At first I was afraid… I was petrified
Fromsoftware’s collection of gruesomely dark and challenging games have been making headlines in the gaming world for years at this point, Dark Souls is one of the most famous titles in the industry and the souls series has been so influential, it’s even spawned its own genre of “souls-likes”. Up until last year however I had played none of them. I grew up playing turn-based RPGs, platformers and puzzle games, the thought of fighting insane bosses in real time whilst dying over and over again in an unforgiving world designed to kill you at every step didn’t exactly appeal to me. However, after being endlessly badgered by friends to delve into the series I finally caved in and booted up one of the biggest games of the PS4 generation: Bloodborne.
The Overview
Bloodborne is a typical souls-like action RPG with a creepy and vague plot to match. You play as a hunter trying to find a cure to an affliction known as “Paleblood” in the Gothic city of Yharnum. However, the citizens of Yharnum have all been infected by a plague which has led many of them to transform into violent and dangerous beasts. As the player you must battle your way through the city, overcoming hoards of death-defying creatures in order to uncover the mysteries of this plague and escape the nightmare you have found yourself in. Alongside Yharnum there is also the Hunter’s Dream, a spectral realm which can be accessed through the hand lanterns dotted around the city. It’s a sanctuary of sorts where you can stock up on items and level up your character. Like many games of this kind, the lore and background to the world of bloodborne are left pretty open to interpretation but with multiple endings and a multitude of characters there’s plenty of story to be found.
The Struggle
In all honestly, I couldn’t help but fall in love with the game’s aesthetic from the get-go. Bloodborne is set in the Victorian London inspired city of Yharnam, it’s a sprawling mess of creepy and gothic architecture reminiscent of 19th century Europe. It’s dark, it’s gritty and it sets the tone perfectly. However when people talk about bloodborne, it’s not the visuals they mention, it’s the brutal gameplay, the harrowing enemies and the devastating bosses which up until now had deterred me from trying these kinds of games in the first place. To tell you the absolute truth the first few hours was everything I expected them to be. You don’t get much of a tutorial and the combat was at first completely unforgiving. Everything I met could kill me in a few hits and every time I died, I would be right back at the start. The core mechanics of the game are pretty identical to the Souls series. Whenever you kill something you collect “blood echoes” (the equivalent of souls), and these allow you to level up your character and purchase items. However, every time you die, you drop all the blood echoes you had on your person and are transported back to the last “hand lantern” you lighted (the equivalent of bonfires) the only way to retrieve lost blood echoes is to go back to where you dropped them without dying beforehand. Oh and by the way when enemies die in this game, they don’t stay dead, they come back every time you die. This made progression very difficult for me at the start, I would be killed time and time again, losing all the progress I just made. It was around I’d say the 3-hour mark, when I finally had a moment of dawning realisation. In almost an instant I went from “this is a bit brutal, not sure I’m enjoying this” to “oh, this is actually brilliant isn’t it?”
The Reward
The moment at which this epiphany occurred was when I’d finally battled through the first key section and survived for the first time, I was terrified of dying and losing all the progress I’d just made, and I was in unchartered territory. After doing a little bit of apprehensive exploration I came across a metal gate which I could open, stepping through it I found myself back at the lantern I had started at. I had opened a shortcut, effectively cutting out the section I’d just battled my way through for several hours. The sense of completion I got from opening that one gate was overwhelming, all my hard work, all that progress had finally been rewarded. And the second I’d done it, I wanted to do it again, I was excited to venture into the next area knowing that all that discovery and struggle would be rewarded. That’s essentially what this game is at the end of the day, you grind your way through an unforgiving world knowing that at some point you’ll get the ultimate reward, the satisfaction of getting through the game, knowing that you did it all off your own back.
It’s the little things
Now the game isn’t simply about grinding your way through an army of lethal beings. Another place where bloodborne surprised me was it’s focus on exploration and discovery. Special items in secret pathways, optional bosses and little moments of story, all help to create a game world which feels full with content to explore and find. As you play through bloodborne the world will change around you, it doesn’t hold your hand, it doesn’t tell you where to go or how to get there but it will reward you if you take the time to discover things for yourself. Something which people said to me before playing the game was don’t read guides, don’t follow a walkthrough just play it and I wholeheartedly agree (in terms of exploration anyway, bosses are another issue). This is how I tend to play games anyway but in a game like bloodborne I believe it to be even more true. Finding little secrets and discovering the undiscovered is so rewarding in this game, even if you die a few hundred times trying to find it.
Oh blimey you’re a bit big
What I haven’t talked about yet is perhaps one of the biggest parts of souls games, those dreaded multiheaded, disgusting, blood filled bosses with a moveset that would make Mikasa Ackerman think twice before fighting them. There’s no two ways about it, the bosses in bloodborne are hard, very hard, it will likely take you many tries to take one down and you will often have to back out, level up, and grind for items before attempting them again. But don’t be daunted, each one is beatable, and each has its own weaknesses to take advantage of. The sense of satisfaction you get from taking one of these guys down however is something I don’t tend to feel unless it’s a final fantasy end game boss. It’s their difficulty which makes the win so much more rewarding than most games manage to achieve. Seeing those words “prey slaughtered” plastered across your screen as you absorb the blood echoes of your vanquished foe is nothing short of pure ecstasy. One thing I will say is, if you’re really struggling, don’t be afraid to look up a cheeky guide on fighting strategies for these guys. The thing is, even if you have all the strategy, executing it will still be a challenge and there are more than a few ways to approach these fights. Saying this, always give it a go blind first, you might just surprise yourself on quite how good you’ve got over the hours you’ve played.
Final thoughts
So, there you have it. I have been officially converted and will now be joining the ranks of many others pestering their friends to give Bloodborne and similar games a try. For those that have yet to venture into this harsh world I cannot recommend it enough. I hope that this review will give people who were once in my shoes the motivation to jump in and conquer that fear they’ve always had. I promise you, though your journey may begin in pain it will undoubtedly end in… well pain but by that time you’ll have embraced it and will be undoubtedly too addicted to stop.
Armada Gaming 