BLOODBORNE

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Comes out today for PS4 exclusive. Reviews have been up since yesterday. They're all really positive and original Demon's/Dark Souls director Miyazaki it getting a ton of praise right off the bat. The only downsides I have read about being long loadtimes and a limited number of weapons compared to Dark Souls, all the other stuff seems to be exceeding everyone's expectations.

I want it. I want it now. But I'm not sure whether it's worth purchasing a PS4 for at this point. :shifty:

Who's getting it? Who has it? What are some (spoiler-free) impressions?

Every time someone posts a gif or a clip of this game in motion it looks so amazing and makes it hard not to buy it. I'm gonna go with my gut, though, and hold off until it's on sale for $30 or $20, as that seems to happen very quickly these days.

The wave of perfect and near-perfect reviews are really pushing this game - apparently it's sold out on Amazon and many retailers. If you're considering getting a PS4 for it, I say get it if you can find a copy - there's already 450+ games in the PS4 library, many of which are free or you might have the license to if you bought digital games on PS3.

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Originally Posted by Bolivar

Every time someone posts a gif or a clip of this game in motion it looks so amazing and makes it hard not to buy it. I'm gonna go with my gut, though, and hold off until it's on sale for $30 or $20, as that seems to happen very quickly these days.

The wave of perfect and near-perfect reviews are really pushing this game - apparently it's sold out on Amazon and many retailers. If you're considering getting a PS4 for it, I say get it if you can find a copy - there's already 450+ games in the PS4 library, many of which are free or you might have the license to if you bought digital games on PS3.

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I guess the lineup for PS4 is getting pretty good especially with a lot of indies on it too. It's just that I'm living a fairly complicated lifestyle at the moment, basically chasing winter from Canada to New Zealand and pretty much only staying in one place for about 3-5 months, and rarely in a place where I have a screen to myself. But I do want this game and see if it is another legendary like my precious Dark Souls. Luxury issues :wacky:

This game is pretty great so far. Not perfect, I have some issues, but overall I"m digging it. Cleared the first couple boss's, and discovered a bithin' trick to help beat the second boss. Not a huge help, but a minor one and I really dig that this was included by the designers. I don't want to spoil what it is, but it could pay to read some item descriptions. :p

I will get a ps4 for this. And destiny 2. And ffxv. And uncharted 4 :D

And not to forget The Division.

If it has the feel of demon's souls or dark souls 1, then I'm ecstatic.

>>> Since it was announced this game was and still the only reason why I would consider to waste my money on a PS4..:luca:

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Originally Posted by NeoCracker

This game is pretty great so far. Not perfect, I have some issues, but overall I"m digging it. Cleared the first couple boss's, and discovered a bithin' trick to help beat the second boss. Not a huge help, but a minor one and I really dig that this was included by the designers. I don't want to spoil what it is, but it could pay to read some item descriptions. :p

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I'm jealous!

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Originally Posted by McLovin'

If it has the feel of demon's souls or dark souls 1, then I'm ecstatic.

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Oh yea. Only time will tell if it holds up like these gems do.

Just got my first invader. "Ikillnoobs".

I wooped his ass SO badly. XD

Also, I have 3/4 awakening headstones usable, though the I got the fourth one unlocked before the third, not sure if I should be hear.

Some bizarre Nightmare fueled world that is creepy and awesome.

Been looking up some more reviews and the more I see about this game the more I'm intrigued by the dark christian themes and darkness. MUST HAVE.

But still not sure whether I'll invest in the ps4 at this point :ohdear:

Okay, as much as I love it, this game is very buggy. If you aren't already familiar with the series difficulty and gameplay, this game will be beyond infuriating trying to handle both that and the many bugs. Hit detection gets Wonky, it's easy to get stuck in environments, parrying doesn't really function right.

Even if you are familiar with the series, these are an endless source of frustration. Wait until it's patched to buy.

I hate the crows.

Dogs are more infuriating then the crows.

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Originally Posted by NeoCracker

Dogs are more infuriating then the crows.

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I killed a dog without getting hit, AMA

I've been sucked in...

Managed to get a pretty good deal though between some points I had on my GameStop Rewards card, and some money I had saved on a Google debit, and a little my girlfriend had saved up, only had to really pay like $10 out of pocket

Not sure why this one interests me so much. I found the majesty of Dark Souls, but it didn't stick. I got fed up with cheap deaths that required insight or dying previously to have any real chance of accomplishing anything. This one doesn't feel quite like that. You're not stranded between bonfires, and not doomed to constantly have to revive all your old foes just to survive yourself and progress by slogging through the same tedium. The whole blood vial concept makes everything a little more tolerable to me. And it doesn't unbalance the game at all. You still die in 3 or 4 hits if you get sloppy or confident

I like the world a bit more as well. Dark Souls was a nice spin on a generic medieval fantasy, but it was still set in a generic medieval fantasy. There hasn't been too many games set in a world like this other than Silent Hill when it goes all demonic. And other suck DOOM-inspired Hell-locales (Jericho had a nice one)

Super digging all the Brotherhood of the Wolf outfits and creepy plague-doctor masks and everything

Granted, the world is extremely dense with atmosphere and decoration it's really hard to navigate in a fight. Even in wide open spaces you're likely to get backed into something and be unable to dodge properly

And as stated, the controls aren't as tight as they could be. But neither was Dark Souls. I know of many occasions in Dark Souls where I'd hit a direction and dodge, and not actually dodge. I guess there's a lot of electrical signals to process in these things, and it's normal for one to get lost in the mix now and again. One of the reasons I got turned off eventually since death avoidance required a bit too much foresight and controllers had to be made more perfect than even first party controllers can handle. Or maybe it's just the console can't process everything. I'm not sure. But I know a lot of deaths are my own fault, and a good portion are not so much my own fault

But I've kinda learned to get past that. Echoes are not quite as important as the souls were in Dark Souls, so it doesn't hurt as bad when I lose everything

What I found odd is that Dark Souls 2's world was really different from what I could tell. I never played it, but I watched others play it. And This game and Dark Souls 1 seem to follow the same flow. The first bosses are really similar, the paths to get into sewers is really similar. It just all really more riminiscent than what I gathered from Souls 2. But it makes sense considering they've honed this style to an artform, this being basically the fourth game. And even then, they had Kings Field, and another game set in Fuedal Japan that followed a similar format. They've been doing this a very long time...

Glad they haven't burned out I guess. Though I don't appreciate their games the way a lot of people do. It's nice to come back to every now and again..

This is how I've been taking breaks between Pillars of Eternity sessions..

Edit: Just watched Super Best Friends play this on YouTube and they explained that Miyazaki was more directly involved in the first two Souls games, and not so involved in Dark Souls 2. And the things like rag-doll physics, short-cut paths, and all that jazz are more his trademark so it's more closely related to Dark Souls 1. Glad I wasn't hallucinating. And the whole idea that while traveling around the world, "if you can see it, you can get there". Where Souls 2 apparently just had a bit of background dressing that wasn't always accessible, and accessible things weren't often visible from other parts of the world and stuff. I should really play Souls 2 before forming a real opinion. But I think I like this Miyazaki's style

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Originally Posted by NeoCracker

Okay, as much as I love it, this game is very buggy. If you aren't already familiar with the series difficulty and gameplay, this game will be beyond infuriating trying to handle both that and the many bugs. Hit detection gets Wonky, it's easy to get stuck in environments, parrying doesn't really function right.

Even if you are familiar with the series, these are an endless source of frustration. Wait until it's patched to buy.

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Just read your review and it sounds fair. I'd still buy it if I had a ps4. But I guess only time will tell whether the lore and PvP can carry this game into the range of timeless classic like DkS1 :cool:

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Originally Posted by Pete for President

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Originally Posted by NeoCracker

Okay, as much as I love it, this game is very buggy. If you aren't already familiar with the series difficulty and gameplay, this game will be beyond infuriating trying to handle both that and the many bugs. Hit detection gets Wonky, it's easy to get stuck in environments, parrying doesn't really function right.

Even if you are familiar with the series, these are an endless source of frustration. Wait until it's patched to buy.

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Just read your review and it sounds fair. I'd still buy it if I had a ps4. But I guess only time will tell whether the lore and PvP can carry this game into the range of timeless classic like DkS1 :cool:

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Yeah, it's really great, you should just wait until the bugs are fixed though, cause those really can be game killing here. But they've been working on it, and have fixed some of them so far.

And yeah, the lore is absolutely fantastic. Mechanically I edge towards Dark Souls due to simply having more viable gameplay options, but I think Bloodborne wins out in terms of Lore and World.

I've heard so many conflicting reviews about the mechanics, how people find it harder, or glitchier, or whatever, while other people find it astoundingly easy and are able to break the mechanics in half because it just is so much second nature to their playstyle they easily get in tune with it. So part of it may in fact be a player issue. Not to say you're wrong and those things don't exist and you're just a bad player. But I think its easier for some people to work around those issues than it is for other players, so anyone reading the review there and is legitimately interested in the game, I would say give it a rental and see. Because it may not affect you quite as badly. I personally found Dark Souls to be glitchier. In neither game do I feel very confident in relying on specifically timed dodges, parries, or counter-attacks or anything. I've constantly hit walls where I time something and it doesn't come out. Either I didn't hit the button hard enough, it didn't register, or I hit something else in conjuction like trying to do a combo and then dodge and the system failing to realize I wanted the dodge to be part of the inputs. Frequently I just press the buttons too fast. I know what I want to do, and I want to do it now. Bloodborne by FAR more easily accomodates that playstyle for just being a faster paced game. Not to mention its a bit more forgiving when things go wrong because of how you can replenish your health by simply just immediately going on the offensive. Which I wanted to do a LOT more in Dark Souls but it was such a punishing game for that playstyle. Not really saying its better or I'm better at anything or whatever nonsense. But there's people who adore the patient wait and react of Dark Souls and can easily exploit that playstyle way more than I ever could. So there's that. Just my two cents, watching people talk about it on Twitter and whatnot, and some personal experience at failing at both games. Just having an easier time acclimating to Bloodborne

The thing is, Glitches in Bloodborne are easily repeatable. It's so easy to find footage of attacks passing directly through enemies, yet when struck again at the same distance, same weapon, same way, the attack passes through, especially with your side arm. And it can be found happening a lot more consistently with a lot more people they with either DS1/2 or Demon Souls.

It's pretty undeniably the buggiest of any of their titles yet. To a person who has never played a Souls game, Bloodborne may be near impossible to adapt to because of it. It really does need a bug fix, it's really the only thing severely holding the game back I feel.

Shadow of Yharnam at level 4 is hard.

The reviews and impressions I've read led me to believe that Souls players were having the harder time adapting to the more offensive nature and feast-or-famine mechanics. And people who (like me) have played very little, or none of the souls games were finding Bloodborne not that bad. But I've never actually researched the glitches. One of the worst things I've encountered was when fighting faster hunter-hunter NPCs in enclosed spaces is that even locking on doesn't guarantee you will be aimed at them when you attack. Even without them dodging, I have been killed many many times from swinging at someone and not even going through them. My attack would animate past them. I basically skip them and swing behind them, putting myself right next to them in a completely vulnerable position, and of course I either get massively counter-attacked, or because I was in an attack animation (which didn't even attempt to connect) I could get gunned down and put on my knee. Sad times. But I'm still having a much better time with this than Dark Souls. It almost makes me want to go back and give Souls another look. But I know that I would get decimated with these mechanics now ingrained in my brain lol

>>> Dark Souls was a glitchy game?
I truly never realized..:luca:

That's because it wasn't very glitchy, and not everyone who played experienced the glitches that would happen. It was more an oddity in Dark Souls when you would come across a glitch, or at least one that would affect gameplay.

The first time I fought the Cleric Beast, I got hit by the grab where you get slammed against the ground multiple times. And surviving that, my camera got locked in the direction it was facing when I was let go. And on top of that, my character was locked into that walk-path. I couldn't move the camera, or move my character left or right. I had to heal up and purposely get grabbed again to fix it. Fun times. And I will admit nothing like that has happened in Dark Souls to me. But in both games I frequently experience the inputs not responding when and how I need them to. Of course it only occurs in desperate situations. But it's irritating to know you put in the right combination of buttons to get out of a bad situation only to die when it doesn't happen. But people probably said the same thing about the newer Ninja Gaiden games. I think it's just the way things are these days. The game is only programmed to receive and respond to certain actions at certain intervals. And nobody wants to wait a second when they're getting wailed on to hit the dodge button just because you are in the middle of a combo that left you vulnerable. You know you stopped hitting the attack button and are now hitting the dodge button. Why is your character still attacking and not dodging? Because difficulty

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Originally Posted by Vyk

And nobody wants to wait a second when they're getting wailed on to hit the dodge button just because you are in the middle of a combo that left you vulnerable. You know you stopped hitting the attack button and are now hitting the dodge button. Why is your character still attacking and not dodging? Because difficulty

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Can't speak for Bloodborne, but with Dark Souls the attack actions would just queue up. Press attack 3 times, your character will attack 3 times, even if you are mashing the dodge button right afterwards. You get what you put in, and that vulnerability is not necessarily "because difficulty" but more because think before you act. And ofcourse that goes out the window in desperate situations, but part of becoming better at the game was learning to keep your head cool at all times. At least it was in Dark Souls, both in PvE and PvP.

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Originally Posted by Pete for President

Can't speak for Bloodborne, but with Dark Souls the attack actions would just queue up. Press attack 3 times, your character will attack 3 times, even if you are mashing the dodge button right afterwards. You get what you put in, and that vulnerability is not necessarily "because difficulty" but more because think before you act.

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You can speak for Bloodborne, because it's the same way, and you're absolutely right. Input queueing is absolutely intentional. These games punish thoughtless and frantic strategies that work in many other games (in this case button mashing) and reward careful, specific execution.

I beat it at level 4 this weekend.

I almost had a personal best 45 minute speedrun and my PS4 crashed, someone please hold me :crying2:

I'm level 45 and probably 30 hours in and likely not even halfway through lol

I really don't like leveling up that much, but I also don't like holding onto and potentially wasting tons and tons of blood echoes

And as for my previous complaint, I've tested it out. The queuing is really just two button presses. I thought attack attack attack worked. But only if you're pressing it during each animation. I (wrongly) presumed there was an exception where attack attack attack queued but attack attack dodge had a different timing. Turns out I (obviously) was just simply button mashing. It's great, but it's also weird for an action game to have fighting game mechanics. And man is it hard to retrain yourself to wait for an attack animation to be half over before hitting dodge, when you KNOW you're going to get hit if you don't hit dodge fast enough. Can not pound that dodge button fast or hard enough

The girlfriend and I have been having loads of fun with this game before beating it. We've set up completely different types of characters and are at totally different levels, but at the same point in the game. Like 2 or 3 bosses to go before the end of the game, and we've both taken a hiatus in order to do charity work in the world of Yharnam. Choosing 2 or 3 different bosses to offer help on. And somehow it's super gratifying to help people get past the bosses we each had the most trouble with, probably because we can relate to their plight. But in the interim I have discovered something. My girlfriend's dad gave us a 3D TV, and it has a pretty high refresh rate

I'm not sure what the tech behind the issue is, but timing was hard and noticably laggy between button press and character action. I have since found that there is a "game" mode. Which I assume drops the refresh rate down to 60Hz or something to keep pace with the game and my button input lag has all but disappeared. There's still some hiccups regarding invincibility frames and stuff, since it's Bloodborne. But my gameplay ability has significantly advanced since switching to this. No more manic button presses when I know I don't have to wait half a second or more for a reaction. I don't have to be as frantic when I'm more assured what I'm pressing will actually happen on screen in a reasonable amount of time

So uh if anyone is having issues with timing in this game, may want to look into something similar. Check your TV's refresh rate or something. Like I said, I'm not sure what the specifics behind it are, but there was a noticeable difference in response time

The following is presented by a passionate love for dual butterknives and an intense hatred for myself:

Bloodborne - Depth 5 Chalice Bosses - Base HP / Blade of Mercy

Lamonda & I beat Bloodborne together. Literally.

wow
that's pretty cool
and also i guess it says something about your marriage ;)
great job u 2

We did it again at level 4 for a harder challenge. :jess: We defeated Gehrman and Moon Presence tonight, and we streamed the whole thing. Fun times!

Argh I wanna play this game!

A good friend of mine has been playing this game and she really likes it! I'm not sure if it's the kind of game that I would play to completion, but I'd like to try it out eventually. :-)