The Bloodborne Identity with JanThe Bloodborne Identity with Jan: Part 15

Martyr Logarius is a bastard, I had my friend help me do it and he did most of the work.

@mars92: Boy isn't that the truth. Fuck that guy.

Jan 2 Boss

Jan, you are really kicking ass man, way to go.

One thing I'll let you know, since people have no doubt encouraged you do start investing in Bloodtinge and Arcane; I wouldn't. Not on your current playthrough anyway. Your Skill Points are extremely valuable now, and if you have any plans to do the DLC (which you'll need to do soon, before beating the game), then you'll need every one of them, because the DLC is awesome, but brutally tough.

Bloodtinge and Arcane sort of work in tandem with each other because those types of weapons are very unique (some of them can actually hurt you). If you ever decide to play through Bloodborne again, Bloodtinge and Arcane builds can be REALLY cool, but they're tough for your first time.

Your playthrough has been awesome to watch, Jan. Glad you're enjoying the game. Nothing else out there quite like it.

The Make Contact emote is there because one of the potential ways to communicate our species' intelligence to a potentially much different alien species is through our understanding of math. Show them a right angle and they'll know we're also sapient beings.

It's bupkis, since math shows up all the time in nature, and if aliens are so different they can't tell we're intelligent we probably won't know they are either. But it's fun and weird enough to show up in a game like Bloodborne.

Jan, if you're reading this, here's the basic (spoiler-free) map of the main things you have left. Once you beat Martyr Logarius at Cainhurst and that Ebrietas guy you'll basically have one more main story boss. After you kill that boss (his name starts with "M" and ends with "H") that's the point when you should probably start in on the DLC. You need to complete the DLC before you complete the main game (otherwise you're playing it on New Game Plus, which you don't want to do) but it's harder than anything in the main game, so the trick is to play it when you're at your highest level but haven't beaten the game.

His "Make Contact" emote to the aliens was a next level galaxy brain move, and I completely fault the devs for not having something happen there. This has been a blast to watch!

My man goin hard with three hours straight.

100% on board for a spoilercast. Bloodborne is far more straight forward story-wise than the DS trilogy (imo), but still not a simple thing to walk through in an hour or even two. It sounds like @tamoor is into this game more than enough to have a solid opinion on the differing interpretations of the story, but the prep for something like a spoilercast still sounds like a ton of work.

Either way, I'd totally be down for a Bloodborne podcast with the GameSpot folks, even if it's just a basic rundown of the main story and bosses and what their significance is.

Started a new character about a week ago. You inspired me to do so! Went for Bloodtinge early because unless that stat is 20 or beyond, a vast majority of the ranged weapons in the game are only good for parrying / visceral attacks. Plus, Quicksilver bullets are more valuable than gold, especially with a Bloodtinge build where you use more. So yeah, that cannon is kinda ass either way since it chews through ammo and your damage scaling is nonexistent (your once-summoned League compatriot the Madaras Twin possesses an even more ludicrous Bloodtinge gadget anyway). My favorite of all of them is Evelyn - basically just a pistol that scales much better with Bloodtinge than the standard pistol, and it's fantastic if you've decided to put points there. But yeah, like BestyHammar stated above: at this point, this and Arcane are a wash. Focus on that Holy Blade and your health, and if you NGP, consider points in one of the two bottom stats.

@tensionhead: Yep Evelyn is my favorite as well. Evelyn + Bone Marrow Ash is a right nasty combination.

@janman at this point, I would be only focusing on levelling up vitality, endurance and strength (since you've already invested heavily in it and your Ludwig's Holy Blade scales well with it). Putting points anywhere else this late in the game would be wasteful. You would need a lot more points to make Bloodtinge or Arcane worthwhile, and they aren't going to help you parry better which with your current build is all the guns are good for. This is especially true if you want to play the very challenging DLC (which you absolutely should).

Honestly though, you're absolutely crushing this game. Blood-Starved Beast wouldn't stand a chance against current Jan's skills.

“You hate to see it happen folks”

You’re kicking eyeball-filled-butt Jan. Don’t invest in anything but your current build, stick with what you got. You already found out how “amazing” the cannon is that Ian was hounding you to get. The blade has served you well, keep on doing what you’re doing.

Logarius was very difficult for me, I had to summon to beat him. Afterward, I returned the favor and was a friendly summon like 20 times with very little waiting. So definitely a common boss to summon for.

@even: I laughed my ass off. You know you're comfortable with a From game, when you can take silly risks like that in a boss fight.

@cyrusraven: The Blood weapons are so, so, cool. Hard to get, but worth the effort.

Jan, Jan, he's our man, if he can't do it [redacted] [redacted] [redacted] eyes [redacted]!

The thing that all those "babies" were staring at is the clock tower and what's in there is DLC.

Also of note is that Ebrietas and Rom do not turn hostile until attacked.

OVERCOOKED

jan can cook X yan can cook

Yo, Gale of Darkness is tight. It's legit my favorite Pokemon game, and I've played a lot of Pokemon games. The music/setting is really good and a game full of double battles makes it feel very different from other Pokemon games (in a good way IMO). It's also a really good sequel to Pokemon Colosseum; it fixes every mechanical problem with that game and more than doubles the number of available pokemon. And Gale of Darkness has one of the best pieces of music video games have produced.

I'm probably the guy who said the Tonitrus was good. I think you're too invested in your Holy Blade to switch though (unless you find more chunks for the Tonitrus). It was perfect for me during my first playthrough because I didn't screw around with changing between 1H and 2H weapons usually and this things 'switching' is just more shock damage with no animation changes.

Also, thanks for alerting me that The Last Airbender is on Netflix. I know what I'm up to this week.

Jan, I've said it before I'm sure but I'm so glad you are sticking with this game still. I wouldn't have blamed you if you dropped off, but man in this episode you've discovered some shit that I never stumbled upon myself.

After you met Ebrietas, you read chat and someone I guess said that she was the hardest boss in the game but she can't be. Because even I beat her but could never beat Logarius. You got way closer than I did. Both of them are optional bosses though, but bosses are also maybe the main attractions in Souls games.

Also, just know that even though you don't know what's going on, there is a reason for everything. That's why I love it. It's very heavy with lore but it doesn't force it on you with tons of exposition through dialogue. The story is there if you want it, but if you don't, then it's still just a really cool game.

One last thing, I always spent my insight at the shop. I felt bad about that but then I read that having a lot of insight actually makes a lot of enemies even tougher. What's also cool is that I believe if you have zero insight, you don't even see those Amygdalas clinging to the buildings.

@even: I thought the same thing! It's been years since I beat this game but there are things that I forget and when he did that I was like "wait, holy shit, Jan's a genius! Why didn't I think of that!" And yes I was let down that that did not actually do anything.

Wow. The One Reborn isn't that hard of a boss, but it's still very impressive to beat him in 1 try without killing the bell ringers!

@cmcali: He's pretty easy, it's all those other mobs on the bacony's throwing fireballs and stuff at you. that make it a bit harder but not by much.

yes do a podcast with brad as he played the hell out of this game a few years back, best breaking brad series.

I am REALLY looking forward to Jan going HAM on Ludwig and washing him first try.

I’ve been putting off playing FromSoftware games because of the difficulty but after watching a few episodes of this I think I’m going to try out Bloodborne.

Killin it Jan! One of the best series on the site in a while. 👑👑👑

Jan your nailing it, look forward to more.

If your going to new game+ then get the DLC then. On the other hand if this is the only run then play it now :D

The idea of a spoiler/lore cast would be great and IIRC on staff Brad/Rorie have finished it and Ben/Jeff/Vinnie/Jason have played it.

Keep it up!

Jan the Champ!
I love how far our hero has come, and how far he has yet to go! This playthrough is basically everything I could have hoped for. He's killing the bosses (amazing fighting), exploring the world (more or less), absorbing the crazy lore this setting has to offer (to the best of his ability)!

Let's! Go! Jan!

Havent had a playstation sice 1 so i cant wait for the 5 to come out to grab a 4 for cheap. Want to play this so bad. As always, huzzah to you Jan for kicking ass

what the hell last episode i saw you were NOT mitt romney with a canon on his back. i think i need to go back and watch a few older episodes

Things Jan seemed to forget about in this episode.

1. Healing when his health is low.

2. Parrying.

3. His weapon is a trick weapon.

It's been years since I've heard anyone talk about Dante Basco, but right after this episode, two of my regular podcasts mentioned him. Needless to say he would be a crazy cool guest.

"Y'all can... y'all can... f-...fuck off..."