Something tells me an 'expansion' is to be announced soon...

8 bosses in, 1 chalice dungeon down, level 60+ something, 19 hours on Bloodborne... already. Da hell just happened?

It's very good.
http://download.gamezone.com/uploads/im ... yazaki.jpg

You're ahead of me haha. I took out maybe... 5 bosses? Let's see:

Other than Father G, I took them all out on my first try (okay, Amelia was 2 tries because I derped and got greedy for the last hit... *blushes*
About level 40 IIRC. My whip/cane is +6 (haven't found chunks yet). I explored one chalice dungeon and killed two (piss-easy) bosses in it, but stopped for the night. How many levels do they have?

And yes this game is ridiculously good. Everything I was hoping it to be. Man, those randomly-generated Chalice dungeons still have better level design than regular dungeons in most games....

Is it just me, or are the hunters harder than the bosses so far? I died way more often to

Also, so far *knocks on wood* the crystal lizard equivalents are infinitely less annoying. YES THANK YOU MIYAZAKI. That was one game design aspect I really didn't like about the Souls games... the goddamn crystal lizards. They just weren't fun to hunt at all, but their rewards were so good that you kinda had to try every time.

I haven't tried a random Chalice dungeon yet, I'll have to check it out. I think they all have 3 tiers. The third boss in the first main one was pretty cool, still not too bad though. The ultimate treasure chest reward was pretty lame though, it was more Ritual Blood...??? Weird. I get that these dungeons are a bit toned down difficulty/exp wise so you probably can't grind with them to break the main game, but it would be cool if some of the premade Chalice dungeons have cool items in them.

Bosses 3-5 were easy. Have fun with the next boss!!! And boss 8 is another tough one after that I'd say. Boss 7 was badass as heck.

Oh... you haven't even seen the hunters yet that have Arcane abilities and transforming giant tentacle arms. Yeah, I find that they are more frightening than the bosses because they can heal, counter, are small/nimble, very fast, have guns, etc it's insane. I'm getting by but every single one I take down usually feels like pure luck and requires several attempts. Apparently, there's a room with like ~3 of them in an area I'm at. It's definitely gotten serious where I am.

Handling the NPC's in general seems far more cryptic in this one by far. I feel like I've either killed most of them (because they were hostile at the point of encounter), or they are dying. I wonder how everything is effected with all this in this one. I also had a choice to send people to the clinic or the cathedral, so I wonder how that changes things.

Wait, not all Chalice dungeons are random?

Also, I already want to make a King Diamond cosplay...

You guys are all so much better than me haha. I'm level 40 and I just beat my third boss, with help.

Hunters are definitely more intimidating than the bosses. Mofos are too goddamn quick!

Morri, that NPC that died could have been found before the first two bosses. I don't know how important she is/was yet.

Ohhh wait I think I remember. He (or she? the voice was weirdly androgynous) said "what are you still doing here? go on and hunt, hunter" or something? That was the same NPC then?

Also, holy shit that's a good deal: PS4 + The Last of Us + Bloodborne + $20 gift card
http://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-4-Con ... ative=9325

Just chiming in to bring that whole dedicated-Bloodborne-thread idea up once more. Isn't it pretty much inevitable at this point?

Also Borderlands 2 GOTY is currently available for chump change at the Humble Store.

Or just combine the Dark Souls threads and add Bloodborne to it.


I think it's just the Root ones that are random.

I'm really not sure though.

Disclaimer: This post is about Bloodborne!
So my first mega annoyance with this game, kind of a combo of annoying things... I find this new area and I have 40k soul echoes, I should probably go level up right? Nah too much loading time. Keep going, clear most of this new area now have 70k so..echoes, I die. Well that was stupid maybe I will try this beckoning bell just to have a friend help me get my echoes back, ring bell, immediate disconnect from server. Cool there goes 1 insight, reload game, bell searching "buff" is gone so have to ring again, immediate disconnect again -2 insight. Fuck it I have to go get my bloodstain myself except disconnect from server = bye bye bloodstain = thanks Obama. I don't know if anyone else is having this issue with the beckoning bell, losing insight and bloodstain just for using it is really shitty. I've had no problems being summoned to other peoples games.

On a more positive note I love the Greatsword that you can buy for 20k, is that a spoiler? the 1H mode is like a quick dex type sword and the 2H is still pretty fast and powerful as hell. I've barely been using my gun the whole game so I'm purposely trying to get good at using it to interrupt/stagger and then visceral attack enemies now and I'm starting to get the hang of it, pretty damn awesome.

Edit: Okay... I just got to a new secret area and there was a bloodstain on the ground that had all the bloods I lost, makes no sense and probably a bug but I'll take it!

Eh? Getting disconnected won't make your bloodstain disappear...

yer right it just made mine move to an area I'd never been to (see edit in post above) IDK I searched where I died for 10 minutes and also killed all the enemies, but it was not there.

It took me awhile to realize but enemies that have really bright eyes are usually the ones that have your blood echoes.

A pretty neat and scary edition to this one.

I have also had a couple times where bloodstains did not appear where they should have. I'm completely aware of the enemies stealing your echoes mechanic, and sometimes the stain will be a little ways from your location (typical of death), but I've had a multiple instances where it was nowhere to be found/not where it should have been. Echoes generally seem much easier to come by than souls though, and after playing the Souls games enough, I don't seem to care as much when I lose them.

Ooooh that's how I've been getting them automatically without having to go to my stain. That's cool.



I'm only 27 and I beat the same bosses as Morrigan and cleared a chalice dungeon. I've been spending all my blood and insight on equipment.


About a previous post I don't like that insight is spent just to ring a bell. If no one's online it's wasted. Insight should be used up for each person that gets summoned. As soon as someone spawns in your world, insight is used.

Yep. Enemies can apparently pick up your blood echoes now or something. They'll have bright glowing eyes from what I've noticed.

Oh wow so that's what Insight does? I have like ... 30. Playing offline, so I guess that's why.

I still don't get the Frenzy stuff though.

Been breaking things down with a friend about stuff. These are some of my thoughts on some of the mechanics:

- Armor seems more visual again like Demon's. There's far less armor (from what I've gathered 20 hours in) nor do they really seem to change much. I don't predict being able to cheese bosses with tank rhino armors.
- There is a higher emphasis on weapons and customization this time. I notice much bigger changes upgrading a weapon than upgrading your own base stats. Makes me wonder if this is also a bit more like Demon's, where you can mess around a bit more with a build (unlike Dark Souls where a few wasted points can completely mess your run up). For whatever reason I've noticed that Skill is starting to beef up my stats more than STR (even with a STR based weapon), which seems really weird. But maybe this is a sign that it's encouraged to be a bit more diverse with your stat distribution. Hard to say...
- I really like that the bloodstones on weapons and the upgrades you can equip later on are never permanent. Again, lending it well to a bit more weapon customization and experimentation.

Dark Souls definitely seems more complex, for better or worst. Bloodborne to me feels like it's streamlined stuff, but not in a Ubibad way or anything. It just feels a bit more like Demon's in this regard, where equipment doesn't seem to break the game or make you invincible, so it relies more on pure player skill.

We were also laughing wondering how previous magic players are fairing here... since that's not much of a thing and the guns are hardly overpowered soul arrows or whatnot haha. I do have a few items that I think are the "Arcane" abilities though, but my stat is nowhere near the requirements and it'd probably be a waste to try and get there with this run.

Oi, guys, a question; considering the lesser emphasis on defense present in Bloodborne, is it even possible to upgrade your armour? Or, well, clothing. A longcoat doesn't really count as armour, to be honest

Yep, I was baffled by the lack of bloodstain at first, but it became quite clear early on that the eye-glowing enemies are those that rob your echoes. I don't think bosses and NPC hunters can steal those, fortunately, so at least you get a chance to retrieve your echoes even if you lose those battles, but normal mobs can steal your bloodstain haha.

Sucks about the frenzy thing. It reminds me of the cracked orbs being consumed even if the invasion fails in pre-patch Dark Souls. This got patched later on, so I'm guessing the insight thing should be patched too, though they should have thought of that first. I also hope they patch the online players bloodstains (the "spectres" I think they're called now?), 'cause for me, they work correctly maybe 1 out of 5 times, if that.

Xlxlx, you can't upgrade clothing/armour that I can see. Weapons only, but you can also upgrade guns, and you can also unlock gem slots to have some power-ups or special effects. You can also eventually unlock runes to "memorize" which give some passive bonuses too.

So, no armour upgrades, but deeper weapon customization? I can dig that trade.

I certainly won't miss having to constantly repair my armor every single time I visit the hub.

You do still have to repair your weapons off and on, but it's no biggie.

One of the other huge changes maybe not mentioned yet is that there is no equip/item load anymore. So I'm pretty sure you can wear/equip anything you want and still retain the same base movement speed, which was probably intentional with the emphasis on being offensive this time. Most useable items max out at 10 in your inventory, then automatically move over to your "storage" in the hub and everything has a 99 cap there I believe. Blood Vials are your healing items this time, you can carry up to 20 for the basic limit, and they automatically pull from your storage whenever you respawn or warm somewhere. If that makes sense. So it's a bit different than the previous games, but there's still certainly limits. I'm digging the changes.

Is it just me, or there is a day/night cycle in this game? I'm not 100% sure how it works, but what I noticed (early game spoilers, Central and Old Yharnam only):

Wow. I sure hope that's still up when I return to the workforce. Fingers crossed.

I'm doing another playthrough of Dead Island: Riptide (yes, I'm broke, cut me some slack, haha) but this time I'm doing it barehanded. Unarmed for the whole game. Suiciders in particular are a problem, at close quarters I have to lure them elsewhere to go through and they move fast as tectonic plates. Maybe I should make an exception for them and just shoot them in the face. Speaking of shooting, I've yet to make it to the human enemies with guns, I'm sure there will be quite a few retries in those stages. It has been fun so far, playing John is much too entertaining.

There is a day/night cycle. It activated immediately after I beat the boss in the Cathedral Ward. I am currently revisiting some NPCs, and they are providing new dialogue and hopefully some new goodies!

The day/night cycle is kind of like the NPC/events to me... I don't know what it does, how, why, and what triggers it.

I have two new Chalices that are different "areas" (I now saw that there are four main ones), so I'll be curious how they are. I did get a unique saw blade at one point in my first Root Chalice, so maybe they do wield some nice rewards at times.

Mid-game headstone spoilers?

I got lost so bad in the Forbidden Woods, particularly the snake-infested area, haha. But the boss was cool. Easy, but fun to fight. The whip is great against them (and the snakes) to wail on them at a distance.

Someone said something really funny about the boss of the Forbidden Woods, in relation to Dark Souls:



I also had actually completely missed the Healing Church Workshop. I just.... never noticed that door in the Cathedral ward? Was it always open? Felt like an abject idiots, haha. But it led to some good loot at least.

OK the weirdest thing happened to me while playing. I was in the Grand Cathedral and I was just exploring the environment and admiring the statues. Then my character kneeled and teleported back to the Hunter's Dream.

WTF? You can warp by touching the lamp. You can warp to a lamp using a bold hunter's mark. But I warped straight from the middle of the cathedral just on my own.

So you know how you can do gestures without bringing up the menu? Maybe I did that on accident since I did do the pray gesture it seemed. So I tried doing that at random spots in the Cathedral. I tried using the prayer gesture all over the place. Nothing.

I have no idea why my character kneeled in the Cathedral and warped back to Hunter's Dream. Any ideas?

Lol that's probably exactly what they were going for with that forest boss(es) That area was cool, but so confusing although I just pretty much explored it and beat it all in 1 go. I also missed the healing church workshop, i don't think it was there until you beat a certain boss, but I missed it for a loong time after.

The whip looks like an awesome ode to Castlevania weapon that I need to try. Also I found this one NPC hunter using a big ground lightning attack that I'm sure is available to the player. I have an item that takes 25 arcane and says it makes blue sparks, so I'm wondering if that's it? Anybody gone with a more magic oriented build yet? I'm going to work my arcane to 25 and see what it does, better not suck!

I think NG+ is going to be majorly hard in this game... I got summoned to an "easy" area while I was just farming some potions and doing some backtracking exploration. The guy must have been in NG+++ or something because enemies were dropping 4 times as many souls. Getting hit once by anything = death (only 24 vitality) We attempted the boss with 3 of us, my weapon is lvl 9, I hit between 500-1300 damage usually, we all had magic weapon buffs and wailing on this easy boss for 10 minutes it was less than half dead and we got full dead.

Yo, anyone here have a PS Vita? I was watching a video review of it and it actually seems pretty cool and loaded with JRPGs and classic games...the guy really liked it. I'm not super into keeping up with crazy games and basically wanna play lots of indie/smaller budget games, RPGs, and replay FFIX for the millionth time....found a refurbished system at my local Gamestop for 120 bucks...is it worth it? Was thinking of making this my big purchase for the paycheck...

Wait a minute... can you guys describe the Healing Church Workshop in detail? How to get there from a warp or something?

I wonder if I missed it too now haha.

Morrigan: I had to revisit the Forbidden Woods myself, I missed two shortcuts and a pretty decent armor set that looked like the bosses (but has a cool orange color). The armor is decent and it's all got good resistance, worth searching for if you missed it.

I've been wondering about the damage and buttons. I'm finally using L2 with a 2H weapon way more now. I figure it does more damage than an R1 attack, but less than an R2 attack, so it's kind of in the middle. The L2 attack with the Greatsword is pretty awesome. I was killing those bundle of snakes in one hit with that and the range is great.

The whip is visually awesome and fun, but I think it's more Skill based? I tried it out but it doesn't do much damage for me. The moveset is really crazy and I hate stumbling upon enemy NPC's that have it...

I like my Vita quite a bit. A lot of the exclusive games (Persona 4 Golden, Gravity Rush, Ys IV: Memories of Celceta) are incredibly good, but the system's main issue is that there aren't too terribly many of them. It does get some great ports like Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward, the God of War I+II HD collection, and the Metal Gear Solid 2+3 HD collection. And yeah, if you don't have a PSP, you can totally use your Vita to collect all the PS1 classics they have on the online store. The video quality's pretty excellent, too. The only hardware problem is that the memory cards are kinda expensive, and that's some bullshit. It's a great system, if you can get past the fact that it doesn't get very many exclusives at all.

About the Healing Church Workshop, it's the small set of double doors right near the Cathedral Ward lantern. I think the doors are locked until after you've killed the boss in Old Yharnam, or at least that's when I noticed I was able to go through them.

Also, make sure you drop down to the lower area in the Healing Church Workshop, there's some really interesting stuff down there.

Ah if that door was locked that must be why I missed it. Forgot it was there and didn't think of checking again.

Xeogred: I think I found that armour set. It has weak physical defense but high resistances, right? I still wear the hunter's set from the beginning lol... but there IS one place I skipped in the Woods and forgot to go back to, a cave with poison and giants roaming about, I went NOPE and backed away and went elsewhere haha. But now that I have the shortcuts all unlocked I'll go back there and explore some more.

The thread was made specifically for that, so y'all best use it before I lock it as useless.

I moved the posts over there.

I think it's game progression. Also NPCs change according to the day/night cycle and there's new sidequests apparently. Right now my moon is blood red and I interacted with different NPCs or had different interactions with existing ones.

Oh and since we were talking about armor here's my character as of now.

Nintendo Direct at 6PM EST today tomorrow.

Aww yeah

EDIT: Misread the announcement, it's for 4/1

What's expected to be announced? I haven't touched my 3DS since I beat Majora's Mask and was super bummed by the news that Zelda Wii U's being delayed 'til sometime next year.

PS+ offerings for April (come out on April 8th since it's the first Tuesday of the month):

- Tower of Guns (PS4/PS3)
- Never Alone (PS4)
- Dishonored (PS3)
- Aaru's Awakening (PS4/PS3)
- Killzone Mercenary (PS Vita)
- MonsterBag (PS Vita)

...Meh, I'll start caring about those next month at the latest, probably. Kinda busy with another game right now.

haha .. stretchy arms for phantom range

Tower of Guns is pretty neat actually