I just finished Bloodborne with a level 93 character, Str 50/Skl 25/End 20/Vit 32 with a +10 Kirkhammer. Here are some thoughts:
+ I do appreciate that FromSoftware decided to change the background setting with something akin to 19th century urban England or France with gaslit streets. This is a perfect setting for horror. One that was a bit squandered, but I’ll get to that.
+ Kirkhammer. This is my favorite weapon from any of the Souls games. A weapon that can be quickly changed from a big hammer to a quick silver sword. I thought the Hunter’s Axe was going to be my weapon of choice due to the hammer’s slow speed, but I ‘got good’ with the weapon’s timing and it absolutely pancaked larger enemies. The reach also let me slam limbs of several bosses and stun them. For fast, but weak enemies such as hounds, the kirkhammer’s silver sword mode was perfect. I prefer strength builds and this worked well for me.
+ The landscapes are beautiful, especially with the full moon overlooking the city.
+ This is a FromSoftware Souls game, so it’s good and a recommend. They haven’t made a bad one yet, just lesser in comparison to some of the others.
- This is my least favorite of the Souls games, though. Again, it’s good, but I felt glad to be done with it. My first major criticism is with the limited amount of weapons and that a clothing wardrobe replaced the armor sets. I prefer the huge amount of options in the Souls games.
- I hated the stupid amounts of blood covering my characters in Dragon’s Age, especially when they are having casual conversations about their backstory while caked in blood. Bloodborne is a much better game, but I’m not giving it a pass on doing the same. Please don’t copy Bioware. You’re better than this. Find a horse trough of water and clean yourself up.
- The blood and Cthulhu body horror is supposed to be scary, but it’s hard to be scared when they are used for jump scares that are quickly silenced by my Kirkhammer. Less is often more. The most unsettling moment of the game to me was in the quieter lecture building where you find gelatinous humanoids in student uniforms reliving a parody of their previous existence. That’s the moment of horror that stuck with me.
- The bosses might have been the easiest in the series. I never summoned a player for help and I defeated a handful of the bosses on my first try. The hardest boss took me about six times. I had the most trouble with the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst, and he wasn’t even a boss. He finally went down from a combo of poison and well-timed Kirkhammer slams.
Here’s my ranking of Souls like games I’ve beaten in the order of which ones I’d be willing to replay: Dark Souls 2, Demons Souls, Dark Souls, Nioh, Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne. I don’t see myself playing Sekiro since I prefer the weapon and armor variance in Nioh and the Souls games. Plus, I prefer dodging and rolling to Sekiro’s lauded parrying mechanic. I did just purchase Elden Ring, which is the first time in a long time that I purchased a AAA game within a year of it being published. Now I can be part of the popular zeitgeist and am thinking of starting as a Wretch for the hell of it. However, I have some reservations about what I heard about the new jumping and platforming, and also on the supposed length of the game. Previous Souls games were perfect in length since they usually ended around the time that I began to feel worn out on the gameplay. But as a backup plan, I also just got Nioh 2, which I’m really excited to get into.