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Is Bloodborne too easy for Souls vets?

It's no question been the easiest for me. I had some issues my first night with it but after that I pretty much breezed through everything. It only took until Saturday after launch for me to finish it, the shortest of any Souls game and I wasn't marathon playing it. Only one boss took more than a couple attempts. Nothing like Capra or O&S in DS1, or Flamelurker or False King in Demon's. Love the game but the difficulty was nowhere near what I expected, personally.
 
I'm finding the difficulty in Bloodborne to be about the same as Demon's Souls. Some areas are harder though because of the fucking crows and snakes that blend into the environment.

I spent a good 4-5 hours just repeatedly going on a rampage in Central Yharnam before I went to see the Cleric Beast. Most of that was just rehabilitating myself to remember my Demon's Souls no-shield-play reflexes since it has been years since I last played Demon's Souls. Ended up walking up to the Cleric Beast and slaughtering it on my first try, only used 2 blood vials and 6 bullets (I think).

While I feel terrible for what happened to Father Gascoigne's family, Father G is as hard as as a human encounter. His final form wasn't that bad actually. I still have a hard time figuring out when I can parry him in his first 2 phases.
 
It actually does feel easier because they added stuff to make my prefeed plausible easier. I never hid behind a shield and always played aggro. With dark souls I'd have to use estus to heal up from taking single hits over time whereas now i can just regain the health. Also i can go longer without resting if I'm good i generate more blood vials and bullets than i use.
 
I've platinum'd Demon's Souls and Dark Souls and completed Dark Souls 2 and I initially found Bloodborne to be the hardest of the lot. I'm now nearing the end of the game and I've levelled up quite a lot and I've beaten the last two bosses first attempt and the one before them on the second attempt so I'm finding it a bit easier now.

I think it depends how you played the other games, I played them as magic characters or tanks so to come into Bloodborne having to dodge every attack was difficult initially but it's clicked for me now. Also due to the nature of the design a lot of the bosses are optional or you can choose what order to take on a lot of them. Because of that you can come accross certain bosses underlevelled or overlavelled making them harder or easier than other people do.

So I can understand how some people will find it the hardest and some will find it the easiest. The game is holy shit amazing either way though.
 
I thought it was harder than Demon's Souls or Dark Souls (didn't play DaS2). I thought DaS1 was the easiest out of the three I played, especially since I felt like you could block more and could generally get through most of the game playing rather passively (and there was no punishment for deaths like in DeS).

Some of the bosses in Bloodborne straight up kicked my ass. I felt like I had to upgrade Vitality a lot more than I did in the previous games just so I could tank some hits. Then again, I usually played magic/dex before so it was hard getting used to playing more aggressively rather than hitting here and there and firing off soul rays and shit.
Bugs Bunny said:
It's really not. All the weapons are the same & all equally easy to use & win with.
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I started with the Axe, and it is by far the easiest weapon to use. The 2H charge R2 attack will stagger basically every enemy and boss. I think the only weapon better than it at staggering is Ludwig's Holy Blade.
 
I find it harder, but I was always a shield heavy user, and i'm also actively trying to not get overpowered.
In demons I remember getting really overlevelled at about half way which made the rest of the game too easy. So in BB i'm spreading out my stats a lot more,

Like I can easily die if i get swarmed by multiple enemies, or get careless/overconfident. which happens a lot.
 
thelastcrusader said:
Specific examples:
I'm running in the woods and step over a set of wood boards that are traps. Never before walking over this patch I hear a sound and instantly know to roll out of the way perfectly before a trap comes and oneshots me.
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I just run straight through that trap and it has never caught me. I think you have to stop and stare at the log to be hit by it.
 
IAmRandom31 said:
Not even close.

Regular foes are much tougher in Bloodborne and often attack in groups.

Bosses are pretty ruthless. Fast and powerful and large with ranged and short attacks.

NPC Hunters are brutal.

I beat Demons on 30 hours my first time and Dark in 32 my first time. Currently at 45 in Bloodborne and still ain't done. Several bosses and sections have taken me 5-6 tries. I don't think a boss in either demons or dark ever took me more then 3 tries at it
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Bosses are hard but not impossible. Beating most of them on my first try.
I will say there were 2 NPC Hunters that gave me a run for my money for a while, but the rest have been pretty easy. One of them is behind a machine gun and I was able to oneshot him by knocking him off his tower.

a secret-boss said:
Yes
First 3 bosses I have no deaths
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There are obviously a few people who agree with me!
Schweinehund said:
Or you could just use the music box.
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That's what I did. Only works one time on his 2nd phase :(
Schweinehund said:
That's a bit of an exaggeration. It's the best weapon but it doesn't make the game "easy mode". The moveset is better but that won't really help you on gascoin or cleric beast. It doesn't do significantly more damage than the other two options.
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Good to know! I've grown fond of it so I'm planning on taking it to 10+.
 
It's definitely harder than dark souls 2 was for me but probably about the same difficulty wise as dark souls 1. Demon's will always be the hardest but I think it's only because it was the first one I played.
 
Personally I am finding Bloodborne to be significantly harder than Dark Souls. The three main reasons being...

Lack of Estus: Without it I cannot trial bosses like I could in Dark Souls. In Dark I would always go in for at least a couple runs to get a feel for the boss. I could chug Estus to extend my time to learn more moves and practice them. In Bloodborne I lack this option because my health items are limited and I don't have the time to farm.

No viable shield: My reaction times have never been good, and now I'm reaching an age it diminishes further. In Souls I had a shield I could rely on to soak a few hits and give me time to recover. In Bloodborne I die before I even get a chance.

Loading times: I work full time and take classes part time. I only get an hour to two to play a night if I am lucky. Of that time I spend nearly 11% looking at load screens (yes, I have timed it). Combine this with the other reasons and I'm quite frequently put off by the game to even try a boss more than half an hour.
 
I've platinumed demon souls and bloodborne. Played hundreds of hours in dark souls 1 and 2. I found bloodborne to be a pretty good challenge. It wasn't easy like demon souls was for me. Really wish I could get invaded non stop like dark souls 2. I will say this after doing everything in the game. Wait till the chalice dungeons and the last boss. The last boss and certain chalice dungeon bosses gave me more trouble than the whole game. Also it's gonna depend on the type of Player you are in the previous games. If you were a sword and shield user then bb will be very hard to get use to. If you were like me and was two handing and rolling a ton in ds2 then the adjustment is easier.
 
The main bosses are weak to a surprising point. The secret ones like
daughter of the cosmos
and
Martyr Logarius
was a bit harder and reasonable for a soul game. The dungeons bosses specially in
Defiled Chalice
are hard due to
half HP
which can be a real challenge, but in general yes the game is easier than DS.
 
KZObsessed said:
I've platinum'd Demon's Souls and Dark Souls and completed Dark Souls 2 and I initially found Bloodborne to be the hardest of the lot. I'm now nearing the end of the game and I've levelled up quite a lot and I've beaten the last two bosses first attempt and the one before them on the second attempt so I'm finding it a bit easier now.

I think it depends how you played the other games, I played them as magic characters or tanks so to come into Bloodborne having to dodge every attack was difficult initially but it's clicked for me now. Also due to the nature of the design a lot of the bosses are optional or you can choose what order to take on a lot of them. Because of that you can come accross certain bosses underlevelled or overlavelled making them harder or easier than other people do.

So I can understand how some people will find it the hardest and some will find it the easiest. The game is holy shit amazing either way though.
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That might be part of it too. I normally used a sword and shield in the other games BUT there were exceptions. If there was a boss I couldn't block easily, I would strip my toon naked and 2 hand my weapon which would always net me a win.

shinobi602 said:
If this is considered the easiest of all the Souls games then holy shit, I don't even want to dare try the others lol.
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Not saying it's the easiest which is my whole point. It's easier AFTER playing the other 3. Once you beat Bloodborne I'm sure the one others will be a lot easier for you.
 
Hypron said:
Why? This doesn't make any sense to me. There's no way it's way easier than Demon's Souls.
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/shrugs

Once you get the runes that restore health and bullets with visceral attacks, worrying about maintaining an adequate supply of vials and ammo cease being a thing except for the occasional chalice dungeon boss battle. Everything else I just steam-rolled right through. Was a bit careful in the early hours, until I got a good sense of what the looted vial and bullet economy would be like throughout the game. But once those two runes landed... looooool
 
shinobi602 said:
If this is considered the easiest of all the Souls games then holy shit, I don't even want to dare try the others lol.
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Don't be afraid to play them. There's really never going to be a clear consensus on which game is the most difficult or the easiest. If you're enjoying Bloodborne, you'll probably enjoy the Souls games.
 
I'm no souls vet but for me (spoilers ahead obviously) :

A
llant
and F
lamelurker
alone make Demon's Souls harder than BloodBorne. The only boss that gave me that much difficulty was the B
loodletting
B
east
before the Y
harnam
Q
ueen,
just because tiny room + huge boss = shit camera, i really had a hard time with the spacing in that room.

I find Dark Souls harder than any other souls, took me many wipes to figure out 4
Kings
, the DLC that came months later was also super hard for me for some reason, M
anus
and K
alameet
were no joke, i died maybe more than 50 times on those fuckers and they're still the hardest bosses in the series for me.

Dark Souls 2 bosses were easier minus the 2 fucking cats in the last DLC, forgot their names but that boss fight was also super hard.

I don't understand people saying BloodBorne last boss is the hardest, it's basically a Gwyn bis that you can cheese at the end just by spaming attacks, with how the health refill system works...and the true ending boss is even easier...

I also find that the ludwig's sword is terribly OP with that str/skl scaling and visceral attacks runes..
 
It's interesting, this is the first Souls game I've played and am not finding it to be all that difficult. Yes it's challenging and you have to play very deliberately but I've yet to hit any substantial walls. However, perhaps that's due to me not playing the previous games. I've seen them played and heard them talked about for years, so I'm familiar with the basic design philosophies but having not played them I have no prior muscle memory or predilections about the moment to moment gameplay. Though the game is definitely getting harder the further I progress. I wouldn't be surprised if the back half kicks my ass.
 
thelastcrusader said:
I started as Waste of Skin too and I have to say that Gascoigne was hands down the hardest boss I've faced so far.
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Yeah and he's also the coolest boss in the game as well. That guy won't allow you to rest at all.

Jathaine said:
I do not recommend this.
Stats really matter this time. I got to NG+ at low level and took literally 30min to beat NG+ Cleric Beast. Its not fun.
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It's not really going to be a serious play through or anything. I just want to see how far I can manage.
 
The difficulty of the Souls franchise in general has reached Urban Legend status. They require patience, a wee bit of trial and error only. This isn't a twitch reaction 'hard' game.

I did feel it was a bit more easy than Dark Souls with the regain system and equal rolling for all types of characters
 
thelastcrusader said:
That might be part of it too. I normally used a sword and shield in the other games BUT there were exceptions. If there was a boss I couldn't block easily, I would strip my toon naked and 2 hand my weapon which would always net me a win.



Not saying it's the easiest which is my whole point. It's easier AFTER playing the other 3. Once you beat Bloodborne I'm sure the one others will be a lot easier for you.
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Am I the only who think it's going to be difficult to go back and play any of the previous souls games due to the fast-pace gameplay of bloodborne and how it's much more fun? at least this is me.
 
It's the easiest of all the Souls game by far and large.

I found Demon's Souls the hardest only due to not knowing or having played a game like it.

Dark Souls 1 is the second hardest, but even then most bosses I could beat with the exact same strategy and the game rehashes bosses.

In general I find these games not that hard. I don't get what folks find hard. I generally first or second try every boss. :/
 
Wanchan said:
I'm no souls vet but for me (spoilers ahead obviously) :

A
llant
and F
lamelurker
alone make Demon's Souls harder than BloodBorne. The only boss that gave me that much difficulty was the B
loodletting
B
east
before the Y
harnam
Q
ueen,
just because tiny room + huge boss = shit camera, i really had a hard time with the spacing in that room.
Click to expand...

What do people find hard about A
llant
really? He has huge recovery time on almost all his moves, has clear windup for his most powerful moves and will only do his flurry attack if you stay too close to him. He can also be staggered with heavy weapons. I killed him first or second try on all of my playthroughs apart from my SL1 one. I can see an argument for Flamelurker being harder though, if your dodging is not on point it'll fuck you up (it's a super easy if you use spells though).
 
Hypron said:
What do people find hard about A
llant
really? He has huge recovery time on almost all his moves, has clear windup for his most powerful moves and will only do his flurry attack if you stay too close to him. He can also be staggered with heavy weapons.
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If you get soul sucked it's possible to be unable to wield your weapon anymore.
 
Dio said:
If you get soul sucked it's possible to be unable to wield your weapon anymore.
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I guess but that move's got to be the most telegraphed move in the entire series. It's got like a 2/3 second wind-up with a very distinct animation.
 
thelastcrusader said:
Don't agree with that. Summons are a gameplay mechanic. I don't think there's anything wrong in using them since you can still wipe on a boss easily even with someone helping you.
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Yeah and bosses also get more HP in co-op. In some cases I actually found co-oping some bosses more difficult since your partners could die leaving you to fight the boss solo with more HP than usual.
 
Game4life said:
From the replies it is clear that judging difficulty in a souls game is pointless. Everyone has their own 'most difficult in the series' game. There will never be a consensus on which is the hardest.
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It isn't pointless. Judging difficultly before finishing the game and being massively over levelled is genuinely amusing.
 
Bosses can be harder to figure out because you can't block while you just learn their moves, but stamina management is much more forgiving, healing is so fast that you rarely get punished for it, there's less falling deaths, even if you get cornered you can often spam dodge and avoid everything with iframes, you can get up off the ground faster, most enemies can be stunlocked quite easily etc. It might not be easier, but you can get away with being quite reckless in Bloodborne.
 
Jathaine said:
Is it possible to get soul sucked without trying?
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Back when I played Demon's Souls before any of these other games came out and I was learning Allant, I got grabbed by it and was unable to use my weapon because I happened to be using it at minimum equip value. You'd be surprised what kinds of situations you can end up in where you'd think 'how did I get grabbed by that' in a Souls series boss fight.
 
BloodyJasonMask said:
How in the hell are you LVL 60 with 9 bosses left? I'm a LVL 65 and I'm on the final boss.
Click to expand...

you make alot of echoes? i had fun farming and exploring, re exploring and i ended at 85. plus theres not much compelling things to buy from merchant, if your fine on bullets, vials , sticking with one weapon, etc.

i'd say it was easiest out of souls 1 and 2, i never played demons, but alot of it is just experience and knowing the style of gameplay that is expected.
 
Dio said:
Back when I played Demon's Souls before any of these other games came out and I was learning Allant, I got grabbed by it and was unable to use my weapon because I happened to be using it at minimum equip value. You'd be surprised what kinds of situations you can end up in where you'd think 'how did I get grabbed by that' in a Souls series boss fight.
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I certainly would! After all these years the only time I got hit by it was when I was purposefully deleveling a character for PvP or something.

I'm curious as to how you got hit by it!
 
I beat the first 3 bosses on my first try but that's as far as I've gotten so idk. The overall challenge still feels the same, but the bosses aren't that challenging yet.
 
Bloodborne is the hardest one yet imo. I've yet to beat a single boss without summoning for help, while in Dark Souls I only summoned twice (one of which was an npc summon)
 
I think its different enough that it requires a lot of relearning combat and such. I think Bloodborne will be a bit harder.

EDIT: Although I breezed up to Father Gregory and through the Cleric Beast from the hour and a half I played.
 
The only area I found to be truly challenging (dying several times, as opposed to just dying once or twice) was the Defiled Chalice dungeon. It was also the most enjoyable. Being one-shotted was always a worry which kept me on edge.
 
Jathaine said:
I certainly would! After all these years the only time I got hit by it was when I was purposefully deleveling a character for PvP or something.

I'm curious as to how you got hit by it!
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Interesting. You know how you 'get greedy' and hope the attack won't get you while you hit away with your sword? It's been so long, but I must have not seen what it does yet and was attacking him while I thought he was facing away from me enough to not hit me with whatever he was doing.

I don't fucking know. All I know is I went to NG+7 after that/made new characters as well or something and never got hit by it afterwards. I play pretty recklessly.
 
aly said:
Wow, wonder if you got that AI glitch where bosses aren't very aggressive? It was an unfortunate glitch that allowed me to parry through and oneshot a couple of bossess in my first run. Then I would watch a stream where someone else would have the same boss do all these awesome moves. Pls fix your jank Fromsoft.

I thought BB being faster would make it easier for me too, but I stupidly kept sidestepping into attacks.
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Nah bosses were fine. I'm talking about regular enemies.

Also I don't even know how to parry lol.
 
Spiritreaver said:
What doesn't trivialize a Souls game these days? Shields, Coop, Magic, ADP, killing too much shit.

I guess they should remove axes from the next game.
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I wasn't saying "if you level up, you're doing it wrong", I mean, that's what the mechanic is there for. I'm just saying that if you're finding the game particularly easy, as a Souls vet, you could just restrict your leveling and find yourself with a challenging but fair game.
 
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