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Bloodborne is a great game, but a bad Souls game.

In my opinion of course.

My first Souls game was Dark Souls and the more I played it, the more I learned and the more I looked online, the more I loved all the different weapons and armors. I bought a PS3 for many reasons, Blu Ray, Uncharted, and Demons Souls. Demons Souls was different enough, yet similar in play style that I loved it too. Dark Souls 2 was good, good enough that I bought it on PS3, PC a month later and bought all the DLC. I even bought the Scholar of the First Sin for the small changes it brought to PC.

I wanted a PS4 for Bloodborne alone, but never had the excess cash to justify the purchase, plus some early responses made me hesitate. I ended up getting PS4 and Bloodborne for Father's Day. It was extremely difficult for me at first, because I was so accustomed to Souls games as they were. More specifically L1 block and triangle 2H. Eventually I got used to it, but never really fell in love. The lack of location variety also didn't win me over. One thing I loved about Dark Souls was wondering what the next area would be like. Bloodborne was just one huge Gothic playground, with the Castle being the only pace that I really enjoyed.

I guess when it comes down to it I loved being able to swing from a swift dexterity dodging bad ass, to a calculated caster, to a strength Havel wearing tank in previous Souls games. Bloodborne was just too limiting for me.
 
Well, it's not directly called Souls so I guess you could consider it a spinoff and it's a lot more horror and psychologically driven. The gameplay is slightly different as you said but I don't think in a bad way, just in its own way. I certainly had more fun actually playing it.
 

FluxWaveZ

Member
You're right that Bloodborne does not allow for the variety of different playstyles the other Souls games do. The location variety is subjective, though I guess I can agree that it's more uniform in Bloodborne compared to something like Demon's Souls.

I'm not too sure those two things make it a bad "Souls" game, though. What, in your opinion, is a "Souls" game?
 

enigmatic_alex44

Whenever a game uses "middleware," I expect mediocrity. Just see how poor TLOU looks.
Agree with the OP, I hated the gothic vibe and the Victorian aesthetic. I found Bloodborne to just be such an ugly game artistically.
 

aly

Member
Good thing that awesome Dark Souls 3 trailer came out today then! You know that one that's part of the Soul series and not a spinoff.
 

Eggbok

Member
OP

qTqDyVf.png
 

Maridia

Member
Pretty common perspective, I think. For me, the lack of options didn't really matter because the type of character that I typically play as was the one that Bloodborne was built around.

Still probably the least great Souls game in my opinion (although I haven't played much of Demon's), but we're talking degrees of love.
 
Did OP even make it to the Nightmare Frontier? Incredibly unlike any other area in the game.

Edit- Hemwick Charnel Lane is also fucking cool.
 

lord_lad

Banned
last time i checked...bloodborne doesn't have 'souls' in its title...

yes, it has 'souls like' mechanics but.....

are you gonna complain that Darkstalkers is no good because it's not 'street fighter' enough?
 

Adam Blue

Member
For me, Bloodborne is more of a traditional Souls game if going by Demon's Souls.

I've played every game (finishing Demon's Souls now) for the first time starting in April, so they are very fresh to me. Dark Souls is my favorite, but extremely different than DeS and BB - but the two latter were co-developed by Sony Japan. I prefer DS because of the even further gap in bonfires but also no warping! (until later)

For me, DS2 (specifically SotFS) is definitely the most non-Souls game (even though it is still a great game). It's just an all-out action game. I mean, just the feeling on knowing I'll get to another bonfire quickly takes away any stress, compared to DeS and BB being a trek to find a shortcut back to one. <- totally dictates the atmosphere.
 
Did you finish the game?

Twice kinda. The first playthrough I couldn't beat the final boss(
Gehrman
), because I messed up my build. I started over and beat him.

To others yes this isn't a "Souls" game, but it is definitely in the same wheelhouse.
 

Persona7

Banned
I can't complete the game but I have seen complaints about the lack of content, weapons, and chalice dungeons not being a good substitute. I am guessing they had a tight development schedule and had to make due.
 
Twice kinda. The first playthrough I couldn't beat the final boss(
Gehrman
), because I messed up my build. I started over and beat him.

To others yes this isn't a "Souls" game, but it is definitely in the same wheelhouse.

Lords of the Fallen is in the same wheelhouse and "Lords of the Fallen is a bad Souls game" is not a thread that would happen.
 
Twice kinda. The first playthrough I couldn't beat the final boss(
Gehrman
), because I messed up my build. I started over and beat him.

To others yes this isn't a "Souls" game, but it is definitely in the same wheelhouse.

Curious how you think you messed up your build so bad that you couldn't beat the final boss.
 
It lacks the reward of discovery that Souls has.

Such few items worth finding, it's disappointing going off-course and finding something lame like a blood vial. It's especially disappointing doing chalice runs to find more of the same stuff over and over again.

Lacked NPCs too...the messengers for buying stuff in the Nightmare were really uninspiring :(

I am hoping the expansion improves upon the item discovery and variety.
 

Ferrio

Banned
Bloodborne lacked content compared to the other games, by far my biggest complaint.

And yes Bloodborne is a souls game... Patches is in it. Can't argue that logic.
 

Jigorath

Banned
It's not Dark Souls 3 or Demon's Souls 2. It's Bloodborne. The Souls foundation was there but it was trying to do something different with the larger focus on aggressive offensive combat. No more pussyfooting around with a shield, this game makes you go to work.
 

A.J.

Banned
Good thing it isn't a Souls game. But I still like it more than Miyazaki's other works in my opinion. Not to say they are anything less than great.
 
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