• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

DARK SOULS Gameplay Footage (PSX 2015)

Apparently no one else equipped the poison resist armor before Bloodstarved beast and trivialized that fight like I did. Resistance stats were all BB's armor was good for because the defense was barely there.

Can't wait for armor that matters again.
 
Relax man, jeez.

I beat Blood-Starved Beast by camping until the aura wore off, so yes, possible - probably even necessary - to take him down without getting poisoned. Wasn't exactly a thrilling fight at that point though, since the majority of time is spent waiting around.
No it isn't necesary. You're being far too passive. The BSB gives you an opening each time it changes phases. Applying fire paper when it almost reaches phase 3 will allow you to severely hurt it as it is very weak to fire and oil urns and molotov will destroy it from afar. This is a tried and true tactic that makes the boss very manageable.

Also, as the poster above me pointed out, the charred set has excellent poison resistance.
 
Relax man, jeez.

I beat Blood-Starved Beast by camping until the aura wore off, so yes, possible - probably even necessary - to take him down without getting poisoned. Wasn't exactly a thrilling fight at that point though, since the majority of time is spent waiting around.

If the entirety of all of my posts tell you that "I simply refuse to learn the game or are simply bad at it," then I'm afraid there's nothing more to be said.
So now you complain about the fight not being thrilling because you camped for a few seconds when you can just parry that boss and use the invincible frames of the visceral to not even be inflicted by poison and finish the boss fight quick.

So if you took him down without getting poisoned, why are you complaining about vials/antidotes being necessary for the fight and require grinding?
 
So now you complain about the fight not being thrilling because you camped for a few seconds when you can just parry that boss and use the invincible frames of the visceral to not even be inflicted by poison and finish the boss fight quick.

So if you took him down without getting poisoned, why are you complaining about vials/antidotes being necessary for the fight and require grinding?

Again, the reason will probably seem ridiculous because most people might not agree with the concept of total roleplaying.

My character is an honorable man who doesn't turn his back against enemies, no matter how frightening or powerful they may appear. He also prefers to duel his foes in a fair test of skill rather than catching them off-guard and taking advantage of that (i.e. visceral attack).

My roleplaying ended at Blood-Starved Beast because I was forced to do both of those things. I would REALLY prefer not to, and tried for a while to beat him without doing so. But eventually I found it simply either wasn't possible, or wasn't worth the hassle. So I caved and played the game the way it dictated I play it. (EDIT: though I still didn't visceral attack him, I managed to avoid doing so for the entirety of the playthrough, even against the penultimate boss.)

Can you argue that Bloodborne isn't actually a role-playing game, unlike Souls? Yes. Do the majority of people not care about this crap, and just equip/do whatever they feel like regardless of the implications for what kind of "character" they're playing? Yes.

But I don't. And given the way I play Souls games - which has been a playstyle/role-playing mentality accommodated by every game in the series thus far, including DS2 - Bloodborne did not make these decisions viable, let alone accommodating.

Some of the issues I had with Bloodborne were self-imposed, some were subjective, and I feel some were simply objective (two loading screens to warp is objectively inferior to one). The only takeaway is that I answered the initial post way back, which asked how anyone could like Souls and not like Bloodborne. I like Souls and didn't like Bloodborne, and those were my reasons based on my playthrough.
 
Well there are certainly many valid reasons to not like BB over the Souls games. For one there's a distinct lack of build diversity in BB and second the online and PvP aspect is sorely lacking compared to the Souls games. In addition the NG+ mode is inferior to previous Souls games. You reasoning is valid too, I just think you were too caught up in the whole regain health/vial/visceral argument and tried to pick holes in the certain boss mechanics when there weren't any (at least not the ones that were brought up, there are certainly some issues in some boss fights for sure).

And the Souls games sometimes definitely require you to play a certain way as well. For example in Dark Souls 2 in one of the DLCs you had to activate a switch by shooting an arrow at it. Well I had never used an arrow before in the Souls games because that's how I roll, I actually didn't even know the controls for it! But I had to do it anyway to get to a certain area. Stuff like this happens, it's a video game after all... you will occasionally be forced to do things that are out of your element.
 
My roleplaying ended at Blood-Starved Beast because I was forced to do both of those things. I would REALLY prefer not to, and tried for a while to beat him without doing so. But eventually I found it simply either wasn't possible, or wasn't worth the hassle. So I caved and played the game the way it dictated I play it. (EDIT: though I still didn't visceral attack him, I managed to avoid doing so for the entirety of the playthrough, even against the penultimate boss.)
You're contradicting yourself here. If you managed to beat BSB without parrying it then you can't say you were forced to do it because you never parried at all which means that the boss can be beaten without parrying.
 
You're contradicting yourself here. If you managed to beat BSB without parrying it then you can't say you were forced to do it because you never parried at all which means that the boss can be beaten without parrying.
He's saying he doesn't want to parry/visceral and he doesn't want to camp either. He probably doesn't want to coat his weapon with fire or throw molotovs either (I don't like throwing items either in these games to be honest).
 
Taken a lot of cues from Bloodborne haven't they.

The circle is now complete.
Anyway, I'm sure the game will be fun, but aesthetically it's fucking boring as hell. They really need to work on the lighting and add more than three or four colors on screen at a time.
 
Well there are certainly many valid reasons to not like BB over the Souls games. For one there's a distinct lack of build diversity in BB and second the online and PvP aspect is sorely lacking compared to the Souls games. In addition the NG+ mode is inferior to previous Souls games. You reasoning is valid too, I just think you were too caught up in the whole regain health/vial/visceral argument and tried to pick holes in the certain boss mechanics when there weren't any (at least not the ones that were brought up, there are certainly some issues in some boss fights for sure).

And the Souls games sometimes definitely require you to play a certain way as well. For example in Dark Souls 2 in one of the DLCs you had to activate a switch by shooting an arrow at it. Well I had never used an arrow before in the Souls games because that's how I roll, I actually didn't even know the controls for it! But I had to do it anyway to get to a certain area. Stuff like this happens, it's a video game after all... you will occasionally be forced to do things that are out of your element.

I was stuck in that spot for the longest time, until I finally caved and looked it up. Funnily enough, I didn't even have a bow in my inventory, because I had just dumped my extra equipment on Gavlan. I also roll melee only.

I'm still torn on that mechanic. The puzzle-solving element was interesting, but being mandated to use a bow was strange. Overall I think it was a net positive in that case though, that area is one of my favorites in the series.

Here's hoping the best parts of DS3 are in the base game rather than the DLC (though I usually pick it all up anyway so I suppose it doesn't matter).

You're contradicting yourself here. If you managed to beat BSB without parrying it then you can't say you were forced to do it because you never parried at all which means that the boss can be beaten without parrying.

Would you prefer I replace "both" with "one or the other"? I'm not contradicting myself, I'm just not writing essay-grade because I'm on a gaming forum and who cares? You know what I'm saying.

I mean this without sarcasm: that second sentence is impressive. Also kudos for the correct "You're" in the first sentence.

Still, the game never forces you into a specific playstyle. During my first playthrough, I ran through the whole campaign without using visceral attacks and hoarded all my buff papers and items and never felt the need to farm vials or resort to cheese tactics which in line with his 'honorable' role play and whatnot. It is very much doable and I don't understand why he had so much trouble.

Honest question, is this legitimately "very much doable" on a first playthrough? I'm just not seeing it.
 
He's saying he doesn't want to parry/visceral and he doesn't want to camp either. He probably doesn't want to coat his weapon with fire or throw molotovs either (I don't like throwing items either in these games to be honest).
Still, the game never forces you into a specific playstyle. During my first playthrough, I ran through the whole campaign without using visceral attacks and hoarded all my buff papers and items and never felt the need to farm vials or resort to cheese tactics which in line with his 'honorable' role play and whatnot. It is very much doable and I don't understand why he had so much trouble.
 
Well there are certainly many valid reasons to not like BB over the Souls games. For one there's a distinct lack of build diversity in BB and second the online and PvP aspect is sorely lacking compared to the Souls games. In addition the NG+ mode is inferior to previous Souls games. You reasoning is valid too, I just think you were too caught up in the whole regain health/vial/visceral argument and tried to pick holes in the certain boss mechanics when there weren't any (at least not the ones that were brought up, there are certainly some issues in some boss fights for sure).

And the Souls games sometimes definitely require you to play a certain way as well. For example in Dark Souls 2 in one of the DLCs you had to activate a switch by shooting an arrow at it. Well I had never used an arrow before in the Souls games because that's how I roll, I actually didn't even know the controls for it! But I had to do it anyway to get to a certain area. Stuff like this happens, it's a video game after all... you will occasionally be forced to do things that are out of your element.

How is the NG+ worse than the previous Souls games when it's identical to all of them besides Dark Souls 2?
 
As for the Threaded Cane, it had merits like crowd control, but the DPS (other than visceral attacks) made it a chore against bosses. Not a problem, except I couldn't go back and pick a different weapon once I realized the problem, without restarting the game or using a guide to find a (rare/sparsely scattered around) alternative. Hm.

It just doesn't strike me as good design. But... :3

Nonsense. There are plenty of alternative weapons to the Cane in early-mid Bloodborne, and it's expected that you'll do at least some experimentation because they give you tons of shards (Forbidden Woods in particular has twin shards hiding under every rock).

You don't like heavy weapons, fine, no Hunter Axe, Kirkhammer, or LHB. But the Saw Spear is a treasure in the first area, the Saw Cleaver can be purchased from the messengers, the Rifle Spear and Stake Driver are in the third area, you can pick up the Tonitrus in Yahar'gul. You didn't find any of those? You didn't like them?

I mean, that's a bit hard to believe. You're an experienced Souls player, surely it must have occurred to you that your weapon wasn't doing as much damage as you would have liked and that it might behoove you to check out one of the eight alternative weapons that can be found in the early stages of the game, all of which have higher DPS.

In any event, someone who refuses to experiment with and upgrade an alternative weapon is going to have a hard time in any of the Souls games. What's the point of having all these options if you're just going to obstinately stick to the first weapon you get?
 
Imru’ al-Qays;188113818 said:
Nonsense. There are plenty of alternative weapons to the Cane in early-mid Bloodborne, and it's expected that you'll do at least some experimentation because they give you tons of shards (Forbidden Woods in particular has twin shards hiding under every rock).

You don't like heavy weapons, fine, no Hunter Axe, Kirkhammer, or LHB. But the Saw Spear is a treasure in the first area, the Saw Cleaver can be purchased from the messengers, the Rifle Spear and Stake Driver are in the third area, you can pick up the Tonitrus in Yahar'gul. You didn't find any of those? You didn't like them?

I mean, that's a bit hard to believe. You're an experienced Souls player, surely it must have occurred to you that your weapon wasn't doing as much damage as you would have liked and that it might behoove you to check out one of the eight alternative weapons that can be found in the early stages of the game, all of which have higher DPS.

In any event, someone who refuses to experiment with and upgrade an alternative weapon is going to have a hard time in any of the Souls games. What's the point of having all these options if you're just going to obstinately stick to the first weapon you get?

This will sound crazy but the only one of those I found was the Tonitrus. If you asked me right now I literally could not tell you where any of the others are. The Saw Cleaver eventually appeared at the messengers' shop later in the game.

For the sake of the discussion, I'll capitulate this point and we'll assume I exchanged the Threaded Cane for one of these alternative weapons.
Does it negate BSB's poison? Amelia's healing? Shadow of Yharnam's gank squad? Rom's trash mob? Paarl's wonky camera? Ebrietas' hitboxes? Micolash's RNG on whether he pulls a one/two hit kill spell in the last stage of the fight? Mergo's Wet Nurse's LONG fog/clone attack, making tedious an otherwise easy and anticlimactic battle?

My experience with the combat system through the Threaded Cane had some issues, and those affected my boss fights. If you want, I'll assume that I simply hadn't looked hard enough for an alternative weapon. But my point about the cane's DPS and lack of utility outside visceral attacks is one of many issues - not the sole, underlying problem.

My total playtime with Bloodborne is 25 hours. This is peanuts compared to most people who actually play it (and don't just give up near the beginning). I played through once using a certain build, noted my issues, and decided not to dig into the game the same way I did with Souls. If I played through a second time, I would use a different build and would probably have a better time of it. I would know more about the game, as you all do, and use this knowledge to play smarter and more efficiently. Unfortunately, even if I did this, my other issues would still remain.
I mean, come on - does being FORCED to choose a certain ending to fight Gehrman and Moon Presence really not bother anyone besides me? If I wanted to leave the dream, Mergo's Wet Nurse would've been the final boss, and a complete disappointment.

I like Souls, I didn't like Bloodborne. Such a person exists and has their reasons, original post answered, case closed.
 
Honest question, is this legitimately "very much doable" on a first playthrough? I'm just not seeing it.
For someone who has played previous souls games? Yes. I did not parry or cheese in DS1 and 2 and that experience compunded with how bloodborne is relatively easier than those 2 allowed me to do just that.

I refrain from overusing vials in bloodborne because why heal when you can just not get hit? It was a tough journey but I overcame it.
 
Is summoning NPCs considered cheesing?
I came to the conclusion that many of the boss fights on DS2 were designed to be fought with summons as a "normal" setting; fighting said bosses alones is an extra challenge you impose in yourself.

I wonder how this will play out on DS3.
 
Apparently no one else equipped the poison resist armor before Bloodstarved beast and trivialized that fight like I did. Resistance stats were all BB's armor was good for because the defense was barely there.

Can't wait for armor that matters again.

Fashionborne > Fashionsouls

Screw min-maxing.. It's all about looking good while kicking ass.
 
This will sound crazy but the only one of those I found was the Tonitrus. If you asked me right now I literally could not tell you where any of the others are. The Saw Cleaver eventually appeared at the messengers' shop later in the game.

For the sake of the discussion, I'll capitulate this point and we'll assume I exchanged the Threaded Cane for one of these alternative weapons.
Does it negate BSB's poison? Amelia's healing? Shadow of Yharnam's gank squad? Rom's trash mob? Paarl's wonky camera? Ebrietas' hitboxes? Micolash's RNG on whether he pulls a one/two hit kill spell in the last stage of the fight? Mergo's Wet Nurse's LONG fog/clone attack, making tedious an otherwise easy and anticlimactic battle?

My experience with the combat system through the Threaded Cane had some issues, and those affected my boss fights. If you want, I'll assume that I simply hadn't looked hard enough for an alternative weapon. But my point about the cane's DPS and lack of utility outside visceral attacks is one of many issues - not the sole, underlying problem.

My total playtime with Bloodborne is 25 hours. This is peanuts compared to most people who actually play it (and don't just give up near the beginning). I played through once using a certain build, noted my issues, and decided not to dig into the game the same way I did with Souls. If I played through a second time, I would use a different build and would probably have a better time of it. I would know more about the game, as you all do, and use this knowledge to play smarter and more efficiently. Unfortunately, even if I did this, my other issues would still remain.
I mean, come on - does being FORCED to choose a certain ending to fight Gehrman and Moon Presence really not bother anyone besides me? If I wanted to leave the dream, Mergo's Wet Nurse would've been the final boss, and a complete disappointment.

I like Souls, I didn't like Bloodborne. Such a person exists and has their reasons, original post answered, case closed.

I can appreciate that you don't like the game and certainly have my own gripes with it. But I just wanted to point out that many of the boss mechanics you were complaining about are pretty much countered by playing more aggressively. You can outdamage Amelia's Healing and defeat BSB while ignoring poison or using one antidote at most. Micolash is an absolute joke of a fight if you are constantly in his face, he really only uses Augur or Ebrietas which you can side step and continue mashing R1. For Shadows of Yharnam the key is to keep a pillar between you and the caster which is a commonly used strategy in all the Souls games. Single one out and kill them as fast as possible and the rest of the fight becomes no more difficult than fighting normal enemies. I was underlevelled for most of the game and didn't have very many issues. I beat Rom at level 25 by ignoring the spiders and simply employed a hit and run strategy.

This is not even mentioning the cool items that can help you during the game. Music box to stun Father G, consumable items to attract BSB and another to stop Amelia's healing. Those items are amazing from a role playing perspective.
 
This will sound crazy but the only one of those I found was the Tonitrus. If you asked me right now I literally could not tell you where any of the others are. The Saw Cleaver eventually appeared at the messengers' shop later in the game.

For the sake of the discussion, I'll capitulate this point and we'll assume I exchanged the Threaded Cane for one of these alternative weapons.
Does it negate BSB's poison? Amelia's healing? Shadow of Yharnam's gank squad? Rom's trash mob? Paarl's wonky camera? Ebrietas' hitboxes? Micolash's RNG on whether he pulls a one/two hit kill spell in the last stage of the fight? Mergo's Wet Nurse's LONG fog/clone attack, making tedious an otherwise easy and anticlimactic battle?

My experience with the combat system through the Threaded Cane had some issues, and those affected my boss fights. If you want, I'll assume that I simply hadn't looked hard enough for an alternative weapon. But my point about the cane's DPS and lack of utility outside visceral attacks is one of many issues - not the sole, underlying problem.

My total playtime with Bloodborne is 25 hours. This is peanuts compared to most people who actually play it (and don't just give up near the beginning). I played through once using a certain build, noted my issues, and decided not to dig into the game the same way I did with Souls. If I played through a second time, I would use a different build and would probably have a better time of it. I would know more about the game, as you all do, and use this knowledge to play smarter and more efficiently. Unfortunately, even if I did this, my other issues would still remain.
I mean, come on - does being FORCED to choose a certain ending to fight Gehrman and Moon Presence really not bother anyone besides me? If I wanted to leave the dream, Mergo's Wet Nurse would've been the final boss, and a complete disappointment.

I like Souls, I didn't like Bloodborne. Such a person exists and has their reasons, original post answered, case closed.

The further you get from making declarative statements about the mechanics and the more time you spend explaining your particular approach and experience playing the game, the more I understand your gripes and feel ok with "agree to disagree" instead of thinking "well, that's just factually wrong."

I take it you didn't kill Cleric Beast until late game? That unlocks the other starter weapons, I believe.

Your list of boss gripes is half a list of things I like about those bosses, btw. The Shadows is a great fight that highlights the aggressive play style of Bloodborne. They are easily staggered and getting up in their face and never letting up is the best way to deal with them.

Playing with the cane requires viscerals. It's DPS is much lower than other weapons.

I spent 65 hours on my first NG alone.

The one point you make that I 100% agree with is that the room for pure roleplay imposed playstyle restrictions is much less in Bloodborne than in the previous games. That is a bummer.
 
Micolash using A Call Beyond is 100% manipulatable and not at all RNG.

Everything in that fight is easy to manipulate. I always get him to the 'arenas' immediately without having to run around and I don't remember the last time seeing him casting ACB since I just hug him at all times.

I don't like the visual style at all. This doesn't look like Souls. It looks like Bloodborne. Fuck this shit!

I am really not seeing that much Bloodborne in this. Looks like Dark Souls to me.
 
I just noticed that the fire buff lasted for too long. in the beta buffs only lasts for... 3 seconds or something. glad they changed that poor decision.
 
Everything in that fight is easy to manipulate. I always get him to the 'arenas' immediately without having to run around and I don't remember the last time seeing him casting ACB since I just hug him at all times.

Why even chase him? Just throw poison knives at him from above until he dies :p
 
i thought this looked good graphically, maybe not as good as Bloodborne, but who cares anyway?

i have to admit i did feel like i've already seen this before and wasn't as impressed with as i expected to be, i contribute this to series fatigue (i've played, and finished multiple times, DeS, DaS1, DaS2, Bloodborne and DaS2 SOTFS in the last 2 years), i think i'm happy this is going to be the last game in the series and hope they retire the Souls formula for a while and go back to King's Field to keep it fresh, otherwise it will turn into a game series where most of the mystery is sucked out of due to constant revisiting of the same well

that said, i'll probably buy this next year and hope that it will turn out to be a magnificent closing entry
 
Haha! I never tried that. I really don't like the idea of cheesing boss that hard.

Me neither, but I told my friend about it and he used it right away. It was hilarious. He kept throwing knives at him and every time one hit he'd do his disappearing dodge and go back into place right in the middle of the hole, and once the poison kicks in he starts doing that disappearing dodge move repeatedly in place until the poison runs its course. You don't even have to chase him into the arena, just get him below you.
 
The music in the trailer is so good.

I want that OST now!

It was pretty cool, but I don't think that's official music. (My guess is it was made to order by the publisher solely for the purpose of the trailer.

Usually these games have more classical soundtracks with very few electronic elements (if any). I'm looking forward to a trailer that showcases the game more in suiting with its established style.
 
Top Bottom