Bloodborne

[Sly Reflex]

I learned the hard way that you cannot break from this game. Fuck me tonight has been torrid.

 

First things first. Gates are open. I can't remember if I did that last time I played and didn't update or what, but I think I have everything open. That big staircase which goes up to the room that looks like a boss fight room is easily accessible. Or it would be if it wasn't for the mobs. Speaking of which I've died about the same amount of times I did when I booted up that first night. For some reason everything beyond those gates is kicking my cunt. The normal lamp dudes seem much harder to kill beyond that area, and that scythe dude is a bit of a piss take. The gunner as well can fuck off. Noseybonk either causes no issues at all or fucking ruins me. I think fighting on the slope is much harder for some reason, but the only flat bit is the size of a postage stamp so that's not exactly the best place to ruck on.

 

Further up the way you have the guys with the telegraph poles. These guys are brutal, they kill so quickly if you so as much get clipped. I seem to have a better luck dodging to the left when they attack rather than back like I usually do, but they're still a huge pain in the arse. Also I've noticed some sort of meter go up while fighting these guys. Not sure what that is, but you can bet if it fills to the top you die, because of course you fucking do.

 

Left area has a load of shooty guys. I just realised I can probably farm that for bullets, if the need arises. Right area has a guy with an electric weapon that I've not taken on yet.

 

I've been running around trying to get the numbers of the enemies. I'm not sure if you can do a runner all the way to what I assume the boss area is, but until I can get through to the area without scrapes I'm not going to bother. The way the level is built it's throwing blood at me to level up and I think it's doing that for a reason./ The reason being it wants me to level up so that I can easily deal with the shit on the staircase. I was kicking the shit out of everything going towards Gascoingne and I feel like that should be some sort of yardstick to follow.

 

I wish I could find another twin blood stone so I could get a  weapon upgrade, that would sort a lot of these problems out. Well, it's never going to sort the shitness out that seeps from my every pore, but it's going to help a bit, if you know what I mean.

[Sly Reflex]

Yeah, that overhead smash they do has a weird as fuck hitbox on it. I'm not sure if it's wonky or if it causes ripples to go out from it when it hits. I've recorded and watched back when I've been 'hit' and to me it appears I've not been hit despite taking huge damage. The fights usually over once you get to their feet though, if you circle them they can't really do anything other than have their heels cut up.

[Rikzilla]

The footage for the playthrough  I was doing is on my other (packed away) PC so I have to go back to the Vicar Amelia lantern and try and remember where to go from there. I can't remember anything. 

[Hendo]

You’ve got a few options.

Generally I’d say the boss room should be done first. That gives you the password that you need for the other bit.

 

Facing the boss room doors you can go left that I think should lead to the witches area, this is optional but defeating the boss will allow you to equip runes.

 

Right leads to a couple of hunters, optional boss and I think the way forward.

[Sly Reflex]

 

[RoboticMonk3y]

Good man!

[RoboticMonk3y]

Man... That boss music though...

Etched into my mind along with teeth clenching and furious clacking of buttons being mashed in blind panic.

Good times

[Sly Reflex]

I nearly threw the towel in if I'm being honest. In between getting lost in the waves of her model and her healing I was ready to chuck it in. There was one run where I  got her down to about 1/5 health and she recharged herself back up to half health twice. I figured I could trip her but I don't know if it was the legs or just hitting her head or body. I couldn't fire out any of the riposte windows either, I did get a few in in different fights but getting the visceral thing to go was super fucked.

 

Did not enjoy. I think I had maybe 6 runs at it and that's 7 runs too many. It feels inconsistent, like when I watched the fight back to trim it I was looking at the dodges and I still can't tell why some dodges went unpunished and others did. Currently it feels like I'm rolling dice in those situations. It's very unsatisfying. There's one part in the fight where she just goes mental comboing, luckily she's comboing away from me, but if I was in front of that I'd have been dead. It's completely out of the blue, she just goes from one move to another, it's not like the rakes with both hands either way, it just comes from nowhere. That's really shit imo.

 

But yeah, git gud. That's what people will say. That ain't good game design, forcing you to eat a death in those situations is just being a cheap cunt. That's not been difficult, it's just being unfair.

 

Still, I've pushed forwards and I think I've unlocked a shortcut that leads to a barn where there's an ambush threat. I had to stop there because I needed to eat. I'll be back on it tomorrow. Might go down the other side where the dude with the electric weapon is and see what all that's about.

[Sly Reflex]

Them hunters down at the bottom of the right side are dead. The one that fires the shotty was a bit of a pain and I used a lot of healing items. He'll be using healing items in hell though, fucking prick. Put him in the ground.

 

Died a bit further on that path and my bloods have been claimed by some gunner up on ledges that I don't think I can reach. Guess they're gone for good. Went down where all the women are and opened the shortcuts. I think there's an area that looks like a boss zone AKA fuck that. I did get a trophy for picking up an objects, no idea why it was so special, but whatever.

 

I actually was looking for the area to do the password. I can't remember where that is to save my life. I did find a woman that was sent to the Odeon Church of Hunters so I expect to she her there with the bitter old quim and whatever the fuck that red wearing thing is.

 

The guy from the church has moved too. I can't remember what his name was so from now on I'm calling him Ken. Which reminds me, I should check on the lass dressed a a crow. If Ken has moved it wouldn't surprise me if she has upped sticks as well.

[Sly Reflex]

 

That was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I was so confused that the health bars weren't going down. It took me a while to cotton on what I needed to do.

 

Also guess who else is dead? The gun boi up in the tower. Kicked him off for being a sniper player. Victorian bushwookie got what he deserved, his kneecaps hitting his armpits as I kicked him off the tallest building in Old Yharnham. He pussy friend got carved up as well. Fuck you low ground prowler, u ded now sucka. And now I have free reign all over that part of the map.

 

Problem. I see the shortcut near the fire. You drop down from the roof and there's a gate. Can I find the way to get to said gate? Can I fuck. I see the path I need to follow but I just cannot fathom out the way to get to it.

 

Also. Posh boy has moved areas. I have gone through the password door. Crow woman has told me to stay away from her hunt, but I don't even know where it is so good luck with keeping me out of your affairs. There's a whore in the church that keeps trying to give me her blood. A lamp in the woods has been lit. I think that's it? 

 

I do need advice on the whole rune thing. I'm collecting all this shit so I might as well use it, if it's going to give me more damage?

[Hendo]

I’m not sure which shortcut you mean. Is it the locked gate in a rounded building?

 

I think you do the runes in the Dream. Just use the ones you find most useful.

[Sly Reflex]

 

[Sly Reflex]

I think the next session I'll be adventuring down the other side of Amelia's thing. No doubt there's a boss down there that needs a good hiding and if I'm in the area I might as well look around and give it my calling card.

 

Still wondering about those locked doors I've come across. The was one at the start of the game that I thought I would have opened back to now, it seems a bit weird since I've not really had to come back to the Central part of the game at all.

 

Eileen might need taking care of as well. I'm not sure if it's her or them that's dangerous. I mean obviously they're dangerous as well, I've not met many hunters that have not attacked on sight. I'm a bit confused with how it deals with side quests if I'm being honest. It'd be nice if there was some sort of ledger in game because when you're not playing it daily it's really easy for forget peoples wants and locations. I don't want to step on her toes by going into an area that might piss her off, since the pools of blood from the people that have attacked her are self explanatory.

[Sly Reflex]

4 hours ago, Sly Reflex said:

I think the next session I'll be adventuring down the other side of Amelia's thing. No doubt there's a boss down there that needs a good hiding and if I'm in the area I might as well look around and give it my calling card.

 

Did this. Noped the fuck back out of there. I need to strengthen up before tackling that. I say "that" specifically because spoilers.

 

Also fuck those big lads. I can kill them in a few assaults but if they cop you you that's almost all your HP gone. They're easily the hardest standard mob I've come across aside from other hunters. The Jedi mind tricks make wailing on them harder to do as well. To make matters worse they've put them in areas of the game I traverse a lot so I get these unexpected nasty surprises from where they've been punctuated into the level. It wouldn't surprise me if I die to one of those at some point, I know when @RikSP was doing the playthrough for youtube these were kicking his arse and I completely sympathise with him since if you have nowhere to go they're going to kick you to the You Died screen.

 

I've been wandering about the forest. I've got down to where the snakes are and have opened the shortcut that's right next to the lamp. This area is a bit confusing since it's way more open than the rest of the game, or at least I get that impression.

 

Highlight of the night is me going and finding Henryk and starting a fight with him. Doing the usual over the gravestones shit and then Eileen busts in and starts kicking fuck out of him. I shit my pants, I didn't know whether to run away or help. She's fucked off now from the place she was. I'll have a deeper look for her but she's not in any of the bits I've run up and down since. I have that fight recorded, although it's more of the same from when I fought Gazza.

 

Also the old lady isn't a cunt now, she actually gave me some medicine. And I met a friendly hunter in the shortcut room as well. Wanted me to join a faction but i refused as I didn't know what I was getting myself into.

 

I need to start spending some of this insight as well. Next boss might be a case of ringing the bell and then entering the fight as soon as someone comes in.I don't know when I crossed the threshold for it but some of the enemies are a bit harder than they were when I first met them since they have attacks that aren't from the base set.

[RoboticMonk3y]

The witches of hemwick fight is more of a puzzle than anything, like all of bloodborne, it's easier when you know what you're doing.

 

Good work on the blood starved beast, that boss can be a proper pain in the anus.

 

As for runes, you get them doing all sorts for you. Some give you extra health, some give to damage resistance, you use them on the table to the left of your upgrades table in the workshop in the hunter's dream.

 

There's a ton of stuff hidden in the forest, it's a bit of a maze in there.

 

Keep on pushin, man, you're doing a grand job.

[Sly Reflex]

OK. So because @RikSP might be going back to this everything from now on will be spoilered.

 

Spoiler

I really need to stop having big periods of time away from this game. I was confsued to where I was up to, then got iced by the first mob I came across. Nothing that couldn't be undone, but it was still a bit of a wake up call that everything in the game will fuck you up if you don't tread lightly.

 

I have been all over the fucking place in Forbidden Woods or whatever it's fucking called. I got to a point where three snake heads attacked and I rolled off a ledge by accident to avoind an attack and fell into a snake pit with those big bastard snake tangles and got fucked up quick time.

 

On my way back to get my bloods I was very fortunate in that one of the snake kings (like a rat king? IDK) had collected my bloods. Not an easy fight since there's so many reinforcements and I found it hard to read. Found it impossible to get a parry on them as well which is frustrating since they attack so fast that you think something would stick. Maybe they're just unparryable?

 

Anyway there was a point just after the first pig where I got super lost. I spent about 15 minutes milling about trying to find where I needed to go to cash in the 51k's worth of blood I was carrying. Levelled up, went down tot he bottom and after a bit of discusion with @Hendo on whatsapp felt my way to what I assumed was the boss area.

#

Rang my bell to spend some Insight and waited 10 minutes. Nothing. Just stood about reading about the Spurs win. Decided to call it a night and go cash in the 30k bloods I had and fired off the silebncing shot when this happened.

 

 

So that's another boss down. Is it a mandatory or optional boss? I have no fucking idea. I did go through to the next area and fought Jeff Goldblum's The Fly and I fought the tentacle guy that managed to steal some Insight from me. Twat, he was way more aggressive than the one near the mausoleum arch. I got so complacent fighting the other one that the new attacks and general ferocity and my over reaching cost me some currency. I beat the big whatever the fuck that thing was as well. I actually remember @Hendo fighting one of those. It wasn't hard, in fact out of all the bigger mobs it's probably been the easiest.

 

Had to knock it on the head there. I don't know if I should progress down that way of go to that utter hellscape and see if I can survive getting caught up on the levels scenery. I might grab a few more level ups and then when i can kill the standard mobs in one or two waves go back there. I'm undecided yet.

 

I really need to decide on which alt weapon I carry as well, and level it up. The axe is super good for all round use but I noticed that the snakes can get hits off between the strikes, I don't think that would happen with the other razorbladed style weapons since they have a faster attack speed and shouldn't allow those windows of getting poked back at to even open. 

[Hendo]

If you remember the clinic right at the beginning of the game? There’s a way back to there in that area, somewhere near the village bit I think. If you find a cave with water and some giants, you’re in the right place.

 

Here:

 

 

[RoboticMonk3y]

Shadows of yharnham can be an absolute chore on your own. Good work

[RoboticMonk3y]

Oh, and that's a mandatory fight. 

Little expire in some Woods and you should get to byrgenworth.

Have you been able to follow the (really fuckin obscure) story?

[Sly Reflex]

@Hendo I actually got down to the water and stopped because I thought it was a boss fight and I had a load of blood on me, so I backed out. I completely forgot about that though. There's a bit in that area where there's loads of oily water as well that I didn't go through so I should probably go back and do that.

 

@RoboticMonk3y,

Spoiler

I think I could do Shadows on my own but it would be much much harder since instead of having one or tow on you you'd have all threes full attention. I don't think it's the two melee guys you have to worry about, that guy slinging fireballs is the main threat there. I don't know what triggered it, but those guys got more and more dangerous as the fight went on, I wasn't too bothered when they were normal but I noticed that they started popping snakes (lol!) and I thought that it might be a case of the normal snake head mobs earlier in the level where you can attack the human body but the snakes counter strike and cause a lot of flinching. I didn't see the fireball guy throw any stronger attacks from memory, but the two melee guys got stronger with the snake heads but it wasn't as harsh as I was expecting. I can see why the guy I brought in focused him down though, I tried to focus him down as well but I think we were sort of treading on each others toes and it was easier to split up so one of us only had two of them on us at most.

 

As far as the story goes. I think I have some sort of idea. This is my interpretation and could be wrong.

 

Spoiler

There's some sort of plague that happens that turns all the locals into monsters. If you look at the first street you go up they've burned a werewolf on a crucifix so they've fought each other at some point, maybe before the rot set in. The dead have possibly being rising because off the coffins are chained up, maybe that's just a fear that the dead will come back. I don't know. A lot of the mobs say it's all your fault and complain about the town going to the dogs. Unbeknown to them they don't know all the fucking mental stuff that's going on.

 

I do know from when the game came out that if you have enough Insight you can see certain things in the world. There's a part where a portal opens up and something tries to kill you, but if you have enough insight at that point you can see what it is. That is what's causing all the misery to go on. Obviously the people in the villages don't know that, they're joining the dots and blaming the Hunter. Really a lot of the mobs are completely blameless in this, just caught up in the bigger plan of whatever side that Amygdala thing is.

 

Speaking of the Hunter, the dream bit is a bit confusing. I have no idea if it's just a game mechanic or what. I don't get the reason for needing Insight to talk to the doll. I don't get the little demons that hold messages. Here's another thing. They sort of focus on blood a  lot in this game, it's basically their alcohol from reading they loading pages. Is the blood corrupting? Is that why Amelia turned into the big fucking dog? Is the Blood Starved Beast a person that was transformed because of withdrawal from not consuming blood? Am I poisoning myself each time I take a hit or expose myself to the blood I'm spilling. Am I the final boss? Am I a random guy that happened to show up? Have I been sent to sort this out by unknown parties? I don't even know if any of this is real, a dream is in someones head, so is Bloodborne a manifestation in someones mind? Is it all just a psychological thing that says everyone has the capability to harbour such horrors. I have no fucking idea at this point. It's not clear enough.

 

Then you have the NPC's to account for. Eileen. The religious guy. The other hunters you meet about that attack on sight. The wheelchair dude in the dream. 

 

I think Eileen is good. Although it wouldn't surprise me if madness consumes and she ends up being a boss. I've not seen her for ages so I might run through all the areas to see if she's about anywhere.

 

Same with the religious guy. He's on a mission against something or other. Hopefully that doesn't spill into me being his quarry.

 

The aggressive hunters have been infested with whatever the other mobs have, so they see you as an invader or whatever. I think they were initially brought in to do the job I'm doing but fell foul to the curse. Maybe it's a race against time for me to carry out what I've been sent to do. Maybe it's a race against time for Eileen and blue religious man to do their quests before they get consumed?

 

Wheelchair man. I have no idea. I barely see the guy. I think it's this guy saying something about the dream being endless until I bring and end to it, so it's possibly all a figment of his imagination in a figment of someone elses imagination. Fractal dreams going on forever.

 

Be interesting to come back to this if/when I finish to see how close I am.