Bloodborne - Review | A Critique From a Veteran Souls Fan
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ก.ค. 2019
- A review/critique/retrospective/analysis of FromSoftware's "Bloodborne," a spiritual successor/spin-off of the Souls formula. Now commonly regarded as part of the "Soulsborne" series, it features some notable improvements over other Souls games, with some of its unique changes being among my favorites of the entire series, but I ultimately didn't get as much fun or enjoyment out of it as I did other games in this series. It's not a bad game I did enjoy playing it, but I feel like some of its design changes are for the worse, and it didn't live up to my hopes or expectations.
Note: From July 2019 to November 2020, this review was originally subtitled "Underwhelming and Disappointing," but I've chosen to change that title to something less provocative in hopes that it will stem some of the vile hatemail and toxic comments I've had to moderate over this review, and promote more positive discussions about the game's merits and shortcomings instead of knee-jerk reactions to the title. I still stand by that the game was, overall, "underwhelming and disappointing" to me, and maybe even a little overrated if I'm being perfectly honest, but hope people will be more apt to actually listen to the review instead of seeing a title they automatically don't like and jumping right into hurling deplorable insults at me.
Read the text version of this review on my blog:
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I’m glad you pointed out how the larger bosses take up too much screen space. A lot of them felt like I was just fighting the camera.
Thats always been an issue in fromsoft games. Only way they could fix it is by making the camera zoom out really far when you lock onto a large enemy but that might even have its own issues.
Ludwig 1st phase in a nutshell. 2nd phase makes up for it tho.
This my main issue with the game
I'm literally just venting my frustration with this game by looking for validation about this shit lmao. The enemy silhouettes plus the jank camera pisses me off. It's easy to memorize an enemy's pattern and come up with a solution but it feels impossible when I literally cannot see what I'm fighting and have to just guess when to dodge and attack.
It’s 10x worse in Elden Ring
My two biggest issues with Boodborne are the lack of a respec system so if you want the best gems for your weapon on a new playthrough you have to go through all the chalice dungeons again. The second issue is how the skill stat is the only one that makes your visceral attacks better. If you do a pure strength build you are handicapping yourself really hard.
I see why you’re saying but I wouldn’t say you’re handicapping yourself with a full strength build. A fully upgraded strength weapon will hit for much more damage than a skill weapon and the strength weapon will stagger basically every single mob enemy and all the humanoid bosses. A skill weapon can’t compete with that. That’s why they get added visceral damage. They gave that to the skill builds to compensate for weaker damage per hits .
@@aaronjones5742 maybe it’s just my preferred play style. I prefer to do lots of parries so when I do a visceral and it doesn’t hit very hard i get sad and strength builds have a lot of cool options.
@@banuner_if you’re building a skill build, add bloodtinge and a bit of strength. I run that and I do both high damage and V.damage. And throughout NG+ just add a bit of health and stamina. I don’t worry about Vit too much or stamina. If you’re good at parrying and dodging. Health shouldn’t be a factor in NG+ DLC.
Great Video. Shame about the number of dislikes. The video I thought was great and he made his points very clearly.
I've noticed that BB fan base cant take criticisms very well. When I see critical reviews of DS series or Sekiro on subreddit they usually have like 50-80% upvotes but on BB subreddit they get like 10-40% upvotes even if the review is constructive and/or in good faith.
@@presswerks5476 thats not necessarily not taking criticisms very well, it might just be they don’t agree? I mean most of this guys points came down to opinions, and things that could also be said about dark souls. Ruins/castles, forests, lava places, caves. Maybe ash lake is the most unique? I am yet to see or here bloodborne criticism that isn’t present in any of the other souls games, or an opinion. Not that opinions can’t be criticism, but things like it’s too samey, its all R1 spam, it’s confusing, all of these and more are either complaints or things present in every soul game. Or just opinions. “It should’ve tried something new” means the person went into it not judging the game on itself, but on what they thought it should do or were expecting.
@@presswerks5476 Even I, as a Bloodborne redditor I can relate to this. lol The game does have a bit of a cult-following for sure, at least in the west. But the thing is, the more enthusiastic a community is, the more toxicity there will be, which can be said about most things not just video games.
Everything changed when the fanboys attack.
@@presswerks5476 dude, look at DS, the original DS community. That community treats the game like some perfect game that no one can dislike. The whole souls community is like that. I’ve seen it the most from the original DS fans though. They can’t even make genuinely critiques about the game because they love the game to watch and can’t admit it has issues.
There is a reason lore videos on bloodborne get so many views, because the game doesn’t tell you shit.
One thing people don't talk about is that even players who never have to farm are still bothered by the limited vials system because sooner or later you have to buy more(I personally know 3 ways to get about 100+ vials at once) and have to go through 2 loading screens everytime (it is basically an unnecessary addition), also the thing about pvp in bloodborne is that it is tied to co-op if you don't co-op you will only be invaded in like 2 areas that is why so many invader abuse the chalice glyphs system to get better gems and runes early or faster, most of the time you are in a 2-3 vs 1 but a lot of people including myself don't let that ruin the invading experience because there are many ways to counter that besides the fact that the stagger in bloodborne, in my experience, is very minimal and the chances of getting stunt locked by ganks are low.(plus summons get their health slashed almost in half so that helps with keeping some sort of ecosystem around invasions)
I agree with the healing system , it was very disappointing and infrutiating
You often hear that playing bloodborne is all about being as aggressive as possible. Rahter than seperating single enemies from their groups, waiting patiently until they leave themselves open to be attacked and falling back to heal after being hit, you're supposed to jump into groups of enemies, sacrifice defense for mobility and gain back lost health by dealing more damage, emerging victoriously from a pool of blood and guts. Which is a concept that I like a lot but which unfortunately was poorly executed in my humble opinion. Evrytime I try to play like that, I get torn to pieces within mere moments. I wouldn't say that the game is bad because of it but on the other hand, I don't get why so many people hold it in such high regard.
Because we learn to play it like that by actually experimenting and trying different strategies
You're not supposed to jump into groups of enemies. Unless you have a weapon like the axe that can literally take on groups of enemies with a single hit.
That's literally the function of the pebble to separate the groups
Jumping into the midst of a group of enemies is the exact opposite of what you should do. Where'd you get that idea?
@@a-ha4940 same as dark souls though
The game encourages you to be aggressive against bosses not aggressive against 10 enemies that can ass fuck you in seconds
A lot of good points in this video. I might not agree with everything but I can appreciate the fact that you've put a lot of thought into this video.
Summary:
Disappointed that Bloodborne isn't different enough to previous souls games.
Vague story - initially confusing, less compelling than demon's souls, but better as plot develops.
Setting is good.
Ending anticlimactic.
Controls poorly explained.
Quests give vague direction, too confusing.
Level design good ie non linear.
Exploration boring because not enough items/incentive.
Bosses sometimes clunky and gimmicky, half are beasts = boring. Most have similar movesets. Combat strategy for bosses is repetitive. Prefers gimmicky bosses because they're memorable. Camera a problem with large bosses.
Game environments all look the same = disorientation and boredom.
Explanation of healing and bullets, and weapons.
Removal of backstabs good. Rally system good. Blood vials healing not as good as estus system because farming is required after boss attempts.
Guns are fun. Bullet/mana system good. Not enough spells. Arcane requires specialised build.
Weapons - more would have been better. Trick weapon design is good. Experimentation limited by scarce upgrade materials and stat upgrade choices.
Armour lacking in variety- hard to justify purchasing.
Blood gems good but best gems are in chalice dungeons which are boring.
Chalice dungeons are repetitive.
Blood gems create unbalanced pvp, necessitating gem farming in chalice dungeons.
Pvp system not as good as souls pvp. Not enough invasions because there too few pvp locations. Bad latency. Little desire to pvp because bloodborne pvp seems unappealing overall.
Warping back to hunters dream to travel is annoying.
Some minor gripes with controls - jump button, attack queueing.
Wanted to like Bloodborne but previously mentioned criticisms hindered enjoyment. Souls games are becoming stale anyway.
That might have been the best summary i've read
I don't get why these points are frustrating all of these apply to elden ring and I have a feeling you singing praises for that game.
@@apodani1576 What are you talking about? Almost none of these apply to Elden Ring. But that game does have its own problems.
Man, your channel is absolutely amazing! Full of quality content. Although I disagree with this kind of harsh review of Bloodborne, I still respect your ideas and opinions, especially considering the fact that this video took quite some time to make. :)
I'm amazed. This is the first time I've heard somebody echo literally ALL of the same complaints I've had with BB, and not just "blood vials kinda suck I guess". I like the Souls series, but everybody treating this game like a flawless masterpiece almost made feel like a crazy person for hating it lol
I feel you, in my case it's just the first Dark Souls, which was disappointing to me and in a lot of different ways inferior to Demon's Souls as if they did not quite know what made that game special in the first place. But that's why I on the other hand adore Bloodborne, it has it's own problems but overall it went back in the right direction and made some necessary changes.
To be clear, I think none of those games are bad, it's just that a successor should at least be on par or you could just take the previous game out of the shelf you already own and play that again,...what I did then with Demon's Souls and you probalby did with the game you've played before Bloodborne...
@@marcbraun5342 What was the "right direction" that blooodborne went into?
@@LilPW The way you're wording it I sense you're already disagreeing and I have a lot to do at the moment and no time for fanboy bs, sorry if that was the intend. Let's just keep it short and say more focused in a lot of ways, that's one reason.
If you don't like the game it's fine to me, you don't have to like it. Gameplay-wise I do like Sekiro even more but the, again, very focused scenario in BB is still among my overall favorites.
@@marcbraun5342 So you like the shitty Victorian England vampire/ werewolf thing is that really your kink? I guess you do have that pfp that's screaming give me attention and a tacky last name that fits the bill like "Braun" you should throw a "von" in there first or a "wic" at the end though bro would fit your weird niche a little better. Marc also could use some work might I suggest Marx?
@@marcbraun5342 Demon souls is shit and not even fun to play too you have based ass opinions and are a bit of an asshole. Ds1 was definitely a lot more playable.
I've put maybe 300 or so hours into this game now, and though I can say I do love Bloodborne, the flaws you've pointed out REALLY build up on you after that much playtime (though that could admittedly just be burnout). Wonky dodges, lockons, and hitboxes, combined with the grindfest that's almost required if you want to have enough blood vials and have decent weapons via gems to stand up against the frustrating "oop, the beast boss is flailing again and now I'm stunlocked until he stops" and "oop, died to Unfair Hunter NPC Encounter #236 because he spammed his overpowered attack fueled by limitless quicksilver bullets" encounters absolutely get old. Especially once you have truly "figured the game out" but still occasionally get killed by an enemy because you got stuck on some object that you should be able to walk over or can't properly see because of the camera or lighting.
The frustration with blood vials in particular is terrible because even when you have the rare moment of "oh no, I'm running out of vials in this dangerous area" as you progress, you STILL have this feeling of dread in your stomach, because you're eating into a limited resource that you KNOW you're going to need for a couple boss encounters. You show footage of the Nightmare Frontier as you mention the "running out of vials" feeling, and I totally agree that the poison swamp does hit that sweet spot of feeling like you MIGHT have enough heals left to keep pushing further, but since they're blood vials instead of a refilling Estus Flask, you feel almost no incentive to actually engage in that stressful feeling, since whatever rewards you may find in the swamp are almost certainly not worth the pain and misery of using up blood vials that could've been used on a boss encounter.
My favorite "Soulsbourne" game is Sekiro (ironically lol), because everything is so tightly designed. Just about every encounter in that game lived up to the "tough but fair" philosophy, and I can't really think of any instances where my character got stuck on an ankle-high object, was stunlocked to death, or felt a particular fight was working against the mechanics you learned throughout the game. There's obviously no character customization in Sekiro, but since it means FromSoft was able to create every enemy knowing the moveset you'd have, I prefer that lack of customization since the game is already going to be ball-bustingly hard.
Sorry you're getting downvoted on all this, I think you aired a lot of grievances that needed to be put out there, even though the Git Gudders can't even fathom the thought that their God Among Men Miyazaki might have made something flawed. Something great, I'd say, but very painfully flawed.
I suspect a great deal of the downvotes are from fans incapable of viewing anything negative about what may be their favorite game; even if those faults are glaringly obvious to anyone not willfully overlooking them.
Look, I think there are good things about bloodborne but I’d really like to make it known to people like video essayists who like throwing around big, bold, meaningful statements about this game is that I beat the game quite comfortably simply by spamming the spin charge attack with the axe. I beat the cleric beast on my first try without any upgrades and I beat Gascoigne in pretty much the same style, save for a couple minimally thought through stat upgrades that I made in preparation. The shadow of Yharnam was dead in about 1 literal minute and the witches of hemwick died on my second try. The only boss that I couldn’t do that for was gerhman, and that’s just the bosses. Most enemies couldn’t touch me and if they did, I got every iota of health back with a retaliatory charge attack. I was spamming successfully up until the unseen village where it then instead only worked most of the time. There’s exactly 3 places in the game where it didn’t work and that’s the very top floor of margo’s loft, the very beginning of the nightmare of mensis and and old yarham but only the bottom part where you’re being attacked by a hunter and a Gatling gun at the same time. I died pretty occasionally for having pretty mediocre reflexes and never having beaten a soulsborne game before. Stunlocking was the ONE singular thing that happened consistently that the axe spamming couldn’t bail me out of. But it wasn’t even fair stunlocking. If 3 to 4 enemies get you in a corner for even a fraction of a moment, their entity boxes create a complete cage around you and their respective attack patterns fill in the gaps for eachother and more often then not create a perfect death trap, where all I can do is roll in place until I die. I’m not gonna state my thoughts on the game past that since I know how the community can be but those are the facts about what happened in my experience.
@@internetfella782 Lol what was even your point behind saying all of that?
Blood vials are literally the reason why i dropped this game and couldn't get back to it. I'm too unmotivated to keep farming for blood vials everytime i use them against a boss. And bosses are pretty much the reason why I like souls games
I have just started my play through again. I’ve never beaten bloodborne despite beating all three souls games numerous times. I tried for three days to play and only on the third day could I be bothered to sit and give it a real go, why? Because I didn’t want to farm for 20 minutes just to have 40 vials. It’s extremely punishing to new players. Love the game still. And I’m gonna beat it. That is just a pain
just buy vials with leftover echoes from leveling, easy.
@@MrSanghelios not a real sloution to a trashy degraded system, especially for new players.
@flamingmanure Whenever I hear people struggling with Vials, I tell them about the CUMM dungeon. It just makes life easier having an easy way to gain blood echoes so you can stock up unlimited Vials.
@greenwolf2k594 yes the Cummfpk chalice should be the first thing that any player should keep and use for the rest of the game. Because even if you ignore using it for free levels, it still is a life saviour for getting a restock in just a minute
I literally just finished Bloodborne today. The part where you mentioned the ending being anticlimactic really hits home. I might just be too small brained, but when the building was set on fire, I instantly know I’m already one step away from the ending and my initial thought was unfortunately “wait, that’s it?”
I don’t even understand what I’m fighting for, what event is leading up to the ending, and why am I even doing it?
Its super vague, i think even more so than the dark souls series, honestly since youve already finished it, check out a lore video! I also felt this way but upon looking into the lore this is my favorite game of all time, when you finally piece the story together its phenomenal
I 100% agree with u dude. There's not a single person worth saving. Most of the NPCs are either creepy, evil, or hopeless. And soon to be dead. Tragedy gets stale when its the only note a story can hit. We dont even learn why our character signed up for the hunters. Combine that with Yharnam's alienating atmosphere, repetitive architecture, harsh difficulty and lack of overarching story, i lost all motivation to play this game. I feel like the game has been deified because ppl think something hard to understand must mean its good. I don't think the game even explains its own mechanics like scaling and damage types very well let alone the "story".
@@shevankaseneviratne1724 I totally get what you're talking about. I think that the story is definitely WAAAAY too vague. But I ask if you've watched some lore videos about the game? They will blow your mind and make you want to play that game ASAP.
@@ionutluchian9720 Ik man. Ive watched alot of bb lore vuds but sadly i think its the community doing the work to make coherent story that FROMSOFT just refuses to in any of their work. Not a big fan of that. Its better than selling an underdveloped game but i still dont like it much
@@shevankaseneviratne1724 Gotcha, I respect that!
Your points are all valid m8 and its not like ur bashing the game, just critiquing it with actual well made points
To those of you who are butthurt over this review, just remember that there are those people who say Ds3 is bad and Ds2 is good. So there is no reason anyone should be mad over Bb having this kind of review.
I can definitely understand someone prefering DS2 over DS3. This community is toxic af 😂
@@juwe7143 HOW DARE U NOT WORSHIP MIAZAKI DS3 IS FKAWLESS AND DS2 IS BAD BCUZ NOT ENOUGH MIAZAKI
but tbh ds2 seems way more original and ntm ds3 world development mimics bloodborne especially if u get the dlcs but still all these games are very flawed
@@pastelzombie3614 no game is perfect
@@pastelzombie3614 Liking DS2 is a litmus test for someone’s taste in video games (its hot garbage)
@@Tremere lmao cry harder
Agreed the main problem for me was that everything blended together so you don't know where you are and I didn't care
Yeah the chalice dungeons are just wasted potential and it hurts
I wanted to love BB but I can only take so much middle fingers in a row
,,l,,
I could binge the lore forever, but im pretty split on the actual game. Sometimes I loved it, and other times I hated it. The 2nd part felt rushed and spammy like the 2nd part of ds1.
I am playing the game for the first time, when does the 2nd halve start after Rom ?
@@a-ha4940 Ngl after I beat Rom, the only bosses I found interesting again were the DLC bosses.
@@a-ha4940 BB after Rom felt more like a chore to me i just wanted to finish it and move on
@@zarc1145 hell rom itself is a boring fight all things consideres, i think the only good bosses after vicar in the main game were logarias and gherman.
Coming to this after stewing over how I felt about Bloodborne for a long time. I genuinely wanted to love it the way I did Demons and Dark Souls but so many things about it were just off for me. You summed up my feelings almost word for word. Great video critique.
A little late to the party, but let me say amazing review. I love Bloodbourne, it is my second favorite souls game, but so many design and gameplay decisions are one step forward two steps back, which is baffling, when they got them right in the previous entries.
@Top Noodle I think by far the hardest is DS3, then probably Bloodbourne and DS2, then DS1 and then Demon Souls, but it is not really fair from my perspective at least as I played Demon Souls after DS1 so...
@Top Noodle if you like demon souls you'll love Dark Souls 1
@@Lecherodadystomp sekiro is hardest imo
Good video, I agree with pretty much every point you made. Only thing I would add is that so many enemies in this game are just annoying to fight, which really undercuts the foundational combat mechanics, which are solid. So many enemies in this game just spaz out and stun lock you, defeating the purpose of trying to promote an aggressive playstyle, not to mention they sometimes have ridiculous amounts of health and take forever to kill but can 1 or 2 shot you, sometimes in full groups so you can't even just run past them or you will get gangbanged. This game is just filled to the brim with unfair, unfun bullshit. BB is massively overrated, it's more frustrating than fun honestly, I wanted to like it so bad, and it definitely can be a lot of fun in certain sections, but overall the game just feels like a tedious slog. And I hate the fanbase.
have u played the other souls games? i just am trying to get an idea of your perspective.
@@lilypacastsupper8922 chyea, I’ve played all of them except demons souls, have hundreds of hours across the series especially ds3, and I have been playing the shit out of elden ring since release
@@FlyinTools Thanks for responding. I've read hundreds of comments/reviews, and it's weird how you are the only one to echo feelings that I had. It seems like we are the minority in thinking the "more aggressive playstyle" does not work from a Fromsoft style game. I see what you mean by getting stunlocked; almost every enemy has a 5-8 hit spaz combo which makes countering obsolete. It seems to me that luck and spamming R1 is where success or failure lies when trying to be "aggressive." The "delayed" responsiveness fromsoft style controls works for a slow methodical type of combat in Dark Souls (I loved all 3), but not in bloodborne. I kind of don't even think it's difficult (compared to other fromsoft,) it's just not as "weighty" or rewarding. I've only played a couple dozen hours of Nioh, but I feel like they nailed what Bloodborne was going for way better. And of course like a "For Honor" type of combat system is just superior altogether. Anyways, enjoy Elden Ring, peace out.
I love ds2 more than bloodborne...shit, my list is easy to make Elden Ring, Sekiro, Ds3, Ds2, Ds1, Demons Souls then...bloodborne, I tried to enjoy it but couldn't. The fanbase is tough to deal with to...glad I'm not alone in this though.
Are you planning to do a Sekiro review at some point? (hopefully not in 2024 :)
I actually like you review. The dislike to like ratio is just because of these hardcore fanbase that cant take criticism.
@@Spiral81C1 That's a normal view to like ratio, even without taking into account this is a purely critical review.
@@benip3751 that is not a like/dislike ratio. What kind of videos do you watch? A normal like dislike ratio for an average video is having the likes at least 3 or 5 times higher, trust me you can check simply by looking through channels, even the popular ones
@@guntergetscoochie3925 Beni P was specifically talking about "view to like" ratio, which is different from "like to dislike" ratio. Their comment was made in response to a now-deleted comment which was saying, at the time, something like "What's sad is out of 5,000 people who watched, only 150 liked the video," or "Out of 5,000, only 400 chose to like/dislike," which IS fairly normal on TH-cam, where even well-liked videos only get a reaction out of ~5% of people who watch it. The actual like/dislike ratio for this review is, obviously, atypical of "average" youtube statistics, but that's not what was being discussed originally.
@@benip3751 no it isnt, and the bb fanbase are just pathetic and laughably biased and generally take critique far worse than the other fromsoft fanbases, its pretty much a stereotype at this point.
My biggest complaint about Bloodborne is the limited combat style one can develop. It boils down to a grinding dungeon crawl that gets boring.
Except every weapon has a unique moveset and purpose
I thought the combat was excellent, the cripple system felt like i was actually doing damage instead of hitting a punching bag. But i agree with the dungeon grind,im pretty sure i spent longer grinding blood vials than actually fighting the bosses.
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 i think hes talking about build playstyles, and he would be objectively correct, bb is as deep as a puddle compared to the ocean of elden souls in that regard.
purposeful weapons? all weapns from all souls games have purpose, it all depends on what you want for your build, better R2 animations like stabbing vs slashing, better range but less damage, better elemental properties, better special L2 movesets etc etc unique bb weapons? bb fanboys like to deny that in the delusional name of "quality" vs quantity, which i disagree with, bbs weapon moveset uniquness doesnt mean functional or good in anyway, many bb weapons are mediocre to downright bad compared to the top 3, and those unique movesets dont mean shit when the game allows you to spam R1 till enemies die, no thought required. for a game for such a low weapon count and apparently good combat, that really shouldnt be the case, the game is easily the most mindless, spammy and takes the least thought and strategy to fight between all the games.
i would agree with you more if every weapon is as well designed and balanced as something like the rakuyo, which imo is the best weapon fromsoft ever designed, both sides of the transformation are as good as each other, all attacks blend to each other through every single animation, its L2 attacks are fantastic, its transformation attacks are intuitive and usable more than just situationally (unlike most weapons in bb) it has great damage and combo potential, and even has really good boss limb breaking capabilities. its basically perfect!
problem with the cripple system is it gives you way too much points to completely make the boss laughable, i killed vicar amelia purely by just walking to each limb with a saw cleaver and spam transformation attacks, keeping her in crippled loops until she died XD
eitherway i think sekiro and elden ring did that system far better from a balanced perspective, but i will saw its pretty cool to break the limb of a giant beast!@@Future_Doggo
My largest issue with blood borne are how many bosses just end up being a flailing mass of crap it makes it so I can’t tell what’s happening
I'm surprised you didn't mention (or I missed it) grab attacks. Felt to me that Bloodborne has the worst grab attacks in these games.
Entertaining video and valid critiques. Some weren't an issue for me, but I can see how they'd vary person to person. Cainhurst stagecoach for instance. To me, there was obvious visual design signposting to go activate blue structure at the crossroad (and turns out I just had to go near it). But just because my brain clicked that immediately, doesn't mean everyone does. How people view signposting like this can vary greatly.
You did mention you played this sporadically. To me these games reward (or perhaps necessitate?) immersing yourself into it and really focusing. I'd hate to play the forbidden woods if I had to quit playing halfway through and come back at a later date.
Excellent video. Bb is a good game but a bit overhyped.
Excellent review, it was refreshing to hear someone voice some of the more negative aspects of bloodbornes design. I love the game but it does some things worse than dark souls or even demon souls. I would love to hear a critique by you on Sekiro, which is the only Fromsoft Souls game Im yet to play.
Have you played Sekiro yet? I played it a couple months ago and started Bloodborne not far after beating Sekiro. I still have like 4 or so bosses. I like the game but I can’t help but feel like Sekiro is a much more fun and overall better game. What do you think?
@artvanderlay8703 I played Sekiro after playing LoP (my first proper souls-like), and it's one of the only Fromsoft games that I found consistently enjoyable.
While I don’t agree with everything you said but I do understand what you mean and it is nice to see the game through the eyes of a person who played the darksouls game👍
I understand your point when you said the map blurs together in your mind, I felt the same when I played the witcher 3.
are you sure you played w3
The dodge changes based on lock on. If you have no target, you dodge in the direction you press, if you're locked on you dodge in 1 of 4 directions (forward, back, left, right) closest to the direction you pressed. It emphasizes no-lock for chaotic fights and lock on for duels.
Though i disagree, i can see the point of view you are taking and respect your thoughts. I really think Bloodborne is very different from the other souls games. There is just something about it that i can't find in any of the Dark Souls games or any game for that mater.
I'd rather play any other souls game than Bloodborne and that includes dark souls 2.
I just found this channel and this review of Bloodborne. If anyone reads this four years after this vid was released: I cannot help to note, how negative he is on the chalice dungeons. While his criticisms absolutely hold ground, I do urge you to still try them out, if you never have. Do make your own opinion afterwards. I, personally am still playing this feature years later, because for me, it is a very enjoable dungeon crawl experience. And, imo, boss and enemy wise, there is a lot of variety, but you have to unlock all the chalices with the different map-sets for the full effect. Also, many of the mosnters and bosses ONLY appear in the chalices. You are missing out on a lot of content, if you skip them. Then again, this is only my opinion, feel free to ignore it and have a great day regardless :)
Hmm I love this game no kidding. That said it could be because it was the first one I played so it's the one I love. For a veteran of souls I think I can get why bloodborne might be stale because i have not played th others
Bloodborne is probably my favorite game on the ps4. Maybe not of all time but it's up there.
Great video. I had the same feeling of wanting to love the game but not being able to.
The blood vile/blood echoes farming grind was what stopped me from playing the game. It's so annoying. Realizing that I have to farm resources to try a hard fight again is just BS. In the beginning I didn't have to farm because the walks to the bosses were filled with enemies who dropped enough resources. The worst thing is that I just got into liking the fights and learning moves and stuff. I love the monster design and the atmosphere. When games are grindy instead of hard I just get bored and lose interest.
One advice i can give you is to buy for example 50 blood vile. Doing so even if you lost 20 blood vile when you die you will have still 20 blood vile so you don’t have to farm much.
@@milosmiladinovic7185 yeah. that is a good advice for the future. I think this is something the game should immidiatly tell you because it leads to frustration and grinding if you dont know. But it's still a grind and I hate grind
Another advice is if you have ps+ get yourself summoned a bunch of times for enough blood echoes and buy a bunch of vials after that
Also save some of those blood items that give you echoes so you have like a savings account for emergencies
Pale blood is the moon presence. You found her at the end of the game since you overcame the nightmare. Which gherman wasn’t able to do.
I tried to like bloodborne...not for me. Glad it has its fans though
Blood vials was the worst part of the game for me, I NEVER want to farm healing items.
That was an issue for me the bosses are so huge that you can't see you or the boss I had a similar issue with the new GOW on the PS 4 not talking about the one that's coming out. The new GOW you are an overpowered god-like being that has a weird close third-person view and moving fast isn't most the issue you have to press some buttons to turn around fast which makes it hard to understand where you stop spinning in the direction you stop. When they should make you move super fast with no effort because Kratos has god-like powers the game is also IMHO not as good as the older games and Kratos is more of a beta male in these new GOW games. The GOW newer game is very much more linear and small scale compared to the ability to see everything in the older games. I feel they did this to save money on how much less effort it takes compared to the older games for me GOW would have benefited from a somewhat open-world type of map to explore in the mythological world/realm, not one path that CAN lead to a few different directions.
Your video is fantastic and it's a shame that so many people disliked it. The only thing I highly disagree with are what you stated about bosses. You said that bosses feel the same. Some of them maybe do, like cleric beast and vicar amelia even though imo they are different fights entirely. But you can't say that blood-starved beast and ludwig the holy blade or amygdala and ebrietas are similar fights. It's the exact same thing as saying that artorias and gwyn or sir alonne and fume knight or slave knight gael and souls of cinder are similar bosses. Or that midir is similar with kalameet and sinh. I see you tend to like gimmick fight in bb and that's fair enough,it's just your opinion after all,but if you see this comment I want to know your thoughs about bosses in the dark souls games. Just curious.
Unfortunately, the majority of those dislikes seem to be from irate 4chan users who've made it a recurring pastime to harass and bully me over this review. Someone recently posted it there for the fourth separate time, I believe, and each time that's occurred I've been hit with a massive wave of dislikes accompanied by utterly vile, toxic comments telling me to kill myself and calling me a "worthless piece of subhuman filth," among other such polite and well-natured things. I don't know why they have such a hate-boner for me or this video, but sadly I can't do anything about it other than delete those toxic comments and shadow-ban the worst offenders.
As for the bosses, I'll stand by my claim that many of them come off feeling pretty similar, because they genuinely ARE similar in theme and concept. To use your own example, "artorias and gwyn or sir alonne and fume knight or slave knight gael and souls of cinder" are all similar types of bosses because they're all "one-on-one duels against humanoid opponents wielding melee weapons in generic, featureless arenas where the key to success is learning their moves so you can counter them somehow." Even though they all have completely different movesets and unique special attacks that alter the specifics of how you avoid attacks and land hits of your own, thus lending them varying degrees of challenge, satisfaction, and enjoyment (not to mention different aesthetics), the combat tactics for how you approach each one is basically the same: "study their moves until you know what types of attack each tell will lead towards, so you know where to move or when to dodge to avoid the attack, and learn when they have recovery animations and make sure you're staying close enough, with enough stamina, to be able to hit them during those recovery animations."
Compare that to, say, the bosses in Demon's Souls, many of whom have some type of distinguishing feature and/or notable level design that radically alters your approach. Phalanx is a mob-boss that requires you to whittle down enemies forming its outer shell by attacking them from behind to expose the main body of the boss; Tower Knight is a giant lumbering hulk where you have to run along the parapets to defeat the archers before fighting the knight himself; Armored Spider-Man has a long tunnel you have to navigate multiple times dodging webs and fireballs; the Dragon God is a "gimmick puzzle" boss where you have to navigate across exposed areas to reach the ballistae to shoot him; Fool's Idol splits into multiple copies of itself and requires you to find the right one to damage it, and will continually resurrect itself unless you find and kill the puppeteer outside the arena; the Maneaters are the series' first multi-enemy boss (which was a novel concept in itself back then) but also takes place on a very narrow platform that you can easily fall off of so you have to be extra careful of your footing and positioning; the Old Monk is a PVP encounter against another player; the Old Hero is blind and thus requires you to walk slowly or use a thief ring so that he can't hear you; the Storm King is an airborne boss who requires you to make your way to the Storm Caller so you can call down lightning on it.
For that reason alone, the bosses in Demon's Souls feel much more unique and memorable to me, whereas many of the bosses in Bloodborne blur together because so many of them are, as I said in the review, over-sized beast monsters and rampaging blobs of flesh. Amygdala, the One Reborn, and Ebrietas are technically very different bosses, but I defeated all three of them in the exact same manner on my first try, by just getting up under them and spamming attacks while dodging out of the way of obvious tells. It was, effectively, the exact same gameplay experience for each one, so they didn't feel unique or special to me. Cleric Beast, Vicar Amelia, Darkbeast Paarl, Laurence, and Ludwig, likewise, all have their own distinct second-phases, but their first phases really aren't THAT different from each other in the grand scheme of things, and the arenas you fight them in rarely play into the equation in any significant way. Not to mention, they're all literally giant, quadrupedal beasts that therefore look and move somewhat similarly. As such they didn't feel all that distinct to me, more like different flavors of the same thing as opposed to being completely different things altogether.
@@TheNocturnalRambler disagreeing with your video is one thing but sending toxic messages and death threats is on another level. Your video is not perfect but it doesn't deserve that much hate,honestly. All you can do is ignore them and like you said, ban the worst offenders.
Anyway, about the bosses, I personally love bosses who tests my skills at the game, learning when to dodge and when to attack them back, when to heal and when to parry are truly amazing moments. I hate gimmick fights across all the soulsborne series. They give you a different challenge, indeed, but in terms of the fights itself I never liked them. You said that fights in demon's souls are much more memorable and unique,I agree with the latter but I find them really boring and uninteresting. Phalanx,fool's idol, dragon god, armored spider,old monk,storm king and fights that I consider either simply bad or mediocre. The only reason I liked tower knight, the old hero and the maneaters is because they use the core mechanics of the game like dodging a lot more than the rest. So yes, demon's souls has more unique bosses but most of them fall flat for me. Bb bosses are more similar but they are much more fun to fight imo.
It all comes down to personal preference in terms of what one personally finds more enjoyable, whether you prefer the frenetic intensity of the raw "one-on-one duels" or the more strategic "thinking outside the box" scenarios. I don't think it's right for anyone to say either type is objectively better than the other, except to say that they're each better at eliciting certain types of feelings/reactions or satisfying certain desires. Personally, I like it when a boss expects me to use wits and strategy to beat them, as opposed to purely mastering the timing of actions and reactions, as there's a certain satisfaction in out-smarting the boss and solving the puzzle, so to speak, but I also enjoy a hard-fought pure combat-scenario because that's rewarding in and of itself once you achieve an understanding of the boss's movesets and master the timing to best it. I'd say I like both types of bosses equally (Gael is possibly my favorite boss in the entire series because that fight is just so insanely epic and intense) but I ultimately have a greater preference for variety so that it doesn't feel like I'm going through the same motions all the time just with minor variations, and in that aspect I find Demon's Souls to be one of the best in the series.
The Old Hero, for example, could be fought as a standard "one-on-one duel" type boss, but there's that extra layer of realization that he's blind, and thus if you change your strategy you can turn it into a different sort of fight. And when you make a mistake it rapidly turns into a frantic "oh crap get out of the way, dodge and avoid attacks" kind of situation, thus satisfying multiple degrees of interest for me. And it's not like Demon's Souls is devoid of intense combat-encounter bosses, either, as you also have Tower Knight, Penetrator, False King Allant, Flamelurker, the Maneaters, Old Monk, and Old Hero that act as more conventional "one-on-one duels" (though some of them still have a novel "twist" to the formula, as previously mentioned). The combat system in the original Demon's Souls is of course relatively crude and so none of these fights match the fun intensity of later games in the series like Bloodborne or DS3, but those fights I feel do a good job for that game's combat system while also typically having a little more going on than just the usual "learn the boss's movesets and master the timing to beat it" scenarios.
@@TheNocturnalRambler I personally prefer the "master the moves to beat the boss" scenario because it feels like I truly deserved that victory. I am not saying that one is objectively better that the other, that would have been stupid, I simply like one on one duels more but that's just my taste. Gimmick fights just l fall on three categories for me: either boring(moonlight butterfly,gwyndolin,witches of hemwick), bullshit (bed of chaos,
dragon god,ancient wyvern) or just a bunch of enemies thrown in a arena(deacons of the deep,prowling magus,celestial emmisary). Sure there are exceptions like priscilla which is a decent fight but a little bit too easy and tower knight or the old hero if we count them as gimmick fights.If we do that, demon's souls made the best gimmick fights from the whole series by far
@@shroulsyou literally do the same things for every boss in BB. And the absolute over-reliance on consumable items and the parry system to be good at the game and the bosses is infuriating, especially when you haven't played BB 20-30 times like a lot of its biggest proponents have. Parrying is certainly a thing in other souls games, but the reason why the parry is so beloved in souls is that you don't NEED to do it, there's a multitude of ways to play and survive just fine, but in bloodborne, if you aren't going full face, parry god, with bolt/fire paper and beast blood pellets for bosses, the game is dramatically harder, and for some people, probably even impossible. The dark souls games can very easily be beaten without a parry, without using weapon buffing items, etc. Bloodborne is an incredibly repetitive game, where there's very little variety of gameplay styles or battle mechanics. That alongside the astronomical amount of HP the bosses tend to have, the same looking buildings and textures everywhere, and a story somehow even more convoluted than the other souls games. Even the regular enemies tend to have to much health, and nearly every enemy in the game has some sort of spaz move, where they can hit anywhere from 3-7 times and stunlock you, which can melt your health pool even when you put tons of investment into it. IMO, the worst designed game in the souls-borne series, which is a shame, the lore, setting and overall story, while much too hidden to find on your own on a single playthrough, is incredible. At least it's better than dark souls 2, I guess
Interesting but a disappointment. Yup! True. Don't really understand the hype all these years. Oh well, on to the next.
Hey, have you played Nioh 2?
It's a "soulsborne," but has so many good mechanics. And, fast gameplay like Ninja Gaiden.
I love BB, And I hate that I agree with most of your negative points on BB.
I hate when some people disrespect Nioh 2. It doesn't deserve to be disrespected like that.
BB is the single most important video game I have ever played, dropped a like to help your ratio and you bring up solid points my guy! fresh sub and hype to see more content
Literally the best part of bloodborne was when you got to see the amygdalas for the first time, and there's this one amygdala holding onto the columns lining the edge of a staircase. It doesn't try to grab you, it doesn't shoot a laser at you. It doesn't do anything. It just *stares* at you. This huge monster could kill you at any moment, but instead it decides to just stare down at you. That moment was terrifying as shit.
Edit: The worst moment so far was Shadows of Yharnam.
There's not a single intelligent rebuttle in the comments, in stark contrast to this very well thought out video.
That’s because most people don’t feel the need to defend a game that has the love of people 10 times more than it does for hate and it’s ratings, reviews and awards speak for the,selves, and this is factual you can’t even deny it
@@frogglen6350 So you dislike that bloodborne fans tried to be as respectful as they can towards a video they mostly disagreed with?
@@frogglen6350 That is so stupid it’s like you wanted them to act like dark souls 1 fans that can’t take criticism, but since a majority of the bloodborne fans didn’t do that and were respectful (and since the community is of dark souls is what sparks most of the dislikes for the game) you were probably upset that you couldn’t try to shit on them or their game because they said nothing that invited that behavior because bloodborne wasn’t in your demographic. Fucking stupid I’m sorry but your comment baffles me, you’re mad that instead of trying to relentlessly defend bloodborne in a breeding ground for haters of bloodborne they just took it easy and kept cool? Dumb, just dumb, that’s all I can say
@@frogglen6350 bro, so you said bloodborne fans had no spine because they didn’t defend heir game enough and most of them said the same thing, but you come to me and say one word? Not even trying to oppose my disagreement towards you. Hypocrite, god damn idiot.
@MasterMoonfire toxic? So calling out someone’s bullshit is toxic? To be fair it was very late at night when I typed that stuff so I was probably just tired but still, I stand by what I said, even though I must admit, I did get carried away
Bloodborne is only a masterpiece when you know how to avoid farming, realize builds are centered around weapons not stats unless you know where to find everything and how to duplicate chunks and find blod rocks, learn the porpuse of every item and the many fun ways you can use them to break the game and pvp is only fun when you know what chalice glyphs and false depth dungeons are. Also dungeons are only fun when you know the lore or are part of the tomb prospectors subreddit
You have to keep in mind that this game has been out for 5 years the community has had enough time to mitigate the trash(some bosses and most npc enemies are encouraged to be cheesed or skipped) and therefore the praise it gets is not representative of the game, nowadays the most fun people get is with pvp, making new builds or breaking the game while laughing at everyone who says it's too hard (you can kill most bosses in less than a minute with the right items even at bl4)
You’re not playing the game right if you need to duplicate chunks
@@frogglen6350 Using shields requires skill as just holding it up can get you staggered. Not having viable shields in Bloodborne just limits the way you can do combat which makes it more boring.
@@frogglen6350 How is that as thrilling as dodge dodge hit, dodge dodge hit? At least in Souls you have options cause you can play multiple ways and mix it up unlike Bloodborne, In DS3, holding up your shield like that will get you staggered and killed. DS3 also had interesting weapon arts that allowed you to really get creative.
@@Mister_Domm So was I.
@@ericlind6581 Exactly. Also, DS3 nerfed the shields compared do DS1. Less stamina absorption and too many enemies have elementals that none shield have 100% defense. It is easier, but no easy enough to make the game a easy game.
Ach I see Dark Souls rabble raided this vid without second thought. God I fucking hate DS fanbase. Great video man.
But without ds fan base games like this would not exist without dark souls souls like games would never have been made
@@greasybacon7125 I'd rather the games not exist than have to watch the retards that are most DS fans
@@banako420 I can't disagree with that but bloodborne is one of my all time favorite games so hard choice
I personally love the game to death. But his criticism is valid and well reasoned all the same. Which is exactly what a review is about. No game is perfect, there is always room for improvement. Even if, in the grand scheme of things, any issues I had with Bloodborne, all of which are well articulated in this video, didn’t stop me from pouring 600h. of my time into it anyways.
I might also add that many of his criticisms kinda reinforces my opinion that the game is not quite finished. As great as it is, it gives off this feeling that it was so close to being much more than it currently is. And that is something that can be said about all souls games, maybe except Sekiro, but that is probably because it is a purposefully shorter and more focused experience that one.
Great video, I agree with most of it
I absolutely adore Bloodborne, it's my 2nd favorite game, but you make some great points. I never really noticed how little of the secrets and lore I actually discovered myself but instead learned through word of mouth or the internet purely because of how vague the game is. Hell, I've played through the game near half a dozen times and I still have trouble navigating Cathedral Ward
So what do you think of Sekiro?
The farming and grind for heals was horrific.
Lies of P did a better job with the dash and roll mechanic. The dodge roll itself felt somewhat off because I think if dodging while locking on, you will circle around the enemy which makes it hard to dodge plunging attacks such as the giant pig and Ebrietas.
I've only done 1 chalice dungeon, since it was trash....
Bloodborne - Review | Underwhelming and Disappointing - proceed to praise the game 70% of the time. hahaha. it's a good video, with valid points.
It is underwhelming when People make it out to be perfect or damn near perfect while it's nowhere near that
i dont agree with most of your points but ths a well made video. liked
I just finished the game and completely agree. I expected a 9 or 10 but it's a 7.5 for me. I hate the farming, bland colors, horrible fps, repetitive level design, underwhelming bosses, lanterns function terribly - i hate the different dodging set based on whether you have camera-lock? like wtf why does my moron character decide to jump in the air instead of doing a forward roll -
It's a good game but not a masterpiece. Perfect combo of fanboys for sony and souls gets it overhyped, tack on the edgelord horror aspect and anyone who criticizes it gets hounded on. I enjoyed it but was my least favorite From game.
Said exactly what I thought about the game
Very good video. I definitely agree with a lot of the points you made. People just take different opinions way too personally.
Do people really deserve to get shat on because they don’t accept it as a masterpiece?
I think the game is really good, but it has objective flaws such as the bad frame pacing, bad tutorials, farming, lack of different playstyles, learning curve, very little actual narrative (lore is not plot, at least not for the player character) etc.
Great content, as always!
Thanks for watching!
To me, someone who's also played all the Souls games except DeS over the years and only recently got to play Bloodborne, the game honestly felt like a simplified, more accessible, and in some ways stripped down version of a Dark Souls game. I still really enjoyed the setting and atmosphere, but felt ultimately a bit disappointed for the same reasons you have explained so well in this elaborate review. Additionally, I felt that the main game was too short and I couldn't believe that the final bosses were optional and so easily completely missable, just like so many NPC's and side quests in this game. Still, despite its shortcomings I really enjoyed playing Bloodborne.
I'd love to see your thoughts on Sekiro man
what's with all the dislikes? this was one of the best reviews of this game I've seen on TH-cam.
My guess is that certain insecure Bloodborne fans read the title and then downvote on principle, without bothering to actually listen to what I have to say or trying to understand where I'm coming from with these assessments.
Bloodborne certainly has a lot of strong elements that stand out as some of the best in the series (like its Lovecraftian horror atmosphere and story, its more offensive playstyle with things like rally healing and ranged parries, the versatility of blood gems, the fun novelty of trick weapons, the challenging difficulty of its boss encounters, etc) -- all of which I praised in the review, so it's not like I'm being excessively or unreasonably negative towards the game. I am NOT saying that Bloodborne is a bad game, but rather that it didn't live up to expectations based on the years of massive hype and praise, especially when compared to the enjoyment and satisfaction that I got from the other games in the series.
I realize that many people have a strong affection for this game, and I completely understand why, but that doesn't mean the game is a flawless masterpiece. It's not radical contrarianism to point out that it has several legitimate faults and blemishes relative to other games in the series. The homogeneous visual design that makes everything look incredibly similar; the lack of up-front story hook to provide any sort of narrative-based incentive to continue forward in the game; the blood vial system that forces you to go farming if you get stuck on a difficult boss and run out of vials; greatly reduced strategic decision-making in terms of equipment loadouts and character builds based on far, far fewer total equipment pieces (and removal of weight limits); less rewarding exploration because of the greatly reduced number of equipment and unique items, combined with the fact that most new equipment is simply purchased from merchants in the hub system; a far simpler, reduced magic system; a lackluster multiplayer scene with bland, shallow covenants; complete inability to re-spec your character; the boring, repetitive, cookie-cutter chalice dungeons; imbalanced PVP based on grinding/farming more powerful gems through RNG in the chalice dungeons; and so on, are all perfectly valid reasons someone might not enjoy Bloodborne as much as other games in the series.
Obviously these may be non-issues for some people, or else people may see greater good in the game and be willing to overlook or dismiss these types of issues, but it doesn't mean they don't exist and won't affect someone else's enjoyment of the game. It's blind fanaticism to deny any fault in Bloodborne, plain and simple. Beyond that, it paints a really poor image of the Bloodborne fanbase when I have irate fans telling me to kill myself and calling me a "f**king worthless piece of s**t" for calmly and rationally explaining why I didn't like this game as much as I expected/hoped to, with level-headed reasoning that acknowledges many positive counter-points to the criticisms I brought up. As I've said before, I understand that many people will disagree with my assessment of Bloodborne as "underwhelming and disappointing," but the amount of highly caustic, offensive, harrassing comments I've had to block/hide over this review is both surprising and alarming to me. For anyone who disagrees with me, then by all means express yourself, but at least comment WHY with a rebuttal in the game's defense instead of just calling me a brain-dead waste of life. Simply harassing me does nothing to convince me of any error in my judgment and doesn't help anyone seeking greater insight and understanding from others in the comments.
@@TheNocturnalRambler what can I say… our dear Souls community can be quite toxic (about as much as the rest of the internet, really). but, in their defense, the title you chose for this video is provocative. sometimes, when discussing sensitive topics, it pays to ease people in slowly, rather than revealing your opinion immediately. that's something I learned after a decade of arguing with people online.
I, myself, try to always watch the videos until the end before leaving feedback. but I have to say - I often feel like an idiot for doing so, as a lot of these videos (not from your channel, of course) turn out to be a complete waste of time. so I can sorta understand why people don't have a lot of patience these days, when they're bombarded with useless information at every turn. but, naturally, this does not excuse the lack of civility.
in any case, I hope you're doing okay in this time of plague.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi Thank you for the kind reply. You are correct about the video title being provocative, but I believe it to be a fair and accurate representation of my ultimate conclusions, as well as the general tone I convey through my manner of voice and my way of reasoning. It's not like I made a deliberately extreme, sensationalist click-bait title and thumbnail like "Bloodborne Sucks" or "Bloodborne is the Worst Game Ever," which would be completely disingenuous to the game itself as well as my opinions of it (but would be guaranteed to get way more attention). "Underwhelming and Disappointing" signals, to me, that the review is going to be slightly negative and more critical than your average Bloodborne review, in a generally neutral sort of way.
As a reader/viewer, I personally prefer it when reviews are up front about their intentions, because that provides more context for how the arguments are being shaped. In other words, it's easier to follow a reviewer to their conclusion if you already know where they're taking you, as opposed to guessing and trying to deduce their overall thoughts for yourself as you go along. After all, it's standard practice in academic essays, journals, and research papers to begin with an introduction or abstract that clearly states your thesis along with a brief summary or teaser of what you'll be covering in the following text.
With Bloodborne, sure, maybe I would've been spared some of the excessive hatemail and brigading downvotes by being less up front with my conclusions, but frankly, talking about a video game's faults and blemishes shouldn't be a "sensitive topic." I shouldn't have to tip-toe around the subject in fear of offending someone, because it's just a video game. No one should take anything said about a video game personally, and there's no rational reason to harass and bully someone for being critical of a video game, especially when those criticisms are in large part rooted in objective observation.
Like, it's not my opinion that the greatly reduced amount of weaponry and magic spells reduces the amount of strategic decision-making in terms of equipment loadouts and caracter builds compared to other games in the series -- that's basically a straight-up fact. It's my opinion that that's a bad thing, and that it affects my enjoyment of the game (which an individual might disagree with, and I could understand why), but that claim about the reduced scope of strategic decision-making is objectively irrefutable. And apparently those types of rational observations are me "[making] lies to get attention," which makes me a "pathetic piece of s**t" and a "digusting worthless piece of sub human filth." I just seriously cannot fathom these types of reactions from people.
I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm preaching to the choir -- these latter paragraphs aren't really directed at you, Arseniy, but are sort of me speaking to the general public and venting about some of the ridiculous responses this review has garnered. Thank you again for your kind discourse.
@@TheNocturnalRambler you're welcome, friend. lending an ear is the least I can do.
although, "it's just a video game" sounds really odd to me. wrong, even. maybe I'm a little too attached to video games (especially Souls), but I can see why someone can take these things so seriously. for a lot of people games can't be written off as insignificant. which, again, doesn't excuse the lack of civility.
it doesn't really matter if you "should" be careful with your words, because in 2020 that's pretty much a given. everybody's walking on eggshells, everywhere, all the time, in regards to every topic. and Souls? the internet has crucified people for much less.
don't get me wrong, I don't mean to tell you to change your approach to expressing yourself. that's up to you. just be aware that you'll have to deal with backlash. have realistic expectations of your audience, and you it won't hit you so hard next time. think of it as a matter of language - you have to speak the same one your audience understands, otherwise the acutual message will not get through.
@@arsenii_yavorskyi I didn't mean "it's just a video game" in the sense that they're a trivially pointless matter that people shouldn't care about. Obviously people should be passionate about the things they enjoy, and obviously I care a lot about video games, as is evidenced by the amount of time and effort I put into reviewing them. Taking video games seriously, however, is different from taking *what other people say about a video game* personally.
Just because you love a certain video game, doesn't mean you should take personal offense when someone else makes critical remarks about it, as those comments are not directed at you personally, and are of literally zero harm or consequence to you personally. Passionately disagreeing and defending something you love is reasonable; making it a personal matter by attacking someone and deliberately trying to inflict emotional or psychological harm on them, is not. And ultimately, I just don't think a video game is something that should drive one to that state of being; few (if any) things in life ever justify that kind of reaction, and video games should rank pretty low on that list, all things considered.
I reallyyyyy just didn't like it either I can see the good things about the game but after beating it the game just feels like a faster ds2 with a lot of that games problems. I was stoked I still think the lore is cool as shit but gd all the bosses feel like elemental of another version or just shit like the one or amygdala or rom and on and on I legit didn't like half the game or mores bosses they were just bad
Yup, multiple times finished DS3, DS1, Platinumed Sekiro, finished once DS2, yerp BB is very underwhelming, a lot of the bosses i defeated on the first meet, BB ambience and world design to me is commendable.. beautifully lovecraftian, but the boss are easy and although the game is longer than sekiro i felt its shorter hhmmm
I feel like that was mostly from you’re experience with souls games. For me it was very difficult.
Very good points. Bloodborne is a good game but always felt quite lacking for me. I liked the look of Yarnham at first but after a while it started to feel quite samey.
I feel like I'm necro-ing this a bit with it being a year old but fuck it I see other recent comments. I just started playing and getting into Bloodborne and it's on my mind a lot lately.
Personally, I really like it. I was curious about your review, as thus far the only criticism I've seen has been 'it's too hard :C' and blah blah git gud. I think your review is good and has a lot of merit, it's very well-thought out and analyzed and I respect that. Enough that I want to discuss it now.
The points I agree with the most were that the lack of discovering equipment is less rewarding, and that the chalice dungeons are weak. I hadn't had an issue with the equipment, but you pointing that out did make me see it differently, it's more fun to stumble across items than get a 'badge' to go buy them at the stores.
I don't really have a problem with the low number of weapons, I felt that was intentional. You may find it overly streamlined but I don't really get bothered by it I guess. I do agree the extra options from the DLC add something though. I think the sweet spot around 30-40. 100+ feels like way too much to me. I also like the armor choices in the same way you mentioned, that you can just wear whatever looks cool, and in some cases your outfit has plot effects. Finding better armor is fun but I kind of think it'd be better to find... IDK, gems that are for armor so you can just stick it in the armor you like and still get the feeling of finding better armor. Also I do wish you could do something with arcane or bloodtinge from the get-go, but getting the fire-thing from Gilbert happens fairly early and that's your arcane I guess.
I also like how obtuse the plot is. I am in the camp of 'the exposition scenes of dark souls are boring and lame'. I hate exposition like that, personally. Bloodborne is very open to interpretation and you are solving an actual mystery yourself as a player and I love that, to me it's another gameplay element. Including the very specific and hidden exploration. It reminds me of Symphony of the Night in a lot of ways, with its secrets that are nearly impossible to stumble across. Personally I think a lot of the hidden factors are meant to be motivation for NG+, so you can go back and try your different builds and find the things you missed.
Additionally you mention the multiple endings and that you fought Gherman for yours. (SPOILER) There IS actually a little more game after, if you've found the umbilical cords. You can fight the Moon Presence when she shows up to make you replace him, and if you kill her, you become the 'baby' form of a Great One, i.e. you ascend into their state of higher being. That is what it means to 'transcend the hunt', and she is Paleblood. (It's a lot of werewolf shit obviously. Moon, silver, period references, etc)
The other reason I like the storytelling in this manner is that it intrinsically links the story to the gameplay, and the decisions you make in the game and the secrets you discover have a great impact on future parts of the game. Not just the ending, but many other portions as well. Again, NG+ encouragement. This has given me actual moral dilemmas while playing that made me feel something unique. (I sent people to Iosefka... OH NO) This makes the Insight system fascinating to me. You see more of the horrors the more insight you gain, and you are closer to going mad because of it, (frenzy). If you gain insight chances are you're standing in front of a massive clue to the overall mystery of the game's plot, obviously usually a boss.
As for environments, I haven't really had the same trouble you were describing when it came to not knowing where to locate the NPCs you had to backtrack to. Generally speaking I think backtracking is bad, but to make another comparison to SOTN, because it's a game with a ton of exploration, part of that is finding the shortcuts and paths that lead back to previous areas, and to me it makes it feel exactly as the city is meant to feel. Winding, labyrinthine, with strange little passages. Yes it can be confusing at times and I have gotten lost, but that's still part of the challenge to me, to map things out in your mind as you go. I pointed out the lack of a map when I started it, but I don't consider it an inherently bad design choice. I also didn't really get bored with the visual style to me. Some games have huge variety and themes, others have a cohesive aesthetic. Perhaps some interiors could have been decorated more, I'm with you there, but it's more of an 'outside' game. To me, the outside areas were distinct.
The fact that you can't 'cancel' a move and change your mind is a feature, not a bug. It is a personal preference, I understand why it's annoying. Most people are used to games where you can just interrupt your own attacks, but fromsoftware likes to make you COMMIT to the button you pressed. It's supposed to make you think about what you're doing more instead of mashing buttons. I suppose to some extent in realistic combat if you start attacking when you shouldn't, you're going to leave yourself open. But again, I get why it's annoying, it fucks me up too a lot.
PERSONALLY, the bigger issue I see with game-play is that the lock-on mechanic is so unforgiving. Points about the camera are totally fair, but the locking on does infuriate me, I feel like I have to be looking exactly in the right place or it just flips the camera around me and then I get a big claw to the back.
Now, the Chalice Dungeons. The Chalice Dungeons. This is the big point for me because of the lore of what those are meant to represent. This is the old ruined society of the Great Ones, these cosmic horror lovecraftian entities, and it's... a bunch of standard dungeon rooms in a roguelike? I definitely think they missed an opportunity to me and it felt rushed and tacked on because it COULD have been a bizarre and surreal eldritch environment with strange shifting physics and changing walls or maybe rooms with inverted gravity or any number of creative ideas because that story element itself leaves them so much room for weird crazy environments, it's sad to me that they didn't latch onto that implication. I'm expecting the non-euclidean temple of Cthulhu here.
As for the PVP, I can't really comment on that both because I don't like playing online generally and sony put it behind a paywall anyway so it could be great or horrible, no idea, either way I doubt I'd like it cuz it's not my thing.
So yeah, that's my essay. Tl;dr good review, some good points, don't agree with most of it though.
James thanks for the analysis. I'm a huge Lovecraft fan and have most of the few 'good' movie and few games and almost all of his books. With that said, I'm used to RPG's like Morrowind, Skyrim, Dragon age, fall out. They seem to have...well, more choice. I remember playing Jaded Empire and loved it at first but it got repetitive by just having to automatically fight every enemy once you aggro them. So I bought a Dark Souls game actually 1 and 2. I quit 1 fairly early because I had to farm. Who the heck thinks thats fun (I'm a farm boy LOL). Then I tried 2 and was go to point A kill monsters that you can see in a distance then run to Point B and aggro them and wash a repeat. There seemed to be no choice: no talking your way out, no circumventing the enemies, no environmental destruction I could trigger to kill them, and no real 'stealth' kills from a distance. Stuff like in Morrowind and the above I mentioned. My couple of questions to you if you would be so kind to respond, Is this game better than the Souls games? Is this game semi open world like the first Dark Souls? And if played, Sekeiro (butchered name),it seems to offer more game play choices, Was it any good or even better the all the other souls games? AND lastly, can you talk me into this game just off the Merits of it's HP Lovecraft type story? Thanks
Good review
Interesting. My main problem with this game is its performance. After having played 600 hrs of DS3 on PC with >100 fps, Bloodborne is just an overall painful experience to me.
Nitiiii11 ps4pro has rock solid framerate (even if it’s only 30), just make sure your tv doesn’t lag behind the ps4, i went from unplayable to beating bosses in 1-2 tries just by changing the tv. Coming from ds3 on pc on 100+ fps
one man army your opinion is garbage
the only point I disagree with is everything to do with the story of this game
Even though i disagree with your review, you are making some great points.
The color palette/dark tone gets very old very quickly, and the chalice dungeons are a joke of elements repeated over and over again.
I am an hardcore fan of this game, and man i respect you a lot for having the coconuts to write a super critical review on the weak points of this masterpiece.
FROM if you are reading this, and if you are ever going to make a sequel, please take note.
Pitiful, really.
Chalice dungeons stuff I agree with but the dark tone is one of the games highest strengths, it amplifies the bleak aspect of the story.
Likewise…I just finished it and agree whole heartedly. I got a headache, and I’m using the official guide book! I just hope Bloodborne 2 takes notes from Elden Ring. That’s if there’s even a sequel.
Oh my god I agree! If blood borne 2 is a thing it will be perfect. I hope they take notes from elden ring.
I like bloodborne. I think its a good game. I think it is worth $60. I think everyone should give it a shot. I however, dont think its the best souls like game. I think a lot of the arguments that arise that this is the best fromsoft game arise from the fact that its exclusive to a demographic of players. I think the theme of the game is interesting but it is not fleshed out in the level design. The maps blend together into a similar grey and brown pattern and half the game feels like you are just walking the streets of london. My 3 favorite areas in the game were the fishing hamlet, the rom area, and cainhurst castle just because they tried something different with the level aesthetic. I also think this game has more bullshit moments than any other souls game. Never in any of the other games did I feel like putting down the controller and not playing for a few days. Npcs are overpowered and unbalanced as hell. There was one area where you have to fight 3 in a small room and each are very capable of killing you in only a hit or two. There was also no way to separate these npc to fight them one on one to have a fair fight. This would have been mitigated if you had a partner, which I did not because I was just borrowing a ps4 to play it and did not have ps+. Micolasch was also one of the biggest abominations of a boss fight ever. I beat orphan of kos, the widely regarded hardest souls boss on my 3rd try and only 25 min after my first attempt. Micolasch on the other time took me 3 hours and over 50 attempts. Other bosses feel broken and annoying to fight, amygdala being one of the better examples of this. Bloodvial farming also was a bitch too. Bloodborne is a good game but it is very flawed. I hope all these issues would be fixed in a bloodborne 2. Then I would maybe regard in to be as good as ds3
I like to hear someone else who beat orphan costs less than 10 times and micolash in more than 3
Micolash was one of the easiest boss fight for me. Just run around after him and when he's in the room, the guy is pretty easy to fight. Haven't fought Orphan because I didn't buy the DLC.
I agree though with the 3 little pricks in Unseen Village. Those 3 are the hardesy enemy I had to fight. Took more tries than any of the bosses. Until that is, I accidentally lured one of them away and killed him easily and was able to lure another one away to kill him easily. One by one, they're a piece of cake, but together, they were impossible for me to beat.
Realy good review imo even if i adored bloodborne.
Nice review, stagnation, and copy+paste is what From still hasn't fixed in the series.
Alongside other small issues
Bb its demon souls with rudimental mechanics. And there is a problem. Long tun to bosses is not hardcore is bad design. Like non recover heal. Like perry is consumable thing. Like non intuitive gameroads to new locations. Like very non linear boss difficulty. Game had strong sides but problems spoil all experience
I agree. But I disagree that Bloodborne's aesthethic and events are more interesting than Dark Souls. DS's twist on dark fantasy is far more impressive than Bloodborne's on lovecraftian horror, of which it just rows the usual tides.
I don't think there is any game that looks like bloodborne tho
great review, put many of my distastes with the game into words.
I tried it for a bit on ps5 but 30fps literally gave me a headache. It really needs a 60fps patch or something.
Excellent video, while I like Bloodborne as it was my first From Software game playing Nioh and Dark souls 1 made me realise that it wasn't quite as good as I thought and opened my mind to a lot of its flaws,I still like it though
really? Playing Dark Souls 1 made me realise how much better the combat and world is in Bloodborne.
@@cyberbird451 yeah I liked the combat more in Bloodborne but the bosses and level design weren't as good not a crime by any means Bloodborne is still very good game
@@rastyisanerd3686 I honestly can't think of a single thing wrong with the level design, some bosses were indeed better than others but the best bosses in any souls game are also in there (mostly from the dlc)
@@cyberbird451 the level design isn't as open and interconnected and the ability to warp from the start ruins the sense of isolated adventure that Dark Souls 1 had which sucks because in Bloodborne the world actually reacts and changes as you play so backtracking through older areas would've been more interesting, as for the bosses I thought they pretty fun but a bit too samey and similar also fuck the NPC fights those were absolute bullshit and I don't how they were even put in the game honestly
@@abovethelaw4417 lol
finally someone that realizes bloodborne didnt invent or innovate the fast speed, demons souls was always far faster than ds1, its ds1 that slowed down the combat.
Thank you for voicing everything I dislike about this game which is everything. I am not a psychic detective and having to use TH-cam videos is super lame
Yea, I wanna discover stuff in the game myself, not spoil myself with youtube guides and playthroughs in order to not miss a content. Bloodborne being vague and at times not even giving any clue would've resulted in missing a lot of stuff if you wanna play blind.
I think Dark Souls 3 did the "here's your voucher" thing much better.
What you obtain is the boss's _soul,_ and you get an NPC to _transpose_ that soul, turn its essence into one of two unique items. It's much more thematic, and even the ability to do soul transposition has to be earned by beating a boss.
That just feels way better to me than a voucher that... unlocks purchasable items?
I feel like I missed the bakery level where the aforementioned Rye-Post is located :p
It's next to the post office level, hence Rye-Post.
I will say I just decided today to finally play through Bloodborne. I've enjoyed my experience so far. I just beat The Shadows of Yarnham BTW. I do have to say while I like the combat and the horror/gothic desgin of the world it doesn't have much depth. I know the lore is deep just like every Fromsoft game, but I feel like Bloodborne obscures it even more compared to DS.
Hell even the Trick Weapons aren't all there. I've seen how a lot of other people have played this game through videos and through my friends. A huge majority of players stick with one form per Trick Weapon. A popular example would be how most people keep the Saw Cleaver folded as the rapid attacks are much better than extending it. Another example would be for players like me who loved the Kirkhammer where we just kept it in the Hammer form and only switched back to the sword when we fight hunter enemies/we wanna parry. And as for gear ehhhh. Most people use armour for fashion more than stats but like the guy in video mentioned was how they all look the same. Which leads back to how I'm getting bored with the world as it's all the same.
Also I do hate how to upgrade your weapons to do really good damage is by going through the Chalice Dungeons. They do carry some cool boss fights but damn man, just like the main game, it all looks the same. I think I would have more fun just going on a boss marathon with a friend in co-op. Sucks how the online play isn't well implemented like Fromsoft's other games have done.
IDK man. I'm just getting bored. I never had this problem with DS. I loved exploring the world and collecting every item even though I wasn't gonna use 99% of them, hahaha. But for Bloodborne I'm getting to the point where I just wanna run past every mob and get to the boss. The lore is so interesting in DS. Learning about every faction and what they did to each other. Learning about what motivates each character so they can avoid going Hollow. But in Bloodborne it's just blood this blood that, and hunt this hunt that.
If I ever do replay this game after I beat it, I'm probably just gonna run from boss to boss and only pick up items that I actually need. Of course only after entering the CUMM dungeon to max out my Blood Vials.
Completely agree. The setting was terrible it felt gloomy and depressing and that only works when you have a colorful area like anor londo to counter it. The whole game was black it got old fast. Grinding for vials made me quit the game for good. I’ll stick to dark souls
Great video
Bro this is so true
Like every other if those Kind of Games. ITS boring as hell. The Hero IS a cripple while everybidy Else IS a member of the cirque du Soleil
Finally a Bloodborne review that is honest.
Healing system is literally my only problem
I loved this game so much, I loved everything about it, Until that ending. Holy shit it was so jarring to have the game abruptly end when I had felt like I wasnt even close to the end. I was much more disappointed to find out that i missed out in entire areas, bosses, questlines etc. Now im unwillingly stuck at the start if NG+ and i put the game down. Theres not enough incentive to play a second time after such a let down, At least not for me.
I mean, I get that feeling of not seeing an ending coming, I experienced that with the movie Ghost in the Shell particularly hard, but Bloodborne? After getting that "nightmare slain" you didn't see the ending coming, ESPECIALLY after returning to the Dream and having the doll tell you that you did a good job and that Gehrman wants to talk to you in the area of the Dream that has been locked the entire game? Come on dawg.
And the whole missing out on areas thing; that has been a part of not only Soulsborne games but games in general that has been used to motivate players to do multiple playthroughs; again, I can empathize with that, but it sounds more like a "you" problem than an actual issue with the game.
@@NewbPhil omg is your pfp nuts from the mango series bonkers where the protagonist will sometimes go nuts and he his most famous quote being " the day is most nuts in the night and every bonkers has it's day
the problem with the BB bosses is there is no real window or learning chance to work out the mechanics, this game is the ultimate "do one thing, then react" type of combat system. if you buffer shit, you will die. if you spam, you will die. if you play too patient, you will also die. even if you hit the parry at the right time, there is still a high chance you will get hit too and possibly one-shot.
If you parried and still got hit you didn’t time it right
@@Pyromaniac963 then it shouldn't parry/knockdown the boss either
@@Afflictamine It’s a partial parry, which makes sense because you parry with a projectile and not a shield. Considering that you can usually just visceral the opponent and get your health back it’s pretty generous. It’s definitely a more forgiving system than souls since a parry in souls either connects or fails.
If a parry is quick enough to stop an enemy and get them into visceral stance, then it should either auto negate all incoming damage, or reduce the amount of damage/knock back/stun it does, but all of that remains the same. Broken mechanic, shit game, just barely beats dark souls 2 as the worst game in the series
@@annoyedPikachu I agree, its bullshit when you hit a parry but still get knocked down and can't get up in time for the visceral. But it isn't a shit game, it just has a couple flaws that could easily be fixed with a mod but they wont bring it to PC for some reason. I would personally change lamps to act like bonfires, and make at least 10 blood vials respawn upon death
Bloodborne is an amazing game, better than Dark Souls in my opinion
BUT!
People have an undisputable bias for it.
So I definitely think Bloodborne is way overrated...
Having to either die/use a consumable/go back to the hunters dream to respawn enemies is so time consuming for absolutely no reason. Having to go to a seperate location to travel to a different lamppost is just piss poor design.
Not a fan of your healing being tied to a consumable... I spent more time farming for blood and bullets than anything else.
The amount of times I literally ran into dead-ends because I approached an area from the wrong direction is poor level design. Right before Vicar Amelia if you go right of her boss door you will be stuck in a dead end and force to use a consumable to die since there is no way to kill yourself.
Speaking of Vicar Amelia the double hunter fight there is just down right not fun... the guy with the gun has unlimited bullets, no reload animation and spams the ever living shit of it.
I feel like FromSoft tried something new and hit a few of them right on the money but the game wasn't difficult so they inflated the difficulty with bad design lol.
I played this game about a week ago. I was lost as fuck and I didn’t know wtf was going on and I really couldn’t even get passed the fucking first enemy. I got annoyed bored and uninstalled.
Then why are you on this video if you unistalled it,lol
Finally someone said it; this game comparitivley is horrific.
The most difficult aspect about the game is the camera angles along with jiggly Fur Physics and bosses typically just appearing like wiggly spaghetti monsters rather than actual Beasts.
I want to like the game; and despite what people say about DS2- Dark Souls 2 is better in my opinion and this game is actually the weakest in the series.
Lore wise it's interesting but meh...
Who cares when you can't mold yourself to enjoy it's nauseating color pallete and graphically dull landscape.
Wiggly spaghetti monsters, lol. I agree, I like DS2 better
It’s just a dry 80% finished dark souls. I just got back on to it spam xp farming thinking it’d make me like it. Got through 3 bosses and then got to the fire dog boss... the players swing range against bosses just lost me and it felt exhausting to try and enjoy it. I quit and I’m playing fallout 4 strength build/pistol . I’m having fun with that
I love hate this game. Whats good is reaaaallly good but theres alot of bullshit and half baked ideas. And all i hear is how this game is perfect and the best ps4 exclusive by far, and im just baffled by it. Really happy to hear someone point the bullshit out.
one man army, well thats just silly. Ps4 literally had the highest grossing and most critically acclaimed exclusives of any other console soooo. You must be trollin.
Wow its sad this video got more thumbs down. This man kept it real and logical. I've said this before bloodborne is demon souls or darl souls entry with a different name and lore taken from hp Lovecraft. The combat was so shitty in bloodborne especially compared to nioh 1 and 2. Blood borne slow as wack combat combined with shitt lack list looking weapons. You walk around looking like a pirate from pirates of the Caribbean