Support NeoGAF

[SgtCobra]

Even though I prefer the Bloodborne gameplay the game is still easier than any of the Souls games.

 

[Zia]

It's my favorite in the series but also by far the easiest if you're any good at character action games.

 

[Carl7]

I actually thought it was the fast food version of Dark Souls.

 

[Dark_castle]

No it doesn't. Despite the lack of shied, you are alot more agile, could side step very quickly compared to the slower rolls in Dark Souls (more i-frames opportunities), and side step consumes less stamina too. Then you can regain some health by hitting target after losing them. Weapon system is a lot more newbie friendly since there aren't many selections and you can't really go wrong with any. You can parry with a gun that's performed in range instead of up close and personal with a shield.

BB is still a great game, but it's not a hardcore version of Dark Souls.

 

[JustSomeone]

Lol it was way easier.

The DLC was pretty tough but didn't feel crazy hard like people say it is.

I wonder if it's because it's a lot of people's first Souls game.

I thought it was obvious from my post it isn't...

I played all of them but 3,including Demon's

 

[Beats]

I dunno about it being more hardcore or whatever. There's stuff in BB that makes the game easier in some ways: You have a ton of iframes on your dodge, there's the health regen mechanic when hitting an enemy, and it's really easy to stagger/knockdown normal enemies. You're also able to "tank" some attacks when charging an R2 attack and then if you let go and hit you regain a lot of your health back.

 

[impact]

I actually thought it was the fast food version of Dark Souls.

Dark Souls 2 = dollar menu?

 

[Nesther]

I totally disagree. I love Bloodborne, but I definitely feel it's the easiest one.

A big part of that is because there really is only one play style. They didn't give the player a bunch of options, so your one play style is perfectly valid throughout the entire game. You never really have to reconsider your tactics depending on the encounter.

While there may not be shields, gun parrying is far more generous than shield parrying in the Souls games. Finally, you're really inundated with healing resources, and chugging blood vials is super fast, making it a lot easier to stay alive as long as you pump some points into boosting your HP.

Pretty much my sentiment buuuuut the optional content in BB (bosses of the randomized dungeons) are the hardest parts of all the Souls in my opinion.

 

[bobawesome]

I've felt it was easier compared to the other games.

edit: So close to top and bottom Utena.

 

[Muchi Muchi Pink]

Hahaahaha.

 

[ApharmdX]

I've finally gotten around to playing this game, and everything about it screams it's a game meant for people who thought Dark Souls was too easy:

1) No shields

Spoiler

(ok there is one, but it is practically useless)

2) No spells/ranged weapons (guns are only good in low to mid ranges, and the ammo is expensive).

3) no regenerating healing items - there are no estus flasks here - if you run out of healing items - no bonfire will save you here.

I'm not complaining or anything, I just find it strange no one ever mentions those points when talking about BB.

Bloodtinge builds plus bone marrow ash make guns a viable source of damage, and trivialize certain fights in Bloodborne. Same with arcane builds and hunter tools. They are viable.

I found the difficulty of BB and DS3 to be comparable, but I artificially handicapped myself in 3 by avoiding the standard "start as knight, transition to quality build" meta.

 

[DeVeAn]

Why does this hardcore version of Dark Souls have 10x more i-frames?
And 20 health recovery items off the bat.
And regenerating health.

Why can everything one or two shot you dead? I'm on NG+++ and this game is way harder then the souls games.

 

[Sulik2]

Blood vial and bullet farming isn't a good thing. You seem to indicate it is. Its a dumb decision decision that regresses an issue that Dark Souls solved perfectly with limited, but regenerating health potions.

Overall I think Bloodborne is easier then the Souls game though. A few bosses match the difficulty of souls, but the experience wasn't as brutally hard and didn't require figuring out specific gear sets to handle certain areas like Dark Souls.

 

[Carlius]

Also has the hardest DLC in the series.

At least until DS3 DLC anyway.

bb has harder dlc then ds2? no way

 

[DustyVonEric]

It depends on playstyle. But yes, no hiding behind a high stability great shield in BB.

Bloodborne forces you to read attack tells and dodge, but also is very generous with Stamina use.

 

[zma1013]

Dark Souls 2 = dollar menu?

Dark Souls 2 = Cici's pizza buffet

 

[Levito]

Honestly those were some of the only stupid design choices I've had with the Souls games. The health hit was always a stupid decision. Losing the ability to summon help because you weren't good enough seems contradictory.

Stupid to you, but I think that sort of thing gives death more impact and meaning. Particularly the spirit form in Demon's.


My point is BB and Dark Souls are just different, one's not really harder than the other.

 

[MatrixMan.EXE]

Nah, Dark Souls is harder imo.

 

[Arkeband]

Simplified gear system, faster paced combat.

Aside from

Spoiler

Nameless King

in DS3, not a single boss in DS3 is more difficult than BB's DLC bosses or chalice dungeon bosses. Anyone who claims the Loran Darkbeast or Bloodletting Beast are easy are out of their minds.

 

[Morrigan Stark]

A Call Beyond, Blacksky Eye, Executioner's Gloves, Augur of Ebrietas

Late-game and DLC spells. Yeah that's totally comparable to magic and ranged attacks in Souls games.

Spoiler

/s

A lot easier, if it weren't for the godawful framepacing I might have finished it with sub 5 deaths on my first try.

LOL, sure. Nice excuses

 

[NEO0MJ]

Is it really hard to read what I wrote? I didn't say a thing about having to farm, instead my entire post was about how you don't have to farm. If you think just having any kind of echoes is farming then would you say level up in this game requires farming because you need blood echoes that you get from killling enemies?

I mentioned how I would buy vials, bullets, items from whatever leftover echoes I have after I level up each time, that's like what everyone does in even Souls games i.e. buying items from leftover souls. What are you gonna do with the leftover souls? I've NEVER farmed echos or souls in these games and just played them through and never thought I had to.

And oh, I don't get the Pokemon reference..I have no idea what it means.

Some people burn through them pretty fast and the number of blood vials you can buy with leftovers from leveling up aren't much. I mean, good for you if you never felt the need to buy them but while I watched my little bro play he died/healed more often than me and so had to waste time grinding for them.

The gist of the pokemon reference is that to train your pokemon in certain stats so they could become competitive online you had to grind for a good amount of time to raise it fighting certain pokemon that raise certain stats and while they made it easier in recent games it still feels like a waste of time and discourages experimenting if you have a busy life and can't spend much time playing.

 

[paperspace]

1) No shields.

2) No spells/ranged weapons.

3) no regenerating healing items - there are no estus flasks here - if you run out of healing items - no bonfire will save you here.

This is how I'm playing Dark Souls anyway, and having 20 Blood Vials was pretty OP tbh, plus the fact that you can collect/farm Blood Vials over time didn't make it so drastically different compared to DS. It's a needless system that might as well be replaced with Estus.

Bloodborne has tougher bosses in general though, at least compared to DS2 & 3.

 

[NemesisHunter]

Having played all the Souls games, and Bloodborne, I can confidently say this:

Bloodborne is harder than any of the Souls games, when it comes to tutorial/starting area.
On my first go at it, in the starting city of Yarnham, it took me many, MANY deaths to get to the boss, as I tried to adapt myself to the increased aggression of enemies, my lack of shield, and my newfound mobility.

It gets progressively easier as the game goes on, though: and I feel this is why many players feel it is easier than the Souls series.

TLR
In terms of difficulty curve, Bloodborne starts really hard, and then gets progressively easier.
The Souls games tend to follow a more linear difficulty climb during progression, with certain difficulty spikes to test your mettle (like Ornstein and Smough in DS1).

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Pretty much my sentiment buuuuut the optional content in BB (bosses of the randomized dungeons) are the hardest parts of all the Souls in my opinion.

Totally agree, but honestly, that's only because they give you such a huge HP penalty that getting one-shot is pretty much guaranteed.

Why can everything one or two shot you dead? I'm on NG+++ and this game is way harder then the souls games.

Let's stick to NG when talking about general game balance and difficulty...

The gameplay balancing and difficulty, and overall quality of NG+ and beyond in these games are pretty wildly varying.

 

[Imperfected]

Bloodborne's difficulty is more "consistent". The difficulty in DS3 is often avoidable or highly variable based on equipment use and build. Are you using ranged weapons heavily? Most of the hard zones are suddenly pretty trivial. Are you using a shield? Some of the bosses are now trivial. Conversely, if you're using some of the worse weapons or a really sub-optimal build, everything can become a trial.

So, you're going to have people who find any given Dark Souls game easier or harder than any other given game in the series, and they aren't necessarily wrong. It comes down entirely to how they played the games in question. There's a little of this in Bloodborne, but not nearly to the same degree; the difficulty is just more reliable.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Simplified gear system, faster paced combat.

Aside from

Spoiler

Nameless King

in DS3, not a single boss in DS3 is more difficult than BB's DLC bosses or chalice dungeon bosses. Anyone who claims the Loran Darkbeast or Bloodletting Beast are easy are out of their minds.

DLC bosses have a history of being tougher than the main game bosses, though.

And chalice bosses were designed to challenged at high levels considering they don't scale with NG+ and beyond.

 

[Auto_aim1]

After playing Nioh, I really don't think the Souls games or Bloodborne are actually difficult. In fact I enjoyed Bloodborne's gameplay so much that I actually found it easier as I was mowing down enemies pretty fast. Personally I think Dark Souls 3 is a bit more difficult than Bloodborne because you have super aggressive enemies who don't allow you to tank with a shield. Bloodborne's bosses were harder though, I remember struggling against that dude Abhorrent Beast in the chalice dungeon. The DLC boss OoK was a massive bitch and his second form was painful as hell. Definitely the hardest fight in the entire series. I had to summon a friend to beat him.

So I guess BB is harder than DS, DS1, DS2, and DS3 is harder than BB. Nioh on the other hand is on an entirely different league.

 

[ViciousAnchovy]

An hardcore? H isn't a silent letter

I'm glad you said it. Also, nice avatar.

 

[BRocknRolla]

Funny because I think BB is easier than any of the souls games.

Based on the following debate, I think it really comes down to how you've taught yourself to play the game previously.

If you were a turtle, or generally relied heavily on your shield for blocking, you were going to be in for a surprise with BB. If you were already a dodger or glass-canon type character, BB would have been a pretty natural transition, and the addition of the gun and trick-weapons actually would have given you more options for play.

I for one felt a learning curve in BB, but I believe I'm a much better player now for it. I played through all of DS3 without a shield, two handing my weapon or using pyromancy because I frankly had no desire to go back to blocking. BB requires a more active play style, and that might be hard for some players to adapt to.

I found the difficulty of BB and DS3 to be comparable, but I artificially handicapped myself in 3 by avoiding the standard "start as knight, transition to quality build" meta.

Start as Deprived or a Waste of Skin. There is no other way... But seriously, I always do. Makes me get good at the basics early on and I feel like items pickups are way more meaningful that way too.

 

[zma1013]

Is it really hard to read what I wrote? I didn't say a thing about having to farm, instead my entire post was about how you don't have to farm. If you think just having any kind of echoes is farming then would you say level up in this game requires farming because you need blood echoes that you get from killling enemies?

I mentioned how I would buy vials, bullets, items from whatever leftover echoes I have after I level up each time, that's like what everyone does in even Souls games i.e. buying items from leftover souls. What are you gonna do with the leftover souls? I've NEVER farmed echos or souls in these games and just played them through and never thought I had to.

I think the thing you're forgetting is that bosses in Bloodborne generally tend to be the barriers that people get stuck on and since you do not get bloodvials or echoes back from fighting a boss, you run into the situation where you can run out of blood vials.

This requires people to go farm since losing to a boss gives them 0 vials and 0 echoes.

 

[Taruranto]

Some people find it harder. Some people find it easier. It was the harder for me because I didn't feel like any of the build fit my playstyle (I usually play mage).

Personally, I found the "difficulty" talk among DS has always been very YMMV.

 

[Defuser]

BB make me realize in Ds3 if it's not a ultra greatshield then don't bother using other Shields for blocking due to stamina drain. Roll dodge is a far better option for bosses.

 

[FF Seraphim]

bb has harder dlc then ds2? no way

I had more trouble with

Spoiler

Ludwig

than I had with

Spoiler

Fume

. Seriously 10+ deaths, I never went through a Soulsborne game and died that many times to a boss before. Of course I think the scaling in NG+ for the DLC is completely bonkers.

 

[cireza]

I never played Souls before bloodborne. I got to dodge.

Then played DS3. Didn't understand why shields were a thing. Why shield up, and take massive stamina hit and loose a bit of life when you can just dodge ?

Played DS3 three time, three different build, never used a shield.

BB is more hardcore because of bloodvial you have to farm though.

Because you played Dark Souls III, a game where you can roll like a ninja the entire game.

Play Dark Souls 1 or 2, you will understand why shields are useful.

 

[Tagyhag]

Why can everything one or two shot you dead? I'm on NG+++ and this game is way harder then the souls games.

Think about it like this, in NG+++ for other Souls games, you still have to deal with crazy damage.

But you don't have those insane extra iframes to compensate.

NG+++ in BB can be just as easy because you shouldn't be getting hit with how easy the rolling is in the game.

 

[Killer Queen]

No it doesn't. Despite the lack of shied, you are alot more agile, could side step very quickly compared to the slower rolls in Dark Souls (more i-frames opportunities), and side step consumes less stamina too. Then you can regain some health by hitting target after losing them. Weapon system is a lot more newbie friendly since there aren't many selections and you can't really go wrong with any. You can parry with a gun that's performed in range instead of up close and personal with a shield.

BB is still a great game, but it's not a hardcore version of Dark Souls.

Well said.

 

[Mr. Poolman]

I disagree OP.

I found BB rather dull due to how easy it was.

 

[Sword Of Doom]

Nope, it's easier than Dark Souls.

I feel the opposite. You have no shield and bosses can be ridiculously aggressive and hard to predict. I do think some weapons like ludwig's holy blade and saw cleaver make the game a lot easier though.

 

[Raven77]

So i've only played Demons Souls and Dark Souls (the first of each) for a few hours. I'm decently far into Bloodborne and I find it to be MUCH easier than the others. You get those blood echoes constantly. You are also able to regain significant health immediately after it's lost by pressing your attack.

It's funny cause I want to get Dark Souls 3 but am worried it will be too hard after playing Bloodborne.

 

[K' Dash]

I'm not complaining or anything, I just find it strange no one ever mentions those points when talking about BB.

That's because you're wrong

 

[Kusagari]

Base Bloodborne is by far the easiest Souls game.

It's the hardest after you add in Chalice's and the DLC though.

 

[Imperfected]

Think about it like this, in NG+++ for other Souls games, you still have to deal with crazy damage.

But you don't have those insane extra iframes to compensate.

NG+++ in BB can be just as easy because you shouldn't be getting hit with how easy the rolling is in the game.

I'm playing NG+++ in DS3 right now. The damage isn't actually crazy.

The only enemy I've ever encountered that can one-shot me is the purple summon sign version of the Holy Knight Hodrick NPC in the Crucifixion Woods, but he was able to do that in every NG cycle I've played so far.

Actually, because of how aggressively defenses scale and how powerful Absorption is, DS3 may have the lowest enemy damage of any of the games.

 

[Crimsonclaw111]

Ranking the Souls games by difficult, from easiest to hardest:

Bloodborne, Dark Souls 2, Dark Souls, Dark Souls 3.

Souls 3 has a ton of aggressive enemy patterns seen in BB but without that game's movement/combat systems.

 

[LiK]

Funny because I think BB is easier than any of the souls games.

the DLC kicked my ass tho.

 

[zma1013]

So i've only played Demons Souls and Dark Souls (the first of each) for a few hours. I'm decently far into Bloodborne and I find it to be MUCH easier than the others. You get those blood echoes constantly. You are also able to regain significant health immediately after it's lost by pressing your attack.

It's funny cause I want to get Dark Souls 3 but am worried it will be too hard after playing Bloodborne.

DS3 has a progression of a very easy and very short tutorial area, followed by the first real area that I would consider the hardest start of any Souls game, but then immediately afterwards the game becomes substantially easier until much, much later in the game where there is a shift back up in difficulty.

 

[NEO0MJ]

Based on the following debate, I think it really comes down to how you've taught yourself to play the game previously.

Seems that way. If you relied on shields a lot and putting on heavy armor with a lot of poise I can see how this game might be difficult to adapt to at first.

I had more trouble with

Spoiler

Ludwig

than I had with

Spoiler

Fume

. Seriously 10+ deaths, I never went through a Soulsborne game and died that many times to a boss before. Of course I think the scaling in NG+ for the DLC is completely bonkers.

Yeah, ti was insane. Might be better to start a new character than take them on in NG+ and beyond as they become ridiculously strong. I mean, I beat them in NG+ first but taking them on in NG was much easier. Though really it was only

Spoiler

Ludwig and the Orphan

were were tough. The other two weren't much of a problem.

 

[Pif]

It's easier because the character is faster and the gameply much more.fluid.

Dark Souls is the modern equivalent of tank controls. Annoying and brilliant.

 

[skLaFarebear]

bb has harder dlc then ds2? no way

It's definitely tougher.

 

[Jawbreaker]

Haha, you could predict the replies from a mile away after reading the thread title.

 

[Killer Queen]

Simplified gear system, faster paced combat.

Aside from

Spoiler

Nameless King

in DS3, not a single boss in DS3 is more difficult than BB's DLC bosses or chalice dungeon bosses. Anyone who claims the Loran Darkbeast or Bloodletting Beast are easy are out of their minds.

Half the chalice dungeon bosses aren't even hard so I'm not sure where you're getting that from.