I think Bloodborne is a really good game. I found the setting, the visuals, the changes to the combat and the plot itself to be really well put together. However, after beating it and going through about half of NG+ (along with a handful of chalices), I've realized that I don't think it has captivated me quite like the others did because I got through it relatively painlessly.

As most familiar with the Souls games can attest to, much of the satisfaction and enjoyment from these games comes from beating the bosses. But more specifically, I've found that the satisfaction is rooted in beating a boss only after being obliterated by it a number of times before and that never happened with me in Bloodborne. The first time I beat a boss on the first try, it did feel really good because of the expectations I had for the difficulty of the game, but then it happened again and again and I kept on waiting for something to really push me. I've been trying to figure out why this happened, because I'd think that with the changes to the combat it'd be different enough to be a challenge to those familiar with these games. I wasn't overleveled and I don't think it was due to a lack of creativity in bosses, either, because there are quite a few with really interesting twists. In comparison to some of my experiences in DS1, including O&S, Gargoyles and Seath, I blew through this game without a problem.

So I guess I'm wondering if this is the fault of the game or not. Did they not change up the combat mechanics enough to challenge veterans? Is it easier due to certain concessions made because of those changes (healing speed, invulnerability frames)? Or is it simply that after a certain number of these games, one gets familiar enough with them that they won't seriously challenge no matter what?

Also, important thing, I missed two boss fights on my first playthrough because I played blind and one and a half of them broke from that memory leak bug, so maybe those were the best fights in the game. I will find out on the rest of my NG+ run.

Below I have my death tally for each boss, for reference:

First run I found very easy. NG+ is much harder. Ive been stuck on Martyr Logarius. That and lack of interest in doing a NG+ hasnt exactly had me pushing through the content again. Chalice dungeons are boring as shit :-/

@john1912 Yeah, chalice dungeons haven't done much for me either. While I don't think they're terrible, it just doesn't have the same appeal as the super dense and meticulous design of the singleplayer AND the added layer of gathering the crafting materials and everything just turns me off. From what I understand, I can't progress any further through the nonrandom chalices until I find a certain crafting item in a lategame area, so I'm going to have to play through all the rest of NG+ to even get to those. :P

You're not at all wrong with thinking these bosses are easier.

All of there attack patterns are rather bland in most cases (at least to me), and there seems to be a lack of multiple enemy boss fights.

Most of the notably difficult fights seem to be with multiple bosses. At least difficult to people running in blind that is.

This was the first "Souls" game I completed, and I ran into one roadblock, Blood-Starved Beast. Other than that guy, the only other problem I had in the game was the Forbidden Woods because piles and piles of snakes. They weren't hard, just... the worst. Ok, wait, the other one that took over 5 tries was god damn Rom til I figured out a proper strategy.

I beat every boss with a final level of 96 in just under 29 hours. I absolutely loved the game, but I didn't find the difficulty any higher than any other action game on hard (and up). When I played Dark Souls II, I was stuck on the Ruin Sentinels for a good 4 hours. So maybe it comes to playstyle? Personally, Bloodborne felt easier to me because I love playing action games with a dodge. DMC, Bayonetta, God of War, all that sort of stuff on tough difficulties honed my dodging and patience for picking my spots. So those skills directly tied into this game, despite the different style and controls. Early on, I was hearing that Souls veterans were having trouble adjusting if they played a slower class. Lucky for me, I didn't spend dozens of hours in that situation so Bloodborne was an easy transition for me.

And regarding your spoiler paragraph:

Also, apparently Ebrietas and Logarius give people a lot of trouble. Logarious was a pain in the ass but I got him on my first try, and Ebrietas took five or so but it was my favorite battle in the game. I also loved Gehrman but got him on the second try, and the Moon Presence was on my second try once I realized the trick to beating it. Which I'll leave for you to discover.

@csl316: Yeah, your experience in much more action-y games carrying over makes sense. Actually, when I first started, I got really excited because I died a bunch on just the normal enemies because it was shift from the previous ones and it took awhile for me to break those habits (the first big mummy guy you encounter immediately in an alley in Central Yharnam killed me more than any boss I think), but it clicked with me after Gascoigne and that stopped happening. Now that I think about DSII, there were more bosses in that that really pushed me even though I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Bloodborne and it was so similar to DS1. That might just be because there were SO MANY bosses in that game that there were bound to be a few that clashed with how I play.

I think I died more on the first two bosses than you did the whole game. I plan on sending the game back to Gamefly now. I have no desire to play it anymore. I just don't think I have the patience for these games. I got pretty far into Dark Souls 1, but never actually finished it either.

Maybe it will be on PS+ one day or something and I can download it and slowly chip away at it. I do like playing it. I just get burned out really fast on having to redo stuff. I probably ran that loop in the first area 15 times or so to level up so I could beat the first boss. When I finally managed to beat the second boss, I proceeded to explore the next area and died to the asshole on the gun turret. Now every time I think about playing it again I just remember that I have to make my way back through that spot and I just lose all interest. Especially since I have other stuff I can play(Fantasy Life, PS+ stuff, Dragon Age, Life is Strange, Grim Fandango, etc.).

@boniti: I had largely the same experience as you, but I didn't expect it to be "difficult" per se. I expected to have the same experience I had with all souls games, some bosses I beat in one try, others took two or three, and a couple took me several tries. People with experience with these games absolutely find it easier than someone trying it for the first time, especially people that play Dark Souls without using a shield as a crutch. That, and the seemingly unlimited stamina you have for dodging in this game would make some Dark Souls bosses impossible to lose to.

I think this game is hard in its own way. Learning the speed of combat and timing your attacks and parries is the challenge of the game. Bosses in this game have much larger health pools and there is no way (short of the cannon) to create a build that takes out a boss in 4-5 hits like you could in Dark Souls.

You definitely missed out on the harder bosses of the game and if you want a real challenge, do the Chalice dungeons. Your challenge for veterans is waiting down there.

@boniti: I never played much Dark Souls, so seeing two bosses within minutes of each other in 2 (Dragonrider/Old Dragonslayer) made me wonder if that's how these games were always structured. Then seeing the full boss list of Bloodborne caught me by surprise. I had done 5 mandatory battles and I was already halfway through the game? It's why I looked up FAQs to just find the rest of the optional bosses.

So it's strange, I see people down on the boss design in BB but I had figured the sheer quantity in DSII would've led to far more filler.

Subjectivity.

@csl316: I think the actual boss design was really neat. Rom, Gascoigne, Gehrman and Micolash I found to be really interesting encounters, they just weren't very challenging. I rolled through MOST bosses in DSII which ended up being my biggest problem with that game. Very similar to my problems with BB, but in DSII I chalked it up to the game allowing me to play exactly how I played the previous one and most of the bosses being very doable with the basic sword shield build. Ruin Sentinels were the only significant challenge I remember in DSII.

I think that perhaps the reason why I found BB to be less difficult was the fact that, while bosses were interesting to fight, they all pushed you to fight in the exact same way. I mean, the entire game is built around it; the lack of armor weight, speed of the weapons (in one form or another) and enemy design all had the player leaning on the same play style. Not to say this is an inherent flaw, but I think that perhaps because every aspect of the game pushed the player towards a single play style, there wasn't that much to adapt to once you got the hang of it. In other words, while the way you play is very different than the other games in the series, that way was the only one in the game so no boss could be designed to really push the player out of that comfort zone once it was established.

@crazybagman: Yep, it's entirely subjective and I don't mean for my experience with the game to represent *the experience* with the game. I posted this exactly because of that, to see if others shared my thoughts!

To me I feel like it has to do with the order you play the games in more so, or at least thats how I find it. I still find it more challenging overall than Dark Souls 2, which to me is the worst souls game as well as the easiest.

Why does it have to be just as brutally difficult as the others? It may be a souls game but it's still a different beast. Maybe not being THAT hard is just what this game is.

@frostyryan: I don't think it has to be by any means. It's just that, in my experience, the most fun I've had is when it is brutally difficult and I overcome it. Not that it has to be that way at all, it's just something that really drew me into the the previous games and so I'm curious as to if it is less present for others and if that's due to player experience or the game itself.

The difficulty of the Souls games has always been exaggerated. Sure, they're more challenging than most games, but they're not really as punishing as some people like to make out. On top of that, Bloodborne is the easiest game out of all of them. Aside from the chalice dungeon that cuts your health in half, there really was nothing in the game that gave me much trouble (I have the platinum and have completed through NG++).

If you've played any Souls game before I think you have become so familiar with the combat that the next game in the series is gonna be easier by default. I played the first Dark Souls when it released and I hadn't played Demon's Souls before it, I then went back and totally dominated Demon's Souls, I finished it without a problem and killed almost every boss on my first try.

bosses were definitely easier when i played through it the first time, then you find out there is a bug with boss attack patterns if you leave your ps4 on too long that makes the ai retardedly easier than intended. It happened to me on about 3-4 bosses.

@marz: Yeah, I mentioned in the spoilers tag that two of the fights I had were dumbed down by the memory leak thing. That was a real bummer.

@boniti said:

I'm not sure I agree. In my experience, certain bosses punished me for being too aggressive and forced me to parry or just hit-and-run (at least at some point during the fight), while others punished me for dawdling around and playing defensively. I felt like this made each boss fight feel fresh and interesting. Based on my play style in previous games, I approached the majority of bosses in those games in a similar manner -- that is to say, I tried to beat each on by attrition.

If you're looking for more challenging bosses, then I recommend doing the Chalice Dungeons. The last boss in the Lower Pthumerian Labyrinth (a Depth 3 dungeon) was harder than all the bosses I've encountered in the game thus far, save for Ebrietas maybe. The bosses in higher level dungeons (Depth 4 and 5) seem to allow for very little margin of error, so I hope you find what you're looking for.

Have you tried the Chalice Dungeons? They can get savage. At least for plebs like me.