A Thorough Critique of Bloodborne

[@vinod12315]

Thanks for the no preamble.

[@S_raB]

On a 4+ hour video... yeah thanks a lot! I used to have shit to do.

[@ShupperDupper]

he says that, but after a minute he gives a statement explaining and validating the following video… ya know, like a preamble.

[@vinod12315]

​@@ShupperDupper better than a 20 minute explanation of the game, i know what bloodborne is.

[@ReleaseZeKrakken]

FOR REAL, Dude's the MVP for that

[@Scowleasy]

Story notes from a lore nerd: the PC was very sick and came to Yharnam looking for a cure. Paleblood has been confirmed by Miyazaki to be the moon presence (but the fact we need an external interview to confirm this isn’t great) The message you receive after killing Rom telling you [Ritual secret broken. Seek the nightmare newborn] is the Moon Presence speaking in your head.

[@Lycan072]

I can only imagine how awesome of a story it would be if they were able to give clear direction and character motivations.

[@Scowleasy]

On the Rally system: the length of time you have to regain health is different for each enemy or even which attack the enemy uses; and the amount of health regained per hit is different for every weapon. In classic fromsoft fashion, this is never explained.

[@BlowingJoker]

wtf the more you know xD

[@vinod12315]

WERE SO BACK

[@Cosmothecat_]

I've been waiting desperately for this video since I saw the first one

[@Lycan072]

Glad to deliver.

[@TigoODonnell]

I do wonder if you will eventually cover DS2 and Demon's Souls, as both games have notable impact on Dark Souls 3's gameplay and even level design. Irithyll Dungeon is a rendition of 3-1 from Demon's, the upgrade system is taken directly from Dark Souls 2, the FP system returns from Demon's Souls, and moments like Siegward helping you fight Yhorm or the final runback to the Princes are direct references to moments and storylines from Demon's Souls, such as Biorr of the Twin Fangs helping with Penetrator, (you also have to free both of them from a prison cell earlier in the level, and both of them fight with you out of a sense of duty to the boss, with the Storm Ruler being directly lifted from Demon's Souls) the Morion Blade, Karla the Witch being a clear reference to Yuria the Witch while another character shares that name, both teaching darker arts to the player, etc. Not to mention, if this is going to be an analysis of the series in whole with Elden Ring being the notable conclusion of the series, Dark Souls 2 most notably shows major influence over Elden Ring, to the point of Elden Ring being widely considered the game Dark Souls II could have been given more development time and a better development cycle, with the co-director of Elden Ring being the main director of 2, Yui Tanimura, who saved 2 from near cancellation. Miyazaki has also noted that he believes Dark Souls 2 to be of utmost importance when it comes to the development of these games, even regarding it as a major success and pivotal point for the franchise.

[@hankodog3000]

Haven’t even watched the whole video yet but omg this video is already amazing. 2k subs is criminal, this channel deserves to blow up right now.

[@Ken-kl2jo]

I disagree with your analysis on the plot. The lore is fine as is it is presented. Consider where the characters are when you first start the game. All the major factions have already collapsed, most of the major characters are dead and those that are still alive are insane and unreliable. Why would having information dealt by NPCs that you talk to make sense or be worthwhile? Everyone who could explain is in a position where they cannot or would not want to. Also, the notes are flavorful as they tend to reflect the biases and knowledge limitations of those who wrote them. Explaining any more would destroy the cosmic horror because, guess what, everyone in the plot is more or less as confused as the player character.

[@LambentV]

> “Thorough critique” > Video is 4 hours long Yep, that checks out

[@Negolash]

str builds have weaker visceral attacks because str weapons are stronger in general. Game is much easier with starter Axe, you don't even have to parry or backstab.

[@Scowleasy]

Heavy gems will cause your viscerals to scale off of strength, narrowing that advantage skill builds have

[@Lycan072]

I think that may be true if you look at raw damage numbers, but that isn't the case when looking at everything regarding weapons. The saw spear is the best weapon in the game. It has a great moveset, fast attacks, serrated bonus, and scales off of skill.

[@sasaki999pro]

Strength weapons get hyper armor, thats MORE than enough 😂

[@Mr.Starlight_gaming]

Pick up ludwigs holy blade, go to big Sword mode and heavy attack stagger everything into a pulp. Thank me later

[@A.D.I.D.A.S-916]

Dude I love listening to your Dark Souls 1 video when I’m laying down at night to go to sleep. This is gonna be my new night time relaxation listen. Thanks for this one my dude, you’re the man 🫡👌

[@Elderbch]

Literally discovered the Dark Souls critique you did about 4 days ago, and was disappointed when I saw how new the series was and we only had one video so far. I’m getting in on the ground level, which is rare! Didn’t expect to see this so soon after I watched that one. This is a nice surprise!

[@Lycan072]

Hopefully the DS3 video won't take toooo long to come out.

[@Guyy_1]

Amazing video, it really is nice to see people talk about the problems of Bloodborne after so long of people just shutting down any notion that the game isn't perfect. Can't wait for your DS3 video, it's my favorite game and I can already see some of your problems with BB bleeding into DS3, keep up the good work!

[@Scowleasy]

Upload the preamble as a separate video to be funny

[@Lycan072]

Now that's a GREAT April fools video idea. I may just steal that.

[@Scowleasy]

@ just realize you skip the preamble in your other videos too lol, which makes it even funnier

[@Lycan072]

@@Scowleasy every second of worthless video essayist preamble reduces my life expectancy. I wouldn't do that to my audience. You guys deserve better lmao

[@Scowleasy]

I think there’s an argument to be made that there isn’t enough farming in the game; or rather that farming isn’t integrated well enough into core gameplay. One of first things Gehrman says to you is to go out and kill some beasts, yet hunting for resources to make yourself more powerful is never really incentivized. The only time the player normally “farms” is as a punishment I.e a boring grind to restock your consumables. Runes and blood gems can be wildly powerful, yet acquiring them is relegated to side content with the chalice dungeons. The dungeons are already a great source of excess vials; if they were better integrated into the main story “grinding” for vials/echoes/whatever would be viewed a lot less painfully, since it would be something the player already does to grow.

[@TBroomey]

spot on with this point, but how would you imagine this integration?

[@Scowleasy]

@ requiring mid-level chalice materials to access the nightmare of mensis sounds like a good start to me. The main issue with trying to weave the main story and chalice progression together is that the chalices would feel like a pointless distraction unless you put main game items and characters in them to help blend the content more seamlessly. Like have Alfred be in the dungeons searching for clues about vileblood as part of his quest or something.

[@mwperk02]

Why do the enemies even respawn in bloodborne anyway? Nothing is implied to be immortal except the vile blood queen. Dark souls has the curse of u death resurrecting most enemies you kill and elden ring has the rune of death being stolen which prevents true death anything. Bloodborne just seems to have an infinite quantity of beasts appearing from the ether in a single night to less every time you visit the dream.

[@ciaran2823]

I think one thing you missed is that fact if you fight the witches of hemwick without insight, they don’t spawn the other enemies. Thought that was pretty cool

[@Lycan072]

Yeah I didn't think it was really worth putting in the script. It's a neat detail for sure but doesn't help the Witches encounter because of how unintuitive and unlikely it is to do. It's something one can only do if they know about it beforehand. Still a neat part of the insight mechanic tho.

[@Capthowdy098]

Really great video on what I would consider my favorite game warts and all! I may have to take this video in chunks due to there being an estimated 52 ad breaks across this video run time.

[@joshuachitwood7586]

As usual, an incredible video! I only wish the shields were touched on, but then you'd have to talk about all the weapons. Taught me a bit I didn't know after these 8 years playing it, like how that one door opens after beating Blood-Starved Beast. Seems like the main path through the game was very bizarrely put together, DLC too. Also the fact that you can get much better runes in the dungeons. Might do that next time. You've laid out these ideas and critiques clearly, concisely, and very well. May your views be many and your Holidays be Merry, and may there be a DS3 stream at 3K! ("Or something" -White Mask Varre)

[@Lycan072]

Thank you so much. I wanted to do a bit with shields and talk about the Hbomberguy video in the process. Instead I decided to skip over shields as it's a pretty useless topic and the Hbomb video was much better suited for the supercut of him saying "Play the game wrong" because it's such a stupid statement.

[@joshuachitwood7586]

@@Lycan072 That reminds me. I thought the humor worked very well. I think all the jokes landed, if not with an out loud laugh then intellectually (with my brain).

[@Mr.Starlight_gaming]

Since its what i value the most, here my 2 cents about every non chalice boss in BB: Cleric beast: the fist optional boss of the game and overall pretty simple. Hes built up well with the scream when climbing the ladder. The beast is of menacing stature, which when combined with the narrow bridge gives off a strong feeling of claustrofobia. Mechanically it works as a first boss and presents a pattern in formsofts early game bosses back then to make them have a big weak point. His head can be shot for a viceral can mollotovs work wonders against him. I think form does this to give players some leeway if they aren't used to the game yet and are struggling early on. People often complain about his arena and i can agree to an extent, but the boss is passive enough so you can usually escape if you're stuck somewhere. Overall 6.5/10, i give the tutorial bosses some brownie points since they dont serve same purpose as most others, and cleric does a swell job at it. Father... G: The first hunter boss of the game and im already gonna piss people off. I drastically prefer this game later larger bosses over the human opponents, quite the shock even for me considering i usually love the big knight boss wherever he goes. In bloodborne, youre insentivised to be agressive with rally and other mechanics. Normally i like this approach, but when the opponent can stagger somewhat often its can quickly devolve into a hit trading fiasco. Luckily, Gas dad is not a vulnerable to this as others later on. He actually uses a lot of the same attacks as you can with the axe and thats especially cool if that is your weapon of choice. I always switch for 1 to 2 handed whenever he does in phase 1.5 to match. That phase 1 however does introduce human boss problem 2, being the guns. For me its always a pace breaker and further disrupts the dance in a way im personally not too big on. Gassy is especially guilty of this due to his blunderbus not providing the chance to strafe it. He continuous the early fromsoft boss legacy by being suseptible to the music box. Werewolf mode is scary at first, being able to shatter the tombstones used as cover in phase 1. His moveset is very simple like this, not a problem since hes low on health and can be rushed down if you play agressively. A solid 7/10 boss, i actually never died to him, but i can see him being a good wall for newcomers. Blood starved beast: I dont have all that much to say for this stinky foe. He is a beast, does beast things and has poison like all the other Beasts in the area. The permanent poison aoe adds a lot of stress to the encounter when they reach low health, only made more frantic by bsb's charge based moveset and his Dumbo earflaps that obscure his movements (unfortunately, unlike Dumbo, this boss does not fly). Throwing the luring item (forgot the name) can also skip this last phase if you dont like it. 5.5 out of 10, its alright Vicar amelia: Never liked het that much. Her design is decent but a lot less scary than the much smaller beasts before and even somewhat friendly looking. Her fluffyness is also her greatest flaw, you cant see anything behind her and even in front her already not well telegraphed swipes get hidden. She also has a heal you can stop with an item, but even without it her heath is bigger than her moveset can accommodate for. 3/10, would hug if ensured safety. Witches of hemwick: Duo boss, gimmick boss, spawns adds. They threw in all the things people hate about bosses and its somehow still more fun than amelia. The shadow enemies have seemingly just having a bad day and dont bother attacking you until you literally walk inside of their swiping range. The suprise of there being 2 was neat i guess and backstab looping them is satisfying when you know how to do it. 4/10, at least unlocking runes makes it Worth going back to. Darkbeast Paarl: I said i dont include chalice bosses, but fighing this thing at half heath definately made me appreciate this battle more (and also made me a lot better at playing locked off). Is isn't terribly complex but still provides a good challagne if you go to him early enough. This boss is also made 10x better by his limb mechanic with most beasts have. It deactivated his buff and you can chain staggers if you target limbs equally and free aim. I played monster hunter world before by second BB playthrough fighting paarl as if youre playing that game increased by enjoyment of this fight exponentially. 8/10, very underrated in my opinion. Shadows of yharnam: I am godskin duo's biggest defender and my affinity of ganks bleeds over well to these goobers. They all fill their roles as a swordie, spellsword and pyro. You can go for who you hate the most first, adding some strategie along with kiting them around the tombstones littering the arena. The spooksters to have an issue where you can hit them, and they will always do a dodge you cant hit again and again until they fall. It makes it a bit braindead and the janky snake attack doesnt help with the clunky feel of the bout. 6/10, godskins still reign supreme. Rom: Fromsofts love for bodies of water pocket dimentions as boss arena's has here its origins. And sharing this ground with rennala, elden beast and metyr; none of which being great and rom being way worse makes her look pretty pathetic. She is an annoyence to deal with in all regards and lacks any redeeming qualities besides the spectacle than has not particularly aged well with from's more recent attemps at this atmosphere. 2/10, my buddy has arachnophobia and even he thinks rom looks goofy. Amig"DA"la: Patches says it several times and everyone still gets it wrong. Besides that, cool design, seeing them all over the world is awsome and that head looks very kickable. Camera jank is sure to insue if you lock on, but i didnt dock points of paarl for that so i wont yap about it here either. He is weak to big hits so strength buids will do well against him. But any arcane build (a call beyond) is gonna absolutely decimate this foe due to not having to wait for their turn to attack. No strong feelings on this one either way, 6/10. Martyr logarious: The first time i fought a boss and was super impressed. He used a lot of magic without being annoying to chase down and needing to hit his sword to stop the rain of blades attack is very cool even if a bit poorly communicated. I love how in phase 2 he is like "okay, f*ck it" and drops the magic for a sword and reaper moveset. The intro cutscene goes hard and parrying the divebomb is riveting. He also drops bloodbornes usual aesthetic for a more dark souls'ish vibe which i honesly prefer and serves as a nice break. 9/10, shouldve used his wheel. The one reborn: They said "lets do tower knight, but a lot worse". Already a bad idea putting a concept for a game with a slow pase in a game all about speed and agression. And his design is so perplexing that half the time you dont even know if he's moving around or reddying a melee attack, only for magically transported corpses to come barraling down onto your frontal lobe. 1/10, would've been a 0 if from didnt cook so hard with the intro cutscene. Celestial emisary: The bigger your weapon, the more fun you'll probably have. Being a challange is out the window so mowing down the horde of smurfs with your lawnmower of choice is where most of your enjoyment will come from. The one guy turning big when reaching half health is a bit of a suprise, but its not like the fight gets any harder. 3/10, a mear hurdle to to a call beyond. Ebria... E. Ebre.. Ebby: One of the first victims of midirism where the boss that is most fun getting in headshots is commonly fought staying behind them like similair bosses. Even when using this strategy, its not the most engaging fight. Her running attack is certainly a test of reflexes but the fight isnt mentally taxing enough to distract you from making sure youre prepared for it. She has my favorite lovecraft design and her nature as hidden away makes her encounter a lot more memorable. 7/10, better than the Bobble heads preceeding her. Micholash: I might get some flack for this but i wish the fight leaned harder into the chasing and puzzel aspect. He could lock you in an arena with some enemies, spam spells for a vantage point, taunt you from far away. And instead of fighting him, you kill him in some comedic way like dropping something on his head. As it is, its a half assed concept with 2 beat em up breaks, the second featuring a near one shot. 3/10, at least he sounds funny. Mergo's wet nurse: Shes alright, which makes me very upset because her design in impeckable and her unique skeleton and gimmick have so much potential. This is by all accounts the final boss of an ending if you choose to wake up so they should've gone all out with the fight imo. Now her clone attack is just a case of walking in circles until the sky turns blue again. She also looks way more important than she is. Her boss title is basically everything there is to know about her, no origin story, no story significance, no nothing. 5/10, deserved far better. Watching the vid rn. Comment will be finished soon...

[@alialmuhanna4938]

30:00 I rather enjoy the fact that even bosses can be parried. The fact that they can fly or jump out of sight or use lasers makes the fight seem unfair, so parrying evens things out. Also, the best fights in Bloodborne are with humanoid enemies. The gigantic bosses and creatures are just plain unfair in this type of game. Maybe they’re good for something like the God of War games; fixed camera with wide open spaces.

[@nazgulsenpai]

Playing Bloodborne on emulator as I'm listening to this. We've arrived, baby!

[@obynychyy1738]

how

[@guitaridiot9000]

I haven’t finished this video yet, but I’m very pleased to hear you acknowledge the increased focus on action and reduced presence of experiential elements and unique encounters regarding bosses. Matthewmatosis was the only other person I’ve heard really calling this out as a decision with some significant drawbacks. I think for him it actually largely ruined his interest in future Fromsoft titles. I’m especially interested to hear your thoughts on boss design regarding Elden Ring. I can’t shake the feeling that something really special is increasingly becoming lost in the chase for spectacle and more mechanically demanding bosses.

[@laughterable]

But i wasnt born from blood, I was born from my ma's belly

[@DuskerFluto]

4 hour Bloodborne video posted 25 mins ago?? Just called out of work

[@jacobhaklar829]

Are you making a dark soul 2 video?

[@somedudewithacamera220]

You made some valid points on parrying in regards to bosses but I always saw it as playing into the themes of the hunter. You are a hunter, and hunters typically only go after prey(which are usually weaker than themselves, whether in terms of skill or strength), so being able to trivialize enemies by being more skilled than them and parrying them always made perfect sense to me, and if you don’t parry them, being stronger than them is still being a hunter because from the start you were stronger and that’s why you won(if you assume that canonically the hunter beat them first try) Edit: I do understand that lore reasons are not an excuse for bad gameplay and stuff, but it does make the experience make sense to the player and immersing them in the game world

[@somedudewithacamera220]

To me it’s like that lore video where they mention how the victory message says “prey slaughtered” because you were never actually at a disadvantage or the one being hunted

[@ayesa6908]

Just finished the dark souls 1 video then this dropped. Crazy timing

[@Lycan072]

Fantastic timing then!

[@conner12893]

My body is ready 😊

[@henrykish2732]

No preamble... but what about postamble

[@bloodbornesavedmylife5619]

4 hour long video of my all time favorite game?! Don't mind if I do!

[@geff16999]

Truly my favorite soulsborne game of all time Out of modern souls game this game probably got the most solid combat, would love Bloodborne 2 with DLC level of bosses fight full game(If Sony ever decide to make one that's it)

[@johnjohnthetauntaun]

From a game design perspective, I absolutely adore Gascoigne. FromSoft needed to make sure that, before you played the rest of the game, you understood parrying, backpedaling, quickstepping vs. rolling, changing strategies mid-fight, timing heals, so many mechanics, and they’re all put together in this intense juggling act that feels scary and overwhelming until it all clicks. Dodging into the tombstones is annoying… until you learn to roll around them instead of trying to quickstep. The spinning attacks are overwhelming… until you realize when the parry window for it starts. The phase change is terrifying… until you realize where your healing openings are. It all comes together and takes the fight from this insurmountable obstacle to an adrenaline-fueled battle to the death, and when you take your first victory against him, that’s when you know if you want to finish the game or not

[@NobuKage404]

Another 2 hours + Bloodborne analysis??? I will be #Watching

[@ZohanAka666]

My goat is back reviewing soulsborne

[@SekhmetMorgan]

One of my favorite games of all time, let's go!

[@anujsreenivasan5040]

Question: if you play with the keyboard and mouse, would you have lower problems with the lock on?

[@Lycan072]

Seeing as the camera is still terrible and the dodgeroll is worse than the quicksteps and parrying still requires lock on. No i don't think kbm would solve much. The only thing that'd solve would be easier aiming for attacks.

[@mwperk02]

Visceral attacks being tied to skill stat was not something i was aware of when i first pucked up the game even though i read the stat descriptions. I had assumed it was tied to bloodtinge since thats what your parry tools scale off of and the vidceral attack but at the same time visually given viscerals involve you shoving your bare fist as hard as possible into the enemy or in the case of piggies literally up their ass it would seem to be strength based. Whats even more odd is the starting defacto skill weapon the cane is the worst starting weapon which will lead new players into thinking skill is just bad.

[@broodwars64]

There is something I would add to your discussion of The Nightmare Frontier. I played this game as a 1st time Souls player, never opening my online gate to invasions. I wanted to play it SP only. In the Nightmare Frontier, you can be invaded by other, experienced players who are Immune to the Frenzy beam and who the enemies ignore... regardless of your gate settings, so long as you're online. So you, as a new player, have to deal with getting ganked by FromSoft fanboys while you're trying to dodge what's essentially an Insta-kill AND the Spider mini-boss. I didn't need a reason to hate Souls players, but the Nightmare Frontier sure gave me one. I had to completely go offline to clear it

[@samfartson881]

4:07:00 (i did not watch the video, i just skipped to a random point but i have thoughts, so sorry if you address anything that i mention here) I think a major reason that bloodborne lore is so ambiguous in comparison to the other games is that the character you play as has no idea what’s going on. They wake up without any clue as to why they’re where they are and are immediately told to start killing things. I think it was very intentional that on your first playthrough you are not supposed to know what your motivations are because the hunter itself does not know what their motivations are. This also generally contributes to the theme of hunters who continue to hunt despite not knowing why. It’s the reason a lot of bosses don’t even aggro onto you immediately, but most people will attack them anyway because that’s how the game/lack of motivation has conditioned you to play(rom, ebrietas, bsb for example) It’s definitely a matter of personal taste but i think having npcs give lore would be a lot less fitting to bloodborne’s story than dark souls’s. In dark souls you are supposed to feel like history has already played out, and you are simply learning about what has already happened. In bloodborne you are supposed to feel like you are uncovering current events that have been hidden from the rest of the world. That’s part of the reason the only npc that actively gives lore information tells you fuck-all, because if the game had a bunch of characters that were extremely knowledgeable about the events you are uncovering, it would take away that feeling of discovery. Learning about the cosmic aspects of the game within the game universe is also tied to ascension, which is why the only npc that might know about rom or the mensis ritual is an old man that can’t even talk. I think the lore notes are the best way of getting this across because they give lore in SMALL fragments that just couldn’t be pulled off with long NPC monologues. In general i think on the first playthrough you are supposed to get the mindless, violent hunter experience, and on subsequent playthroughs you are supposed to get the investigative mensis student experience. So yah definitely a matter of personal taste but i think the methods they used to get across the lore were very intentional and the best fit for the story being told.

[@samfartson881]

I am going to have soooooooo many thoughts on this video when i actually watch it lmfao

[@joshuachitwood7586]

Stat Check: After one day, this is now your 5th most viewed video and you've gained about 100 subs. Congrats!

[@QuantumTelephone]

Another bloodborne critique video. Just what KZbin needs. No way I'm sitting through 4 more hours of this. Edit: great video. I agree with pretty much everything you said

[@dialaskisel5929]

I'm really lycan your critiques...

[@Lycan072]

lmao. Nice

[@NICOLAE22xd]

Just started Bloodborne thinking that it would be your next covered game, can't wait to finish it so I can watch this whole ass vid!

[@mongoflips6930]

This vid dropped right as I was beating this game for the second time (in a row) after having been waiting to get my hands on it for half a decade. I loved the game, but felt that it had a lot of issues people chose to ignore for the sake of gassing it up. I adore long form content like this and look forward to the ds3 video and even more for elden ring's. I think the former is the best in the series, and though I love the latter, it has myriad flaws worth looking into. I hope the elden Ring video is 6 hours; I can't wait. Also, are you doing sekiro?

[@Lycan072]

I might do Sekiro and DeS after Elden Ring. Unsure tho

[@Scowleasy]

So funny enough +scaling gems can affect your visceral damage, but from a critique perspective this unfortunately 1. This is never explained anywhere and 2. +scaling gems are so unbalanced that heavy (+str) gems are pretty much always better.

[@swan-cloud]

what do you exactly mean by modularity?

[@Lycan072]

Able to put their different moves together in a lot of different ways.

[@swan-cloud]

​@@Lycan072 you mean in the context of an attack string? like, queelag's attacks can overlap in different ways but it wouldn't make her modular, or would it?

[@Lycan072]

@swan-cloud basically how often and how many attacks can feed directly into other attacks within a single string. A simple example: Maria can end strings with the over-the-shoulder attack, unsheathe attack or gun attack.

[@swan-cloud]

understood, thank you.

[@SiyamthandaQwabe-or7er]

Peak vid now guys 50k subs now ds 2 was a masterpiece that needs another retrospective

[@Lycan072]

I'm unsure if you'd want me to cover ds2. You know that I dislike the game, right? Lmao

[@SiyamthandaQwabe-or7er]

@@Lycan072 idc pls do its peak plssssss plssss😭😭

[@edwardnowakowski5990]

@@SiyamthandaQwabe-or7erare you talking about DS2? Or DS2 SotFS? I only played the former and enjoyed it well enough, but I heard SotFS made enemy ganking worse. I will say, DS2 has elements of online play that I really wish were in other souls games (small white soapstone was genius) and I loved that Elden ring brought back powerstance from DS2

[@DailyTrendingContent]

Will you do non fromsoftware games like the Jedi series and Lords of the fallen?

[@Lycan072]

I'm inclined to do Hollow Knight once I play it and Lords of the Fallen would be interesting too. I kinda wanna do a whole non-fromsoft Souls-like video or series at some point because I have a lot to say on the matter.

[@Scowleasy]

@@Lycan072lies of P is my vote.

[@A.D.I.D.A.S-916]

@@ScowleasyI second lies of p Such a great game

[@sgtdipaolo]

another thing I'd like to point out about the healing: if you happen to be able to play online (and basic google skills), even as a new player you can just skip the entirety of the vial and bullet farming after beating the blood starved beast, thanks to the infamous "cummmfpk" dungeon, making the decision to go back to consumable healing all the more confusing; why include a limited resource based system, when you have other systems that make those resources infinite, and for far less effort?

[@Artificialraven]

This isn't a new critique. This has been covered better by other youtubers in depth. This is 4 hours of bitching from someone who found a new old game.

[@anujsreenivasan5040]

I doubt he advertises his video as something new and amazing. This comment is a couple of seconds of bitching by a person who failed to realise that what he writes doesn’t mean anything.

[@justsomegamer01]

I disagree with your assessment of ludwigs first phase, the attack where he jumps into the air and crashes back down can be avoided very easily by sprinting in one direction, no roll required, and that goes for both versions of the attack, I can see how it would be frustrating to deal with if you don't know that, but if you do know, it becomes one of his best punish windows, as for the "hit box spam attacks" I won't deny that he does have attacks like that, but those are only a problem when you bombard him with blind aggression, I know bloodborne promotes aggression, but remember, "whoever fights monsters, should see to it, that in the process, HE does not become a monster" I also think maria and orphan deserve a bit more criticism, but that may stem from my lack of understanding and experience with those 2 The critique of roms aggression seems a bit odd to me? I think that depends on which form of logic you wanna use And as for why the shadows or yharnam are at the end of the game, the reason is in their name (bars) they aren't the shadows of yharnam the place, they're the shadows of QUEEN yharnam, her shadows meaning her guards, they're protecting the way to queen yharnam as well as her child mergo, just thought I'd give context to that ^_^ Overall really good video, it's refreshing to see someone speak about positives AND negatives in regard to bloodborne, im looking forward to seeing what you make in the future, happy new year O/ oh also you can trivialize Laurences second phase by sticking to his smaller arm, doing so makes it where you only have to worry about 2 attacks, still a shit boss tho lol

[@Lycan072]

To be a bit more clear on Ludwig, I know that the most effective way to evade the ceiling attack is to run. I'm pretty sure there's footage of me doing so that plays in the video. The issue I have with this is that it is unintuitive. Souls combat only works so far as the player knows what's going on. Because of the camera and lock-on, a player cannot know what Ludwig is doing when he's on the ceiling. The only way to learn is to die or get hit and memorize the timing. Intuition vs rote memorisation, intuitive attacks to dodge is (generally) always the better design.

[@mwperk02]

I always got the distinct inpression that the player characters motivations were meant to be up to the player mostly in froms souls style games. Though for bloodborne specifically it is heavily implied that the blood transfusion and\or hunter contract caused amnesia so the obvious motivation for them might be hoping the paleblood they are told to seek presumably by the same old man who gave the blood transfusion will help restore their memories. Where in the dark souls games breaking the curse of undeath is a prime motivation but these are supplimented by whatever headcanon reasons your specific character is doing anything.

[@senseweaver01]

Oh wow, four hours. Did you have to post this thirty minutes from midnight haha?

[@satoutatsuhiro866]

3:03:00 You can actually just dodge the Nightmare Move. Idk how staggering works with it but if the nurse uses the move and you dodge the whole thing just doesn t happen lol.

[@caanela]

Been waiting for months.. good..hunter.

[@Slyslug]

Im a simple man, i see a multi hour game critique or retrospective and i watch.

[@leftyjackTTV]

12:32 & 14:55 I would offer one counter if the argument is that this problem is exclusive to Bloodborne. In Demons and DS games, each weapon has a critical attack rating, which is higher for weapons like daggers and estoc/rapiers, (110-130 vs regular 100) some straight swords that are usually exclusively Dex weapons, at best a weapon like the sawspear that has decent scaling with both stats. In Bloodborne, Skill level is not the only factor that ups your visceral attack damage. You gain a small amount every time you go up one level in any stat, and at Blood Level 15 (until 60) there is a considerable jump every 15 levels. Skill does give your player another small jump per level, but its less than the overall change with leveling your character. So one could argue a Strength build using ripostes in DS with either their big bonk weapon or pulling out a dagger they dont scale as well with is pretty similar to a Strength build in Bloodborne having not leveled Skill but using any weapon they want and still getting pretty similar results. Mix a dozen Skill into any build and you buff the visceral attack only a bit more than continuing elsewhere. More bosses get visceral attack opportunities in this game than others is true, so perhaps that weighs the scale. It would be great if the game(s) valued Strength and Skill builds equally, but then youd be making Moonlight Sword and Chikage builds angry. 😅 Bloodborne gives all leveling (up to 60 hardcap) a small boost, with Skill slightly edging out the winner again. 🤷‍♀️ guess Dex is just better, after all... 🤓

[@ViktorBezK]

Welp know I know what I'm gonna do with my free time till the end of the year :)

[@Lycan072]

I'm glad that I decided to post it before the new year. We all need something to keep us busy till the 31st :D

[@abreu7756]

oh yes 4 hour bloodborne reviewn

[@jacksonr260]

Just realized that the curved bone cleaver thingy from the elden ring 's putrescent knight is basically orphan of kos's weapon. Also, you should do a Sekiro critique eventually! Nice work on this one. 👍

[@OnionKnightoc]

4 hrs !? Uploaded 1 day ago !? I’m too early man. I’ll wait for the timestamps guy.

[@owentheoutlaw_]

Bro made a 4h video critiquing Bloodborne, dude is a gigachad!

[@tommyferret4121]

0:24 Um ACTUALLY dark souls 2 also had omni-directional rolling which came out before bloodborne.

[@Lycan072]

LMAO. Unfortunately DS2 SOTFS also has 8 directional snap points when moving too. This is even further exacerbated by sprinting. I know this is a meme but, in all seriousness, DS2 has even worse movement than DS1. Bloodborne was the first smooth game in terms of movement.

[@tommyferret4121]

@@Lycan072 it does!? That's why I kept dying trying to line up my character for jumps 😭I thought it was just me thinking that DS2 movement felt off.

[@Lycan072]

Yep. It's one of the many reasons why I hate DS2 😂

[@4blasphemy]

wow, 4 and a half minutes of chalices, most of it misinformation about their place and how the system works not to mention the slander of them being lower quality and not being part of the core bloodborne experience chalices are absolutely meant to be played off and on in between areas on a first playthrough, you can go into the first right after blood-starved beast then soon get to depth 2 as well, it is just that chalices support a player who actually does want to play the game in different ways so it is the perfect place to play with different weapons and to get stuff to upgrade more, you even get a whole new weapon in loran which gets a literal new moveset from the dlc making it in a way 4 weapons in 1 seeing that you only showed footage of the first layer of the first pthumeru chalice, i assume you havent even seen or beat all 10 preset chalices, since how could you not talk about at the least yharnam (the boss, saying it just to be sure there is no misunderstanding, since i am not sure you even know of the boss) so, you at least did know that there are preset chalices, but you have no idea how root chalices work, first of all you DO NOT need online to play root chalices, you only need online to enter a glyph and to make the root chalice you make have a glyph for others there are 2300 root chalices, depth 1-3 roots have 100 variants, and depth 4-5 have 200, but that does not mean you can only make 2300 distinct chalices, it means that is how many bases there are when you put down a root chalice, it chooses 1 base out of the respective pool, then makes sure you have at least 1 unique item (rare loot, lost or uncanny weapon, rune) but that unique item is once again based on the repsective root chalice on what it can be (not anything can be anywhere) and then, there are more variables that get applied, which does effect enemy layouts, what enemies are in at all, the side room layout, the chance for a 4th layer (20% chance except depth1 which cant have layer 4), chance for poison stuff, chance for shop (patches shop included, if questline is completed) AND THEN you can apply manual changes with the additional rites, with the fetid offering making some enemies stronger with a buff (but more echoes), the rotted offering making it so there are additional select enemy spawns, and the curse having your hp cut in half but in return making it so you find cursed gems way more often (and of course there is a special rite that gets its own chalice variants, the sinister, allowing for invasions even if you are alone by making the bell ringers for online spawn, but even offline there are differences) so to say that chalices are anything but the core bloodborne experience, could only be said if someone thinks they know what bloodborne is, but meanwhile even if you only count the preset chalices (10) then that is the 50% of a first playthrough

[@Lycan072]

All this info (which i know by the way. I have played through them all) does not counter any of my criticisms. The game is not balanced for a player who runs them frequently throughout a playthrough and online is still required to make the exact chalice from the seed. And I also praised them for being a decent method for players to use to lower the difficulty of the main game.

[@4blasphemy]

@@Lycan072 so if you did go through all of the preset ones (not "all of them"), then it is simply a bloodborne love difference, which is what it is and also i did try to counter anything, but to simply express how much i like them and how much i do think they are exactly what is needed for a balanced playthrough but of course, YOU need to make it balanced, YOU need to want it to be how you like it, dont be surprised that enemies die fast if you upgrade past +6 and only dump into 2 stats bloodborne is the game that you can get an ending with without seeing 95% of the game (this includes weapons, hunter tools, areas and the raw extraordenary amount of experience that you can feel by playing with great care)

[@Lycan072]

@4blasphemy exactly. We're in agreement there. The issue I have in general regarding the chalice dungeons and balance is that a new player going in blind cannot know that they're ruining their own experience by overlevelling unintentionally in chalice dungeons. It's not the worst issue. I just think it should have been more clearly communicated. Glad we've come to a middle ground tho :)

[@4blasphemy]

@@Lycan072 yes, the thing that is pretty true that bloodborne is also the game where it is the most useful to get guidance in terms of new player confusion, like it can allow for that 95% to be not missed (but also, i feel you dont get overleveled from chalices at all, its the other way around, you get overleveled for the chalices by not playing them and they are not connected to the new game+ so they dont scale like that) so i think the best way to play bloodborne for a new player is to have someone there who knows everything to an extent that is very close to truly everything but obviously not backseat but rather information so mechanical confusion and in general context for what and how stuff is (i consider myself that, and i have already helped a few people play through the game like this and it was good for every person involved)

[@WarrenValion]

Don't think I have ever disagreed more than with your thoughts than I do on your thoughts about the Shadows of Yharnam fight. And thus I feel the desire to express my disagreements on this topic specifically, and only this topic within the video (even if I might disagree with other things said within the critique). I'm a parry guy. Being able to stop the flow of a fight and trivialize the boss by gaining a great understanding of their timings is my shit. It's why Lady Maria is my favorite fight in the game, it's not a flaw of the fight for me, it's the fun part. That being said, I have never ever parried the Shadows of Yharnam. Nor intuitively felt that I should. Despite that dissonance, it is so easily, in my opinion, the best gank fight in any Fromsoftware game that I have played (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne). And that is because I had to figure out the fight. It was the one fight in the game where I need to switch from my basic combat strategy when fighting to win. My initial strategy on my first playthrough was to take out the ranged pyro one first (I always take out ranged targets in every game I ever play because they're always annoying to deal with), but when I did, I quickly became overwhelmed from the enhanced melee of both remianing Shadows. it lead to me realizing the more optimal strategy would be to take out the melee guy first to better control the distribution of pressure at specific ranges was a level of strategizing that I almost never have to use in these types of games to win, and that's really cool. Their movesets might not compliment each other mechanically like O&S, but they DO complement each other. Each Shadow fighting at different ranges with a different set of attacks. One Long with projectiles, one mid with melee and projectiles, the other close range with melee only DOES make them complementary. It's not just throwing in X amount of the same enemy to artificially increase the difficulty. Removing a Shadow would dynamically change how one approaches the battle entirely. And the reason why this works so well is the arena, large open space with the large gravestone is perfect. It's the "use the pillars" strategy from the O&S fight but actually just works completely. It doesn't rely on waiting until the AI just decide to separate from one another because each Shadow inherently move at different speeds andy fights at different ranges. They're always spacing themselves out to allow you the path to attack them. From your gameplay, you don't seem to be consistently using your environment effectively to create that space. The long-ranged Shadow essentially becomes a non-factor when using the gravestone to negate his projectiles, the mid-ranged Shadow has to stop to use his flamethrower attack, which allows the close ranged Shadow to separate from him allowing you to take him on one on one very easily. And the Shadows are a breeze one-on-one. --- I would like it if Fromsoft fixed their camera and lock-on issues already, but I disagree with your consensus. Knowing when to use the lock on and when to not use it in an fight IS a skill in and of itself. Your rebuttal assumes that using the mechanic is a binary switch. That you either use it in a fight or you don't. It's not. It's a spectrum of circumstances; 'locking off' is a mechanic as well and can be used as often as required. It's not "just don't use it", it's "know when to use it to benefit you and when to not use it to benefit you within a single encounter". Locking on is very useful at times in the Shadows of Yharnam fight, I do so when I am attacking the Shadows so I don't miss my attacks, when I want the quick step instead of the roll, and I would use it to parry them if I decided to do that in this fight. 'At times' being the pivotal words. Yeah, hyper-focusing on a single target in a multi-enemy encounter has moments where its detrimental---but that's the whole point of a multi-person enemy encounter. Positioning and spacing are the elements of combat that are prioritizied with these types of encounters. Learning the balance of at what times to control the camera yourself and at what points you should give the game the control of the camera to best maximize your efficiency in your positioning and spacing just a part of the trial and error process---the fundamental core of the gameplay loop---it's the skill that is being tested. And I think the Shadows of Yharnam test that skill better than any other fight in this game.

[@McDudes]

You said you will cover the games chronologically but you skip over Dark Souls 2 and Demon Souls?

[@Lycan072]

I also said I'd be covering the well regarded games. That rules DS2 out. I also said from DS1 onwards. That rules DeS out. DeS may be retuned to after Elden Ring. And I may cover DS2 as a 50K sub goal. But for the purposes of this analysis series, neither of those games need be discussed. These videos from DS1 - DS3 are all setups for the eventual Elden Ring critique.

[@McDudes]

​@@Lycan072 Dark Souls 2 might be the worst Fromsoftware souls game. But it's still a really good game overall. Way better then most other souls likes from other studios.

[@sasaki999pro]

​@@McDudes Buddy you don't WANT him to make a DS2 video if you genuinely like it. Bloodborne's a commercial darling in the souls community and he is ruthless to its flaws unlike most who sugar coat them. DS2 would be a god damn MASSACRE that would shock the likes of critics even like Mauler

[@NuuhniamBoyz]

@@Lycan072 Well consider me a new subscriber then because I want front row seats to THAT bloodbath 😂

[@McDudes]

@@sasaki999pro eh he was fair I think 🤔

[@edwardnowakowski5990]

Is it weird that I find the cleric beast to be much harder than Gascoigne? I dunno why, but I find it harder than some mid game fights

[@WholeWeatMango]

Thank you, Jonathan Sims.

[@harmonygarcia333]

thank you!!

[@angelstar107]

I really want to write a full proper response to some of your points since I feel there is room for meaningful conversation about some aspects of the game (namely the Camera in the base game) as the fixes may not be as simple as anyone wants. However, I want to offer one small correction to the Chalice Dungeons themselves. Modded Dungeons, if made public (which you can do when you create the dungeon) means they actually become part of the randomly generated dungeon pool since the game does allow for your game to pull in publically available dungeons before attempting to randomly generate them. I haven't run into the legendary cummmfpk chalice but I have run into two specific modded dungeons: the unfinished OG Moon Presence fight and a bizarre Phumera chalice dungeon with the Iz chalice tile set that was much much MUCH harder than should've been accessible when you first get the dang thing. In a way, that makes the Chalice Dungeons much worse since such Modded dungeons can introduce large issues into a player's experiences

[@xrabbz2010]

1.9k subscribers? wtf? I am very surprised

[@denischeveresan7202]

nice video

[@obynychyy1738]

No dark souls 2 :(

[@obynychyy1738]

I think ds2, all things consitered, is a really good game. I really quite enjoyed your ds1 critique and it pains me that you didnt decide to review ds2. Even though decisions made during development carried over to bloodborne

[@noamias4897]

I’m so tired of people making preambles like it’s a university paper where they explain their methods

[@TylerShepard-ul6jj]

I guess I'm the only one that really enjoys laurance fight 💀😂

[@CStelTV]

Great video… please 60 fps Sony

[@Burberrydalive]

Take a shot every time he says "fantastic".

[@joshuachitwood7586]

Stat Check: After two days, this is now your 3rd most viewed video and you've gained about 200 subs. Good stuff!

[@zohzie]

OH MY GOD..ITS EVERYWHERE

[@ethanol6254]

10 MINUTE GANG!!!

[@squishgod9094]

WOO BLOODBORNE but aww no Dark 2?

[@jeromembeche8907]

❤Dark souls 2???❤😢

[@Neftosklad]

my 4 hour autism fuel❤ love it

[@sammathis6634]

Let's gooooooo

[@Yagmur-nf6yh]

Not a fan of Bloodborne or interested in BB content but just came here to say that I enjoyed your ds1 vid and hope ds2 is next.

[@dannyhartwig7595]

shame on you!! now i need to replay it again lol

[@anujsreenivasan5040]

WOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@besnur]

[@tylamcgilverson3923]

Loley wish there was a pramble

[@WheeledHamster]

Playing it on PC with ShadPS4 for the first and it is fun. The locked on and hit detection and enemies ability to just clip hits thru walls is straight bullshit but still fun.

[@jamesbrincefield9879]

👏👏👏

[@panamahank7108]

Have you ever considered a Hollow Knight critique? I'm a huge fan of long form critiques and retrospectives, and it never hurts my feelings to see Hollow Knight content. If you've never played it, highly recommend.

[@Lycan072]

Every time I try to allot time to play Hollow Knight. Things end up making the playthrough come to a close. I really wanna play through it fully at some point. When I do, I'll probably make a video on it.

[@panamahank7108]

@Lycan072 well I hope you get the chance. Aside from the fantastic combat, the game always gives me the genuine urge to explore unlike almost any other game. Even after completing it quite a few times haha But why I think it'd make for an excellent critique is the story and lore. There is a ton going on beneath the surface much like the Souls series.

[@been_rly_n2_paragliding_lately]

I'm a simple man. I see a 4 hour video about Bloodborne, I watch.

[@Rudi4rius]

Waiter waiter!

[@koalemos1679]

Hot take. Limiting heals to 20 is actually stupid. It does go with the survival horror aspect but it's just annoying otherwise.

[@aX0n777]

tbh my biggest hot take is that bloodborne is abysmal at doing eldritch horror, first of all you can actually see them, they look horrific but you CAN see them, i don't like that, worst of all, you can not only rival them in strength, but outright kill them, this really works to undermine how otherwordly they are, i mean, the moon presence is one of the easiest busses in the game and i simply cannot look over that, i think the douls game that did cosmic horror justice was elden ring, you never see the greater will, you never see the formless mother, you never precieve the blood star, nor would you even consider seing them, you can ONLY feel their influence on the world, that was really brilliant, there seems to be this arcane quality to the cosmos of elden ring, stars have consciousness, all the changes in the lands between came from meteorites from the sky, it symbolizes the uncertainty and danger built into the sky. astel has a human skull for like, NO REASON and it really makes you question the human nature and its place in the hierarchy, not only that, but tying the sorcery system to the sky and astrology is utter genius, because it's tied the unknown to the int stat, it's really neat, there's examples if characters becoming mad or losing their physical properties or sanity because they pondered the cosmos too much, like azure with the primeval current and sellen becoming a fkn rock at the end of her quest, as if humanity wasn't designed to look too deeply at the skies above them, hell the fkn concept of fate of both mortals and gods are written in the starry night, i just think doing cosmic horror like that, understated and to the side, but gets more obsecure and creepy the more you think about it, it's practically perfect for eldritch horror, bloodborne made it the main focus and by doing thst it had diluted its effects, bloodborne is a great example of eldritch aesthetics but i view ut as a bad representation of actual cosmic horror edit: i think even demons' souls did eldritch horror better than bloodborne

[@Mr.Starlight_gaming]

Id somewhat disagree but i do think Elden Rings outer Gods generally do it better than the great ones. They are passive forces that are never and always present simultaneously, spreading their influence through the world, trying to become the dominant force through their vessels

[@SirGushy-er7em]

Get gud bud. 😅 don't start with BB if your new to souls-likes.

[@A.D.I.D.A.S-916]

Brainrot comment

[@SirGushy-er7em]

@A.D.I.D.A.S-916 yours as well