Bloodborne (Dark Souls 2 successor (Dark Souls successor (Demon's Souls successor)))

[Twig]

Gosh I can't beat either of the two bosses available to me

Vicar Amelia and Blood-Starved Beast

I'm tempted to go explore those two caves off to the side, but I don't know if they'll lead anywhere yet. I'm assuming the forest everyone's talking about...

 

I can't parry. I don't like parrying and I can't do it and I can't seem to win without doing it.

 

Also the loading screen takes almost as much time as does running back to the bosses once I spawn at the lantern. Christ. Okay I'm done talking about the loading screen. I really hate the loading screen.

[eot]

The side areas are good places to go if you're having trouble with those bosses.

[Griddlelol]

I'd say push VA, since that boss is a lot easier.

if you stay behind her, she basically can't do a thing.

I finished! I did all the optional bosses except for me which requires an item I missed

the umbilical chord

. I had a lot of trouble with

Gehman, until I started to parry him. Was a hell of a lot easier then

I've entered NG+ with over 100k souls and I know they're going to be lost as I'm not going to beat father G on my first attempt. Makes me super anxious.

I think I'm going to platinum bloodborne. It's a really fucking good game. I only have a few minor complaints, mainly what Eot has said about healing. Otherwise I'm certain this is a GOTY contender.

I had a rather annoying enemy who kept invading and would never bow when we spotted each other. He'd also heal up whenever I took him down to below half. Both things I thought were fowned upon in pvp. It was really satisfying when I killed him in two separate invasions using a parry.

[Cbirdsong]

In the Forbidden Forest,

did anyone else invite the bandaged man back to the chapel?

He is a

murdering asshole and you shouldn't trust him.

[osmosisch]

@CBirdsong

I didn't trust him so I backstabbed him upon which he turned into a lightning werewolf (!?) and murdered me good. Then I came back and cheesed him to death from inside the windmill.

[Cbirdsong]

I didn't trust him so I backstabbed him upon which he turned into a lightning werewolf (!?) and murdered me good. Then I came back and cheesed him to death from inside the windmill.

 

After losing when he had only a sliver of health left, I ended up cheesing him in a similar way.

 

If you invite him back to the chapel,

he will slowly murder the people you have brought there. First he got the old lady from Central Yarhnam, and the next time I returned he had killed the creepy red-haired?/cloaked? legless guy who tells you to bring people back to the chapel in the first place. The only character I have left alive is the blonde lady from the Cathedral Ward.

[********]

Gosh I can't beat either of the two bosses available to me

Vicar Amelia and Blood-Starved Beast

I'm tempted to go explore those two caves off to the side, but I don't know if they'll lead anywhere yet. I'm assuming the forest everyone's talking about...

 

I can't parry. I don't like parrying and I can't do it and I can't seem to win without doing it.

 

Also the loading screen takes almost as much time as does running back to the bosses once I spawn at the lantern. Christ. Okay I'm done talking about the loading screen. I really hate the loading screen.

 

I had this exact problem, I fought BSB probably 15 times and got sort of close a couple times and VA maybe 5 or 6, but didn't get anywhere with her.

 

I originally went with the high-skill class and threaded cane weapon and leveled up kinda haphazardly I guess  Anyways I restarted yesterday, picked the high-strength class and saw cleaver and then leveled up vitality mostly and I got back to them in a few hours (like a quarter of the time it took me originally) and killed BSB the first time and VA the second time.  So like that shit matters I guess is what I'm saying?

[Twig]

I am high strength and using the hunter axe... ):

 

I ran out of blood vials AGAIN and farmed werewolves for a bit and bought like forty and leveled up a few times. I don't like the rifle spear at all, except for the charge attack is nice for closing distance. But eh.

 

Anyway then I fought VA once and finally actually hit her a few times.

I took down a WHOLE THIRD of her health! This is an accomplishment... And then the camera fucked me and I had no idea what her next attack was going to be and it was the one where she bashes the ground with both her fists and makes a shockwave and it killed me. X:

[N1njaSquirrel]

VA wasn't as hard as BSB for me. I killed VA pretty easily, but it could be because i killed BSB before VA, which was a harder fight. I'm currently in the forbidden woods now. What a fucking horrible place this is. I can't find a good short route to the boss either, which is really grating me, as I get killed pretty quickly from the bastard.

 

Is it just me, or does the combat feel a bit more stale than in DaS? I find myself using the 2-handed axe's charged R2 attack, which seems to kill most things with relative ease. and the range of the weapon means that i don't usually get hit that much. Failing that I just dash behind the enemy and slash them. I guess it's not too dissimilar to my playthrough of DaS, as I only used the club, but at least I had a lot of weapons I could experiment with. In BloodBorne I feel like the restricted weapon set makes me want to experiment less. Either that, or the other weapons just aren't as powerful as my axe, so I just use that.

[Cbirdsong]

The most efficient route I've found to farm up blood vials: spawn in at the Great Bridge, kill brute (2) + two werewolves (6), walk down through the house and kill the four regular dudes in there (0-2, plus some bonus bullets), head out the back door and clean out the area with two brutes (2-4) on your way back up to the Central Yharnam lamppost. Pretty short route, and you get 10-15 vials plus a bunch of echoes you can buy more vials with.

 

(The consumable system is easily the worst part of this game.)

[Griddlelol]

Is it just me, or does the combat feel a bit more stale than in DaS? I find myself using the 2-handed axe's charged R2 attack, which seems to kill most things with relative ease. and the range of the weapon means that i don't usually get hit that much. Failing that I just dash behind the enemy and slash them. I guess it's not too dissimilar to my playthrough of DaS, as I only used the club, but at least I had a lot of weapons I could experiment with. In BloodBorne I feel like the restricted weapon set makes me want to experiment less. Either that, or the other weapons just aren't as powerful as my axe, so I just use that.

I pretty much had the opposite experience. I have so many weapons I've partially upgraded and I'm constantly switching between long sword and great sword, plus I use the whip a fair amount too. There are a to of weapons, they just come to you slower.

[melmer]

Twig:

You should go left at the cathedral. There's a whole area there that's probably the second easiest in the game. (With a lamp not far in)

Use the axe combo (starting one handed) R1 L1 R1 R1. It's a really meaty combo that will stun a lot of enemies, so they can't attack you whilst your hitting them. Makes taking out those big brick wielding dudes a lot easier

[Korax]

Started a fresh game, partially with the intention of recording boss fights. I guess they're intended to be slightly edifying/instructional? Anyway, got through Cleric Beast and Father Gascoigne:

 

 

I'm at Old Yharnam now, so BSB is hopefully upcoming.

[Twig]

I did it. I killed Vicar Amelia.

 

Yesterday's death was sort of a fluke 'cause like I said the camera fucked me. I probably would've killed her yesterday if that hadn't frustrated me out of playing. Anyway it took two tries, because I didn't know how to stop her from healing on the first try and i just kind of lost after I did enough damage to kill her two or three times...

[Twig]

And... then I beat Blood-Starved Beast.

 

Parry parry parry parry parry.

 

I died twice cause I got grabbed and that's a guaranteed death apparently? I couldn't break out of it and I was low enough that the poison instantly killed me after I got out. But then the third time I got better at seeing the grab coming and parried almost every single attack that I tried to parry. I got hit a few times during one of those super long combos BSB does and used a grand total of two blood vials and one antidote. And I used about 20 bullets across the three attempts.

 

Welp.

 

Welp.

[eot]

Regarding some "shortcuts" later in the game

I thought it was nice that Forbidden Woods connects to Central Yarnham and to some extent that Paarl is basically down in Old Yarnham, but you never have a reason to take those paths. If I couldn't just warp out of that boss area then it'd matter more. The Forbidden Woods one seems totally pointless though, not sure why you'd ever use it. I still appreciate that it's there, but I think I'd like this game more without warping. Even then, not sure why you'd want to go back to Central Yarnham but maybe a reason will reveal itself.

 

I got the Crow armor now, it looks pretty rad I have to say.

[Horse Bag]

In regards to the FW shortcut:

The only one I can think of that links to Central Yarnham, via the underground poisoned cavern, grants you access to a new part of the city. Did you overlook a ladder, perhaps?

[eot]

I didn't scrutinize that area, I just saw it as a shortcut. I'll have to go back and check it out again!

[Griddlelol]

The NG+ is pretty weird. It makes you feel super weak again. Most games use NG+ as a way to make you feel over powered, but I'm struggling with trash mobs. Bosses are different, They're easy once you have the strategy down (although I still maintain father G is the hardest boss in the game - it's those fucking grave stones everywhere).

There's no way to upgrade weapons to be more powerful, so your stuck with stat scaling, and right now I'm putting points into arcane so I can use all the cool little spells, unfortunately, I can't use the spells yet, and I'm not gaining any damage.

I think the cathedral ward is one of my favourite places. Just really enjoy that area, and the bosses.

One more thing: with enough insight (I just ate all my mad mans knowledge to try to max it out) I've noticed that the rifle guys pull out a sword if you get close. Plus there are loads of little lines that trash mobs say like

"it's all your fault" and "cursed one"

I wonder what that means.

This isn't a spoiler so I'll just type it out: why do the hunters attack you? I've not found anything that explains why every other hunter is hostile starting with father G.

[melmer]

Is it because they're themselves turning in to beasts? Not ever hunter attacks you, I once met a hunter NPC standing outside the cathedral. We had a friendly chat and he taught me how to curtsy

[Griddlelol]

That seems like a reasonable explanation, but father G is the only one who demonstrates their beastly side.

Interestingly, that hunter is a hunter of hunters...

[Bjorn]

I had a rather annoying enemy who kept invading and would never bow when we spotted each other. He'd also heal up whenever I took him down to below half. Both things I thought were fowned upon in pvp. It was really satisfying when I killed him in two separate invasions using a parry.

 

My attitude is that etiquette only exists for consensual duels.  I wouldn't bow during an invasion, the inability to dodge out of them just leaves you vulnerable for like 3-4 seconds.  It's a terrible decision that DS2 resolved by letting cancel those animations whenever you wanted.   As for healing, invaders have previously been barred from healing in other people's worlds, so couldn't heal, and people being invaded should always heal because they didn't ask for some asshat to come try to murder them. 

 

Speaking of invaders, I killed my first one!  I think I just had him outclassed on equipment and levels, as he went down fairly easy. 

 

 

 

On another topic, Martyr Logarius can get right fucked, preferably with a spiked wheel.  I didn't have much time to play this weekend, and basically spent the entire three hours I had last night throwing myself at him again and again and again.  I hadn't hit a brick wall like this before.  Probably burned 150+ vials and bullets (each), 30+ molotovs, 10+ oil urns, 40+ throwing knives, 10+ fire paper, 10+ bone marrow ash, and a few other miscellaneous items.  I had to go farm items and echoes multiple times to restock.  I went into other people's worlds and helped them beat him so I could have more time and space to observe his attacks.  And that fucker must murdered me, and murdered me, and murdered me.  I finally gave up and summoned in help, and then died by rolling off a ledge.  And then I burned like 5 insight trying to summon again and no one got summoned.  Finally got another guy, and he got murdered late in the fight, but I was able to finish it myself.  I understood his patterns and knew the tells for all of his attacks, I just couldn't keep my self from taking damage. 

 

If you go searching for advice for this fight, it's really unhelpful as you'll find tons of posts of "He was the easiest fight in the game, just parry him a dozen times and he's dead."  Every one of those people beat him because he glitched out on them and they didn't realize it.  Apparently in a very long play session (many, many hours) there is a memory leak that eventually builds up enough that it fucks up enemy AI, and completely wrecks bosses because they can't use 90 percent of their movesets.  It's most obvious with Logarius because if it happens to him, the attacks he has left are the least dangerous ones he has. 

[Cbirdsong]

As for healing, invaders have previously been barred from healing in other people's worlds, so couldn't heal, and people being invaded should always heal because they didn't ask for some asshat to come try to murder them. 

 

This is related to another annoying thing about the healing system. Previously, when you were helping someone with a boss, you could take a few hits here and there and get healed by their flask, but now you have to spend your own consumables. A few failed summons in a row can leave you having spent half a stack of vials with nothing in return. It makes it feel like you have a lot more to lose by trying to help people, and it feels a lot more frustrating when the host does something fatally stupid halfway through a fight.

[Cyborg771]

On another topic, Martyr Logarius can get right fucked, preferably with a spiked wheel.  I didn't have much time to play this weekend, and basically spent the entire three hours I had last night throwing myself at him again and again and again.  I hadn't hit a brick wall like this before.  Probably burned 150+ vials and bullets (each), 30+ molotovs, 10+ oil urns, 40+ throwing knives, 10+ fire paper, 10+ bone marrow ash, and a few other miscellaneous items.  I had to go farm items and echoes multiple times to restock.  I went into other people's worlds and helped them beat him so I could have more time and space to observe his attacks.  And that fucker must murdered me, and murdered me, and murdered me.  I finally gave up and summoned in help, and then died by rolling off a ledge.  And then I burned like 5 insight trying to summon again and no one got summoned.  Finally got another guy, and he got murdered late in the fight, but I was able to finish it myself.  I understood his patterns and knew the tells for all of his attacks, I just couldn't keep my self from taking damage. 

 

If you go searching for advice for this fight, it's really unhelpful as you'll find tons of posts of "He was the easiest fight in the game, just parry him a dozen times and he's dead."  Every one of those people beat him because he glitched out on them and they didn't realize it.  Apparently in a very long play session (many, many hours) there is a memory leak that eventually builds up enough that it fucks up enemy AI, and completely wrecks bosses because they can't use 90 percent of their movesets.  It's most obvious with Logarius because if it happens to him, the attacks he has left are the least dangerous ones he has. 

 

I was really disappointed to hear about this glitch. I'm not sure if I beat him legit or not anymore. I feel like I need to start over just to be sure I didn't accidentally cheese my way through.

[Dewar]

Wow, that's a pretty horrible AI glitch.