Bloodborne October/November Book Club

Anyone want to do this? Replay, or play the first time, through Bloodborne this month and next and share thoughts? With this thread I am definitively not looking for the standard gamer discussion re: This Is My Build Hmmm Which Weapon Specs Should I Mull Over posts – I am interested in trying to resee this game’s narrative arc and environment design and what other connections to historical material might be obviously present or latent within its aesthetic decisions. I really do think now that BB is just as good, interesting, and layered as Demon’s and Dark, and I haven’t spent any time with it since last year, so I’m excited about doing this.

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I spent some scattered hours over 2 days months ago getting to the first boss and dying and haven’t picked it up since. I just don’t have enough concentrated time to get good at a hard videogame any more.

Considering my first abortive playthrough got interrupted by my life on the road last year I guess I can restart.

Does anyone have any friendly Protips that might soothe the easily-frustrated/dispirited?

Never be afraid to summon others, A.I. or players, for help.

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I’ve found replaying Souls games other than the first Dark (which is, in hindsight, hugely accommodating) to be a bit of an ask – it’s a lot of stressful relearning without the promise of discovery

There’s a subtle reverse of this advice I’ve made my own habit. You can offer yourself as a summon even (especially) when you don’t know what you’re doing, for practice. That way, you have much more breathing room to observe how the boss behaves (particularly enrage phases), and there’s also less time wasted on running to boss doors.

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I may try to join in with this. I’ve been dying to play Bloodborne. Dark Souls OG was the last time I was able to fully dive into a meaty old beast of a game and following the SB thread whilst everyone was pushing forward into unknown territory was one of my fondest gaming memories but…I probably can’t afford the dedication this game requires because that’s just how my life is right now :anguished:

Still, I’m gonna fire up the BB soon and see where it goes. Maybe I’ll get sucked in and just abandon all responsibilities and say fuck it.

Keep in mind, you don’t have to Play Through Whole Game to contribute to this thread.

I’m also wanting to do this as a way of continuing a project dealing with an imaginary architectural history of Yharnam, and I need to review a handful of sites for documentation + getting my brain creatively reoriented

is this on pc yet

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I just got this and will probably start soon, I’ll keep my eye on this thread, but might move too slowly to keep up. Exciting!

I just started a run of bb this month, maybe I should start over again and take notes?

The thing I’ve noticed most this time around is that the threaded cane is boss

In terms of build: Offense is more valuable than defense early - strength or skill. Bloodborne foes are damage sponges and tend to mob you, so the quicker you can end them the better. I recommend pushing strength or skill to at least 25 immediately before raising any other stat. It has always made a big difference for me.

Joke’s on you, that requires a PS Plus account! Womp womp.

I was actually really angry when I discovered this.

use up your free trial while playing bloodborne, that was the only time I ever actually wanted plus

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It hasn’t been all that long since I played this for the first time. I still have one of the DLC bosses to beat. (The DLC is great.)

It might be fun to set up a SB password for co-op if enough people happened to be playing at the same time. I’d join in for sure even if I didn’t play the whole game through again. Bloodborne does that level-scaling thing like DS3 so that an advanced character can join a lower-level one.

count me in.




i’ve been looking for someone to tag along w/, and I did have some great time with it, but somehow didn’t manage to progress past a certain point. other games got in its way, and once you’re out of the groove, you’re done for.

=> here’s looking forward to meeting cool doggies again!

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I don’t know anything about playstation fours or bloodbornes (yet), but is there any way to use the SB community on playstation battlenet for things like this

Yeah, having to pay to use the Internet on the PS4 is dumb. As if videogaming isn’t already expensive enough.

it’s mostly dumb because PS3 actually had a lot of really good “passive online” games (chiefly souls and journey) that are right out now for people who don’t bother to keep the sub going

that said, I think you can still get a two week trial of plus

Two weeks is not even close to enough time for me to finish a first playthrough of Bloodbourne.