I figured if this game is gonna be opaque as hell, why not go all the way. Also, I've got a plasma and It's the only game I plan to have in rotation for a while( this gen is bullshit ). It may sound crazy, but I think it's a better experience in just about every way. Just try it out. They made it an option for a reason. Only drawback I've noticed is that I didn't know that the lake spider was actually Quark's brother until I looked it up after the fact.

No, I think it's pretty bad in Bloodborne. It was sort of cool in Dark Souls II, because your character wasn't static. If you were near death, your character would reflect that by being a bit crippled. If you were out of stamina, your character would reflect that by breathing heavily. In Bloodborne it's all static though. Near death, out of stamina, it all looks the same. Not seeing your health and stamina is at that point more annoying than immersive.

Yah, nope.

Check your health: option > right > x > option. It's easily done, even in the middle of action. Also, stamina fills so fast in this game that it's just a matter of knowing how many hits you can dole out before you need to take a break. I rarely get caught off guard by that, even with low-ass stamina( 17 ).

The main thing for me, is that I no longer fall into the trap of changing tactics when I think a boss is about to die.

Doesn't that kind of defeat the whole point?

Also, I feel like the "turn off HUD" option is more intended for screenshots than an actual gameplay feature, but if people want to actually play it like that, more power to them.

@teddie: I think checking health on occasion and having it posted in the HUD and above enemies constantly are very different.

Never thought of the screenshots thing before. Makes sense. Can't do fashion souls with a HUD in your grill.

I wouldn't call it a gameplay feature but it's a cool option most people would dismiss as insane. For me, it makes me play better, and it looks so, so good.

@abetorias: Never really had that issue. You try to whack a boss down recklessly once when victory is near, get killed and will never do it again. In fact, most of the time when I'm fighting Blood Starved-Beast, he only has a little bit of health left, but I still wait for the parry because it's the best strategy.

@zevvion: bullshit flurry kills are just so satisfying when they work out.

You think that's mindblowing? Here's how easy it is with the HUD turned on:

eyes -> glance to the top left of the screen for half a second

Incredible!

@abetorias: I get that stance, but I get more satisfaction out of keeping calm, having 0 healing items, being nearly dead and still pulling it off by being patient.

@ajamafalous: No need to be an asshole. Just saying it's not hard to keep track of that stuff without the HUD on.

I probably shouldn't use the forums after binge-reading a bunch of Onion/Clickhole articles

But still, I'm not sure you can argue that going through four button presses is somehow worth it when you can instead have the information available on screen at all times by default. If you prefer it, that's totally fine and more power to you, but it's objectively easier to just have it on the screen at all times as they intended.

@ajamafalous: Yeah, I thought at first that it was a flat out dumb idea. I just was messing around. But not taking your eyes off a boss, even for that split second as you said, seems to make some sort of positive difference. It made me realize I was taking my eyes off the bloody goodness too often to look at information I already sort of knew in my head.

I might do for screen shots, but I die enough as it is.