Blind Bloodborne playthrough thread HYPE

[Wolf Kanno]

Insight annoys me because it's such a wasted mechanic. It does virtually nothing in the entire game.

Um...

don't read this Pete for President

• Insight makes certain enemies more difficult by letting them gain new moves or powered up attacks
• Is tied to your Frenzy resistance
• Allows you to see the Amygdalas in Cathedral Ward as well as changes the music in the Hunter's Dream, not to mention some new dialogue from Gerhiam and The Doll
• Is used as a currency in the Hunter's Dream
• Ties into the Lovecraftian theme of greater understanding of the eldritch world leads to madness

I mean frankly, I felt Humanity was a more wasted stat in DS. For something that is suppose to have great significance in the story, it does little in the game proper that isn't attached to my least favorite features in the series (grinding and multiplayer). I mean at least insight makes sense mechanically speaking. Dark Souls never bothers to explain why being humanity is necessary for most of it's gameplay functions (barring the lighting of bonfires mind you) and is basically just a left over mechanic from Demon's Souls arbitrary Soul/Human form, which didn't make much sense in that game either.

[Spuuky]

don't read this Pete for President

• Insight makes certain enemies more difficult by letting them gain new moves or powered up attacks
  
  Not actually even true
  
  
• Is tied to your Frenzy resistance
  
  Barely relevant, tiny effect
  
  
• Allows you to see the Amygdalas in Cathedral Ward as well as changes the music in the Hunter's Dream, not to mention some new dialogue from Gerhiam and The Doll
  
  This is literally the one real thing it does, so that's good
  
  
• Is used as a currency in the Hunter's Dream
  
  Yes, it's a currency, which has nothing to do with the concept
  
  
• Ties into the Lovecraftian theme of greater understanding of the eldritch world leads to madness
  
  It would if it was actually used for anything, but it isn't

[Pete for President]

Beat spoiler a lightning beast skeleton thing. Venturing onwards into forbidden forest.

Thanks for spoiler warnings guys won't read!

[Vyk]

don't read this Pete for President

• Insight makes certain enemies more difficult by letting them gain new moves or powered up attacks
  
  Not actually even true
  
  
• Is tied to your Frenzy resistance
  
  Barely relevant, tiny effect
  
  
• Allows you to see the Amygdalas in Cathedral Ward as well as changes the music in the Hunter's Dream, not to mention some new dialogue from Gerhiam and The Doll
  
  This is literally the one real thing it does, so that's good
  
  
• Is used as a currency in the Hunter's Dream
  
  Yes, it's a currency, which has nothing to do with the concept
  
  
• Ties into the Lovecraftian theme of greater understanding of the eldritch world leads to madness
  
  It would if it was actually used for anything, but it isn't

(SPOILER) The doctors get new moves, the witch things in the forest don't appear with low insight, they also don't appear in the boss fight with zero insight, and I've noticed pretty substantial frenzy resistance at lower insight, especially with certain equipment.

I'm one who appreciates what they tried to do with it

[Spuuky]

Frenzy as a legitimate threat to your well-being occurs perhaps twice in the entire game, and zero mandatory times.

Other than that small impact on Frenzy resist, there is literally 0 difference between 15 and 99 Insight.

[Wolf Kanno]

don't read this Pete for President

• Insight makes certain enemies more difficult by letting them gain new moves or powered up attacks
  
  Not actually even true

Excpet it actually charges up a few enemies and gives them new moves, making you have to change up some of your tactics for dealing with them. It also affects the Witches of Hemlick fight since 0 Insight can make the fight ridiculously easy because they can't summon their guards anymore.

• Is tied to your Frenzy resistance
  
  Barely relevant, tiny effect

Except in the Nightmare Realm where Frenzy makes the Winter Lanterns a major threat and high enough insight can make the Nightmare of Mensis a real bitch to deal with. The second area has to be visited as well.

Also, many of the new abilities the enemies get cause Frenzy, not to mention the Byrgenworth Fly enemies, the Pig Enemies, Ebriatas has a fenzy causing move and the Bloodletter weapons causes Frenzy build-up as well. So it shows up quite a bit. Frankly, I feel Fast Poison was a more worthless stat.

• Allows you to see the Amygdalas in Cathedral Ward as well as changes the music in the Hunter's Dream, not to mention some new dialogue from Gerhiam and The Doll
  
  This is literally the one real thing it does, so that's good

Glad we agree it was awesome.

• Is used as a currency in the Hunter's Dream
  
  Yes, it's a currency, which has nothing to do with the concept

Fair enough

• Ties into the Lovecraftian theme of greater understanding of the eldritch world leads to madness
  
  It would if it was actually used for anything, but it isn't

You don't read a lot of Lovecraft do you? See point one and two, the more knowledge you gain, the more you can see the world for what it really is, which is a prime tenant of Lovecraft literature. The stories often centering around normal people living normal lives, only to discover the sinister nature of reality which forever changes their way of comprehending the world and leads to madness. Likewise, your own character begins to witness things that weren't there before and can eventually succumb to the madness itself if you let them. So it's honestly a perfect video game representation of Lovecraft lore and themes.

[Spuuky]

No, it WOULD be a perfect representation, IF it actually did anything. Which it doesn't.

15 Insight and 99 Insight are literally 100% identical in terms of "what you can see" after the midway point of the game.

Also, unrelated aside, the Witches of Hemwick fight is laughably easy with any level of Insight and I can't imagine dying there even a single time.

[Pete for President]

No, it WOULD be a perfect representation, IF it actually did anything. Which it doesn't.

15 Insight and 99 Insight are literally 100% identical in terms of "what you can see" after the midway point of the game.

Also, unrelated aside, the Witches of Hemwick fight is laughably easy with any level of Insight and I can't imagine dying there even a single time.

I died first time around. Not to the witches but to the creeps when I actually thought they were a threat. Turns out you can just ignore them.

[Vyk]

Yeah, it wasn't implemented to nearly the fullest it could have been. I think it was still a great idea, but only partially fleshed out. I was always hoping there were more stages to it. But it wasn't completely worthless, though it probably should have been topped out at 40 rather than 99, but that's probably for currency and multiplayer reasons, so you have plenty of stuff to use. And yeah, the witch fight was probably one of the worse fights to implement the idea on. But it was still a neat idea

I guess since it didn't take away from the game at all, and wanting it to be more didn't hamper my experience, I don't have any actual problem with it. If there's ever a Bloodborne 2, I hope they do more with it

[Wolf Kanno]

No, it WOULD be a perfect representation, IF it actually did anything. Which it doesn't.

15 Insight and 99 Insight are literally 100% identical in terms of "what you can see" after the midway point of the game.

Also, unrelated aside, the Witches of Hemwick fight is laughably easy with any level of Insight and I can't imagine dying there even a single time.

Calm down dude, nothing here to get heated up about, but I still feel that Insight does do a bit more than you think it does.

all the crazy things insight does at different levels.
1 - Bath Messenger's become available
-Beckoning Bell is given
- Doll comes to life
- Mad Ones Spawn at Hemwick Witch fight
15 - Church Doctors gain buffs to their weapons and additional moves
- Gehrman will talk in his sleep
- Mad Ones will spawn in predetermined places throughout Hemwick Charnal Lane
30 -Winter Lanterns will begin to sing in an off key tone from a distance.
40 - Lesser Amygdala's can be seen throughout Cathedral Ward before Blood Moon Phase
50 - New Song will play in Hunter's Dream before Blood Moon Phase
60 - Mergo's cry can now be heard throughout the town, until you kill Mergo's Wet Nurse.

• You can buy a lot of trout with it.
• You use it to summon allies in multiplayer.
• It also makes Frenzy a bigger pain, so if you want to play a challenge mode, then you can add having 99 Insight to make certain parts harder for you.

I don't really know what you were hoping for, either some glorious ending or for the stat to scale with a weapon, but frankly, I feel it was a pretty snazzy mechanic and still has some cool potential to grow. Even if they were little things, the lore of this game is what brings me here, so the fact insight adds to that makes it pretty special imho. It still fits well with the Lovecraftian themes of "experiencing the true world" and the madness it brings.

I also liked that it basically served as a better version of the Humanity stat from DS, which I always felt was more trouble than it was worth. Insight actually did some cool things in the game's world besides being a pure mechanical stat with some vague lore behind it. So I've always seen it as an interesting evolution of a concept and one I feel Bloodborne utilized better.

I would be curious to know how you feel it could be improved beyond netting you more things after 60 Insight.

[Spuuky]

the meaningful things insight does at different levels.
1 - Bath Messenger's become available
-Beckoning Bell is given
- Doll comes to life
- Mad Ones Spawn at Hemwick Witch fight
15 - Church Doctors gain buffs to their weapons and additional moves
- Mad Ones will spawn in predetermined places throughout Hemwick Charnal Lane

[Pete for President]

I'm at Byrgenwyrth. There's some weird things going on here.

[Wolf Kanno]

Byrgenworth is pretty much ground zero for all of the weird trout going on in Bloodborne.

@Spuuky: We're just going to have to agree to disagree it seems.

[Pete for President]

Im fighting spoiler spider Rom. Got him to 1/3 multiple times but somehow i always get stunlocked near the end. Am i crazy or is Damian the summon useless in that fight?

[Wolf Kanno]

Both summons are kind of useless beyond getting the enemy's attention. In fact, most of the A.I. companions are only really good for a distraction. If the A.I. roulewtte works out for you, you can sometimes get the underlings to focus on them while you deal with Rom.

I would suggest trying to kill all of her underlings first so you're less likely to get gang raped by the lot of them. Also if you have a Lightning Paper, use it on your weapon for extra damage. Blunt weapons also work, so use the Kirkhammer's two-handed form as well. Rom is considered to be the toughest non-optional fight in the game, but some players tend to have an easier time than others. I find that patience in clearing out the minions before going for the kill works best, especially in the last stretch of the fight.