Bloodborne - Post Thoughts, Part 1 - The Blood Starved Beast

It's been a few weeks since I got a platinum trophy in Bloodborne, so needless to say; I enjoyed the game. I also feel comfortable, despite being in the industry; having achieved the highest accolade in the game; to be able to share my thoughts and ultimately my recommendation to what is my favourite game, so far this year. In this analysis, I'm going to restrict my views to the game mechanics and overall gameplay. This means that despite its fantastic music, story and visuals, they wont be factoring on my thoughts unless I find a relation to the Gameplay. I also will be comparing it to Dark Souls, Dark Souls 2 and Demon's Souls on occasion, but more so to outline how the game differs and how it encourages a fresh approach. Whilst it's hard not to draw comparisons, being that they're made by the same developer; I want to stray from the traditional media review of "It's hard like Dark Souls".

So, let's start this first Bloodborne post by getting that quickly out of the way; with my one and only time I got stuck outside of the chalice dungeons (that Abhorrent Beast is another story). Bloodborne is not an easy game. It's not an easy game because it sits in a sea of games that hold your hand, and point you in the right direction (which is fine). It's not an easy game because the player will die often, and more likely frequently, unless they're fully immersed and prepared for whatever is next. It's not an easy game because the player must learn that to die is not necessarily failure; as long as they've learnt something in the process. And probably the hardest of all is that, they need to learn not to get attached to the Blood Echoes they're carrying; because that's the moment they're likely to lose them. I do feel I had an advantage having played and finished the previous games from FromSoftware, these features in particular are consistent throughout the titles. And there are certain exploits as well, for instance, I knew how to deal with the enemies and use obstacles for easy kills. But ultimately the meat and bones of the game are quite different. Despite being extremely excited and scared at the prospect of playing it; I found that in the first 5 or so hours of the game I only died as many times. And nearly all occasions I was simply careless and had gambled on something that didn't pay off. It wasn't until I fought the Blood-Starved Beast, that things got more difficult for me personally.

I'm aware that most people struggled with both the Cleric Beast and Father Gascoigne. I personally didn't because they're quite large and have an easy tell, allowing you to read attacks and dodge fairly comfortably. The B-S Beast on the other hand, whilst having an easy tell didn't necessarily make it any easier to hit it, just to dodge. I spent roughly a day, trying to find another passage, walking into the fight knowing I was going to die and basically farming blood echoes so I could level up. I was dying within seconds or generally just spent far too long avoiding it. For anyone who fought this boss, as a Souls player, I'm near certain they ran into similar difficulties. The problem I discovered was that I was fighting the Blood-Starved Beast like I was playing Dark Souls. But I wasn't. The trouble with the boss is that not only is it large, its fast. It has a huge reach on its attacks (that it was often more viable to dodge towards it than away (this is unique to Bloodborne)). Once a third of it's health is gone, every attack it hits poisons you. And once two thirds have gone, it poisons you just by standing near it. So you're weary of using any potions just in case you die and you've wasted them. And this is while not mentioning that; should the player get caught in one of it's attack patterns; its pretty much game over.

Three things I learnt whilst fighting the boss, that I took with me throughout the rest of the game. Every fight can be made easier by learning to use the weapon transformations correctly. Extended it has a longer reach but slower attack, but attacks can be chained together to create a combo allowing the player to transform mid-battle. This is particularly useful for getting in close with the Blood-Starved Beast and then extending for a couple of extra hits before it runs away. This was also the moment I discovered my favourite aspect of Bloodborne, the health regain. Upon taking damage, if the player manages to hit their opponent back before taking another hit, they can reclaim a portion of their health. What I didn't realize is that you don't necessarily have to wait for the enemy to finish attacking before attempting this. Combined with the Hunter's sidearm, which can briefly interrupt most enemies attack patterns (as well as leaving them completely vulnerable; with a perfectly timed shot, to the visceral attack). And lastly, I discovered that the Pungent Blood Cocktail can lure the Blood-Starved Beast away from you, for some cheap heavy damage. Only it wasn't cheap because the developers made the game in such a way that it was a viable option and ultimately, how I beat the boss in the end (including of course, a few last minute heroics, as always). This lure technique is particularly interesting to me. The other games in the series; focus on being direct and defensive; whilst this seems like a side step to your problems. All of these traits are completely unique to Bloodborne.

My success came on Saturday March 28th. After a few days of completely avoiding the fight; I went in determined to beat the beast. I hurled a Pungent Blood Cocktail at it as soon as it came into view. Almost immediately applied fire damage to my Saw Cleaver and started to inflict as much damage as I could without being careless. Quickly I'd dropped it's health to about half. But it started to get weary and wouldn't let up on it's attacks. So I had to bide my time and plan out my antidote uses only when absolutely necessary. My plan had worked but I very quickly ran out of cocktails and antidotes; so I had to be even more careful. And then as I saw it's health drop to roughly a sixth, I remember the shock of unthinkable (but apparently very, very thinkable). I'd been poisoned with no antidotes and having got so close I couldn't believe I was about to leave the room in defeat. So with nothing left to lose I sprinted towards the beast and slammed him into the corner of the room. He was trapped and I just kept hitting him. As we traded blows, the health I lost was almost regained immediately in my reckless abandon. I distinctly remember it raising its arm to do the pounce attack, if it got away in this moment; I almost certainly couldn't win. And on instinct I fired my sidearm, thinking "Sit back down". My health was dropping but so was his and I killed it with just enough time to run and activate the Lamp, which would send me back to the Hunter's Dream safely. This boss battle was the most intense and frustrating thing I've felt in a video game for a long time. The day I spent in prior dreaming about maybe beating it. This whilst I was purposely avoiding it, like a school bully coming to take my lunch money. And to ultimately beat it, as the poison was eating up my health, in my sheer animosity. It was an incredibly satisfying moment that seems very rare in gaming today; and for me personally, something that FromSoftware has dominion over within the AAA space.

I'd like to return to Bloodborne at another point to elaborate further on this fantastic game. You'll notice how I've had to combat the ties to the souls series; by reflecting on how it isn't like them. This is because those ties bind it to the souls series; and despite its movement and overall feel being similar; the end game is a different prospect that deserves recognition to be stood apart.