A Terrible Hunter’s Dream… (New Side Quest! #4)
Game Played: Bloodborne (2015)
Following on from the announcement of FromSoftware’s next project – the legally distinct ‘The Duskbloods’, I thought it was time to revisit Bloodborne. Often heralded as the studio’s Magnum Opus, years of fan glazing turned it from a game I liked to one that I didn’t have the time of day for. Admittedly that’s on me for letting my opinion be swayed. After playing it, I think I’ve cemented my opinion on it:
‘It’s a good game but maybe my least favourite Souls Game’
So immediately, I made the decision to go for the ‘Yharnam Sunrise’ ending which is the easiest of the three endings to obtain and the shortest as it doesn’t require either of the optional final fights. Going for Yharnam Sunrise requires seven mandatory bosses – Father Gascoigne, Vicar Amelia, Shadows of Yharnam, Rom the Vacuous Spider, The One Reborn, Micolash Host of the Nightmare and Mergo’s Wet Nurse. I also fought a few optional bosses, those being: Bloodstarved Beast, Darkbeast Paarl, the Witches of Hemwick and Martyr Logarius. That leaves the Celestial Emissary, Ebriatis Daughter of the Cosmos, Amygdala, the two aforementioned end game fights, all 5 DLC bosses and all Chalice Dungeon Bosses. Of the 11 bosses I killed, I’d only consider 3 to be good. The remainder are alright or poor.
It’s a common complaint about the game but it’s true - Build diversity does suffer, even with access to DLC weapons. The issue is compounded by the fact the Saw Cleaver – one of the first three starting weapons, is objectively one of the best in the game as well as having a damage bonus for the majority of enemy and boss types in the first half of the game. I did decide to switch midgame for the DLC’s Beast Cleaver for a change but it was just a straight up nerf. Admittedly there’s probably a little more in the way of viable options in the left hand firearms but I always stick to the starting Hunter’s Pistol. That does bring us to Parrying. Parrying is satisfying but it really does trivialize the game to a fairly large degree. Parrying is in the Souls games but it takes a little bit more skill and has less reward in those games.
There are other elements to the character building but I don’t particularly rate them either. Blood Gems and Runes are both fine but nothing special. Blood gems slot into weapons which give the player bonuses. Unless you’re delving deep into the Chalice Dungeons for the super rare ones, Blood gems are little more than a numbers go up addition to weapons. It’s not quite the same as an infusion system. The runes on the other hand replace the rings from previous games but none of the options here are particularly exciting. I don’t even remember what I had on in this playthrough but I usually use max heals, heal on parry and some other third thing (It’s admittedly been a while). The two transformation runes - Beast’s Embrace and Milkweed - are cool but they’re in the DLC.
My biggest issue in terms of gameplay is that the Counter Hits system the game has is ridiculous. Naturally the rally mechanic incentivises retaliation – hitting back to regain health rather than backing off to heal but Counter hits (Getting hit mid animation) are ridiculous and deal too much damage. This is especially bad against quick enemies.
Beyond the gameplay, the theming of the game is top notch. Music and Sound design is phenomenal, absolutely love it. Every OST is good – Hunter’s Dream, Gehrman, Father Gascoigne etc and sounds like riposting are so good.
The shifting stages of the night and the effect it has on NPC’s and quests is really cool – no other (FromSoft) games do this apart from big sweeping changes like burning the Erdtree in Elden Ring. Townsfolk getting quiet doesn’t feel like they’ve gone to bed, it feels like something has gone wrong with them
I’m sorry but the twist that takes the game from Victorian to Lovecraftian isn’t as mind blowing as people would have you believe. The presense of Snake people in the Forbidden Woods, ghosts in Cainhurst, the Hunter’s dream all imply the world has more to it. Even if the sight of the Brain Suckers and Celestial Emmisaries do feel a little bit more left field than usual, there’s perhaps a little too much hint of something more going on?
Twists only work once too and the problem is the twist reveals the second half (third) of the game. The thing is Bloodborne has a Lord Vessel problem in the sense that everything after the reveal is a bit rubbish – Yahar’gul isn’t fun and Nightmare of Mensis is so so at best.
A couple other points I can’t really fit into the review proper:
- The lack of proper Lamp fast travel is annoying, there’s no two ways about it
- Bloodvial farming is annoying at the start but it very quickly becomes a none issue despite what people say
- Limb breaking is cool but it’s never explained in game
- Although I didn’t come across one in this playthrough, the Winter Lantern’s are peak design, so much so Shadow of the Erdtree brought them back for the Aged untouchables
- Insight and Beasthood are very cool mechanics that go completely WASTED but I have a whole article planned for that.
I still intend to play through the entire series again in order, not sure if that will be post ER Nightreign or Duskbloods but perhaps a full playthrough of each game before and after will help me form a final opinion. As of now, this is where I stand on the game.
