I’m actually surprised that so many of y’all persisted so far into the chalice dungeons, I did like four runs and got bored
I was making a roguelike at the time and
I like the combat
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It was interesting to see that fall down for certain folks. I had a decent sense of terrain discovery and monster variations. Treasure was weak. The ‘hero rooms’ were well-parceled out (the large courtyard, the great swamp, the rope bridges). I appreciated a break to ‘generic fantasy’ art after a few hours of Victorian Horror.
My analysis is that, without the driving force of purpose it immediately rang hollow; it was less a content problem than a direction problem.
To put it another way, a game with Bloodborne’s systems and nothing but chalice dungeons would still be a pretty great game.
that, and it didn’t really come close to the extremely high standard for visual design set by the rest of the game
excuse me it looked more like
than anything ever and what higher standard is there than a Terada print I’ve been trying to relive for decades?
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As much as that’s dope, you are probably being a little generous with the word “like”
eh, it worked for me
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the cold cruelty of From dungeon crawlers gives me that feeling
the cold cruelty of random dungeons gives me that feeling
combine them and the heartless murder machine that follows is rather evocative
approaching it from a different angle
Let it Die has considerably worse random generation than Bloodborne (and naturally worse combat). But it ain’t bad by any means because direct-character-action murder-roguelikes are still fertile soil.
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Literally the only flaws I can find in the chalice dungeons is the limited room-types and the statistical/positional modifications of some bosses. But, again: pleasing echoes of Lament of Innocence’s backdrops, and I did put dozens of hours into Dragon’s Dogma’s Bitterblack Isle dungeon-crawl. I was ready to like it all before I’d even begun. And although I do agree that none of it ever has the formal wit of elsewhere-highlights, there is also nothing else in the game – excepting perhaps the witch of Hemwick’s chamber – that so openly lays bare the comparisons to horrific baroque set designs (seriously: rusticated lairs ceiling-strung with torn fabric, housing ornate pottery?). That unexpected, rare historical engagement is valuable and further supports my main reading of BB as a mannerist work.
Watchdog of the old lords was inoffensive and fine normally but 100% unbearable when encountered in the cursed/defiled dungeon and serving you death in a single hit. That’s where the design falls apart. Now, that Rom fight – I assume we’re referring to the same – worked for me with how the columns served as defensive structures against the crystal showers. Made the fight a little more interesting, having an alternate means of prevention.
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oh!
Yeah, I went through some of the chalice dungeons up to the point where I had to fight Rom again and basically decided enough was enough.
As for the visual design, I liked what they were going for but everything felt a little too… spacious? for that aesthetic. But anything more cramped probably wouldn’t work well with the things you actually have to do to like, play bloodborne effectively. It seems like the design of the dungeons gets more interesting in later forms, but the ones I finished at least seemed a little aesthetically inconsistent.
I did really like, or hate-like I guess, that one gigantic room that has dozens of those huge … scorpion-giraffe things. That’s an enemy that is totally underused in the main game, and it was hilarious and terrifying to have to deal with so many of them all at once. I spent hours trying to figure out a way to kill all of them, and then realized it was way easier to just sneak around and avoid them completely.
Stuff like that was fun, and I’m sure there would be more of it if I kept going, but having to deal with fighting the bosses I hated the most over again to get to the good parts was a very unappealing proposition. But I’ve never been a fan of boss rush type situations, or roguelikes really, so I guess it’s just not for me. I still think it’s amazing that the chalice dungeons are even in the game, I appreciate that they are there even if I don’t really want to deal with them personally.
Wh…
:searches dungeon bestiary:
…What…
OH! These things. Yeah, they kinda don’t function on their own, and the way that those large rooms where they’re clustered in corners make them act as ranged weapons works out pretty well. Also thought I had to be wrong but yeah I guess you really do only encounter one of them in the main game. What a good videogame.
Hahaha Yeah I think I meant centipede? I don’t know animals good
And it’s the scariest fucking thing in the whole game. I find that enemy design extremely unnerving.
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and it hits the otherworldly beauty better than any of the kin, too. A delicate evisceration
This is actually probably the most lovecraftian part of Bloodborne? I don’t know what other people talk about when they say the game is lovecraftian because I have so far avoided all specific spoilers. A good half of his stories (and often the better ones) end with a chthonic journey into an underground where the final horror is revealed at last. What little I’ve played of the game has been very Shadow Over Innsmouth in tone.
I know you said earlier that you find the comparisons to Lovecraft tiresome but I think they’re fairly valuable when comparing only to his works (and only the good ones at that) instead of to the myth of what lovecraft stories are like. (I don’t find ‘madness’ to be a credible theme in most of his stories, and the one I can think of where it definitely applies is a terrible Poe knock off anyway)
I own Bloodborne now and i played it for a few hours last night. Thoughts:
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This game is spooky!!
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You can create a character that has heterochromia. This rules.
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I’m very pleased at the difficulty of this game. It seems like a natural step up from Dark Souls and not an arbitrary one. It’s pleasantly surprising how the simple removal of your block button adds so much tension to each encounter (i feel like Bloodborne so far would be very easy if you had a Dark Souls style shield). And i like that the replacement command for the block button is your weapon mode switch, which is universally accompanied by a badass looking animation. I like what that communicates about this game’s intent.
Just beat the werewolf clerk on the bridge. I’m loving how huge and tangly Central Yharnham feels. Ive gotten lost several times and that is excellent.
This feels like the best Halloween game?
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