More Thoughts on Bloodborne (PS4)

After finishing Bloodborne, I have more thoughts.

Just like in Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne displays great attention to detail. One such example is the graves the player uses to fast travel from Hunter’s Rest. The grave used to travel to the game’s early areas looks how one would expect: suitably solemn and Victorian. The last grave (which takes the player to the most difficult areas) is, in a word, gooey. Woo, visual storytelling!
I find it kind of strange that NPCs can be summoned so far from boss arenas (ie where I’d typically summon them in Dark Souls 3). I guess this makes some sense, as having them around should make it easier to get to the boss unscathed. On the other hand, they can take damage on the way to the boss, too. To add insult to injury, one of the NPCs I summoned ran off to fight a monster I had no intention of engaging with before we were anywhere near the boss. As such, my updated summon strategy has become: “clear the path to the boss before summoning the NPC.”
Chalice Dungeons can get in the bin. I can respect that there are some unique enemies and bosses in these dungeons. I can also respect that the Chalice Dungeons are a way to get more out of the game after beating the “main” game. On the other hand, the level design seems to draw from a very limited pool of room designs (10-15). As such, I found the dungeons were both boring and easy to get lost in.
I wound up in Yahar’gul, the Unseen Village entirely by accident. This is the first location in the game where I’ve felt truly creeped out; the music (which drops to some very low registers) feels like it has more in common with a horror movie than an action video game.
Speaking of creepy shit, Bloodborne has more unsettling enemy design than Dark Souls 3, hands down. Some of the enemies in Dark Souls 3 made me go, “lol, gross.” The “infested corpse” and the “sewer centipede” come to mind. By contrast, some of the enemies in Bloodborne have made me want to put down the controller and walk away. The “winter lantern” and “greater viper pit” come to mind (more the latter than the former, but still). Fucking yikes. The enemy design gets even creepier in the Old Hunters DLC.
Durability (which I ruminated on in my Initial Impressions of the game) turned out to be much less of an issue than I thought. Some of the other little annoyances (e.g. not being able to warp from lamp to lamp, not having an obvious way to compare armor sets, the lack of a dedicated jump button) remained, however. I was also annoyed by the fact that a “new game plus” is started automatically after beating Gehrman / the Moon Presence. I want to be able to choose for myself. Oh, and one more annoyance while I’m at it: I wish the game had more trick weapons and hunter tools. While I won’t complain about having variations on the existing weapons (e.g. the “uncanny” and “lost” versions), they don’t offer drastically different play experiences when compared against each other.

Notes on Bloodborne’s Bosses:

I hope this goes without saying, but consider this a spoiler warning. If you want to know my final thoughts on the game, you can skip to the “Too Long, Didn’t Read (TL/DR)” section below.

Cleric Beast: while fighting this boss, I couldn’t help but think: “if this is what we’re starting with, where are we going from here?” I took down the boss relatively easily (2nd attempt, no summons), but I’m worried about how gruesome things are going to get from here. Time will tell, I suppose.
Father Gascoigne: I struggled with this boss a lot more than with the Cleric Beast. I can think of a few reasons why. Perhaps I was trying to play the game more like Dark Souls than Bloodborne (ie by really relying on rolls and not being super aggressive). Perhaps the “music box” mechanic was inconsistent (and yes, I know it doesn’t work in the final phase of the fight). Perhaps the layout of the boss arena (a graveyard with lots of places to get “stuck”) made it easier for me to get pinned down and killed, especially as compared to Dark Souls 3‘s (generally) more open boss arenas. Whatever the case, it eventually clicked and I took Gascoigne down.
Vicar Amelia: I beat her relatively quickly, but mostly with the assistance of Henriett (an NPC summon). In fact, having an NPC on my team helped me better learn Amelia‘s attacks and patterns since I could observe them without being directly targeted by them. I chose this route because, despite being in the suggested level range for taking her on (30-40), I found her difficult to deal with (let alone stagger). I’m sure I could’ve defeated her with more level grinding or more practice to learn her move-set, but my S/O was getting tired of the “I’m going to take out the furry!” jokes.
Blood-Starved Beast: Initially, I was worried about how long the walk-back would be if I died (mostly because I was wrong about the boss’ actual location). With that in mind, I’d say the “walk-back”for this boss was in line with Dark Souls 3. Beyond that, I dunked this boss on the third try. My main take-away from the fight was that this boss’s slow poison mechanic further re-enforced the need to be aggressive. Any time I took too long to strike this guy down, I died.
Darkbeast Paarl: I took this guy out on the first try (though, admittedly, having Defector Antal on my side made the fight much more manageable). It was a thrilling fight, but it was hard to not feel a little disoriented by all of Paarl’s jumping around (when locked on, anyway).
Witch of Hemwick: I beat this boss on my first try. With that being said, bosses with respawn mechanics can get right in the bin.
Shadow of Yharnam: I beat this boss on my first attempt … mostly thanks to having backup. Three-on-three? Fair, and doable. Three-on-one? Not so much. Plus, I think this is the first time none of my summoned fighters died during the boss fight. Nice. (Also, I am so done with all these mother fucking snakes.)
Amygdala: I downed this guy on my third try … once I learned a trick to beat him (using the vertical slice (R2 attack) of Ludwig’s Holy Blade to hit a weak spot that would be inaccessible to most weapons). With that being said, I was disappointed that beating Amygdala didn’t lead further into the “Nightmare Frontier.” Instead, all I got was a lamp post back to the Hunter’s Dream. Whack. Also, I’m falling more and more out of love with gigantic bosses as I play more Soulsborne games. They’re cool in theory, but in execution it feels like smacking an elder god’s behind with a toothpick and hoping for the best.
Martyr Logarius: I was one hit away from beating this guy on my first try, but I choked. I tried a few more times, but didn’t come close to beating Logarius. Then, I decided it was time for the greatest anime training arc of all time: I upped my character level by 10 and read a strategy guide on how to be Logarius. (My two main takeaways there were “dodge to the left” and “keep your attacks nimble.”) It still took a few tries, but I eventually downed Logarius.
Rom, the Vacuous Spider: with two NPC companions, this boss was a cake-walk. Adding in the power of electricity damage with the Tonitrus only made it easier. Basically, once Rom’s little spider buddies are taken care of, this boss is little more than an angry, wiggly potato.
Bloody Crow of Cainhurst: this fight isn’t against a boss, per se, but it took me a few tries to really figure out so I’m listing it here. At first, I tried to power through using speed and raw damage output using a saw cleaver. This boss’s tendency to warp around more or less countered this strategy. Ultimately, I defeated this boss by switching to the holy blade in trick (two-handed) form. Its wide swings allowed me to stagger the crow before he could hit me. After “rinse-and-repeating” this strategy enough times, he eventually went down.
The One Reborn: I dunked on this guy on my first try. While this boss is visually quite disturbing, my damage output with the holy blade (and a few well-timed heals) was more than enough to get the job done.
Celestial Emissary: I’m not a Rick and Morty fan, but whenever I see the little blue dudes I can’t help but think of a Mr. Meeseeks. In any case, this boss was a push-over that I took out on my first attempt (though the giant blue dude was at least good for a chuckle).
Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos: is this boss big, weird, and unpleasant to look at? Yes, absolutely. Is it hard to deal with when you have the right load-out? Not in my experience, no. With an NPC companion, a +9 holy sword, bolt paper, and a lot of thrust attacks, this thing went down in 4 or 5 tries. With that in mind: I get why it is important from a gameplay perspective, but having a very specific, exploitable weakness takes away from the “ineffability” of these creatures. Also, the fact that you had to smash through a window to get to this boss, despite the fact that this isn’t required (or even possible) elsewhere in the game was meh. I doubt I would’ve found this boss without a guide.
Micolash, Host of the Nightmare: his boss arena was pretty cool, but the actual fight was underwhelming. As long as I stayed close and didn’t let him cast his more potent spells (by giving him a good thrashing), the best he could do to fight back was the squid blast and an open-hand slap. Needless to say, this guy went down on the second try (I spent the first attempt getting beaten by his magic in his second phase).
Mergo’s Wet Nurse: I beat this boss on my second try. The boss seemed a bit intimidating at first, especially since she was hard to hit without being hit back (what with all the arms and the temporary 2nd attacker). With that being said, the rally mechanic and my trusty Tonitrus were up for the challenge.
Ludwig, the Holy Blade: Having Henriett on my side for this one went a long way. This guy is a very aggressive heavy hitter; even at level 100+ (quality build), some of his attacks would nearly wipe my HP bar. With that said, he was easy enough to take down once I (we) got him to his second phase.
Living Failures: This boss is basically a beefed up version of the Celestial Emissary. I can’t say I beat the Failures on my first try, but I came surprisingly close. It took a few tries from there; I was ultimately able to seal the deal once I had help (Yamamura).
Laurence, the First Vicar: This boss is like a beefed up version of Vicar Amelia. Unlike Amelia, though, I was able to beat him on the first try. Most of this can probably be attributed to having Valtr on my team, but hey: a win’s a win. With that being said, the lava spewing definitely added a new layer of challenge to this boss (ie a longer-lasting area-of-effect (AOE) attack / stage hazard).
Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower: This was a thrilling one-on-one battle with an opponent that hits like a truck. Plus, the boss has many hallmarks of a Soulsborne boss: multiple phases, large move pool, and attack reach that only increases as the battle goes on.
The Fish Bowl (aka two Shark-Giants at once): this was quite tough, even compared to many of the actual bosses in the game. Seriously, one of the strategies listed on the guide I used was to, “give up.” The way I ultimately won the day was with lots of parrying (specifically, when the giant lunges).
Gehrman, the First Hunter: I beat Gehrman on my first try. With that said, this was probably as a result of being over-leveled (around 160) rather than being an elite Soulsborne player. My favorite part of this fight was that I managed to shoot Gehrman out of the air as the finishing blow (with the blunderbuss, no less). Disrespected, lol. Also, though his moveset was pretty flashy, I found it more limited when compared to other bosses (e.g. Maria).
Orphan of Kos: This was, without a doubt, the hardest boss in the game. The move set, damage output, and gross vibe meant this took a lot of tries (and, if I’m honest, a lot of leveling up my character). Still, the Orphan eventually went down. (My main strategy was to stagger in phase 1 with the holy blade and slash (and pray) with a saw cleaver during phase 2, if you’re curious.)
Moon Presence: I beat this boss on my third or fourth try (after reading a guide). Perhaps this gies without saying, but the Moon Presence felt like a pushover compared to Kos. With that said, I did like that the boss had more mechanics than virtually any other boss in the game (AOE attacks, a way to drain the player to 1 HP, a way to prevent the use of blood vials).
Chalice Dungeon Bosses: there’s a bunch of these, so I’m going to run through them rapid-fire style. I was able to beat every boss except those marked with an [x].
- Undead Giant: large and difficult to stun, but otherwise relatively easy to deal with.
- Merciless Watcher: a 3-on-1 that can be quite a handful (depending on dungeon difficulty), especially while the ranged attacker is still in play.
- Watchdog of the Old Lords: I only fought this guy once; he seemed to go down relatively easily with a summon / add.
- Beast-Possessed Soul: Plays like the werewolf enemies with a few more moves (such as a fire blast and a few punches).
- Keeper of the Old Lords: Has great drip, but is relatively easy to stun and dispatch
- Pthumerian Descendent: a fast, fierce attacker that I beat with lots of stun-locking
- Pthumerian Elder: similar to the Descendent, but with a different (and more range-focused) move-list. The Elder seems about as easy to stun, however.
- Maneater Boar: probably the most boring / uninspired boss of the Chalice Dungeons, especially after beating them many times in the main game.
- Brainsucker: my least favorite chalice dungeon boss (if not my least favorite enemy in the game). Aside from the gross factor, they’re the only enemy in the game that drains Insight. Yikes!
- Forgotten Madman: I was surprised by the Madman’s Escort, an add that appeared around the middle of the fight. Other than that, this is pretty similar to any of the other hunter fights in the game.
- Abhorrent Beast: I found the Chalice Dungeon version of this boss much more difficult than the “vanilla” version. They’re much more difficult to cheese (with poison), too, since the boss battle takes place in an open arena. I was only able to beat this guy with a summon / add.
- Loran Silverbeast: Encountering this boss in the main game (in the Nightmare Frontier) really took the oomph out of this fight. Thrusting and stunning are the order of the day.
- [x] Loran Darkbeast: I’m not sure I ever encountered this boss. With that said, I did beat Darkbeast Paarl so I’m not too worried about it.
- Bloodletting Beast (headed and un-headed): These fights bled together with some of the other beasties (e.g. the blood-starved beast, the beast-possessed soul, etc). The main difference is the size of this boss: it’s definitely in the “giant” category, and is even larger than the Abhorrent Beast.
- Blood-Starved Beast: I was able to more easily avoid slow poison in this version of the boss. Also, encountering this boss in the main game (in the Hunter’s Nightmare) really took the oomph out of this fight.
- Celestial Emissary: Honestly, I found this version of the boss even easier than the one in the main game since it doesn’t have all the extra adds hanging around.
- Rom, the Vacuous Spider: very similar to the boss fight during the main game, but complicated by the boss arena (ie a cave with lots of stalagmites to get stuck on).
- Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos: I found the Chalice Dungeon version of this boss much more difficult than the “vanilla” version. I’m guessing her HP and damage output was ramped up a lot, especially since I was only able to beat this boss after leveling up to fight the Orphan (and with two summons / adds).
- [x] Amygdala: I never actually encountered this boss in the chalice dungeons. Whoops.
- [x] Yharnam, Pthumerian Queen: I never encountered this boss either (and I don’t feel motivated to grind Chalice Dungeons to try and find her).

TL/DR, PLZ:

Bloodborne is one of the best games I’ve ever played. It’s engaging, it’s difficult without being frustrating (most of the time), and it has an “A E S T H E T I C.” It’s not perfect (Chalice Dungeons can get in the bin), but I can absolutely see why so many Soulsborne fans love this game.

Given how much time I’ve dumped into this game, I’m actually reluctant to pick up Elden Ring. I’m reliably informed that it has even more content and exploration to be had. In short, I’m not sure if that’s a rabbit hole I have the time for at the moment. We shall see.

Check it (Bloodborne) out here.