From Software Bloodborne. Discuss or die!

[Hyperion]

What puzzles me is what exactly the Nightmare slain message refers to.

The source of the Dream / Nightmare, I suppose.
Moon Presence - Hunter's Dream
Mergo - Nightmare of Mensis
Orphan - Hunter's Nightmare / Fishing Hamlet

I guess the Hunter's Dream doesn't disappear because you become a Great One, which keeps it alive? Or...you're in the real Abandoned Workshop and The Doll has somehow been gifted life. Perhaps through Maria's death, she becomes 'real.' But this existed before the DLC was released. Time travel's a bitch.

 

[Falksi]

I wish they'd release these games with a Dark Souls 2 option of permanently dead enemies after X kills. I love DS2, and really like all the other games in the series to a certain extent. But the repetitiveness of having to kill the same dudes over & over just grinds the game down for me, and I get bored way before I finish them.

 

[Villagkouras]

Since you use souls or echoes to level up and buy items and you lose them when you die, this "repetitiveness" is essential to progress.

 

[Silva]

I wish they'd release these games with a Dark Souls 2 option of permanently dead enemies after X kills. I love DS2, and really like all the other games in the series to a certain extent. But the repetitiveness of having to kill the same dudes over & over just grinds the game down for me, and I get bored way before I finish them.

This would work on Bloodborne yes, since it already has chalice dungeons for grinding purposes. But I don't see it working for Dark Souls 1 - I'm replaying it now and I think it's one of the most grindy of the series, at least until you get the lordvessel.

 

[sullynathan]

lol

 

[Falksi]

This would work on Bloodborne yes, since it already has chalice dungeons for grinding purposes. But I don't see it working for Dark Souls 1 - I'm replaying it now and I think it's one of the most grindy of the series, at least until you get the lordvessel.

Yeah, so long as they allowed some form of grinding if needs be. The bonfire ascetic seemed to work fine un DS2.
It's more being forced to do the same thing over & over if you don't have to which bores me. It becomes work-like.
Boss "souls" seem to be enough to level up with. If people enjoy enemies always there then fine, have the option to keep them respawning. But I don't think an on/off enemy respawn option would be too hard to implement for future games?

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I wish they'd release these games with a Dark Souls 2 option of permanently dead enemies after X kills. I love DS2, and really like all the other games in the series to a certain extent. But the repetitiveness of having to kill the same dudes over & over just grinds the game down for me, and I get bored way before I finish them.

This would work on Bloodborne yes, since it already has chalice dungeons for grinding purposes. But I don't see it working for Dark Souls 1 - I'm replaying it now and I think it's one of the most grindy of the series, at least until you get the lordvessel.

Nah, DS2 is more grindy. The item drops have a lower drop rate, at least to me, and on top of that due to the spawn limit you have to burn a bonfire ascetic, so even more grinding.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to have limited spawns and low drop rates is a jackass.

 

[Talby]

I wish they'd release these games with a Dark Souls 2 option of permanently dead enemies after X kills. I love DS2, and really like all the other games in the series to a certain extent. But the repetitiveness of having to kill the same dudes over & over just grinds the game down for me, and I get bored way before I finish them.

This would work on Bloodborne yes, since it already has chalice dungeons for grinding purposes. But I don't see it working for Dark Souls 1 - I'm replaying it now and I think it's one of the most grindy of the series, at least until you get the lordvessel.

Nah, DS2 is more grindy. The item drops have a lower drop rate, at least to me, and on top of that due to the spawn limit you have to burn a bonfire ascetic, so even more grinding.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to have limited spawns and low drop rates is a jackass.

The Covenant of Champions prevents enemies from despawning, so if you need to grind for rare drops you can just pop on the covenant and go to town. I think this is only in Scholar of the First Sin, though.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I wish they'd release these games with a Dark Souls 2 option of permanently dead enemies after X kills. I love DS2, and really like all the other games in the series to a certain extent. But the repetitiveness of having to kill the same dudes over & over just grinds the game down for me, and I get bored way before I finish them.

This would work on Bloodborne yes, since it already has chalice dungeons for grinding purposes. But I don't see it working for Dark Souls 1 - I'm replaying it now and I think it's one of the most grindy of the series, at least until you get the lordvessel.

Nah, DS2 is more grindy. The item drops have a lower drop rate, at least to me, and on top of that due to the spawn limit you have to burn a bonfire ascetic, so even more grinding.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to have limited spawns and low drop rates is a jackass.

The Covenant of Champions prevents enemies from despawning, so if you need to grind for rare drops you can just pop on the covenant and go to town. I think this is only in Scholar of the First Sin, though.

Yeah, it doesn't exist in the original. Which is what I have.

 

[praetor]

I wish they'd release these games with a Dark Souls 2 option of permanently dead enemies after X kills. I love DS2, and really like all the other games in the series to a certain extent. But the repetitiveness of having to kill the same dudes over & over just grinds the game down for me, and I get bored way before I finish them.

This would work on Bloodborne yes, since it already has chalice dungeons for grinding purposes. But I don't see it working for Dark Souls 1 - I'm replaying it now and I think it's one of the most grindy of the series, at least until you get the lordvessel.

Nah, DS2 is more grindy. The item drops have a lower drop rate, at least to me, and on top of that due to the spawn limit you have to burn a bonfire ascetic, so even more grinding.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to have limited spawns and low drop rates is a jackass.

The Covenant of Champions prevents enemies from despawning, so if you need to grind for rare drops you can just pop on the covenant and go to town. I think this is only in Scholar of the First Sin, though.

Yeah, it doesn't exist in the original. Which is what I have.

it's in the original with the latest patch. it's not an exclusively SotFS feature

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

I wish they'd release these games with a Dark Souls 2 option of permanently dead enemies after X kills. I love DS2, and really like all the other games in the series to a certain extent. But the repetitiveness of having to kill the same dudes over & over just grinds the game down for me, and I get bored way before I finish them.

This would work on Bloodborne yes, since it already has chalice dungeons for grinding purposes. But I don't see it working for Dark Souls 1 - I'm replaying it now and I think it's one of the most grindy of the series, at least until you get the lordvessel.

Nah, DS2 is more grindy. The item drops have a lower drop rate, at least to me, and on top of that due to the spawn limit you have to burn a bonfire ascetic, so even more grinding.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to have limited spawns and low drop rates is a jackass.

The Covenant of Champions prevents enemies from despawning, so if you need to grind for rare drops you can just pop on the covenant and go to town. I think this is only in Scholar of the First Sin, though.

Yeah, it doesn't exist in the original. Which is what I have.

it's in the original with the latest patch. it's not an exclusively SotFS feature

Really now? I need to check it out then. I read it was a SotFS thing, so I never bothered with it.
Woops.

 

[Silva]

Have you guys noticed that, sometimes, the sprawling city skyline you see in the distance are actually places you visited (or will visit) ?

See this picture taken from Cathedral Ward, for example..

Spoiler

#1 is the entrance to Old Yharnam (the door with the note),
#2 is the first bridge you cross where Djura starts talking to you,
#3 is the first destroyed building you enter - with the ladder shortcut to the plaza below with Djura's Friend Hunter.

I dinf this mighty cool.

 

[Jaedar]

Have you guys noticed that, sometimes, the sprawling city skyline you see in the distance are actually places you visited (or will visit) ?

Yeah. The shame is most of the city looks so similar its really hard to notice.

 

[Hyperion]

Would be a little weird if every area of Yharnam didn't look similar, it's a city after all. I wish From would make more areas like the Hypogean Gaol - the music / Gregorian Chant on loop combined with high powered (for the time) enemies made it a creepy and tense journey that only The Old Hunters captured as well.

Covenant of Champions change was great, but Phantom farming for specific drops still required Ascetic burning. And Petrified Dragon Bone only dropping from the Dragon Butts was mortifying. I'll take the Lost Izalith ones over the Sunken King ones any day of the week.

 

[praetor]

Covenant of Champions change was great, but Phantom farming for specific drops still required Ascetic burning. And Petrified Dragon Bone only dropping from the Dragon Butts was mortifying. I'll take the Lost Izalith ones over the Sunken King ones any day of the week.

there are definitely some supremely retarded drops in vanilla DS2 (like the visible aurous set) but iirc you could farm PDBs and twinklies by respawning a chest or two somewhere near the beginning of the Sanctum? plus, in vanilla it was more efficient to farm the aerie with ascetics than the butts (as you also got some twinklies and slabs).

but i don't think anything will ever beat DeS pure bladestone. that thing was just... ugh.

 

[CthuluIsSpy]

You can actually get free PDB and twinkling by burning an ascetic at the Dragon Aerie, at least in the original.
Just kill the priest, kill the knight guarding the wooden chest, loot the twinkling, run past everyone, loot the other wooden chest at the bottom of that drop, use a lloyd talisman on the mimic.
Do that 15 times and you can upgrade a boss weapon and 3 twinking weapons.

 

[The Decline]

I started a new run using a strength/arcane build. Way more fun than the quality build I used when I first played it.

 

[Jaedar]

Finished this game a while back (including the orphan, what a shitty second phase).

Going to be hard to play the souls games now that I got used to quickstepping and the higher pace.

 

[Jaedar]

Going to be hard to play the souls games now that I got used to quickstepping and the higher pace.

I know right? Imagine my pain with BB being my first Soulsborne game.

Also, did you do the Chalices in the end? If yes, how did you like them?

I did most but not all chalices. Never beat the chalice where you lose half your max hp, but I did all the other ones (might have also skipped one boss of ailing loran).

Didn't really like them. There were some cool bosses/enemies but in general it was a lot of low effort content and due to the material requirements you have to explore most levels almost 100% or you won't have enough crap to continue. It was a better way to get the levels I needed to beat orphan than grinding pigs, and I had some fun with them, but I am glad it is a concept they seem to have abandoned for future entries.

Even discounting the chalices bloodborne had a bit lacking variety imo, but the chalices are extreme in how often enemies and rooms repeat.

 

[Ash]

I don't get all the claims of faster pace. All it is is Souls without shields. Movement speed is the same. Attack speed is the same. Stamina is the same. Pacing is the same. Approach to level design and potential instant death around every corner is the same. It's just Souls without shields. Forced focus on aggression and evasion, which is how many people played the souls games anyways. Even the press were like "It's souls with the speed turned up to 11!". No...it wasn't. That would be Devil May Cry 1 or 3, or Ninja Gaiden Black.

I replayed NGB the other day. Really good and I wish the Souls games took even more cues from older games in the lineage of hardcore Japanese action games.

 

[Jaedar]

I don't get all the claims of faster pace. All it is is Souls without shields. Movement speed is the same. Stamina is the same. Pacing is the same. Approach to level design and potential instant death around every corner is the same. It's just Souls without shields, which is how many people played the games anyways. Even the press were like "It's souls with the speed turned up to 11!". No...it wasn't. That would be Devil May Cry 1 or 3, or Ninja Gaiden Black.

Movement speed is the same, stamina regen is faster, quick step moves you waaay longer than a dodge (if you hold forward after quickstepping you even do a secondary forward quickstep for ever further movement, or maybe that's just input buffering confusing me?), attack animations are generally faster too. Healing is faster than drinking estus.

It's not souls with speed turned up to eleven, more like souls with speed on normal (souls games are typically slower and more "deliberate" than games in general).

 

[Ash]

"quick step moves you waaay longer than a dodge

Quickstep is inferior to the naked roll.

stamina regen is faster attack. animations are generally faster too. Healing is faster than drinking estus.

Citation needed. All felt standard to me.

 

[Jaedar]

Citation needed. All felt standard to me.

Don't have any way of recording (and gave back the ps4 so no longer have access to BB anyway), but I played ds2 a few days ago, and the difference was very noticeable. Another large factor is the stamina costs of things, in ds2 you maybe get 2 attacks and a dodge at base stamina, in BB you can do half a dozen attacks and still dodge once or twice.

Note that ds3 is much closer (or perhaps almost identical?) to BB speeds.

Quickstep is inferior to the naked roll.

Naked roll? I assume you refer to ds2 here since afaik bb does not scale anything to your armor? And I suppose naked roll might take you further, but that's a pretty extreme comparison to make

 

[sullynathan]

Eh, I'll agree with Ash here. After playing enough souls games, it does seem like BB has similar stamina regen

 

[Ash]

Naked roll? I assume you refer to ds2 here since afaik bb does not scale anything to your armor? And I suppose naked roll might take you further, but that's a pretty extreme comparison to make

No it isn't. I played half of DS1 naked or in really light dress. Primarily for the exceptional roll it gives you. Was also fairly common to see naked or lightly-dressed people in PvP, cause dat roll and stamina regen.