You need about a month. Well, I’d want that much. Two weeks = lol, ok
I’m going to start this as soon as a friend drops off his PS4 which’ll probably be this week but there’s no official Start to Post date, so, you know, if you’re playing this now go ahead and post up a storm
I’m incredibly tempted to join in but it’d be hard for me to find the time right now. I’ve played through it plenty though, aside from the Old Hunters which I only experienced once.
I dunno, it’s a fine fun game that can maybe go fast if I focus. I’ll be in this thread anyways I’m sure. 
Two weeks is about right for me for a ~30 hour game I’m really into, and 30 hours is usually my limit for “long” games
I mean, didn’t you finish Bloodborne in like three days
I’m pretty sure it was the same two weeks
By the way, has anybody come across good articles or videos on Bloodborne? Preferably stuff that doesn’t focus on Lovecraft? I know the influences are there but every text I’ve found regarding them is just so conceptually run into the ground. There are only so many times I can stand people talking about the themes of GOING CRAZY OVER INCOMPREHENSIBLE HORROR!!! before I walk the other direction, hands over ears.
Allow me to plug my own article: Understanding the Sublime Architecture of Bloodborne
My friend is the head writer for Extra Credits (I’m a sometimes contributor) and has been threatening to do a meaty deconstruction for a few months that’s in line with what you’re talking about. He’s got a longterm goal of elevating the standard of pop deconstruction video essays. I can put you in touch if you want to chat.
Holy shit how have you held the “I have an inside track to Extra Credits” hand so close to your vest for so long?
Sure! PM me.
it’s not easy to walk between ‘this is relevant data to a conversation’ and ‘braggart’ and I don’t want to be the latter, ya know. Because it’s just a thing
did I tell you guys about the time I met Yu Suzuki, sat at his table, and had to be cool because everyone else was fawning over him? I can dig up the end-of-night pic we did where I stand awkwardly, caught before I could pose more relaxedly, arms as awkwardly placed as a beardless Riker
So Is started playing this and sweet Jesus do I suck at this game. I know that’s not what this thread is for but it needed to be said
I found that adopting a more aggressive playstyle early on helped me to come to terms with the game’s mechanics and encounter design. You can fight sloppily and still come out with negligible harm done to your person with the blood/HP restoration boon and firearms’ staggering potential + critical attacks.
yeah! i think its superficial similarity to dark souls is kind of deceptive in that regard!
…
i have made a little progress and am starting to enjoy the game a little more because of that. i was basically just stuck forever on the long city street in front of the bonfire, the first actually challenging bit of the game. now that i’m able to level up and have a better sense of the combat i feel less helpless, but it’s still hard…
i’m excited to see what else the game has in store in terms of environments. i really like the dusky atmosphere as i have been thinking a lot about the crepuscule lately.
this game feels like a much more singular vision than dark souls, it is definitely something i haven’t really seen in a game before, where dark souls felt more like particularly sinister takes on normal high fantasy tropes. but i do miss the variety of dark souls environments, i like that there were sort of peaceful grassy and woodland areas in addition to the murder dungeons. in both games, one of the cleverest and most unsettling things to me is the general unfriendliness of all the npcs. i feel like it’s such a brilliant move because you’re accustomed to everything that doesn’t kill you in an rpg being basically benevolent and interested in your success, rather than being skeptical, dismissive, or outright fearful of you.
do people really compare this game to lovecraft all that much? as someone who has read a lot of lovecraft, i really don’t see it at all. the most lovecraftian game is still resident evil 4 imo (other than ones that are specifically based on the lore or whatever)
You’ll see why later on. Elements of Lovecraft’s fiction are there, but they are only one part of a much wider legacy of horrific work Bloodborne is drawing from, and they are the least striking. I think the fixation on Lovecraft is just due to the visibility and also how many gamers have an extremely small pool of cultural material to draw from when the Urge to Analyze strikes. Fantasy = The Lord of the Rings; Horror = Lovecraft, Poe, maybe one other thing.
Yeah. Wrote this elsewhere but I like the contrast between the two – Bloodborne’s geographic scope is limited when compared to Dark Souls’ while the narrative has expanded to become cosmic (and I guess psychic?).
best sound
but also i’ve made some small posts about about bloodborne that that yall might enjoy-- and a bigger one!
It’s also due to the strong and deliberate element of surprise. From trailers and previews people expected victorian horror and so the cosmic horror struck us all by surprise, making it very memorable.
This is cool–I’d like to hear more about the other influences, horror is not something I know a ton about beyond Lovecraft and that sort of immediate circle of folks.
Posting to say I have finally started this on my housmate’s PS4 and I’m really digging it so far. I know my initial impressions aren’t going to be very interesting but: I love the visceral attacks + health take-back mechanic + flash dodging that makes this a much faster-paced, risky-rewardy action game. Overall it definitely strikes me as a more cohesive world and even a bit more welcoming or forgiving that DS at least this early on. I beat the Cleric Beast. It was pretty easy but I kind of viewed it as analogous to the first Taurus demon in DS1. Anyway, I’ll be taking notes. Really liking it so far!
One of two bosses can be your first boss. The Cleric Beast is one, and is pretty manageable if its hair isn’t taking up 85% of your screen; the other is not the Cleric Beast, is a pretty brutal welcoming, and is way more forceful about prompting you to take advantage of the stagger/critical attack mechanics. G o o d l u c k . . .
It’s not just outright influences, I guess, but parallels – unintentional or not – which can be convincingly drawn from one thing to another. When I start replaying I’ll have to make some notes re: this. Even within its Lovecrafty elements Bloodborne makes some significant departures from the source, like the physical surmountability of great cosmic beings (it’s been argued elsewhere I think that this might have undermined the game’s horror) and, along those lines, the apparent ability of humans to physically/metaphysically transcend their ordinary humanness.
This is really depressing to me : ( I had a hard time with that big boy
Next tough guy also givin me a hard time of it, also he is super gross which is distracting. I almost made it on the third try or so but got tired and decided to call it quits for the day.
At least random pitchfork dudes will no longer kill me effortlessly. I need to figure out how to make better use of the gun, I’ve basically been ignoring it