How much trouble are you having adjusting to Bloodborne?

I beat 6 out of 7 bosses that I've faced so far on the first try. I think this is easily the weakest game as far as bosses go. I used the Cane for most of them as well. You are right about parrying being essential. You say you feel underpowered at bosses; you should try parrying them. It completely destroys them and works on most bosses.

I miss shields but I'm doing... okay.

I gave up on using guns to stun because I can't time it right on more than 1 or 2 enemy types so far, it's used for pulling now. So I'm running around two-handing an axe most of the time.

Eh, I guess I just disagree, probably because I've never liked parrying or tried it enough in the previous games to get good at it. I had some standard trouble with O&S in DS1, little trouble with DS2, but outside of that the third and fourth bosses have compared to the hardest Souls bosses I've faced.

I agree that parrying is extremely effective, but if anything that's one of my major knocks against the game so far. I'm fine with a game without shields, but parrying is a lot less fun than slash and dodge or slash and block strategic combat. It's great as an optional thing to help do some extra damage, which is how I've used it so far, but doing most of the damage against a boss through parrying is just boring. It's like watching the anticlimactic fight against the final boss of DS1 where a person just stands still and swings his shield occasionally.

It also doesn't help that the bosses are aggressive and can take you completely out in one combo or hunt you down to prevent healing if you screw up - something that happens often if you aren't as used to parrying.

it feels like your kinda thrown into a souls game half way. there is no easy start in this game.

also way more enemies have grabbing attacks that basically fuck you over.

Parrying is the most difficult change for me. For some reason, I find it really difficult to find the right timing in the enemies' attack animations to shoot. Other than that, it hasn't been a huge adjustment. I played through all of DS1 and DS2 with a sword and shield, but find the dodging in this game to be fairly forgiving and easy to pull off. Usually when I die on bosses it's because the camera flips out or I get greedy and go for extra swings since they have a ton of health/resistance. Overall, I really like the game's quicker paced combat, and didn't really have too hard of a time adjusting to it. This is one of the first games in a long time I actually think I'm going to finish.

I'm not saying parrying is this amazing gameplay mechanic that is the most fun, but most bosses are designed around it. It sure is more fun for me to just parry them, instead of picking away at their gigantic health bar, slowly. Especially if they then just start to heal a good chunk of the health that took you so long to chip off.

It all adds to me thinking these are the weakest (I mean in terms of design too) bosses out of any Souls game. Yeah, Dark Souls' bosses were also all beatable with the same heavy armor DPS strategy which took some of the challenge out, but at least you could use other strategies if you wanted to. You can do that here as well, but it's just so ineffective and inefficient that it's not worth it. But you're right, with the parry they are also not very challenging as a result, but rather than than a dragging boss fight.

I wanna go back to the souls games soon, I bought all em on release but never got around to really dedicate my time to any of them but I seem to be "feeling" the bloodborne way better. I got killed waaaaaaaay more in all the souls games. But maybe im just starting to understand these games better, which is why I'm gonna go back to the souls games as soon as I'm done with bloodborne(or maybe even sooner)

Also I feel all the geometry to get stuck on is kinda there on purpose, just gotta stay aware of the boss AND the environment. I agree its tricky sometimes though, Im just 3 bosses in though so I dont know how much of a problem it is going to become later on.

I'm not really having a good time with this game yet. I've playing all three previous Souls games, and I'm coming to Bloodborne straight off a DSII run, which might be my problem. I was doing okay with Central Yarnham, not fully comfortable with the combat, but surviving and exploring. Then I got to Gascoigne.

The camera in that room is absolute shit. Dodging became worthless because I never knew when the next dodge would leave me blind. So I tried parrying... and it only seems to work half the time. Even practicing against the big dudes with bricks, half the time enemies just shrug off a shot from my gun. More than any Souls game I've played, these systems just feel cheap and broken.

Maybe it's a timing thing, but I just haven't figured out the cues I need to survive. Not long ago I was breaking myself against the Fume Knight over and over, but I learned his tells and now I can dodge through his attacks without a shield just fine. Maybe I just need a break from the Souls series, so I can come to Bloodborne fresh and free of bad habits.

I've only had trouble against bosses. I'm not used to being so aggressive when fighting bosses so I'm constantly getting my shit wrecked in my first few fights with any boss. Once I remember this game is all about aggression I do much better.

None so far. I play DS 2 as a fist guy with no shield so this isn't all that different. Though I don't think I'll be doing multiple playthroughs... no magic.

I never got too far into Dark Souls, so I never did much of any parrying. So parrying enemies in Bloodborne is going real rough. It's not enough that they start their attack animation, it has to be just as the attack is about to hit me-having trouble with the timing in that. Also, I don't care for items not replenishing when I die. I don't like to farm after a long winded boss fight, it ruins the pacing of the game.

@zevvion said:

Off topic, but parrying can be a very fun mechanic. In MGR:R it is absolutely required on the higher difficulties but never a problem becasue it is so well executed. Or in Bayonetta (although arguably the dodge is the safer choice here), so I guess next time From should let Platinum design the combat. Which I would pay to play that game! Or no more heroes way back on the Wii. Had you parry with the wii-mote :) In dark souls it was never really required. And the timing never felt intuitive to me.

Even more off topic, Shadow Tower hits PSN next week. Them's the roots!

The bosses really aren't that much harder than any other souls game, just dodge to the left or right and stay up their ass and usually they can't hit you. Parrying in this game is way easier than it is in any other souls game, you can literally parry a lot of the bosses to death.

Not much trouble for me, surprisingly. Felled the Cleric Beast in one go, although I suspect that the game will get significantly more difficult as I get deeper into the game. I actually like the dodging/parrying rather than blocking. I played a lot of Demon's Souls back in the day, and the faster combat reminds me of that game a little bit.

As vet of the Souls games (platted DeS and DaS1, was working on DaS2 prior to BB's release) I found it difficult to adjust to as I always played more defensively, always had a shield but made sure I could also fast roll when needed. Not being able to tank enemies at fisrt made it difficult, especially with how many there are at first I died quite a few times at the beginning, I think after Cleric Demon and Father G I started feeling quite comfortable and have been doing better.

Screw Headstone 3 though, after I got to the second(?) lamp there I just ran through everything with how many enemies there were + how hard they were (seriously, how do you kill the 3 hunters right after the lamp? It's insane!)

I have a hard time adjusting to the bosses in Bloodborne and I'm a Dark Souls 1000+hours crazyperson, because they are either "figure it out and you'll be fine even at level 10" or "make a mistake and you're 80-120% dead in a single quick move. That's what gets me with a lot of bosses, if the loadtimes were realistic I would mind it a lot less because learning Dark Souls bosses was a freaking treat man.

No trouble adjusting to it at all, I played all of the Souls series when they first came out so it just feels like a continuation. I did see a bit of slow down with a full co-op session but it didn't break the game and never took away from the experience. Recovering blood stains was a bit awkward at first but looking for enemies with glowing eyes seemed to sort that out.I'm about 2 or 3 hours in and have two bosses down, so far the game is brilliant.

The part where I can't level up at all and I'm burning through and wasting thousands of souls/blood is kind of driving me nuts!

They could have been a bit more clear about that (talking to the doll after gaining one insight, by reaching a boss area or eating a Madman's Knowledge). They're definitely seeing things from a Japanese gamer perspective, they are used to people talking and interacting with everything and exploring. We're used to getting served here, and reading gamefaqs and neogaf and other forums we are also used to attacking everything we see without asking questions :o

This is my first experience with any of the souls games. I knew what it was going in but I'm struggling with one thing. How much should I research and how much should I figure out on my own? Ive been able to figure out a few systems and what some items do, but at what point should i just look for help/answers?

Interact with messengers on the ground in the Hunter's Dream and in the game-world, speak with friendlies (if it attacks, it's not friendly) and listen to them, speak to them several times.

Practice gunparries - firing a shot at the right time in an enemy animation to stun it, this triggers a certain sound indicating that you can get near and cut them up with your weapon (R1, but let like half a second pass before that)

I just found a wooden shield, it's in the Cathedral level right after the second boss. It's only wooden so there are probably better shields further on?

Nope. FROM put it in the game as a joke. Even in the description it says that you really shouldn't use it.

Ah that figures, I put it right into storage because I preferred the cane and pistol combination.

Basically in Bloodborne there is no "parry". What you do is "stun" enemies which leave them open and you can do a massive power attack that looks like you chest punching them and tearing their heart out ala indiana jones and the temple of doom. Either that or you are giving them an anal probe if you do it from behind. I really need to make a gif of doing it to that giant boar in the ass....

So basically it works like this. If an enemy is attacking you and you shoot them with your gun at the right moment it cancels the attack and stuns them. Just like a parry would in the previous souls games. Also there is no backstab anymore.... HOWEVER! If you do a fully charged r2 hit on an enemy from behind it will also stun them and then you can do the power attack from behind them.

Many enemies in the game (notably a lot of bosses) basically laugh at your damage unless you are stunning them and getting in power attacks. In the old games this kind of play was something you could do if you wanted, in this game it is basically mandatory.

Also the roots is the King's Field man.... King's Field!!!

I am a pretty big fan of the souls games and have been a sucker for buying them on each platform while beating each version multiple times, but this game has been just a continuous let down me over and over. I will still beat it since I downloaded it like an idiot, but I don't really see any reason to play it 7-10 times like I did the other games. I currently just beat Darkbeast Paarl wherever that is in the story. After about 5-7 hours of getting used to the game it seems pretty simple. Not blocking isn't a big deal, I almost find the game easier when I have to force my mind to just dodge and learn boss patterns. Plus it's aggressive nature by healing you when hitting almost takes strategy out of some fights sometimes since I can just muscle my way through a fight.

I fucking suck at this game. Help.