Bloodborne (2015)

After finishing this game again in its entirety for the second time, it still holds itself as one of my favorite games of all time. What an experience. And I also have to say, I'm so incredibly frustrated that even playing on ps5 the game is locked at 30fps. And yet, despite looking not amazing and running kind-of-poorly, it still is an experience that remains unmatched in nearly every way for me.

I've been playing Bloodborne for the first time since last Sunday, because I read about the Return to Yarnham event. I always wanted to play this game but was too scared to try. I am playing along with a friend who is helping guide me through it. I am having a great time! Of course, if I were on my own I would probably have gotten frustrated and stopped playing.

Oops, I beat Bloodborne again. After finishing up the entire FromSoft library last month with Elden Ring, I decided to go back and do new builds/playthroughs on their games. I started with Bloodborne simply because it was my favorite. I did a new game plus playthrough with Gherman's signature weapon, the burial blade. I cosplayed as the Grim Reaper himself. Bad ass. I also got the chance to play this playthrough on my PS5 which wasn't a ton different from my PS4 aside from loading times being a little faster. New game plus was honestly not difficult, at least the base game. DLC new game plus was brutal hell. Ludwig took me way more tries than he originally did. Living Failures took more tries than they should have. Lady Maria was a fun fight, maybe a little tougher than her original fight in my first playthrough. Orphan of Kos, for some God-Blessed reason, I beat first try. Originally Orphan took me a solid 6-7 attempts, but I absolutely stunted on him here in this playthrough. Yes, Living Failures took me more attempts than Orphan. Finally, Laurence. For some reason I left him as my final boss in the DLC before fighting Gherman and man, he was the toughest fight in this entire playthrough. Took me 2 hours to finally deliver the killing blow. I hate that boss now. I remember struggling originally on Laurence, but nothing like I did here. His move set is unfathomable, and I could never really recognize nor memorize any of his attack patterns. He also hits like a truck in new game plus, and his health pool is massive. Easily the boss that I struggled with the most in my time with Bloodborne. Maybe that's what I deserve for first trying Orphan of Kos. Got a different ending this time around for the trophy, so missed out on the moon presence fight but oh well. Anyways, I'll definitely be returning to Bloodborne at some point with a different build probably on an entirely new character (thinking a Guts type build with Ludwig's Holy Blade then a new game plus with that character using the Holy Moonlight Sword). Bloodborne still holds up fantastically all these years later, and it'll be in my routinely played games for years to come. Still probably my favorite Fromsoft game.

As someone who tried almost all souls games and finished Elden ring, Bloodborne is a major factor in me buying a PS5 . It gave me a fantastic experience even though 30 fps and dated graphics. The lovecraftian horror and the environment , character design, truly a masterpiece. The gameplay differences from other souls games took some getting used to, like the source of health being something we can loot and there are 20 of them made me a scrub chugger. Though the parry system being less forgiving was a welcome change. The parry system in other souls game (except sekiro) were something I tried to do once ( and end up getting hit many times) and when I finally land it , I'm like "nope, not doing that again". I've yet to explore the other endings and the DLC, which I'll do soon enough.