I have said for some time that if Bloodborne was on the PC, I would play it more. Then I played Sekiro, which is on the PC, and it turned out not to be true. I’ve played it through nearly two times, and I have no desire to play it any longer. I like Bloodborne better than Sekiro, but it’s still below all the Dark Souls games (and now Elden Ring) for me in terms of how much I enjoy the game.
When Bloodborne first came out, I didn’t think I would ever play it because I don’t do consoles. I could not justify buying a PS4 just to play BB, so I sadly accepted that it would not be a thing. Just like I will not play Deracine because it’s only VR. Then, my niece’s husband offered me his at a really good price because he was getting the PS Pro, and I happily accepted.
And I hated the PS4. It was so alien to me, including the fact that you had to pay to be online. I mean, what? I got that for free on my PC. It’s an issue now, but not for monetary reasons. I begrudgingly paid for PS+, but I wasn’t happy about it.
Side Note: They make it really difficult to cancel your auto-renew on the subscription. When you try to end the auto-renew, an error message pops up. I Googled it and it’s been a problem for several years. They could have fixed it by now, but they obviously would prefer to get the money from people who just shrug and vow to take care of it later. What you have to do is delete your credit card info completely, which, fine, but it makes me less likely to rejoin at any time because they made it such a pain in the ass.
Side Note to the Side Note: I’m considering re-upping for one month because Krupa is continuing his plat run in DS III next week and he’ll want to summon slugs (name for the RKG community members) to help him out. I was bad the one time I got summoned because stream lag and because there was an invader and because I got ganked. There’s a weird pressure to hurry when you’re a summon in a way there wouldn’t be when I’m soloing. Plus, less health and less flasks.
Anyway, I hate the DualShock. I don’t know why as it’s similar to the Xbox One controller, which I love. It’s probably because it’s just different enough that I can’t adjust to it as I rarely use it. I think it’s also psychological as it runs on batteries which means theoretically, it can run out at any time. My Xboner (as I affectionately call it0 is just perfect for me.
By the time I actually played Bloodborne, I had watched several playthroughs of the game. I really regretted it because it took out some of the wonder when I played it myself, but the game was still gorgeous. I will admit that playing at 30fps was trying–as was waiting for nearly a minute every time you needed to change environments.
The game was so hard for me. Not having a shield was a trial. Yes, there’s the regain system in that if you attack quickly after getting attacked, you got some health back. Which is great! Unless you lost more health in the meantime because your reflexes aren’t great. This is my case, and I rarely saw the benefits of the regain system.
Again, I didn’t complain about it because I don’t expect every game to cater to me. If I did, the first thing i would demand is that they fix the issue with first-person perspective. Obviously, it’s not considered important because it’s still an issue in all first-person games, and I would not expect it to be fixed in indie games. In AAA games, though, I expect a FOV slider at the very least.
This is just me shouting into the wind, though. No one cares about it even though it definitely is a disability issue It goes to show that there’s a ranking in everything, even if it’s unspoken. No one is championing people who get nauseous while playing FP games and yet, easy mode is brought up all the time.
I do think everyone should be able to play FromSoft games, but it’s too simplistic to bleat on and on about easy mode. First of all, From is never going to do that. They have made it abundantly clear that they don’t care about different modes. What they do, however, is add things that will make it easier for people. Spirit Summons and human summons, to be more precise. But also, you can run around and over-level so that you are stronger than the bosses. You can use a range build so you don’t have to get in close.
That’s one reason I’m a caster, by the way. It gives me more time to react. As I’ve played the games more, though, I’m getting more comfortable with melee. I just have to accept that I’ll get smacked every now and again. That’s why it’s always a gamble when I have such low health; I can be one-shot.
In Bloodborne, I decided to do an Arcane build. I knew that was the worst build to do on a first playthrough, but I am a stubborn person. I always do a magick-based playthrough the first time I play a game, and by god, I was not going to stop doing that just because there was no traditional magic in Bloodborne. And there’s no magic at all in Sekiro.
Side Note: Sekiro is the most limiting of the FromSoft games. It’s the reason I like it the least. There is no individual stat leveling up–you can only upgrade your power in general with every four Prayer Beads. Which you get for killing mini bosses. There is no magic. At all. There are some Prosthetic Tools that do some elemental stuff like the Flame Vent, but it’s not the same.
In Bloodborne, Arcane doesn’t really get good until you put 50 points into it. That’s a hell of a lot of points. I will point out that there is one Hunter’s Tool that inexplicably takes Bloodtinge rather than Arcane. That was really annoying. Anyway, Augur of Ebrietas takes 18 Arcane and one bullet. It’s fucking amazing. You can stagger enemies with it so you can riposte them. Once I got this and could use it, I never touched the gun again. Actually, I don’t think I touched the gun before that because I can’t parry for shit, but after I got the Augur of Ebrietas, I didn’t even give the gun a second thought.
Executioner’s Gloves sends out wraiths that home. That takes 20 Arcane and 3 bullets. It’s good for boss fights, but I would waste it on common enemies because it’s so bullet-rich. Then there’s the Choir Bell that heals/purifies you and any ally near you. That only takes 15 Arcane, but 7 bullets. I remember using that for Martyr Logarius because it gave me three extra heals. It meant I couldn’t use any of my other Hunter Tools, but it was a fair trade-off for more heals.
Then there’s A Call Beyond that sends out lazors that do 1,000 damage per hit. It costs 7 bullets and you need a whopping 40 Arcane to use it at all. I messed around with it in the later game, but, honestly, it wasn’t really worth it for how much it cost. Really, the Augur of Ebrietas was the best bang for the buck, and I used it all the time. Second was the Executioner’s Gloves. Oh, there’s also Accursed Brew which is throwing curses at foes. That takes 2 bullets and 30 Arcane, but just didn’t feel like much compared to Augur of Ebrietas.
If I were to do it over again, I would not have watched all those playthroughs. I can’t get too mad at myself, though, because why the hell would I have thought I was getting a PS4? I would love to play the game some more and see if it’ll change my opinion about it, but I just am not a console person. I doubt that will change any time soon.