In the RKG Discord, there is a periodical debate about the best game in the oeuvre of FromSoft. It feels like Bloodborne gets the most love, followed by Sekiro. It’s funny because once I was talking about how I did not gel with the Sekiro gameplay and I think I said I would never go for the plat. This was probably after I got the BB plat. I said I had terrible reflexes, which made deflction nearly impossible to do consistently.
Someone said that it took time and that they didn’t have great reflexes, either (plus some disabilities I want to say?), but that they clicked with Sekiro. They were saying to give it some time and blah, blah, blah. I said, “Oh, I finished it”, and they were very surprised that I had the attitude I had even after beating the game.
I will say I take a perverse amount of pride in the fact that I bashed the game into submission. All you ever hear about the game is that you have to click with the combat in order to beat the game. I did not take it as a challenge, but it turned out to be that in the end.
The game is fucking brutal. I think it’s the hardest of all the From games. The reason is because there is no give in the game. As I’ve mentioned before, you can make your character to be whatever you want in the other games, save Bloodborne. You want to be a fragile caster who stands at a distance and zaps everything with fire? You can do that! You want to bulk up and become massive so you can Hulk smash everything in sight? You can do that, too! You’re a tricksy rogue type who likes to sneak around and do backstabs? That is available to you as well.
In Bloodborne, there is a drastic reduction of availible builds, but at least they’re in the game. I did my best to cobble together a magic build, but it wasn’t easy. Yes, I could up my Arcane and use the Hunter Tools that mimicked magicks, but it wasn’t the same. It was frustrating that I couldn’t use a shield, either. I simply do not have the reflexes to play without one. There is a mechanic in the game that you get health back if you attack quickly after getting hurt. That’s nice in theory, but for someone like me, that way leads certain death. Because if the enemy keeps attacking before you can get your health back, you die.
There’s a reason I had only finished the game once before the plat. I was able to cobble together a hunter that limped her way through the game, but it wasn’t enjoyable. And that’s the frustrating part. Not being able to convey properly just how frustrating the game was to people who did not have reflex issues. And, yes, this is part of having a disability. People without it can’t comprehend how much not having that thing can affect someone.
I don’t blame them for that because you cannot truly understand that which you cannot experience. What I DO blame them for is that they insist that anyone can play the game, despite evidence to the contrary. I mean, I get it, but it’s still frustrating as fuck. i knew that it would be hellish for me to play the game and yet, I did it. I played the fucking game and reached an ending.
Did I beat the game? Technically, yes. Do I feel like I beat the game? No. Would I be able to do it again? I’m not sure. Definitely not without a lot of time and effort. Do I want to play it more? Not really. I want to like the game–I really do. I went into it with skepticism, but I tried to keep an open mind. It looked goregeous, and adding the grappling hook and jump button was a big bonus. The traversal was smooth, and I loved everything about the game–except the combat.
I wanted to love the combat. I tried hard to love the combat. I just didn’t. I could not get the deflect down, which meant that the combat was a grind for me. It really was only because of my stubbornness that I finished the game. Yes, there were Prosthetic Tools, but they were even more limited than the HunterTools. I used the umbrellas liberally, but that was about it. Oh, and the firecrackers, but I felt I was just dipping my toe into the world of Prosthetic Tools.
I felt so restricted by the combat. One reason I love the Souls games/Elden Ring is because you could do pretty much anything and go pretty much anywhere. In Elden Ring, there is a treasure chest in the first area that transports you to a much later area if you open it. You end up in a cave that you have to get out of before you can fast travel away. I didn’t know about it because I hadn’t found that particular treasure chest. When Ian told me about it, I went looknig for it. I was much later in the game, but I still had difficluties with that cave.
I think of all the different spells I used during the course of the game. Being able to carry up to 12 spells is such a great QOL change. In the Souls games, you had to level up your Attunement to get more slots. And it wasn’t just one slot per level up. It took five or six level ups to get another slot–and each level up took more Souls than the time before.
It was so expensive and seemed like a waste. I had so many things I needed to level up–the last thing I wanted to do was waste it on Attunement. I needed the slots, though, because I was a caster. With the Memory Stones, it was one stone, one slot. You got them by killing certain bosses and you could buy them from some vendors. And you could find them in special chests. It was always a special treat when you got another one, and by the end of the game, I felt as if I were dripping with spell slots.
I’m done for today. I’ll be back tomorrow with more maunderings.