From Software Bloodborne. Discuss or die!

[Abu Antar]

What little we have seen of it looks fantastic from a design point of view.

 

[The Fish]

I already bought a fucking ps3 because Japanese people are too incompetent to port games to the PC and now they want me to buy a ps4? cunts the lot of them.

I look forward to playing this in about 5 years.

 

[LivingOne]

Hate to be the one to break the enthusiasm but do you guys realize what feature the voice at 1:35 entails right? And what other, even worse feature will be necessary to get access to it when needed?

So much for DaS2 being crippled because of team B inexperience when that game shared far too many faults with DeS for it to be a coincidence. I guess DaS1 was a fluke after all and the other two better represent what From can really do.*

Oh well DeS/Das2 were cool too so whatever...

*Inb4 DeS hipsters genuinely beliving there's much of a difference in quality between the two.

 

[praetor]

Hate to be the one to break the enthusiasm but do you guys realize what feature the voice at 1:35 entails right? And what other, even worse feature will be necessary to get access to it when needed?

that they got the same voice acting studio as they always do and this time the chick giving the voice to MiB will be back?

 

[LivingOne]

That sounded suspiciously like what a level up NPC would say, and the fact that she voiced the MiB only reiforces my suspicion. Of coure if level up at NPC is in so is teleporting at checkpoints.

Hopefully I'm wrong and she's voicing a regular NPC.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Bloodborne: “The sense of punishment is much less,” “wider audience” is the target

So between this and MGS5 coming for PC I don't think I'll need to bother with the PS4. I guess even the best of us sell out in the end.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

http://www.gamesthirst.com/2012/04/05/dark-souls-2-confirmed-from-software-seeking-wider-audience/

http://www.examiner.com/article/dar...o-appeal-to-a-wider-audience-this-time-around

we heard that shit before

 

[Hobo Elf]

“You died a lot in the previous games, and you had to persevere, but one of our main goals with this game is that we don’t want to focus on punishing the player,” he said.

 

[felipepepe]

You don't seek a wider audience making games exclusively for the PS4...

 

[Hobo Elf]

That's not FROMS decision, though. Sony is funding the project and co-developing it so they get to call the shots. Unfortunately.

 

[Castanova]

Based on the "wider audience" bullshit + the cool-looking design, this will probably be a fun game but not one that we'll remember like DeS/DaS1.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I'll agree with you on cool-looking design on everything else but the weapons. So far all the weapons we've seen look like absolute dog shit to me.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

My bet is that "less punishing" translates to a removal of penalties incurred from deaths. Perhaps it also hints at the removal of unwanted invasions. Death penalties add almost nothing to the game from the perspective of a Souls veteran; after a certain amount of systems and gameworld knowledge they are superfluous and exist mostly to waste the player's time rather than enhance the experience and/or heighten tension.

As for invasions...I could certainly live without them. It would be interesting to see a Souls game designed primarily for PvE, one where every action of the player character doesn't have to be balanced for use against human opponents. This would be more in-line with other action games, including action role-playing titles, that really benefit from the ability to indulge in asymmetric design, allowing for moves that would be "broken" in an adversarial action title but are "fair" when restricted to either a player or AI-controlled opponent.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I liked the loss of souls on death as a learning tool. It teaches new players not to cry over spilled milk. It also teaches players to never be lazy because an accidental death caused by being lazy can still lead to a somewhat frustrating and pointless death. There needs to be some kind of risk vs reward in this kind of game to compensate the lack of awesome and fluid combat that you'd expect from a proper Action game like Bayonetta, DMC or God Hand. Instead of flat out removing it because it is mostly redundant for good players they should've improved upon it and taken it to the next level.

Of course what they actually mean by making the game less punishing is yet to be known to us.

 

[Machocruz]

I thought the combat is supposed to be more awesome and fluid. Anyway, I played the original DMC recently and the combat is quite conservative compared to what came after. Game is still pretty challenging and uses save points instead of bonfires, which in effect is the same thing as you are forced to repeat portions of the game when you die. This is the major penalty of the Souls games, to me, not losing souls. I'd be fine with traditional save system and no currency loss.

What I really want is Blade of Darkness level combat, but that's likely not going to be.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Well it certainly is more fast paced with the lack of shields and rolling being replaced with the lightning fast side step, but it definitely isn't going to be awesome combat like in the games I mentioned. Combat still looks to be more or less the same same.

 

[Nikaido]

As for invasions...I could certainly live without them. It would be interesting to see a Souls game designed primarily for PvE, one where every action of the player character doesn't have to be balanced for use against human opponents. This would be more in-line with other action games, including action role-playing titles, that really benefit from the ability to indulge in asymmetric design, allowing for moves that would be "broken" in an adversarial action title but are "fair" when restricted to either a player or AI-controlled opponent.

The souls series's pvp was a good idea that was tarnished with horrible implementation. P2P connections just plain suck. Your mileage may vary, of course, if you get paired with players that live close enough geographically to you it might not be too horrible, but all I've seen, in, say, Dark Souls 2, was constant lag. People teleporting on the screen, lagstabs, hits that register even when you look like you're far away from the weapon's reach etc. I wouldn't mind seeing that part of the game being cut in favor for better PVE. As you said, everything is balanced for PVP which is why, up until the recent patch which really hit magic with the nerf bat, magic was way too overpowered in PVE (being easy to avoid for a human opponent, but not for this game AI). Removing the amount of casts for things like Lightning spears was a good idea to balance PVE magic a bit better but the game would really benefit from being purely balanced from a PVE point of view and forgetting PVP ever existed.
The networking implementation of DS also made even things like coop pretty bad. I wanted to level in the heirs of the sun covenant but quickly forgot about it because boss fights where the boss freeze for a few seconds without anything happening on my screen wasn't exactly my idea of great fun.

All in all, a greater focus on a purely solo PVE experience would be a pro, not a con.

 

[StaticSpine]

All in all, a greater focus on a purely solo PVE experience would be a pro, not a con.

I believe in one of the interviews it was said there will be a lot of options for coop.

The game will have online elements, and a few insiders have told Vaati that the game will emphasize a four-player co-op option, making this title more co-op friendly.

http://www.gamezone.com/news/2014/06/12/e3-2014-a-ton-of-bloodborne-info-courtesy-of-vaatividya

 

[Kanedias]

I think all this about the "wider audience" can be ignored. From has always been idiotic with this kind of stuff. At the same time they say this, other sources from Gamescom talk about how the challenge is important and whatnot, so it makes no sense. Plus it sounds almost cliche to say this kind of stuff, especially when it's related to a game with Souls heritage like Bloodborne.

Also remember that they said the same crap about Dark Souls 2 back when it was still in development, and then they said it was a "mistranslation". It may even be a "mistranslation" again. After all there are a couple articles talking about this supposed Beast Mode where you turn into a beast and I am sure that won't be in the game (maybe time will prove me wrong, but I really doubt that mechanic exists or has even been considered)

On a happier note:

BACKSTRIKE

• Hit the enemy with maximum charged attack from behind
• When enemy is collapsing follow up with R1 button
• Will set off a high power attack different from normal attack
• Enemies try to jump scare you

Yes, backstabs changed further. Remember that in Bloodborne heavy attacks can be "charged", so you need a fully charged attack to the back in order to stun the opponent before you can even initiate the backstab. Finally we get rid of that stupid mechanic.

Source: http://www.pakgamers.com/news/bloodborne-gamescom-2014-footage-leaked-and-reviewed/

 

[Machocruz]

There are so many ways they could have dealt with the backstab, I don't know why they didn't. Toning down the damage is the most obvious one. It should be like a super in a fighting game, where it does a good chunk of damage but is hardly a match ender. Lower VIT and STR characters should have had other ways to deal with stronger characters, namely greater speed and agility, again like a fighting game.

The atmosphere in the game is so thick and consistent, it’s gloomier and darker than FromSoft has ever been before.

I have not played a game gloomier than Shadow Tower Abyss. Makes the Souls games look like Katamari Damacy. I'll be impressed if Bb can top that, but I doubt these guys have played it.

 

[Chaotic_Heretic]

Sony is Gay. Fucking PS4. Fucking PS3. Also Fuck Capcom and the faggots keeping Dragons Dogma away from PC.

 

[StaticSpine]

 

[Zep Zepo]

I have not played a game gloomier than Shadow Tower Abyss. Makes the Souls games look like Katamari Damacy. I'll be impressed if Bb can top that, but I doubt these guys have played it.

Have never seen that one. Gonna give it a try.

Zep--

 

[Random]

I interpret that article as meaning that the A-team doesn't like how the B-team made a game that is difficult for the sake of difficulty, not for the sake of quality of gameplay. DSII is almost ridiculous in how terribly designed it is, with the excuse of 'we want the player to die a lot'. DeS and DS were nowhere near as onanistic about the difficulty, and focused more on the game being fun because its challenging rather than purely difficult because hurr durr that's what players want.

*Inb4 DeS hipsters genuinely beliving there's much of a difference in quality between the two.

 

[Martius]

I interpret that article as meaning that the A-team doesn't like how the B-team made a game that is difficult for the sake of difficulty, not for the sake of quality of gameplay.

Yeah, I think even Miyazaki said so in one interview. It wasnt their main goal, more of by-product of their other decision.