The Bloodborne Identity with JanThe Bloodborne Identity with Jan: Part 6

"The hardest part of Bloodborne is the tenacity to continue it."

Loved that remark !

20 minutes in physically hurt me. Some classic From boss fight shenanigans

My wish came through! Wanted this to happen since Jan started Bloodborne, we could always use more Tamoor in Giantbomb content.

Good takes on Legacy of Kain contained here.

I never figured out the Blood-starved Beast and its poison killed my motivation to ever fight him again. Definitely a top 5 toughest boss for me in the main game.

Don't you dare abandon the cane gang.

Tamoor was also a great addition.

Edit: @tamoor American companies that are heavily invested in tech, looooove meetings (in my experience at related companies).

The best thing you can do in boss battles is to learn when to sprint. I think I lose a few days of my life every time I saw you charge the boss head on.

Jan! I want you to see what there is!

@giantrobot24: I worked in Germany with some Manchester guys, they love their meetings, sometimes 5 - 6 hours of rambling.
I guess it depends on people and company.

I've always been so interested in this game partially because of the takes on bosses. Everyone says Gascoigne is the gate to "the real game", but I found him far simpler than Cleric Beast because his scale was sensible and his attack patterns were things I could emulate myself back in the courtyard on the fodder. I loved all the hunter fights (besides the 3-on-1 in the chapel) for the same reason.

Blood-starved Beast is similarly undone by the parry mechanic and so I actually had a ton of fun figuring it out, same with Vicar Amelia. In fact, all my favorite bosses were in that little stretch from Gascoigne to Hemwick, and the charm of the bosses slowly faded for me from that point on (I never did the DLC and I missed Cainhurst). It's why I was so excited for Sekiro until I actually played it, I loved the parry in Bloodborne.

@nodima: Honestly, I never used the parry in Bloodborne because I hate parry mechanics. Even though I used to play as Jin Kazama in Tekken 3 countering everything. I just dodged and rolled and did everything possible in BB and it's one of my top games on the PS4.

Anyway, Sekiro forced me to learn how to parry and I absolutely loved that game. Curious what it'd be like to go back to Bloodborne now after getting forged in Sekiro.

Blood-starved beast remains my hardest boss in the game. Both in my initial plays and my several re-plays of the game, I always get stuck here and either quit or come close to quitting. Combination of his aggressive nature, the poison, and the need to use rarer consumables for most attempts. I always finally get it by parrying the last phases, but it's a lot harder than the other stopper bosses.

After the beast, there's lots of ways to start upgrading and scaling your attack, and other options on where to go, so it both opens up and lets you min-max your build such that the challenge goes down.

And here you experience a frequent and valid criticism of Bloodborne, if you're stuck at a boss you're likely to run out of resources. The vial design decision works well with the lore and themes but can definitely hinder gameplay.

Whether it's between streams or not I'll suggest you fight through Yharnam / old Yharnam a few times, saving as many resources as you can. They'll consistently drop vials (both) and bullets (Central Yharnam), and you can spend the echoes they drop to purchase whichever consumable you're lowest on.

Also if you're not feeling comfortable with the cane (personally I think it feels a little slow and weak) remember to level up your alternate weapon before using it on the boss, they expect at least a 3+ at this point.

Also gems that are equipped on one weapon won't be available for another so swap over those if you're changing your main weapon.

Anyway much like Gascoigne, you'll likely beat it next time, you've been doing quite well, and many people tend to get stuck on BSB.

The pungent blood cocktail is a good tip on the boss, it's also weak to fire and parrying (though some of its moves are harder than others to do it on).

I'll also suggest keeping your weapon untransformed but work the transform attack into combos, it's quite powerful for the saw and the cleaver. Using it transformed is often more for reach than power, such as when a boss has a high weak point, but it tends to be too slow for fast bosses like BSB.

Larger Bloodborne bosses tend to have weak points on their limbs or heads, and exploiting those is the optimal way to deal high damage and stagger the boss. BSB I think is weakest in the front but since it's smaller and more aggressive I'd stick to parries and body combos with whichever combination of weapon and buff you prefer.

Hope this isn't too long winded, but good luck, Jan, and may the good blood guide your way.

Tamoor's idea for a From Software LoK: Soul Reaver game, is by far the best concept / pitch I've ever heard.

lmao, Jan's dodging after Alfred died was so good, then he got that Souls Fear and didn't want to be aggressive even though he only needed 1 hit

Jan, if you're still looking for RPG recommendations, how about Lost Odyssey?

It's an all-time personal favorite.

Holy crap, Jan PLEASE play Xenosaga! I've been thinking about replaying it recently with everything going on, but if YOU played it, then I could replay something else while watching/listening to you do that lmao

Tamoor is the console warrior conspiracy theorist who claimed, with no evidence or justification, that Sony paid Bungie to cap the Xbox One X version of Destiny 2 at 30 fps.

Final Fantasy VII was three discs, not four.

I booted up old FF7 the other night and maybe its because I played it originally but I think its still quite charming. Also the PS4 version allows you to speed up the game 3x which is a godsend. You can also avoid combat and turn yourself into a god at the press of a button. Fun when your just trying to get a taste of that experience.

BEST JEANIST IS GREAT HOW DARE YOU JAN! lol, but seriously- when the anime talk started to happen, it made me realize that Tamoor needs to be on this show as a regular.

save to cloud before boss gate. If you lose just redownload save. Skips the lame blood vial farming and saves time that youd be doing to run around farming. Also just strafe to one side and all attacks miss. Easy boss if you dont get too scared of it. dont give up. Tons of bosses are easier and most give up too easy and then say game is bad. wish GB played harder games so thed get a chance on goty list but i get that they have no time for a game where you gotta keep at it for so long given their schedule thus easier games get more attention which is fair.

Stick with the cane if it feels right Jan.

Tamoor was a fantastic addition to this. Please have him on whenever possible.

The bloodborne Janacity

He probably got it mixed up with the soundtrack, which was released on four discs.

@janman If you're looking for recommendations for RPGs to play I got a few favorites you might like.

AS you already mentioned you're interested in playing through the main Final Fantasy Series. Among those I'd say FF VI is my absolute favorite, and I think Brad would agree that that's the one to play if you had to restrict yourself to just one.

Other than that we also got Chrono Trigger, another amazing RPG on the SNES. Fantastic story, gameplay and music.

If you're looking to dig deeper into the GBA library, you can jump into Golden Sun. Both of those games on the GBA were the first RPGs I dedicated hundreds of hours to replay over and over back in the day.

Monster Jancher. Just think on it. Too bad ask the demo derby discs are likely locked in the office.

I never had trouble with the BSB. Beat him first try solo. But Father G kicked MY ASS and the DLC bosses oyyy

The thing I loved about the Pimp Cane is that the overhead whipping can stun Beast bosses like this one.

I like anime don't get me wrong.

A little guidance from any guests on stream would be great. I get it if Jan doesn't want spoilers from chat and I think monitoring it and trying to play a game like this sounds impossible. He is missing quite a few hits and losing stamina. I didn't notice it at first when I played this game and it made a huge difference for me once I focused on making every hit count.

Jan has gotta stop relying on those held R2 attacks. The increase in damage does not make up for the time spent winding up for it in a game this fast paced.

Also, I wish we were able to tell him about the separate bars for almost poisoned and then poisoned at the time. It could have saved some pricey antidotes.

Or with Final Fantasy VIII, which was four discs. Kind of skeptical about how much of an impact it made on him.

Jan Grind a bit and put some souls into Healthbar

Drink a ton of coffee and takes the Beast down

The BSB is probably the toughest boss for me in BB. The weird cape thing he has on his head makes it so difficult for me to actually tell what it's doing.

I've tried to pick up and go with Bloodborne probably 2-3 times but this series is really fulfilling for me so thanks to Jan for a great series - also want to say having Tam on this episode was great. Wasn't aware of what Gamespot Universe was but knowing they do Westworld breakdowns I'm definitely subbing - early quarantine days got me to go back through S2 of WW and S3 has been intense so far.

I feel like everyone has at least one attempt against BSB where you get him down to that magic pixel health and then get poisoned out or just flub it up. Solid play overall.

@deathpooky: Blood-Starved Beast was what broke me on this game. Jan is really inspiring me to return. Returning to Bloodborne has never been far from my thoughts all these years.

this was alot of fun and great hearing from Tamoor, thanks guys!

The summoning was unfortunate. If the other guy really plays as much as he says, he'd tell Jan to stop. Jan's habit of mashing backstep, backing straight up from bosses and the summons making that kind of play possible is teaching him bad habits that aren't going to work later. Sekiro and Father G were supposed to teach dodging forward and being 'in there' more.

What we're seeing here is a typical FromSoft boss loop. Going from very nearly beating a boss early on to then spending the next 2 hours never getting close again.

If I were a betting man, I'd say Jan gets him good within the first 3 attempts of the next episode. I'm heading over there now to find out.

What a pleasant guess Tamoor is! Hes remarks on this game, and this show, made me start up Bloodborne again. I quit at Vicar Amelia, but I'll start anew and finish it this time.

Awesome show, Jan!

I never understand the argument that if you have nostalgia for a game, you'll give a remake a pass. If anything, you'll hold it to a MUCH higher standard, especially as a professional reviewer who can put aside things like fanboy pandering.