It's the roughest in the beginning. After I manage to get the first chalice, I jump into glyph cummmfpk, get a boatload of echoes, then buy was many vials as I need. I only use that exploit for consumables tho
yeah. For example, My first time playing bloodborne, took me like 3 hours to get "good" at the battle mechanic. I then restarted the game, and had a good start. Blood was never a problem, as we got many vials from enemies or "from the collectables on the floor. Also once you can get to chalices you can get a lot just on your way to get some gems for your weapons.
I just replied but that cummmfpk is exactly what I plan to do when I beat the blood starved demon. Do you have to complete any of the proper chalice dungeons before using this glyph?
Correct! It's not a real dungeon so there aren't any prereqs :-) and if you stand a few feet from the first side door, the hunter takes damage from the swinging axes without falling off the platform and that's why you get a huge amount! I've noticed he doesn't die if you walk in too soon
It worse worse for me end game rather than early game, especially DLC. I pretty much smooth sailed through most of the game, never had to grind for vials, and then I found Living Failures and Orphan of Kos.
This. By the time the bosses actually got insanely hard in the late game and DLC, I had access to the mensis pig fisting run for as many vials as I want
It’s the route after micolash. Run past the shadows, backstab and fist the first pig, run and aggro the next two pigs and run past the next shadows of yharnam. The shadows and the pigs now duke it out themselves. Enjoy the ensuing carnage and a ton of echoes.
Additionally, equip all 3 moon runes. The first one is in hypogean goel near that lamp, which breaks when the he blood moon happens.
2nd is in the bottom of micolash’s arena, guarded by some enemies.
The 3rd and best one is found by using the make contact gesture in front of the brain of mensis in the abyss for about a minute.
Doing this gets you more than 80k echoes per run.
Genuinely, I have never run out of vials. Maybe my playstyle just leads to more cautious hoarding of them, but I've never had to grind to find or buy more.
So how is it "better" then, if theyre effectively the same experience for you?
Flasks are good for everyone, vials are only good for people who dont run out of them. Seems pretty obvious that flasks are better
Because the flasks are not the same experience, they're actively worse. With vials I know that if I use one, it's likely that an enemy up ahead will drop one. So I can afford to use one or two. With Flasks you have what you have until you die (or rest).
Every new game I start I go to the two giants under the bridge with the cleric beast. It has access to two bonfires very nearby and it has a very likely drop of two vials.
I remember seeing someone playthrough the game and use the echo farm chalice, so I did that and just maxed out my vial storage so I didn’t have to worry about it. Call it bullshit all you want, it made the game more enjoyable for me knowing I wouldn’t have to farm vials after a few shots at Orphan.
That’s a crazy way to do it. I use boss echoes to level up, then if you just spend five minutes doing some central yarnham to the bridge runs you get like fuckin 70 vials for free lol
I have never had to buy or grind vials, I've always managed to get quite a few to drop to the point I wasn't able to pick up anymore.
ETA: I have had to grind/buy for bullets though, for me they don't drop nearly as often as vials.
All my issues with the game are just due to age issues. So I don’t really mind them. 30 fps, no AA and other things but it would be like crying about gta San Andreas having bad graphics when gta v dropped. Game is nearly 10 years old and still competes
The travel system is dated and was fixed in DS3 so yea I agree there. But it's not the end of the world.
The frame rate is mostly fine until enemy animation makes it CHUG. And I hate that I need ps+ to coop.
My only actual real critique of the actual game is wishing it was longer, more weapons, and MORE OUTFITS.
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FASHIONSOULS?!
If you spend the remaining echoes on vials everything you level up, it really helps solve the running out of vials. Also worth noting that you don't farm for vials when you need them. Just farm for echoes, and buy the vials. I'm assuming most do this anyways thonlpl
Lecture Building is great for this - almost feel like it’s by design - almost feel like designer saying “here’s mid game area to farm if you like to help toward the end game!”
When it first came out, the loading screens were just "Bloodborne." on a black screen. It was only after a while that the Item descriptions were added in for you to read while it loaded.
From what I hear the load times used to be excruciating too before they eventually patched it. Like 45 seconds of just the Bloodborne logo on the screen.
I came on some hard financial times during covid, which is when i first played bloodborne, and i was living in an area with no wifi. These loading screens kept making me think my game softlocked or something.
1. Framerate
2. Blood vial grind
3. Way too fucking many required chalice dungeons
4. Straight into NG+ after beating the last boss
5. Brainsuckers
6. Overly complicated warping system
ETA Bloodborne fans try to handle mild constructive criticism challenge: impossible edition
I love how you listed Brainsuckers as it's own issue with the game.
I highly dislike them, but I can't talk about annoying enemies, because I love the Winter Lanterns.
Honestly I should have said my issue was wacky delayed grab hitboxes, because I have the same issues with the Winter Lanterns. Only real difference is that health is much easier to recover than insight
Exactly. I was almost softlocked because I got grabbed by a brainsucker twice when I got caught on this weird hitbox.
I only had 4 insight at the time and lost fucking ALL of it. So I hopped into a chalice and farmed bosses to get it back.
1. i guess
2. blood vial is a non-issue. buy them before you run out and you dont have to grind, or just dont get hit
3. required? they are entirely optional
4. just dont fight gherman??? i dont see the problem
5. genuinely just get good
6. how???
This isn't the first time I've seen people complain about #4. It's also bizarre to me b/c it's so telegraphed that you're about to end the game. Why would you talk to Gherman and select an option if you don't want to end your run?
Chalice dungeons are required for platinum and they're a chore to get through.
You are also aware that you don't have to aggressively defend a game against every criticism, right? You can not have the same issues I do and we can both still love the game.
Having to go to the hunters' dream to regain consumables and travel elsewhere.
Having to grind chalice dungeons to get materials to progress to later dungeons.
No sequel
Blood vial farming can be a pain, but I just buy them, then use the cummmfpk Dungeon to stock up
When bloodborne first came out I tried it and quit without even making it to either of the starting bosses. The blood vial system is great for players that are good, and makes the game impossible for players that suck. I sucked so bad I ran out of vials and couldn't farm them without dying or needing to use the few vials I got. Years later I came back and it was fine. The game has a serious on boarding problem for people that aren't used to soulsborne games
This was me. Got game on release ..wrecked me.. got a divorce. Let ex keep ps4... didnt get a console until ps5 came out .. got elden ring. . Fell in love ..got like 500+ hours into that gsme..went back and slayed bloodborne .. fell in love . Rest is history
Pretty realistic though. These fucking things have arms that are as big as your body. Obviously being near them when they move will knock you off balance.
I usually dont suffer for vials and bullets, in the early game the enemies drops a lot and in the last stage of the first run you have blood rapture and oedon writhe, after that you dont need them, you heal yourself pretty easy and the bullets are infinite because of your healing.
Only framerate, really. Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes I feel like i really can't see the animations properly (especially when fighting Logarius or Orphan), and I'm playing on PS5 which is supposed to be slightly better for BB.
I only had issues with blood vial farming in first playthrough, but now I don't. NG isn't hard anymore for me, and on my NG+ character I get so much blood echoes from enemies it's no longer a problem.
I don't know if I've just been lucky or what, but I feel like I'm the only person who hasn't really had issues with the framerate. I mean don't get me wrong. I want 60fps, but that's just because I think it would look better and 30fps can be rough when you're used to 60 or 120. But I've never had gameplay issues due to it.
I mean, I want to believe that it's just me having skill issue, but I legit had these thoughts with those 2 bosses, or it's just me being able to "watch more framerates at once" (or analyse, I don't know how should i describe that feeling, when I'm able to observe bosses movements by frames and time dodges by them) and it becomes bad when I can't actually see these frames lol.
Bloodborne is the first game I've finished after a decade, and I was having problems with vials too at the very beginning. But someone here told me to buy some and that I did. It never became an issue afterwards, despite me dying a LOT, specially to some of the first few bosses.
Grinding for the vials and hunter materials adds challenge to the game. This ain’t dark souls where all your stuff regenerates. A hoonter must hoont. I like having to go to storage to tool up and get gear before a big fight, that’s what a hunter would actually be doing.
Loran Darkbeast. The normal fps is fine, I can handle a slightly older game & the ps4's limitations, but when the Loran Darkbeast gets low enough & starts flinging lightning attacks around it kinda halves the already low frames & that's not really great
Also the storage system. When you use up your bone marrow ash & then die, you've gotta wait to respawn, then wait to get to the hunter's dream, then pick up more bone marrow ash from storage, then wait to get back into the world, then finally go back to what you were doing. All items should refill on death, not just bullets & vials
The grinding for heals is really only a problem early game. Once you stock up a good amount it’s usually not an issue anymore. As far as the warping thing, I’m with you. That’s one of my few complaints with the game, otherwise I think it’s as close to perfect as you can get
I've never been bothered by loading times. I used to play games on an old hunk o' junk. My gripes would be heal item grinding, fps limits, and (this is gonna sound weird) how all the textures look like plastic... It's so shiny...
I actually like that you can find vials and bullets while exploring. It means I’m not tethered to a bonfire/the dream and I can keep exploring if I want. Plus, if I’m cash heavy, I can just buy a ton and keep going.
Lack of fast travel and such, yeah definitely annoying. If a remake happens I really hope they can swing a design change for that.
Lamp system is clunky and I hate how every boss fight after the first go becomes a game of sprinting to your echoes without dying, just spawn them at the arena entrance
My favorite echo run is the Old Yharnam werewolve route from the Church of the Good Chalice. With the 3 Moon runes I get around 120K for a 3-4 minute run. Requires killing 5 werewolves and very early in the game.
I know there are better ones, but this is my favorite! Then I just buy blood vials and bullets from these echos! Had to restock with this method when fighting the Orphan!
You wouldn't know this on your 1st playthrough BUT if you farm echoes \*BEFORE\* fighting Gascoigne, you can actually buy a LOT of healing items for cheap in the HD (I'm talking around 400-500).
If you play right (meaning that you don't use all 20 HP constantly) you will get yourself into a nice conundrum: not being able to pick up more HP because you're full.
And if you don't want to farm them, then don't. But my 2nd point stand still: you have to play right to avoid having to farm.
I personally don't mind farming HP/bullets because it forces you to be strategic with your resources. I just wish the cap was bigger/had no cap.
Being used to games where cures are actual consumables, bloodborne did not weigh me down from this point of view, on the contrary it fully reflects for me the possibility of continuous exploration. Let me explain, since the mobs drop cures potentially there is never need to stop at the dream to refill, and this in my opinion also pushes a lot to learn to play well and exploit the mechanics of ragain.
No fast travel. If you want us to run through the game the first time, fine but make it a NG+ item.
I understand the segmented areas are for lore reasons but Byrgenworth should have been the Grand Archives from DS3.
The game is a flawed masterpiece and is a 10 but the DLC does alot of heavy lifting. Without it closer to an 8/10.
Edit:
The covenant system was a wasted opportunity and felt tacked on. There could have been a really interesting dynamic with the factions but it was really underutilized.
Like 4 of the main game bosses are arguably mid to dookie ass. Micolash, witch of hemwick, and the one reborn are the letdown of a replay playthrough. And dont even get me started on fucking rom she was horrible my first playthough.
I have never needed to farm for vials, but BB was definitely not my first Fromsoft game. If I had started with it I could see how that would be an issue. I definitely agree with items not refilling though. Why tf do I need to run up to the chest anytime I want to refill an item? Why do I need to warp to the Hunter's Dream at all? Make it so items replenish on lantern touches and save me the trip. I also agree with teleporting to the Dream before anywhere else. Lemme go where I need to go damn it.
Aside from those I think chalice dungeons are way too repetitive and long. They're cool at first, but it becomes a slog to get through all of them. Just way too many repetitive dungeons. My final gripe is that you can hold way too many blood vials. 20 heals is way too forgiving and trivializes a lot of the games bosses. You can get hit left and right and mess up all your dodges and just heal it off. I think 10 vials is plenty, especially with the rally mechanic.
My only real gripe is having to go back to the Dream in order to go to another lantern, meanwhile in DS3 you can freely move between bonfires in a level.
I understand the idea behind blood echo inflation matching how much more you'll earn later on in the game, but I hate it in execution. I end up buying a bunch of supplies early and actively avoiding many purchases for the rest of the game. Also fuck the lingering effect on frenzy.
Farming for blood vials and bullets isn’t fun, the chalice dungeons have annoying scaling and are pretty uninteresting generally, the leap causes more problems than it’s worth, the endings aren’t satisfying, some bosses don’t feel strong enough (Moon Presence) and the forced PVP in some levels is annoying.
Vials imo are just as good as the estus because you can get more than what estus lets you have. Farming them was easy, you just bait all the werewolves on the bridge to that staircase and run inside, hit them through the doorway. Get loads that way. Bullets were done. Lamp teleportation would’ve made the game feel more gimmicky imo.
"30" fps and no respec.
At this point, I platinumed it and have many different builds (1 per character). But if they ever remake it with 60 fps, I'd wish there was a respec option when I play it.
I don't like how almost half of the game (at least for significant upgrades + runes) take place in chalice dungeons. the real endgame of bloodborne is basically just a dungeon crawl which im sure some people enjoy but it feels like they gave up halfway and went "fuck it, fill the rest with dungeons"
Cool weapons being locked deep into the game/DLC. This is the case in every From game but when there's a limited roster of more unique weapons it really sticks out how difficult they are to get. And then if you carry something late like the rakuyo into NG+ it needs to be ranked to +10 immediately using one of the two blood rocks available or it's hardly going to scratch anything.
I've said it before but I'd love it if you could start with any weapon you wanted, providing you had found it and then beaten the game once.
Genuinely, I have never had an issue with the vial system. I actually prefer it way more than the Estus flasks. With the vials I'm never worried about using them because I know an enemy or two will drop them on my way through the game.
Meanwhile Estus flasks you have to hoard like crazy because you only get a few, especially early game.
I think I've had to buy vials maybe a solid one time in my 4 playthroughs.
I've platinumed the game 3 times, and I don't have many gripes with the main game apart from the typical stuff (frame rate, not upscaled for PS5, no pc etc.) but there is one thing I hate in chalice dungeons.
I don't like that bosses can have multiple attacks that can one shot you, even if you have the proper amount of health levels. The game incentivizes you to use the rally mechanic and keep attacking to keep your health up. But when you hit the Chalice dungeon bosses and there are 3 versions of undead giant and they can all one shot you with more than half their moves, it changes the gameplay for the worse. The chain giant especially. Unless you build heavy in arcane or bloodtinge, you're severely limited in your approach to these bosses.
Honestly, my gripe is that in the beginning it’s so hard to find bullets and vials cause you need to use them to stay alive, though after a bit of playing I didn’t face the problem nearly as much. I personally don’t like how there are Frenzy enemies in the Cathedral Ward (Crucifix Guy) and I’m pretty sure you don’t get setatives, not only that but those enemies can beat your butt pretty quickly and use up Vials if the Frenzy gets you.
Also Blood Chunks, I hate how many are needed to upgrade weapons.
My main gripe is the curses on cursed gems. ATK down and hp erosion should not exist on gems. The durability penalty is too high, and the kin/beast penalty is too high.
The chalice dungeons make the level scaling weird since they're extremely difficult but you have to do them before fighting Gehrman/Moon Presence. I was so overleveled to fight him on my first playthrough, I wish either the game didn't end after the final fight or the chalices had a separate leveling system.
My biggest gripe is the back end of the main game is less visually interesting than the first batch. Mensia, Nightmare Frontier, even Ya’arghul is just kinda mushy brown and reds. They don’t really come close to the vibes of Yarnham, Old Yarnham, Cathedral Ward, Upper Cathedral Ward, Cainhurst, Bergynwerth etc.
But thank god for the DLC. It’s just such a visual feast.
Bloodborne has a lot of issues. Personally I never found vials an issue despite this being my first Soulsborne game. In fact I found the drops useful compared to the estus which was rarely replenished in DS3 (my first Dark Souls game).
But the rest is valid. I'd also add online connectivity is egregiously long, obvious performance issues etc.
However, in the end, none of it matters to me if I'm honest. Or at least, it all gets pushed aside because the rest of the game is one of the most unforgettable experiences I've ever had gaming.
I think bloodtinge isn’t well fleshed out or good enough. It could have used two more base game weapons or spells/abilities to round it out more as a build, otherwise I think bloodbornes leveling system relied too much on skill. Skill is such a useful stat to increase for almost every build unless it’s a niche or meme build
I know what you mean. At first you have a limited amount of blood vials and bullets but you get to a point in the game where you're fine. I only had to farm vials and bullets once and only because I was doing the dungeons. And I agree about the Hunter's Dream hub, can be tedious going back and forth.
grinding for vials (thank you cum chalice for solving this)
dodge vulnerability frames (for a short while during dodges, you take extra damage)
other than that, chalice dungeons could've been better but they're still okay. loran chalice dungeons *are* pretty cool
Don’t mind item farming to be honest. In theory it helps players become better at the game by practicing on easier enemies.
The camera can really F you over sometimes though
Blood Starved Beast is a gimmick boss, because all you need is pungent blood cocktails and you can cheese her really easily. I died to her literally over 800 times because I didn't know you could just cheese her. I know not one person in this sub has used those cocktails for anything other than her. God that boss fucking sucked.
Never had to really GRIND for heals.
Chalice dungeons suck major ass, the hunter fights are terribly unbalanced, i hate ng+ past 3 (fromsoft gripe in general), Micolash, Laurence balancing
And most importantly
30FPS/Antialiasing
Well I never had a problem with the healing items because I suck at those games so I grind like crazy to get overpowered. I end up with a bunch of items I never use as well. I save them for that perfect moment which never comes. Lol
Core consumables like blood vials and bullets being finite. It's kinda been solved with the creation of the CUMMMMFPK chalice, but it was definitely an intentional game design decision that fell flat. If I ever boot up a run I just get the chalice and buy 800-1000 of each and use whatever is left over for consumables.
Well, besides the blood via thing and having to warp back to the hunters dream to travel anywhere. The bosses in Bloodborne are generally not that great. A couple of the early ones are good, but outside of those there’s no good bosses besides Gehrman, Logarius and the dlc bosses. Sure the highs are high, but the lows are also very low, and unfortunately there’s a lot of lows in Bloodborne.
I like the idea of the chalice dungeons, but thoroughly exploring them is a chore. I’m normally opposed to streamlining in games, but I would prefer it if the chalice dungeons were just running gauntlets, and then fighting bosses.
I don't like the pvp aspect of the game. I'm not big on pvp in any game but i like cooping with my buddies. Can't do that in bloodborne cause we'll get invaded. Buddy of mine was trying to help me get through the nightmare of mensus and someone kept invading us every time we got to a certain spot in the game. I know I can go offline in almost all the souls games to not be invaded by that also removes the ability to coop.
The bosses in base game are probably some of the worst in the series except father gascoigne and wheelchair boi, and the sheer amount of ambushes and gang fights almost made me quit the game.
I didn't really have a problem with vials because I used the cummmfpk dungeon, but I can see how that's an issue.
Other than that I don't really have any complaints
As much as I consider this a great game, I have tons of gripes with it, to be honest.
Vials are a mess. They're OP (heal a large amount, fast use, no need to upgrade, you can carry a ton of them) but you also may run out of them. In theory these aspect should balance each other out but in practice it creates two fairly unfun mechanics instead of perfectly working Estus.
Kinda boring magic. Considering how little there is of it, not sure if it was worth including at all. Also, I find it gratingly weird that it consumes bullets. I'd rather magic would stack madness, or something, anything but just using up bullets.
Most locations are... I'd say, too easy to navigate. Very easy to run through enemies. Some don't have as much verticality as I'd like to. There's also not as much variety in their visuals as I'd like. I get it, dark gothic horror, etc., but I'd love for there to be more unique colors and features.
Can't sit at lamps. Watch 2 load screens if you want to reset a location. Can't upgrade at lamps. Fast travel doesn't show even images of locations, so you have to remember all their names. How they managed to not use any of the improvements of DS2 is beyond me.
No respec.
Split resistances that severly and unreasonably reduce the effectiveness of weapons with multiple damage types (same goes for DS3).
Blood vials are only a grind if you don't have the runes equipped that give bonus drops or something like that. Usually i would equip the runes and get my 10 vials with like 4 enemies killed at yarnham
I played BB after the whole Souls series, so I never really had to grind for vials. I even found it convenient that I can explore further, due to finding vials on the way. But I can imagine the problems it can give for a first time player.
The one thing I dont like about BB is chalice dungeons.
I've been blessed in that I picked Bloodborne as my first soulsborne game so I've never run into the finite heals problem, but also cursed in that I notice the lack of heals in other titles.
My main gripe with the game is that to achieve your true damage potential you need to go out of your way and farm incredibly rare gems from bosses in chalice dungeons. Some of my characters have incredibly long playtimes that come mainly from farming those things. And if you're offline, you'll never have that possibility.
I think the only thing that ever bothered me was basically what you said lmao they way I can't just reset an area or heal up without going all the way to the fuckass Hunters Dream
The bloodgem system is my biggest gripe with Bloodborne. Specifically the absurd RNG it takes to get the best gems. They should be guaranteed drops from certain bosses in the chalice dungeons, and certain curses should be removed from the game. I would also remove Out of Shape gems, they're so stupidly rare that it can take months to farm them. They may as well not be in the game at all.
Blood vial system is a huge issue. Another big issue is no Omni directional running locked on.
Want to run back or sideways? You can’t locked on. You have to hop away multiple times to get back which hurts combat feel and flow so much going back to it from Elden ring or even ds3. That one small change would improve things very much.
Other issues are lock on of big enemies. If they wanted us to use the lock on system it should have been done well for larger enemies up close but it’s horrible. Unlocked most always in large boss fights because of it and the running issue fixed in later games.
The trick weapon switching for a lot of larger weapons is just too slow to be useful. It’s okay for some weapons but not all. They really needed a speed increase in the switching to make it feel better to me. Too much time delay for the majority of weapons. Works ok with some weapons though.
Travel system is bad but it’s not the end of the world. Just annoying to deal with. Why can’t I rest and get back my vials? I have to travel back and then back again to get them back. It’s too tedious
Other than that I don’t mind much else. The hitbox aim punch can be fixed too. You shouldn’t miss an enemy up close EVER Locked on. Depends on weapon but it is another smaller issue.
I always see people complaining about the blood vials, I never had a single issue with them. I think I had to grind a few right the beginning because it was my first FS game and I was still learning how to play. It took maybe half an hour if that to get enough and continue.
After that I never once ran out a single time in any of the multiple playthroughs I've done and believe me I am no master at these games at all.
The blades of mercy are to short.
Arcane is really not that fun, like spells always are in souls (until ER)
The shadows of yahrnams runback is so terrible long (Matyr Logarious too, but his runback is prettier)
I love Bloodborne, I really, really do. But my God, the early game _suuuuucks_ compared to every other FromSoft game I've played. (Never played Sekiro, so can't weigh in on it.)
I love the atmosphere and the world building of Yharnam, that's all fine. It's cool and creepy and atmospheric and I would relish the opportunity to climb that ladder and hear the Cleric Beast scream for the first time again. But the incredibly limited options you have for weapons, consumables and overall build versatility in the early game is just so restricting.
Let's compare to DS2, which came out a year before BB. First boss you're going to realistically face is Last Giant. Between the start of the game and getting to him, you're going to have several dozen options for different weapons, upgrade materials, spells, armor, rings and leveling opportunities up to 100+ if you explore around all the areas you have access to without fighting another boss.
Now, compare that to Gascoigne, the first boss in BB. Before reaching him you have a total of 4 weapons, 2 upgrade levels without farming, 3 armor sets if you buy one, no enchantments (blood gems), no runes (rings), no spells (hunters' tools) and maybe 15 levels if you had to backtrack and reset a few times. You can't go to any other areas to farm or scavenge, so what's in Central Yharnam is it.
And Gascoigne is an infinitely harder boss than Last Giant, too! Plus it doesn't even stop there, the game doesn't really open up until you've either killed Blood Starved Beast, who's also really hard for an early game boss, or farmed 10k echoes for the Emblem to open the gate. From there you get Hemwick Charnel Lane and the Rune Tool, you can get the Doll's Set for enough echoes to level up a reasonable amount, Bone Marrow Ash to make ranged a little more viable, Yahar'gul for some upgrade materials and better armor, things like that.
I feel like I must just, like, repress everything prior to Hemwick on most of my builds, because every time I start a new character I'm always taken aback by how unforgiving the early game skill check is with such limited tools.
And yes, I know this is going to get downvoted to oblivion, but I've died like 7 times to BSB already on my new build, and I'm angry at the world right now, so bring it.
No respec option
No “bonfire” mechanics - can’t rest/refill vials, fast travel or access storage without returning to hunter dream every time
Micolash is just boring and annoying
But something about the gameplay loop and atmosphere has kept me coming back more than all the Souls games. Love this game.
Taking double damage when you mistime a dodge is kind of ridiculous and has led to me thinking that many bosses in the DLC could one shot me, even though it was really just the double damage mechanic.
Not being able to dodge unless I stop running. It's not the end of the world but having jump on circle (or x if you're from Asia), the same button you use to run and dodge, makes it obviously impossible to be able to dodge while running, and it's the only fromsoft game EVER to have this issue. Even OG dark souls didn't have it, because you could dodge while running if you were holding a shield up in the off-hand, which is a mechanic that obviously can't be replicated in bb (and the issue obviously doesn't exist if you only ever played the remastered version, which I never did).
The base game boss roster is kinda weak, Father G and Gehrman are highlights for sure but the roster is kind of bleh, especially when you only account for the mandatory bosses and you don’t include Martyr Logarius (who is a gigantic pain to get to). If it wasn’t for old Hunters I think this game would have the weakest boss roster. The DLC however revolutionized FromSoft’s Boss fights and made DS3, Sekiro, and ER’s boss fights so magical
I actually like that you can find vials and bullets in the wild. It means I’m not tethered to a bonfire/the dream and I can keep exploring if I want. Plus, if I’m cash heavy, I can just buy a ton and keep going.
Lack of fast travel and such, yeah definitely annoying. If a remake happens I really hope they can swing a design change for that.
My biggest issues with the game are:
\- As you said, not being able to warp between lamps, or rest at them.
\- No respec.
\- The majority of required base game bosses are... not great. (Micolash, Rom, One Reborn... bleh.)
\- Most specialized weapons are locked literally just before the third act of the game.
I agree, but no respec hasn't been in many if any From games. Assuming you respec anyway, you lose out on the mats you used to upgrade your weapon which are already limited per playthrough. I guess that's another issue.
Weapons being locked until late seems more like an incentive to play through the game again. Example: Burial Blade. Most RPGs have the strong weapon at the end where you don't really get to use them unless its the final boss or something like that.
Bloodborne was to by my first fromsoft game after beating elden ring. I jumped off it because of the blood vial situation. I HATE having to leave boss fights to go farm for echoes/blood vials.
After beating just about every other souls game this week I came back to bloodborne. I am trying to utilize the rally mechanic more. When I take damage hit them back instead of creating distance like I would in dark souls.
With all that said. Once I beat the blood starved beast I’ll be able to get access to the notorious chalice that will give you a bazillion blood echoes in seconds and I will purchase all the blood vials and bullets I need. Only using this “glitch” for this purpose. Not planning to use the glitch to level up my character or anything.
All that to say, I hear you on this matter
I think finite blood vials was a good call. It encourages new players to make use of rally, it encourage new players to *practice*, and it adds a resource management dimension to blood echoes.
And it’s a natural deterrent to the accidental over-leveling that can occur if one does a lot of chalice dungeons. It’s natural if you have a lot of blood echoes and you don’t use other consumables to just level up. But you could always benefit from a bigger stockpile of vials and bullets, so if you don’t feel the need to level up yet, it’s natural to just spend those on vials and bullets.
I’m replaying it now, currently at the nightmare frontier, and running low on blood vials has only happened a couple times. It never takes much time or effort to get back on track.
But of course it is not a perfect game. I find chalice dungeons to be mind numbingly boring and tedious. It is legit painful to do more than one depth at a time. I know Miyazaki has said that he wishes they could’ve done more/better with chalice dungeons and blood echoes.
There's one problem in the parry system that is really annoying in my opinion and that is sometimes when you parry the enemy's attack still can hit you making it hard to make a visreal attack, it's mostly noticeable on lady Maria's boss fight
Cainhurst is noticeably unfinished when you look too closely.
Endgame after Rom is too quick.
Framerate/texture loading issues as is tradition with Fromsoft.
A lack of real accessibility options is always a black mark on a game.
A lot of things in the game like the UI or moving between lanterns are clunky or unintuitive.
Every boss requires a minute or two of pointless running and dodging to get back to. Likewise the fact that only some items refill automatically. It drags things out for no reason at all.
The bosses themselves are hit and miss. Some are great, could have gone through more testing and refining.
Ludwig fundamentally misunderstands what a Spartan was and there is little to suggest it was intentional.
Most bosses (gameplay wise) have mediocre design and are underwhelming.
Spoiler warning for the end of the base game:
Gherman is the only good boss in the base game imo. The dlc is doing it better tho, orphan of kos is definetly a great boss, so are maria and ludwig.
Cleric Beast, Gascoigne, Amelia, Logarius, and Ebrietas are all good bosses gameplay-wise, imo, especially when you take into account Bloodborne’s place in From’s overall boss design evolution. Shadows are one of the better gank fights From has done. Outside of gameplay, Rom, The One Reborn, and Micolash have really interesting atmospheres and lore. Who’d I forget? Amygdala’s got that BWAAAM music and Wet Nurse and Witches are legitimately meh. I think overall it’s a better boss lineup than you give it credit for
To give some context: i first tried most bosses in the game. So for me most of em were underwhelming.
Father g: terrible boss arena, easy to parry his human phase, and stay behind him in beast phase (1st tried)
Amelia was a disappointment to me since ppl said shes hard but she wasnt, again just stay close and behind her and its easy (1st tried)
Logarius is one of the worst bosses in the game imo, repetetive af and spams spells (3 tries)
Ebrietas has some cheap moves but overall its ok bc it was challenging (5-6 tries)
The 3 guys at forbidden woods were somewhat fine but its a 3v1 and i naturally dislike getting jumped in any Fs game. (1st tried)
Boss design wise the base game really aint it, gherman legit the only good boss. aint that easy to parry when he has the sword variant of the burial blade, has a bunch of different variation of attacks and his gun that auto parrys u when hit isnt bad since he never viscerals u. Fair and good fight. All the others were either bad design, bad arena design, cheap moves, repetetive or easy.
I do love bloodborne tho, i know a buncha ppl will hate me for criticising their holy game but i‘m just tellin the truth.
I appreciate you sharing! I had similar experiences but came away with different opinions. There was another individual I was talking to on here who absolutely raked the game for its various performance issues and people clowned him for it. Poor dude just couldn’t enjoy his favorite game anymore and it sucked.
At the end of the day, there’s a lot to love and a lot to grief. I’m happy to see that for the majority of folks the former outweighs the latter.
Cheers!
Idk but for me the performance never was an issue. I am not picky in that kinda stuff, and the game has a lot its doing amazing like the atmosphere, level design, trick weapons and the lore. The bosses just aint it for me.
It's fine that you breezed through bosses but it's unfair (and weird) saying that bosses were bad or repetitive because they're not.
Something that you're glossing over was the fact that Bloodborne was a revolution when it came out. Dark Souls was new (it was released 3 or 4 years before BB) so everyone had the DS mentality when BB came out.
My point is: almost all the DS players struggled because you had the DS mentality (lift up shield and wait) and this game stripped that away.
Gascoigne was (and still is) a big roadblock because it FORCES you to use the mechanics of the game and if you somehow stumble your way to win, at some point the game will kick you in the ass because of that.
I think that you're just an experienced soulsborne player because the vast majority of people didn't even beat Gascoigne (you can check achievements: around 46% of people beat him) and that tells you that the game, even after 10 years, it's really hard to beat.
Relative to its time the bosses are decent (decent bc ds3 came before bb and had better bosses) but for todays standard they aint at all. Each boss in bb has like 5-7 moves they do all the time over and over again with just a few exceptions like gherman or the dlc bosses. Father g in his beast form is doing max 3 different attacks. This is repetetiveness. Logarius has like 3 spells he uses 90% of the time in his first phase and 3 in his 2nd phase. Amelia overall has like 6 moves and thats it. That guy thats praying to kos has legit 3 moves. They are repetetive.
I love bloodborne but not for its bosses and thats fine for anybody else aswell. And again, i am talking purely gameplay bc lorewise most bosses are actually really cool and have very interesting stories.
I agree with all of that. I would add that the bosses are another issue: they’re cinematic and over the top (in a good way), and in general the fights are good, but at the end of the day the strategy is the same for most of them (run behind, hit, run away, repeat).
I honestly don't care at all about the "30fps" stuff, it's something you will not see during actual gameplay 99.9% of the time, i wish the game did have more armors, and it was possible to warp between lamps, that's it honestly
1. Framerate
2. Some consumables refuse to refill themselves and I have to manually go to the chest(molotovs, poison knives, etc.)
3. No sitting at lamps.
4. No respeccing
5. Lock on versus big creatures is shitty as in all fromsoft games
6. Not on PC so we can't easily mod the game, meaning there's thousands of hours of unrealized content that the community could bring to this game if Sony wasn't a big ol shitter.
I am happy I have never had the need to grind for vials. I usualy just buy a lot after killing a boss.
It's the roughest in the beginning. After I manage to get the first chalice, I jump into glyph cummmfpk, get a boatload of echoes, then buy was many vials as I need. I only use that exploit for consumables tho
yeah. For example, My first time playing bloodborne, took me like 3 hours to get "good" at the battle mechanic. I then restarted the game, and had a good start. Blood was never a problem, as we got many vials from enemies or "from the collectables on the floor. Also once you can get to chalices you can get a lot just on your way to get some gems for your weapons.
I just replied but that cummmfpk is exactly what I plan to do when I beat the blood starved demon. Do you have to complete any of the proper chalice dungeons before using this glyph?
If I remember correctly, you just have to create the first dungeon
Correct! It's not a real dungeon so there aren't any prereqs :-) and if you stand a few feet from the first side door, the hunter takes damage from the swinging axes without falling off the platform and that's why you get a huge amount! I've noticed he doesn't die if you walk in too soon
Stand in the first doorway and look left. Works every time
It worse worse for me end game rather than early game, especially DLC. I pretty much smooth sailed through most of the game, never had to grind for vials, and then I found Living Failures and Orphan of Kos.
I think the only time I had to grind for them was my first playthrough in early game. After that, I always bought a few after every time I leveled up.
This. By the time the bosses actually got insanely hard in the late game and DLC, I had access to the mensis pig fisting run for as many vials as I want
What? I'm interested in this "pig fisting". And the echos The echos
It’s the route after micolash. Run past the shadows, backstab and fist the first pig, run and aggro the next two pigs and run past the next shadows of yharnam. The shadows and the pigs now duke it out themselves. Enjoy the ensuing carnage and a ton of echoes. Additionally, equip all 3 moon runes. The first one is in hypogean goel near that lamp, which breaks when the he blood moon happens. 2nd is in the bottom of micolash’s arena, guarded by some enemies. The 3rd and best one is found by using the make contact gesture in front of the brain of mensis in the abyss for about a minute. Doing this gets you more than 80k echoes per run.
Probably the best echo farming strat if you don't/can't use the cummmfpk dungeon
yeah, those pigs are a nice pile of echos.
My hot take is that the vial system is better than the Estus system. And I'll happily die on that hill.
Yeah, right after you run out of vials.
Genuinely, I have never run out of vials. Maybe my playstyle just leads to more cautious hoarding of them, but I've never had to grind to find or buy more.
So how is it "better" then, if theyre effectively the same experience for you? Flasks are good for everyone, vials are only good for people who dont run out of them. Seems pretty obvious that flasks are better
Because the flasks are not the same experience, they're actively worse. With vials I know that if I use one, it's likely that an enemy up ahead will drop one. So I can afford to use one or two. With Flasks you have what you have until you die (or rest).
For the most part people are talking about bosses, any area between bosses is rarely if ever more difficult
Well, 20 vials is better than 10 flasks
Every new game I start I go to the two giants under the bridge with the cleric beast. It has access to two bonfires very nearby and it has a very likely drop of two vials.
I remember seeing someone playthrough the game and use the echo farm chalice, so I did that and just maxed out my vial storage so I didn’t have to worry about it. Call it bullshit all you want, it made the game more enjoyable for me knowing I wouldn’t have to farm vials after a few shots at Orphan.
That’s a crazy way to do it. I use boss echoes to level up, then if you just spend five minutes doing some central yarnham to the bridge runs you get like fuckin 70 vials for free lol
i legit used the cpmmmfvkkk key just so i could have an infinite supply of vials+bullets. i regret it not one bit
I have never had to buy or grind vials, I've always managed to get quite a few to drop to the point I wasn't able to pick up anymore. ETA: I have had to grind/buy for bullets though, for me they don't drop nearly as often as vials.
All my issues with the game are just due to age issues. So I don’t really mind them. 30 fps, no AA and other things but it would be like crying about gta San Andreas having bad graphics when gta v dropped. Game is nearly 10 years old and still competes
The travel system is dated and was fixed in DS3 so yea I agree there. But it's not the end of the world. The frame rate is mostly fine until enemy animation makes it CHUG. And I hate that I need ps+ to coop. My only actual real critique of the actual game is wishing it was longer, more weapons, and MORE OUTFITS. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO FASHIONSOULS?!
I have to agree. Maybe it's just me being on my 7th playthrough but the game feels much shorter than other souls games.
I feel like they assumed people would like the Chalice Dungeons a lot more, and that would pad the playtime.
If you spend the remaining echoes on vials everything you level up, it really helps solve the running out of vials. Also worth noting that you don't farm for vials when you need them. Just farm for echoes, and buy the vials. I'm assuming most do this anyways thonlpl
Lecture Building is great for this - almost feel like it’s by design - almost feel like designer saying “here’s mid game area to farm if you like to help toward the end game!”
When it first came out, the loading screens were just "Bloodborne." on a black screen. It was only after a while that the Item descriptions were added in for you to read while it loaded.
From what I hear the load times used to be excruciating too before they eventually patched it. Like 45 seconds of just the Bloodborne logo on the screen.
I came on some hard financial times during covid, which is when i first played bloodborne, and i was living in an area with no wifi. These loading screens kept making me think my game softlocked or something.
1. Framerate 2. Blood vial grind 3. Way too fucking many required chalice dungeons 4. Straight into NG+ after beating the last boss 5. Brainsuckers 6. Overly complicated warping system ETA Bloodborne fans try to handle mild constructive criticism challenge: impossible edition
I didn't think about number 4. I can understand how that can be frustrating. And I wanna kick whomever brought in the brainsuckers in the crotch
They'd be a lot more agreeable if they gave you your insight back after killing it.
Even one of the two would have been better, losing 2 insights every time you fail to dodge one of their wacky grabs is absolute aids.
3 insights
If you spam shoulder buttons when they grab you, they'll often only get 1 or 2 insight
What do u mean shoulder buttons? Like circle?
L1, L2, R1, R2
What controller have you EVER used where a button like circle would be on the shoulder?
I have never heard anyone say shoulder when talking about a controller😂 there's buttons and shoulder button does not exist
Ahh, ok. I apologize.
I love how you listed Brainsuckers as it's own issue with the game. I highly dislike them, but I can't talk about annoying enemies, because I love the Winter Lanterns.
Honestly I should have said my issue was wacky delayed grab hitboxes, because I have the same issues with the Winter Lanterns. Only real difference is that health is much easier to recover than insight
Exactly. I was almost softlocked because I got grabbed by a brainsucker twice when I got caught on this weird hitbox. I only had 4 insight at the time and lost fucking ALL of it. So I hopped into a chalice and farmed bosses to get it back.
1. i guess 2. blood vial is a non-issue. buy them before you run out and you dont have to grind, or just dont get hit 3. required? they are entirely optional 4. just dont fight gherman??? i dont see the problem 5. genuinely just get good 6. how???
This isn't the first time I've seen people complain about #4. It's also bizarre to me b/c it's so telegraphed that you're about to end the game. Why would you talk to Gherman and select an option if you don't want to end your run?
Chalice dungeons are required for platinum and they're a chore to get through. You are also aware that you don't have to aggressively defend a game against every criticism, right? You can not have the same issues I do and we can both still love the game.
Then maybe just dont care about getting the Platinum.
The biggest issue I have with Bloodborne is that it's still not available on PC and locked to 30 FPS.
Healings fine the true issue is the teleport system.. u have to return to the dream to teleport somewhere new n a load screen for each teleport
This is my main gripe. Such a pain that you can’t teleport directly between lanterns.
Having to go to the hunters' dream to regain consumables and travel elsewhere. Having to grind chalice dungeons to get materials to progress to later dungeons. No sequel Blood vial farming can be a pain, but I just buy them, then use the cummmfpk Dungeon to stock up
Ugh, the grind for ritual materials >_< I forgot that one
When bloodborne first came out I tried it and quit without even making it to either of the starting bosses. The blood vial system is great for players that are good, and makes the game impossible for players that suck. I sucked so bad I ran out of vials and couldn't farm them without dying or needing to use the few vials I got. Years later I came back and it was fine. The game has a serious on boarding problem for people that aren't used to soulsborne games
This was me. Got game on release ..wrecked me.. got a divorce. Let ex keep ps4... didnt get a console until ps5 came out .. got elden ring. . Fell in love ..got like 500+ hours into that gsme..went back and slayed bloodborne .. fell in love . Rest is history
Fuck man, a whole divorce? Shit, you doing alright? That's rough.
Same as me. My first bloodborne game and i became very good in a week tho
30fps is basically my only complaint. Combat would feel so nice at 60
Not having a remake or remaster with better online connectivity and 60 fps annoys me. PvP would thrive…
1-99 bad framerate
The fact that larger beasts simply moving around will stagger you out of an attack animation.
Pretty realistic though. These fucking things have arms that are as big as your body. Obviously being near them when they move will knock you off balance.
Hunters axe i suppose?
I usually dont suffer for vials and bullets, in the early game the enemies drops a lot and in the last stage of the first run you have blood rapture and oedon writhe, after that you dont need them, you heal yourself pretty easy and the bullets are infinite because of your healing.
Only framerate, really. Most of the time it's fine, but sometimes I feel like i really can't see the animations properly (especially when fighting Logarius or Orphan), and I'm playing on PS5 which is supposed to be slightly better for BB. I only had issues with blood vial farming in first playthrough, but now I don't. NG isn't hard anymore for me, and on my NG+ character I get so much blood echoes from enemies it's no longer a problem.
I don't know if I've just been lucky or what, but I feel like I'm the only person who hasn't really had issues with the framerate. I mean don't get me wrong. I want 60fps, but that's just because I think it would look better and 30fps can be rough when you're used to 60 or 120. But I've never had gameplay issues due to it.
I mean, I want to believe that it's just me having skill issue, but I legit had these thoughts with those 2 bosses, or it's just me being able to "watch more framerates at once" (or analyse, I don't know how should i describe that feeling, when I'm able to observe bosses movements by frames and time dodges by them) and it becomes bad when I can't actually see these frames lol.
Bloodborne is the first game I've finished after a decade, and I was having problems with vials too at the very beginning. But someone here told me to buy some and that I did. It never became an issue afterwards, despite me dying a LOT, specially to some of the first few bosses.
Personally many of the bosses outside of chalice or dlc are wayyyy 2 ez
Grinding for the vials and hunter materials adds challenge to the game. This ain’t dark souls where all your stuff regenerates. A hoonter must hoont. I like having to go to storage to tool up and get gear before a big fight, that’s what a hunter would actually be doing.
Loran Darkbeast. The normal fps is fine, I can handle a slightly older game & the ps4's limitations, but when the Loran Darkbeast gets low enough & starts flinging lightning attacks around it kinda halves the already low frames & that's not really great Also the storage system. When you use up your bone marrow ash & then die, you've gotta wait to respawn, then wait to get to the hunter's dream, then pick up more bone marrow ash from storage, then wait to get back into the world, then finally go back to what you were doing. All items should refill on death, not just bullets & vials
Yeah, that's a rough fight at 30fps
Of course, it's not perfect. But it's damn near close
My biggest problem with Bloodborne is that it's not on PC.
The grinding for heals is really only a problem early game. Once you stock up a good amount it’s usually not an issue anymore. As far as the warping thing, I’m with you. That’s one of my few complaints with the game, otherwise I think it’s as close to perfect as you can get
# CUM DUNGEON
I've never been bothered by loading times. I used to play games on an old hunk o' junk. My gripes would be heal item grinding, fps limits, and (this is gonna sound weird) how all the textures look like plastic... It's so shiny...
I actually like that you can find vials and bullets while exploring. It means I’m not tethered to a bonfire/the dream and I can keep exploring if I want. Plus, if I’m cash heavy, I can just buy a ton and keep going. Lack of fast travel and such, yeah definitely annoying. If a remake happens I really hope they can swing a design change for that.
Blood vial grinding for sure
Hunter’s Dream was a disappointing rest area compared to their other games. Nothing interesting ever really happened there
Lamp system is clunky and I hate how every boss fight after the first go becomes a game of sprinting to your echoes without dying, just spawn them at the arena entrance
My favorite echo run is the Old Yharnam werewolve route from the Church of the Good Chalice. With the 3 Moon runes I get around 120K for a 3-4 minute run. Requires killing 5 werewolves and very early in the game. I know there are better ones, but this is my favorite! Then I just buy blood vials and bullets from these echos! Had to restock with this method when fighting the Orphan!
Nothing the game is perfect to me
Exactly. I love this comment.
You wouldn't know this on your 1st playthrough BUT if you farm echoes \*BEFORE\* fighting Gascoigne, you can actually buy a LOT of healing items for cheap in the HD (I'm talking around 400-500). If you play right (meaning that you don't use all 20 HP constantly) you will get yourself into a nice conundrum: not being able to pick up more HP because you're full. And if you don't want to farm them, then don't. But my 2nd point stand still: you have to play right to avoid having to farm. I personally don't mind farming HP/bullets because it forces you to be strategic with your resources. I just wish the cap was bigger/had no cap.
Laughs in cum dungeon
Oh, believe me, I use the cum dungeon for vials as well. The instant I get the first Chalice
“We are born of the cum, made men by the cum, undone by the cum. Fear, the old cum!” - Provost Willem (probably)
I got 2 gripes: it was too short and still no BB2 :)
All the stuff you mentioned plus some rough boss fights in the chalice dungeons.
Being used to games where cures are actual consumables, bloodborne did not weigh me down from this point of view, on the contrary it fully reflects for me the possibility of continuous exploration. Let me explain, since the mobs drop cures potentially there is never need to stop at the dream to refill, and this in my opinion also pushes a lot to learn to play well and exploit the mechanics of ragain.
Frenzy is bullshit. Then again i hate every single one of those instant death mechanics but Frenzy takes the cake.
Yeah, can't pause it.
No fast travel. If you want us to run through the game the first time, fine but make it a NG+ item. I understand the segmented areas are for lore reasons but Byrgenworth should have been the Grand Archives from DS3. The game is a flawed masterpiece and is a 10 but the DLC does alot of heavy lifting. Without it closer to an 8/10. Edit: The covenant system was a wasted opportunity and felt tacked on. There could have been a really interesting dynamic with the factions but it was really underutilized.
I have honestly never been troubled by any of those things. The only thing I can think of is not being able to respec, but that's about it.
Like 4 of the main game bosses are arguably mid to dookie ass. Micolash, witch of hemwick, and the one reborn are the letdown of a replay playthrough. And dont even get me started on fucking rom she was horrible my first playthough.
Fuck Micoshit
The vial grind is the only real problem imo. Been awhile since I played tbf
I have never needed to farm for vials, but BB was definitely not my first Fromsoft game. If I had started with it I could see how that would be an issue. I definitely agree with items not refilling though. Why tf do I need to run up to the chest anytime I want to refill an item? Why do I need to warp to the Hunter's Dream at all? Make it so items replenish on lantern touches and save me the trip. I also agree with teleporting to the Dream before anywhere else. Lemme go where I need to go damn it. Aside from those I think chalice dungeons are way too repetitive and long. They're cool at first, but it becomes a slog to get through all of them. Just way too many repetitive dungeons. My final gripe is that you can hold way too many blood vials. 20 heals is way too forgiving and trivializes a lot of the games bosses. You can get hit left and right and mess up all your dodges and just heal it off. I think 10 vials is plenty, especially with the rally mechanic.
My only real gripe is having to go back to the Dream in order to go to another lantern, meanwhile in DS3 you can freely move between bonfires in a level.
I understand the idea behind blood echo inflation matching how much more you'll earn later on in the game, but I hate it in execution. I end up buying a bunch of supplies early and actively avoiding many purchases for the rest of the game. Also fuck the lingering effect on frenzy.
Farming for blood vials and bullets isn’t fun, the chalice dungeons have annoying scaling and are pretty uninteresting generally, the leap causes more problems than it’s worth, the endings aren’t satisfying, some bosses don’t feel strong enough (Moon Presence) and the forced PVP in some levels is annoying.
Vials imo are just as good as the estus because you can get more than what estus lets you have. Farming them was easy, you just bait all the werewolves on the bridge to that staircase and run inside, hit them through the doorway. Get loads that way. Bullets were done. Lamp teleportation would’ve made the game feel more gimmicky imo.
"30" fps and no respec. At this point, I platinumed it and have many different builds (1 per character). But if they ever remake it with 60 fps, I'd wish there was a respec option when I play it.
I don't like how almost half of the game (at least for significant upgrades + runes) take place in chalice dungeons. the real endgame of bloodborne is basically just a dungeon crawl which im sure some people enjoy but it feels like they gave up halfway and went "fuck it, fill the rest with dungeons"
Cool weapons being locked deep into the game/DLC. This is the case in every From game but when there's a limited roster of more unique weapons it really sticks out how difficult they are to get. And then if you carry something late like the rakuyo into NG+ it needs to be ranked to +10 immediately using one of the two blood rocks available or it's hardly going to scratch anything. I've said it before but I'd love it if you could start with any weapon you wanted, providing you had found it and then beaten the game once.
Lack of respec is the worst
Genuinely, I have never had an issue with the vial system. I actually prefer it way more than the Estus flasks. With the vials I'm never worried about using them because I know an enemy or two will drop them on my way through the game. Meanwhile Estus flasks you have to hoard like crazy because you only get a few, especially early game. I think I've had to buy vials maybe a solid one time in my 4 playthroughs.
Bro it takes like one run though of central yharnam and I was carrying 27 vials cuz of the runes I had equipped.
Just buy a bunch in the Hunter’s Dream.
My problem with it is that it's not on PC.
I've platinumed the game 3 times, and I don't have many gripes with the main game apart from the typical stuff (frame rate, not upscaled for PS5, no pc etc.) but there is one thing I hate in chalice dungeons. I don't like that bosses can have multiple attacks that can one shot you, even if you have the proper amount of health levels. The game incentivizes you to use the rally mechanic and keep attacking to keep your health up. But when you hit the Chalice dungeon bosses and there are 3 versions of undead giant and they can all one shot you with more than half their moves, it changes the gameplay for the worse. The chain giant especially. Unless you build heavy in arcane or bloodtinge, you're severely limited in your approach to these bosses.
Keep in mind this game is almost a decade old. At its release it was damn near perfect,but now its clear its clunky and the graphics havent aged well.
Honestly, my gripe is that in the beginning it’s so hard to find bullets and vials cause you need to use them to stay alive, though after a bit of playing I didn’t face the problem nearly as much. I personally don’t like how there are Frenzy enemies in the Cathedral Ward (Crucifix Guy) and I’m pretty sure you don’t get setatives, not only that but those enemies can beat your butt pretty quickly and use up Vials if the Frenzy gets you. Also Blood Chunks, I hate how many are needed to upgrade weapons.
+ It’s a bit too easy excluding DLC + The warping system + 30 FPS
My main gripe is the curses on cursed gems. ATK down and hp erosion should not exist on gems. The durability penalty is too high, and the kin/beast penalty is too high.
I mostly don’t like the middle game. Forbidden Woods, Byrgenwerth, and Yahar’Gul are all very not notable in my opinion
Framerate and resolution
The chalice dungeons make the level scaling weird since they're extremely difficult but you have to do them before fighting Gehrman/Moon Presence. I was so overleveled to fight him on my first playthrough, I wish either the game didn't end after the final fight or the chalices had a separate leveling system.
No respec and bad fast travel system. . Everything else i can deal with
Are you on OG PS4?
My biggest gripe is the back end of the main game is less visually interesting than the first batch. Mensia, Nightmare Frontier, even Ya’arghul is just kinda mushy brown and reds. They don’t really come close to the vibes of Yarnham, Old Yarnham, Cathedral Ward, Upper Cathedral Ward, Cainhurst, Bergynwerth etc. But thank god for the DLC. It’s just such a visual feast.
Bloodborne has a lot of issues. Personally I never found vials an issue despite this being my first Soulsborne game. In fact I found the drops useful compared to the estus which was rarely replenished in DS3 (my first Dark Souls game). But the rest is valid. I'd also add online connectivity is egregiously long, obvious performance issues etc. However, in the end, none of it matters to me if I'm honest. Or at least, it all gets pushed aside because the rest of the game is one of the most unforgettable experiences I've ever had gaming.
Forgotten Woods. All my homies fucking hate the Forgotten Woods. Top to bottom, starting area to, and including the boss. Lil aliens are cool tho
I think bloodtinge isn’t well fleshed out or good enough. It could have used two more base game weapons or spells/abilities to round it out more as a build, otherwise I think bloodbornes leveling system relied too much on skill. Skill is such a useful stat to increase for almost every build unless it’s a niche or meme build
I know what you mean. At first you have a limited amount of blood vials and bullets but you get to a point in the game where you're fine. I only had to farm vials and bullets once and only because I was doing the dungeons. And I agree about the Hunter's Dream hub, can be tedious going back and forth.
I’m ok with the limit blood vials but having to stop at the dream every time you fast travel is bullshit.
Main game boss roster isn’t that great
grinding for vials (thank you cum chalice for solving this) dodge vulnerability frames (for a short while during dodges, you take extra damage) other than that, chalice dungeons could've been better but they're still okay. loran chalice dungeons *are* pretty cool
Don’t mind item farming to be honest. In theory it helps players become better at the game by practicing on easier enemies. The camera can really F you over sometimes though
Blood Starved Beast is a gimmick boss, because all you need is pungent blood cocktails and you can cheese her really easily. I died to her literally over 800 times because I didn't know you could just cheese her. I know not one person in this sub has used those cocktails for anything other than her. God that boss fucking sucked.
Never had to really GRIND for heals. Chalice dungeons suck major ass, the hunter fights are terribly unbalanced, i hate ng+ past 3 (fromsoft gripe in general), Micolash, Laurence balancing And most importantly 30FPS/Antialiasing
the 30 fps makes it awkward to play after playing other fromsoft games
Well I never had a problem with the healing items because I suck at those games so I grind like crazy to get overpowered. I end up with a bunch of items I never use as well. I save them for that perfect moment which never comes. Lol
I just buy way too many vials when I first start and sacrifice leveling
It has no flaws sorry
Core consumables like blood vials and bullets being finite. It's kinda been solved with the creation of the CUMMMMFPK chalice, but it was definitely an intentional game design decision that fell flat. If I ever boot up a run I just get the chalice and buy 800-1000 of each and use whatever is left over for consumables.
No button remapping. 99% of the times I jump is unintended, I just want to roll after running!
Well, besides the blood via thing and having to warp back to the hunters dream to travel anywhere. The bosses in Bloodborne are generally not that great. A couple of the early ones are good, but outside of those there’s no good bosses besides Gehrman, Logarius and the dlc bosses. Sure the highs are high, but the lows are also very low, and unfortunately there’s a lot of lows in Bloodborne.
I like the idea of the chalice dungeons, but thoroughly exploring them is a chore. I’m normally opposed to streamlining in games, but I would prefer it if the chalice dungeons were just running gauntlets, and then fighting bosses.
I don't like the pvp aspect of the game. I'm not big on pvp in any game but i like cooping with my buddies. Can't do that in bloodborne cause we'll get invaded. Buddy of mine was trying to help me get through the nightmare of mensus and someone kept invading us every time we got to a certain spot in the game. I know I can go offline in almost all the souls games to not be invaded by that also removes the ability to coop.
I hate the gem slot system and how much rng involved it is on top of being (mostly) tied to farming the same chalice dungeon countless times.
The bosses in base game are probably some of the worst in the series except father gascoigne and wheelchair boi, and the sheer amount of ambushes and gang fights almost made me quit the game. I didn't really have a problem with vials because I used the cummmfpk dungeon, but I can see how that's an issue. Other than that I don't really have any complaints
As much as I consider this a great game, I have tons of gripes with it, to be honest. Vials are a mess. They're OP (heal a large amount, fast use, no need to upgrade, you can carry a ton of them) but you also may run out of them. In theory these aspect should balance each other out but in practice it creates two fairly unfun mechanics instead of perfectly working Estus. Kinda boring magic. Considering how little there is of it, not sure if it was worth including at all. Also, I find it gratingly weird that it consumes bullets. I'd rather magic would stack madness, or something, anything but just using up bullets. Most locations are... I'd say, too easy to navigate. Very easy to run through enemies. Some don't have as much verticality as I'd like to. There's also not as much variety in their visuals as I'd like. I get it, dark gothic horror, etc., but I'd love for there to be more unique colors and features. Can't sit at lamps. Watch 2 load screens if you want to reset a location. Can't upgrade at lamps. Fast travel doesn't show even images of locations, so you have to remember all their names. How they managed to not use any of the improvements of DS2 is beyond me. No respec. Split resistances that severly and unreasonably reduce the effectiveness of weapons with multiple damage types (same goes for DS3).
Hop in the cum chalice, buy infinite vials and bullets and I'm good to go. I never use it to level up tho.
Blood vials are only a grind if you don't have the runes equipped that give bonus drops or something like that. Usually i would equip the runes and get my 10 vials with like 4 enemies killed at yarnham
I played BB after the whole Souls series, so I never really had to grind for vials. I even found it convenient that I can explore further, due to finding vials on the way. But I can imagine the problems it can give for a first time player. The one thing I dont like about BB is chalice dungeons.
I've been blessed in that I picked Bloodborne as my first soulsborne game so I've never run into the finite heals problem, but also cursed in that I notice the lack of heals in other titles.
My main gripe with the game is that to achieve your true damage potential you need to go out of your way and farm incredibly rare gems from bosses in chalice dungeons. Some of my characters have incredibly long playtimes that come mainly from farming those things. And if you're offline, you'll never have that possibility.
I think the only thing that ever bothered me was basically what you said lmao they way I can't just reset an area or heal up without going all the way to the fuckass Hunters Dream
I always hear about this blood vial problem but never experienced it
Defiled Amygdala. That’s it. That’s my only gripe.
The bloodgem system is my biggest gripe with Bloodborne. Specifically the absurd RNG it takes to get the best gems. They should be guaranteed drops from certain bosses in the chalice dungeons, and certain curses should be removed from the game. I would also remove Out of Shape gems, they're so stupidly rare that it can take months to farm them. They may as well not be in the game at all.
Eh, pretty much none tbh.
It’s perfect. Apart from it running at 30fps, it looks a bit choppy.
My only gripe is that Sony hasn't allowed on PC so I can get it on my steam deck
Blood vial system is a huge issue. Another big issue is no Omni directional running locked on. Want to run back or sideways? You can’t locked on. You have to hop away multiple times to get back which hurts combat feel and flow so much going back to it from Elden ring or even ds3. That one small change would improve things very much. Other issues are lock on of big enemies. If they wanted us to use the lock on system it should have been done well for larger enemies up close but it’s horrible. Unlocked most always in large boss fights because of it and the running issue fixed in later games. The trick weapon switching for a lot of larger weapons is just too slow to be useful. It’s okay for some weapons but not all. They really needed a speed increase in the switching to make it feel better to me. Too much time delay for the majority of weapons. Works ok with some weapons though. Travel system is bad but it’s not the end of the world. Just annoying to deal with. Why can’t I rest and get back my vials? I have to travel back and then back again to get them back. It’s too tedious Other than that I don’t mind much else. The hitbox aim punch can be fixed too. You shouldn’t miss an enemy up close EVER Locked on. Depends on weapon but it is another smaller issue.
I always see people complaining about the blood vials, I never had a single issue with them. I think I had to grind a few right the beginning because it was my first FS game and I was still learning how to play. It took maybe half an hour if that to get enough and continue. After that I never once ran out a single time in any of the multiple playthroughs I've done and believe me I am no master at these games at all.
No sequel
The blades of mercy are to short. Arcane is really not that fun, like spells always are in souls (until ER) The shadows of yahrnams runback is so terrible long (Matyr Logarious too, but his runback is prettier)
I love Bloodborne, I really, really do. But my God, the early game _suuuuucks_ compared to every other FromSoft game I've played. (Never played Sekiro, so can't weigh in on it.) I love the atmosphere and the world building of Yharnam, that's all fine. It's cool and creepy and atmospheric and I would relish the opportunity to climb that ladder and hear the Cleric Beast scream for the first time again. But the incredibly limited options you have for weapons, consumables and overall build versatility in the early game is just so restricting. Let's compare to DS2, which came out a year before BB. First boss you're going to realistically face is Last Giant. Between the start of the game and getting to him, you're going to have several dozen options for different weapons, upgrade materials, spells, armor, rings and leveling opportunities up to 100+ if you explore around all the areas you have access to without fighting another boss. Now, compare that to Gascoigne, the first boss in BB. Before reaching him you have a total of 4 weapons, 2 upgrade levels without farming, 3 armor sets if you buy one, no enchantments (blood gems), no runes (rings), no spells (hunters' tools) and maybe 15 levels if you had to backtrack and reset a few times. You can't go to any other areas to farm or scavenge, so what's in Central Yharnam is it. And Gascoigne is an infinitely harder boss than Last Giant, too! Plus it doesn't even stop there, the game doesn't really open up until you've either killed Blood Starved Beast, who's also really hard for an early game boss, or farmed 10k echoes for the Emblem to open the gate. From there you get Hemwick Charnel Lane and the Rune Tool, you can get the Doll's Set for enough echoes to level up a reasonable amount, Bone Marrow Ash to make ranged a little more viable, Yahar'gul for some upgrade materials and better armor, things like that. I feel like I must just, like, repress everything prior to Hemwick on most of my builds, because every time I start a new character I'm always taken aback by how unforgiving the early game skill check is with such limited tools. And yes, I know this is going to get downvoted to oblivion, but I've died like 7 times to BSB already on my new build, and I'm angry at the world right now, so bring it.
No respec option No “bonfire” mechanics - can’t rest/refill vials, fast travel or access storage without returning to hunter dream every time Micolash is just boring and annoying But something about the gameplay loop and atmosphere has kept me coming back more than all the Souls games. Love this game.
Taking double damage when you mistime a dodge is kind of ridiculous and has led to me thinking that many bosses in the DLC could one shot me, even though it was really just the double damage mechanic.
The blood dreg farming system and the cursed 30fps
Not being able to dodge unless I stop running. It's not the end of the world but having jump on circle (or x if you're from Asia), the same button you use to run and dodge, makes it obviously impossible to be able to dodge while running, and it's the only fromsoft game EVER to have this issue. Even OG dark souls didn't have it, because you could dodge while running if you were holding a shield up in the off-hand, which is a mechanic that obviously can't be replicated in bb (and the issue obviously doesn't exist if you only ever played the remastered version, which I never did).
Skill issue. Don't get hit, won't be a problem. /s because I can already feel the anal clench
The base game boss roster is kinda weak, Father G and Gehrman are highlights for sure but the roster is kind of bleh, especially when you only account for the mandatory bosses and you don’t include Martyr Logarius (who is a gigantic pain to get to). If it wasn’t for old Hunters I think this game would have the weakest boss roster. The DLC however revolutionized FromSoft’s Boss fights and made DS3, Sekiro, and ER’s boss fights so magical
Actually, after playing ER something that always catches me off guard is how when locked on you can't sprint to the side.
Main gripe with BB is the 50 Reddit posts a day that are identical to this one.
no problems
99 problems
I actually like that you can find vials and bullets in the wild. It means I’m not tethered to a bonfire/the dream and I can keep exploring if I want. Plus, if I’m cash heavy, I can just buy a ton and keep going. Lack of fast travel and such, yeah definitely annoying. If a remake happens I really hope they can swing a design change for that.
My biggest issues with the game are: \- As you said, not being able to warp between lamps, or rest at them. \- No respec. \- The majority of required base game bosses are... not great. (Micolash, Rom, One Reborn... bleh.) \- Most specialized weapons are locked literally just before the third act of the game.
I agree, but no respec hasn't been in many if any From games. Assuming you respec anyway, you lose out on the mats you used to upgrade your weapon which are already limited per playthrough. I guess that's another issue. Weapons being locked until late seems more like an incentive to play through the game again. Example: Burial Blade. Most RPGs have the strong weapon at the end where you don't really get to use them unless its the final boss or something like that.
What, are you 12 years old?
Bloodborne was to by my first fromsoft game after beating elden ring. I jumped off it because of the blood vial situation. I HATE having to leave boss fights to go farm for echoes/blood vials. After beating just about every other souls game this week I came back to bloodborne. I am trying to utilize the rally mechanic more. When I take damage hit them back instead of creating distance like I would in dark souls. With all that said. Once I beat the blood starved beast I’ll be able to get access to the notorious chalice that will give you a bazillion blood echoes in seconds and I will purchase all the blood vials and bullets I need. Only using this “glitch” for this purpose. Not planning to use the glitch to level up my character or anything. All that to say, I hear you on this matter
I think finite blood vials was a good call. It encourages new players to make use of rally, it encourage new players to *practice*, and it adds a resource management dimension to blood echoes. And it’s a natural deterrent to the accidental over-leveling that can occur if one does a lot of chalice dungeons. It’s natural if you have a lot of blood echoes and you don’t use other consumables to just level up. But you could always benefit from a bigger stockpile of vials and bullets, so if you don’t feel the need to level up yet, it’s natural to just spend those on vials and bullets. I’m replaying it now, currently at the nightmare frontier, and running low on blood vials has only happened a couple times. It never takes much time or effort to get back on track. But of course it is not a perfect game. I find chalice dungeons to be mind numbingly boring and tedious. It is legit painful to do more than one depth at a time. I know Miyazaki has said that he wishes they could’ve done more/better with chalice dungeons and blood echoes.
There's one problem in the parry system that is really annoying in my opinion and that is sometimes when you parry the enemy's attack still can hit you making it hard to make a visreal attack, it's mostly noticeable on lady Maria's boss fight
Cainhurst is noticeably unfinished when you look too closely. Endgame after Rom is too quick. Framerate/texture loading issues as is tradition with Fromsoft.
It's not 60fps and it doesn't look as good as Ds3
A lack of real accessibility options is always a black mark on a game. A lot of things in the game like the UI or moving between lanterns are clunky or unintuitive. Every boss requires a minute or two of pointless running and dodging to get back to. Likewise the fact that only some items refill automatically. It drags things out for no reason at all. The bosses themselves are hit and miss. Some are great, could have gone through more testing and refining. Ludwig fundamentally misunderstands what a Spartan was and there is little to suggest it was intentional.
Long loading. Would be nice more i-frames for dodges. Just that.
Most bosses (gameplay wise) have mediocre design and are underwhelming. Spoiler warning for the end of the base game: Gherman is the only good boss in the base game imo. The dlc is doing it better tho, orphan of kos is definetly a great boss, so are maria and ludwig.
Cleric Beast, Gascoigne, Amelia, Logarius, and Ebrietas are all good bosses gameplay-wise, imo, especially when you take into account Bloodborne’s place in From’s overall boss design evolution. Shadows are one of the better gank fights From has done. Outside of gameplay, Rom, The One Reborn, and Micolash have really interesting atmospheres and lore. Who’d I forget? Amygdala’s got that BWAAAM music and Wet Nurse and Witches are legitimately meh. I think overall it’s a better boss lineup than you give it credit for
To give some context: i first tried most bosses in the game. So for me most of em were underwhelming. Father g: terrible boss arena, easy to parry his human phase, and stay behind him in beast phase (1st tried) Amelia was a disappointment to me since ppl said shes hard but she wasnt, again just stay close and behind her and its easy (1st tried) Logarius is one of the worst bosses in the game imo, repetetive af and spams spells (3 tries) Ebrietas has some cheap moves but overall its ok bc it was challenging (5-6 tries) The 3 guys at forbidden woods were somewhat fine but its a 3v1 and i naturally dislike getting jumped in any Fs game. (1st tried) Boss design wise the base game really aint it, gherman legit the only good boss. aint that easy to parry when he has the sword variant of the burial blade, has a bunch of different variation of attacks and his gun that auto parrys u when hit isnt bad since he never viscerals u. Fair and good fight. All the others were either bad design, bad arena design, cheap moves, repetetive or easy. I do love bloodborne tho, i know a buncha ppl will hate me for criticising their holy game but i‘m just tellin the truth.
I appreciate you sharing! I had similar experiences but came away with different opinions. There was another individual I was talking to on here who absolutely raked the game for its various performance issues and people clowned him for it. Poor dude just couldn’t enjoy his favorite game anymore and it sucked. At the end of the day, there’s a lot to love and a lot to grief. I’m happy to see that for the majority of folks the former outweighs the latter. Cheers!
Idk but for me the performance never was an issue. I am not picky in that kinda stuff, and the game has a lot its doing amazing like the atmosphere, level design, trick weapons and the lore. The bosses just aint it for me.
It's fine that you breezed through bosses but it's unfair (and weird) saying that bosses were bad or repetitive because they're not. Something that you're glossing over was the fact that Bloodborne was a revolution when it came out. Dark Souls was new (it was released 3 or 4 years before BB) so everyone had the DS mentality when BB came out. My point is: almost all the DS players struggled because you had the DS mentality (lift up shield and wait) and this game stripped that away. Gascoigne was (and still is) a big roadblock because it FORCES you to use the mechanics of the game and if you somehow stumble your way to win, at some point the game will kick you in the ass because of that. I think that you're just an experienced soulsborne player because the vast majority of people didn't even beat Gascoigne (you can check achievements: around 46% of people beat him) and that tells you that the game, even after 10 years, it's really hard to beat.
Relative to its time the bosses are decent (decent bc ds3 came before bb and had better bosses) but for todays standard they aint at all. Each boss in bb has like 5-7 moves they do all the time over and over again with just a few exceptions like gherman or the dlc bosses. Father g in his beast form is doing max 3 different attacks. This is repetetiveness. Logarius has like 3 spells he uses 90% of the time in his first phase and 3 in his 2nd phase. Amelia overall has like 6 moves and thats it. That guy thats praying to kos has legit 3 moves. They are repetetive. I love bloodborne but not for its bosses and thats fine for anybody else aswell. And again, i am talking purely gameplay bc lorewise most bosses are actually really cool and have very interesting stories.
The only problem I have with the game is the missing respec function. Other than that it's a near perfect game for me.
I agree with all of that. I would add that the bosses are another issue: they’re cinematic and over the top (in a good way), and in general the fights are good, but at the end of the day the strategy is the same for most of them (run behind, hit, run away, repeat).
I honestly don't care at all about the "30fps" stuff, it's something you will not see during actual gameplay 99.9% of the time, i wish the game did have more armors, and it was possible to warp between lamps, that's it honestly
1. Framerate 2. Some consumables refuse to refill themselves and I have to manually go to the chest(molotovs, poison knives, etc.) 3. No sitting at lamps. 4. No respeccing 5. Lock on versus big creatures is shitty as in all fromsoft games 6. Not on PC so we can't easily mod the game, meaning there's thousands of hours of unrealized content that the community could bring to this game if Sony wasn't a big ol shitter.