{"id":83475,"date":"2015-11-16T03:30:23","date_gmt":"2015-11-16T01:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/?p=83475"},"modified":"2015-11-16T10:56:13","modified_gmt":"2015-11-16T08:56:13","slug":"revisiting-bloodborne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/playstation\/83475-revisiting-bloodborne","title":{"rendered":"Revisiting Bloodborne"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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.<\/p>\n

Bloodborne <\/em>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<\/em> hitting you for six.<\/p>\n

\"Bloodborne\"<\/p>\n

Bloodborne<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s look at a few features that make this title so excellent.<\/p>\n

A<\/em>t its heart, it’s a miasma of obscurity. Players are catapulted into a chaotic world free of proper direction or guidance.<\/p>\n

We wander seemingly aimless through terrifying alleyways and forests with little clue on navigation and even less on what comes next.<\/p>\n

\"Bloodborne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This was what made Bloodborne <\/em>so wonderful, you never knew what to expect and never knew just what the hell you were getting yourself into.<\/p>\n

Everything was cloaked in mystery; characters, enemies, environments and the plot were just one big murky swamp we loved swimming in.<\/p>\n

\"Bloodborne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bloodborne <\/em>was hard. How hard, you may ask? Let me put it this way: I didn\u2019t think I was going to make it through the first stage. I was immediately faced with a brick wall of adversity, one I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d ever smash my way through.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Bloodborne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The potion FromSoftware concocted from despairing degradation and jubilant triumph made for some interesting psychology.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It was absolute bliss turning the tide on my tormentors, realizing that I could <\/em>play this game! Maybe I\u2019d even play it again on \u2018New Game +\u2019 (The same game, just much harder), and then again <\/em>on \u2018New Game +3\u2019 (difficulty level: Autistic Savant).<\/p>\n

\"Bloodborne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Playing Bloodborne <\/em>was like being transported into Edo Japan and becoming Miyamoto Musashi\u2019s apprentice.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Bloodborne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I experienced such ominous despair whenever I sensed a boss-fight was about to begin.<\/p>\n

My heart sank and the hairs stood up on my arms whenever a colossal hellion skulked out of the shadows, knowing I\u2019d be spending hours turning into days hacking at it.<\/p>\n

We subjected ourselves to brutal self-destruction, our grey matter slowly churning as \u2018YOU DIED\u2019 constantly flashed in our faces after about 9.094 seconds of survival each round.<\/p>\n

One particular boss, Vicar Amelia, probably earned me the highest amount of retries I\u2019ve spent on any boss in any game, ever.<\/p>\n

Granted, I was still pretty green to Souls<\/em> games, and this foray was still just complete insanity.<\/p>\n

\"Bloodborne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Eventually I managed to crush her though, and I jumped for joy. This sense of jubilation is rarely felt in many games; it\u2019s the same feeling as finishing a lengthy raid or disarming the bomb surrounded by unaware enemies.<\/p>\n

The boss fights were just complete savage adrenaline.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Bloodborne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anyway, what I\u2019m trying to get at is that if you\u2019ve finished Bloodborne<\/em> I highly suggest that you give it another go on a harder difficulty.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t played it and have a PS4, make an effort to get a hold of a copy, especially if you think it won\u2019t be your cup of tea. I dare you to challenge your taste.<\/p>\n

If you are a member of the master race – I\u2019m sorry, but the petition to port Bloodborne <\/em>failed;\u00a0just 217 signatures short of 50,000.<\/p>\n

The fact that there are less than 50,000 PC gamers in the world <\/em>that would have liked to see this classic on PC is pretty shameful.<\/p>\n

\"Bloodborne\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Keep a look-out for The Old Hunters <\/em>DLC expansion coming out on the 24th<\/sup> of November and the Game of the Year edition on the 25th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

Bloodborne<\/em> is up for the Game of the Year Award at the Game Awards 2015 alongside\u00a0The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt<\/em>, Kojima\u2019s swansong\u00a0Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain<\/em>, much loved create-’em-up Super Mario Maker<\/em> and the newly released\u00a0Fallout 4<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Think Bloodborne<\/em> has a chance of winning?<\/p>\n

\n

In other news<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Fallout 4\u2019s season pass to usher in new era of DLC abuse<\/a><\/p>\n

The games of 2015 according to the reviews<\/a><\/p>\n

The Fallout 4 Pip-Boy Edition isn\u2019t all that S.P.E.C.I.A.L.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloodborne, Gyarados of the Souls series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":83477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11681],"tags":[12583,3180,16092,14156,1239,1853,4859,1681,16361],"class_list":["post-83475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-playstation","tag-bloodborne","tag-feature","tag-fromsoftware","tag-opinion-piece","tag-playstation-4","tag-playstation4","tag-sce","tag-sony-computer-entertainment","tag-souls-series"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83475"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83505,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83475\/revisions\/83505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mygaming.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}