Revisiting Bloodborne

Having attempted Dark Souls and not really enjoying the cumbersome slowness involved in the castle-traipsing slog, Bloodborne was like Magikarp evolving into Gyarados, at least for me.

I loved its alacritous speed, the balls to the wall courage it required and the immense gratification it spilled all over us whenever a jubilant victory over a dire situation was achieved.

Bloodborne has an undeniably enigmatic charm that wrapped its slimy, icy tendrils around you and sucked you into its Lovecraftian (yet massively violent) world. Each game has its own ambience; some hit you harder than others, Bloodborne hitting you for six.

Bloodborne is easily one of the most thrilling and rewarding experiences out there. We feel that the hard-as-nails action RPG needs to be revisited and exonerated for just how brilliant it is.

Let’s look at a few features that make this title so excellent.

At its heart, it’s a miasma of obscurity. Players are catapulted into a chaotic world free of proper direction or guidance.

We wander seemingly aimless through terrifying alleyways and forests with little clue on navigation and even less on what comes next.

Players were continually stepping into treacherous new areas only to fall face-first into smouldering pits of darkness, surrounded by deadly fiends crawling out of the wood-works, or in this case Gothic masonry.

This was what made Bloodborne so wonderful, you never knew what to expect and never knew just what the hell you were getting yourself into.

Everything was cloaked in mystery; characters, enemies, environments and the plot were just one big murky swamp we loved swimming in.

Bloodborne was hard. How hard, you may ask? Let me put it this way: I didn’t think I was going to make it through the first stage. I was immediately faced with a brick wall of adversity, one I didn’t think I’d ever smash my way through.

Just fighting the most basic group of creeps was like trying to exorcise the Devil from someone using a YouTube video of a dog drinking water.

Few things have made me curse loudly in aggravated bitterness so frequently. Making such sweaty progress only to be drop-kicked back to the last checkpoint clocked about an hour ago was magnificently endearing.

The potion FromSoftware concocted from despairing degradation and jubilant triumph made for some interesting psychology.

The finely-tuned reflexes and systematic button-tapping required for this fluid foray was a bitter pill to swallow, but once digested, the game became a constant flow of perfectly diluted chilled Oros down my throat.

It was absolute bliss turning the tide on my tormentors, realizing that I could play this game! Maybe I’d even play it again on ‘New Game +’ (The same game, just much harder), and then again on ‘New Game +3’ (difficulty level: Autistic Savant).

Playing Bloodborne was like being transported into Edo Japan and becoming Miyamoto Musashi’s apprentice.

At first, he constantly beats you with a log for your piggish ineptitude, but in time you are meditating side-by-side under a waterfall, the crashing logs harmlessly splintering off your scalp.

In no time, however, you are magically reduced back into a chubby good-for-nothing and have to repeat the whole process again, and again, and again – pure, unadulterated joy.

I experienced such ominous despair whenever I sensed a boss-fight was about to begin.

My heart sank and the hairs stood up on my arms whenever a colossal hellion skulked out of the shadows, knowing I’d be spending hours turning into days hacking at it.

We subjected ourselves to brutal self-destruction, our grey matter slowly churning as ‘YOU DIED’ constantly flashed in our faces after about 9.094 seconds of survival each round.

One particular boss, Vicar Amelia, probably earned me the highest amount of retries I’ve spent on any boss in any game, ever.

Granted, I was still pretty green to Souls games, and this foray was still just complete insanity.

Eventually I managed to crush her though, and I jumped for joy. This sense of jubilation is rarely felt in many games; it’s the same feeling as finishing a lengthy raid or disarming the bomb surrounded by unaware enemies.

The boss fights were just complete savage adrenaline.

Sure, you spent a good amount of time on your knees, but once you found your way forwards and implemented a sound strategy, the sense of competence produced complete elation.

Anyway, what I’m trying to get at is that if you’ve finished Bloodborne I highly suggest that you give it another go on a harder difficulty.

If you haven’t played it and have a PS4, make an effort to get a hold of a copy, especially if you think it won’t be your cup of tea. I dare you to challenge your taste.

If you are a member of the master race – I’m sorry, but the petition to port Bloodborne failed; just 217 signatures short of 50,000.

The fact that there are less than 50,000 PC gamers in the world that would have liked to see this classic on PC is pretty shameful.

Keep a look-out for The Old Hunters DLC expansion coming out on the 24^th of November and the Game of the Year edition on the 25^th.

Bloodborne is up for the Game of the Year Award at the Game Awards 2015 alongside The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Kojima’s swansong Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, much loved create-’em-up Super Mario Maker and the newly released Fallout 4.

Think Bloodborne has a chance of winning?