. Mostly in Bloodborne I'm either lost, fighting tedious and annoying enemies, or simply trying to get my bearings because my camera keeps clipping through two headstones and a werewolf.

Ebrietas and Frenzy are dumb has hell, otherwise a fine game. Nothing tops Curse in Dark Souls though, god what a horrendous bit of design. I love when a status ailment turns into what is essentially a fetch quest.

No, there is not. The frustrations you've expressed are key mechanical elements of the last stage of the game (though they are mechanical elements that suck farts). That said, I'll point out that two of the three paths ahead of you are optional. If you insist on trying them again, know that there are ways around every single Brain Trust in the Frontier and the items they are guarding aren't worth tussling with them. Castle Cainhurst is only required if you want access to two of the three covenant runes, but neither of those are very good, and one of the covenants doesn't even give you anything to hunt down/trade for items. Logarius is a very common co-op point for many people, if you want to try that.

Just got this today and played for a bit. Aaaand those two wolves on the bridge caused my first rage fit.

Took me 45 minutes or so to get there, thought I could handle them since I almost managed to beat the one at the clinic with fists. But no. Weapon does about 2% of damage per hit and I know I need to get past them to level. I will start sprinting the entire map and get that first insight before I try to kill anything in the game.

My main "fuck you, bloodborne" goes to the use of consumable health items. My only other souls experience is Dark Souls and even when it was ball-breakingly hard (O&S solo) I at least knew that I wasn't burning through my supply of health. It wasn't a huge issue for me until I reached Martyr Logarius and used up shitloads of blood vials trying to beat him. Eventually, I just summoned a co-op helper and wiped the floor with him but I've had to spend ages grinding blood vials since.

I will also mention that the unseen village can eat a KFC family bucket of dicks. Three NPC hunters?! After my tenth attempt, including one where I summoned just to try and kill them, I said "cheese it, it's the feds!" and ran past them. I got to The One Reborn and killed him on my first attempt, no problem, easiest boss fight in the game. Seriously, I'm not sure if he glitched out of something but I only used about 3 or 4 blood vials, stuck close to him and wailed on him with the kirkhammer - a massive let down.

I am level 24 or so and cannot get past Gascoigne. :)

He is so god damned fast, that's the entirety of my problem. I am physically incapable of reacting quick enough.

I'm in the very latest stages of the game, and I think Gascoigne gave me the most trouble. You'll get him. When in doubt, level up. :) I also needed to know the 'trick' to beating his werewolf form to finally defeat him.

Martyr Logarius is nonsense.