Bloodborne Review

OK, so time for another game review (a new one!) and this will be on a game I recently finished, which is the acclaimed action role play Dark Souls spin-off, Bloodborne that sees the Souls formula re-invented and moved to the Victorian times.

So, how does Bloodborne compare to the Dark Souls series? Is it just as good? Well, let's find out...

And the usual warning is coming up as I will mention a little about the story of the game, so...

PLOT SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!

STORY

So rather than try and pick through the plot from Wikipedia itself, I figured I might aswell quote the plot synopsis directly from Wikipedia below.


"Bloodborne takes place in Yharnam, a decrepit Gothic city known for its medical advances using blood as a primary tool. Over the years, many travelers journey to the city seeking the remedy to cure their afflictions; the player's character (an unnamed Hunter) journeys to Yharnam seeking something known as Paleblood for reasons unknown. Upon arriving in the city, however, it is discovered that Yharnam is plagued with an endemic illness that has transformed most of its citizens into bestial creatures. The player must navigate the streets of Yharnam during the night of The Hunt, and overcome its violently deranged inhabitants and horrifying monsters in order to stop the source of the plague and escape the nightmare"

THOUGHTS

Even though the game shares quite a few similarities to the Dark Souls series, Bloodborne is an excellent game in its own right and it has its own identity with a different setting to the Souls games, as the player will traverse through a gothic, Victoria-era town fighting a number of beasts and monsters.

The game also shares with Souls quite a high difficulty level as many of the areas in the game can be quite challenging and there also quite a few boss fights that will have you potentially tear your hair out! However just like the Souls series, Bloodborne's difficulty is also its reward as it gives the player a sense of satisfaction when you finally conquer it.

What the game however has more of than any of the Souls games up to this point is blood...lots and lots of it! Yep here the makers really have created a more gruesome bloody world where you will fight enemies and their blood will end up all over your face and clothes, so this game really does not pull punches when it comes to depicting violence. However to the game's credit, it still follows the Souls format of not showing hacked off limbs and heads etc, its not that kind of violence but instead you just get torrents of blood (well with the word "blood" in the title I guess we can expeect that!).

GAMEPLAY (Warning: this section is BIG!)

As for the gameplay, Bloodborne certainly has its similarities to Dark Souls in that it begins with you creating your character and you are given a number of different starting classes to choose from such as character that primarily focus on melee whereas others with rely more on firearms aswell as magic of sorts. Also similar to Souls games, you can specify your character's appearance, gender, build etc before you begin playing. 

GAME STATS

Moving onto the game's character stats they are very similar to Dark Souls but with a few differences that effect their abilities but also the same ones that perviously featured in Souls games such as vitality (your health), endurance and strength. However as for the new stats there is arcane, which enables a player to increase the damage of weapons that use elements such as fire and bolt. Another is Bloodtinge, which determines the power of weapons that deal blood damage such as firearms and certain melee waeapons (e.g. katanas). Then there is a skill, which upgrades your ability to use certain weapons that require nuancing to master and it also allows your character to increase their visceral attack damage (similar to the parry and riposte attacks in Dark Souls).     

COMBAT MECHANICS

As for the combat, Bloodborne is somewhat different from Dark Souls in that the combat is WAY faster as your character can move at quite a fast rate not in running and sprinting but also in attacks and dodging as you no longer roll to evade enemies but perform a quickstep or sidestep to avoid them. However what is similar is that, as mentioned above, you can perform visceral attacks, which are much the same as parries in the Souls games that involved firing your gun to stagger the enemy, which will allow a visceral attack to be performed, which can be face on or a backstab. The player will also be able to hold a weapon in their left and right hands, with usually a firearm on the left and a melee weapon on the right. Another new aspect to the combat is rallying, which involves the player performing successive strikes that will gradually restore their health and this can be very useful if you are able to pull off a chain attacks and are low on health. 

WEAPONS

As for the game's weapons, there are a selection of melee ones such as swords, hammers, spears, picks and canes. However what makes these melee weapons unique to most other games is that they are all trick weapons that offer a transform phase that either extends the range of the weapon or transforms it into another one.

So, for example a weapon such as the Kirk Hammer in the game in its initial stage is simply a sword with the hammer section attached to the player's back but in the transform mode, the player will insert the sword into the hammer head and transforms it into an actual hammer. And as an example of weapons with extended range there is the Hunter Axe, which in its initial phase is a standard axe but in its transform phase the handle extends out to give the weapon a greater range, which is very effective against crowds of foes. Some of the melee weapons can also have a unique design such as the Whirligig Saw (found in the Old Hunters DLC) that is a trick weapon that in its initial form is a large club but in its transform stage you can attach a circular buzz-saw that does alot of damage. There are also skill weapons too in the game that allow the player to perform a fast chain of attacks, such as the Blade of Mercy and again in its transform state changes from a single longer blade to two shorter ones. 

As for the firearms again there is a selection that includes pistols, shotguns, rifles and even canons all of which have different capabilities and offer varying levels of damage output. So as an example the standard Hunter Pistol offers a quickfire that can be useful to staggering enemies quickly but it may take more than one hit to do so given its firepower isn't as stronger as other weapons. Another example is Ludwig's rifle, which ironically deals out little damage but others very strong stagger potential to allow visceral attacks to be performed. Again these firearms can be upgraded throughout the game to maximise their damage potential.

BLOOD STONES 

Another key aspect of weapon upgrades are of course the materials needed to upgrade them in the first place and these are known as blood stones and they come in different forms and can fortify them up to +10. And the initial stones you get are the blood stone shards, which can upgrade your weapons up to +3. Then as the game progresses you will get twin blood stone shards that will upgarde your weapons to +6. After this you will then need to find blood stone chunks that will upgrade your weapons to +9 and finally you will need to find a blood rock to fully upgrade your weapon +10. The blood stones are usually dropped by certain enemies throughout the game but the blood rock is available in very limited fashion and can only be found in specific areas of the game.   

BLOOD GEMS

Next up are blood gems that can enhance the power of weapons and provide different types of damage such as increased physical attack, thrust damage, skill scaling and even elemental damage such as fire and bolt. There are many different blood gems throughout the game and they are also of different shapes, so not every gem will fit every weapon and this may require you to farm the gems from various enemies.   

BLOOD ECHOES

Again similar to the Souls games, Bloodborne makes use of an experience point system but instead of souls, here we get what are called blood echoes, which you can obtain from killing enemies and they allow you to level up your character's stats, buy new weapons and other items. Blood echoes also similar to the Souls games, will be lost when you die in the game but on respawning you can pick them up either at the point you died or in some cases you will need to kill an enemy who picked them up for themselves (these enemies eyes will glow as a hint as to who has them). However if you die before you are able to pick up those echoes, again just like the Souls games, you will lose them forever.

There is also another way of obtaining additional blood echoes and that is through consumable items called coldblood, which are similar to the soul items from the Souls series and these range in different quantities as they amass from 350 blood echoes up to 50000. Coldblood items can be found as pick-ups in various different areas in the game either just lying there or on the bodies of ex-hunters.    

BLOOD VIALS AND HEALING ITEMS

Next are the blood vials, which are of great importance in the game as they restore your health and can be found either as drops from fallen foes or you can purchase them from the messengers in Hunter's Dream. You can hold a maximum of 20 usually but with the help of additional runes (that go up to +5, so that's 25 vials) you can hold even more which can be a great help when you are getting walloped in boss fights. There are also other healing items that offer the same effect, which can be obtained from other NPCs such as Iosefka and Ariana, a lady of the night.     

CARYLL RUNES

Another important aspect of the game are the Caryll Runes, which are very similar to the rings in Dark Souls which will grant you certain abilities and upgrades aswell as resistances. As an example there are runes that can boost your health and stamina, increase your visceral attacks, grant you more blood echoes from enemies killed aswell as ones that reduce different types of damage such as physical, arcane and poison. These runes can also be stacked together to increase their effect, so e.g. you can stack e.g. the Moon runes (that boosts the amount of blood echoes from visceral attacks) to boost the outcome or Communion runs when stacked will boost the amount of blood vials you hold.

You can however only hold three runes at once plus there are runes (memory runes) that act as means to join certain covenants in the game but can also grant you special abilities too, such as the Beast's Embrace (that you obtain after killing the boss, Laurence, the first vicar) which when used turns you into an actual beast, which is cool but also rather freaky looking! Other memory runs allow you to join certain game covenants and can boost your blood vial health restore amount or boost your stamina regeneration.     

HUNTER'S DREAM

Hunter's dream next up is the central hub of the game much like Firelink Shrine in the Souls games where you can converse with two of the main characters in the game, the Doll, who can level up your stats and Gehrman, an aged veteran hunter, who sits in a wheelchair and imparts advice to you. In Hunter's Dream you can also repair and upgrade your weapons and infuse them with blood gems that enhance the damage your weapons can do and add various different effects such as poison, lightning or fire damage. Hunter's Dream will also allow you to travel between every other area in the game via the use of tombstones with different areas marked on them.  

INSIGHT

Another important aspect of the game is insight, which will give a player special knowledge to be able to let them summon in-game NPC's to help them fight against bosses aswell as other online players. Insight can be gained by collecting items called Madman's knowledge that can be found throughout the game aswell as from entering boss fights and then more again for defeating them. One insight will be used up each time you summon for a fight or in some cases there are enemies, such as brainsuckers that can drain Insight from you. Insight is also important for the Doll in the game as you will need to have at least one Insight to be able to bring her to life otherwise she will be an inanimate doll (you know like a real one!).

You can also use Insight to purchase items in Hunter's Dream as there is an additional messenger bath where you can spend insight to gain certain consumables such as fire & bolt paper, beast blood pellets and even later you can purchase blood shards but they do cost quite a bit more insight for the blood chunks and rocks. I have to actually admit I nearly missed this insight bath altogether in Hunter's Dream because it is tucked away in the corner and I NEVER NOTICED IT until my second playthrough lol!  Anyway this bath can be invaluable as it really can save you spending lots of blood echoes in the process for specific items that you would need to farm alot for.   

LAMPS

And this brings me onto the lamps, which are essentially the same as the bonfires from the Dark Souls games and allow you to travel to different locations. However in order for you to use a lamp you need to first of all light it and usually lamps will return you to Hunter's Dream where you can travel between other lamps as mentioned above. As the game progresss however, certain lamps will become unusable so you may need to travel to another closer to the location you want to get to.

MESSENGERS AND PURCHASBLE & ACCESSIBLE ITEMS

Another key aspect of the game in Hunter's Dream are the messengers, who are tiny little creatures that offer the player little notes of advice aswell as the ability to purchase specific items throughout the game. The player can buy these items from a small area called the messenger bath within Hunter's Dream and they can range from healing items such as blood vials to other items that can increase your resistance to certain types of damage such as poison or can even optimise your damage to enemies. These items however will raise in price as the game progresses, so you will need to ultimately farm for more blood echoes in order to purchase them. Some of these items however can be picked up for free from fallen enemies or can be found as pick-ups in different areas of the game. 

DAMAGE TYPES

The game also features different types of damage that can be inflicted by various enemies and there are three in the game that are bleed, poison and worst of all frenzy, which remove a large amount of a player's health. These types of damage can however be mitigated through the use of different items for e.g. frenzy can be treated via the use of sedatives that will calm a player's nerves (in the game not the actual player!) and antidotes will cure poison damage, which has two kinds, slow and rapid poisoning, which must be treated before the player succumbs to them. 

ENEMIES & BOSSES

Next up are of course one of the main asepcts of the game, the enemies and there are many different ones throughout the game that offer varying levels of difficulty to overcome. As an example of weaker enemies are the huntsman, who are infected with the bloodborne disease and attack you with torches, rifles and swords and strongers foes are giants, who posses great strength and take alot of damage. Then there are various different monsters in the game such as man-beasts, werewolves, serpent headed men (vermin hosts), gargoyles, witches and trolls all of which are pretty horrible overall I'd say!  As the game progresses of course these enemies can become stronger in difficulty and there are even revisions of weaker ones with more health and greater damage potential too.

And then we have the bosses, who provide the main challenges of the game and they also can vary from being pretty easy to brutally difficult! Again the bosses will vary in form as there are a number of beast-like bosses, who can all deal out vicious levels of damage but there are also some human bosses such as actual hunters that can pose quite a strong threat aswell.

Again some of the bosses can be quite straightforward such as the Witch of Hemwick, which involves you to simply kill a couple of witches that can summon ghoulish creatives to attack you but the witches vanish after you attack for a while. However there are also some punishingly difficult bosses such as Ludwig, the Accursed, who is a horse-like beast that can stampede you and later on attack with a holy moonlight sword and the Orphan of Kos, who is a grotesque bird-like man, who has placenta type weapon attachment to his hand (yuck!!) and can destroy you with it! So, suffice to say that Bloodborne has its share of challenging bosses that should keep you scratching your head and tearing out your hair!

CHALICE DUNGEONS

Next are the chalice dungeons, which are randomly generated dungeons that the player can access from Hunter's Dream with the use of specific holy ritual items. The dungeons also contain bosses and a number of enemies but these areas are more cramped in design than the open world area of Yarnham but they can also offer some more items and upgrades that will be of use.

The chalice dungeons themselves tend to get a bit of stick from the fans and I can see why as they are pretty repetitive in their design as they tend to just recycle the same bosses with marginal increases in difficulty until you go deeper into the dungeons. However, having played through the dungeons quite a bit myself I don't think they are too bad although I do see where the fans are coming from as their design is pretty samey and dull but the extra insight and items on offer still make them worth checking out.  

ONLINE PLAY

Another aspect of the game is the online play, which will allow you to summon other players to help you fight against the bosses or play in a co-op mode. However similar to the Dark Souls games, you can be invaded by players who will try and kill you and they are summoned through the use of an in-game enemy called a chime maiden, so you will need to kill the chime maidens in order to prevent being invaded.


NPC CHARACTERS (WARNING: THIS PARAGRAPH HAS A BIG SPOILER!)

Next up are the actual NPC characters that can be found in the game and as I mentioned above, the two primary NPCs are the Doll, who upgrades your stats and the old (and first) hunter, Gehramn, who imparts you with advice occassionally in the game and (SPOILER!!!) is one of the final bosses in the game!

There of course plenty of other NPC's in the game such as Eileen the Crow, who is an assassin, who hunts other hunters that have been corrupted by thier lust for blood. Alfred, who is another hunter that offers you advice and key information that will let you progress through the game. Iosefka is another NPC, who is at the clinic where your character first undergoes their blood ministration process and she can be in two forms, friendly and hostile. And last of all is the Chapel Samaritan, who is ghoulish looking but a kind and genial elderly man, who wants to welcome people into Oedon chapel, which is a safe haven for people from the beasts or Yarnham (as the samaritan uses incense to ward them off).

NPC ENEMY HUNTERS 

And last of all are there enemy hunters, who can be found at different stages of the game and can often provide a very stiff challenge for players to take down successfully especially the hunters later in the game. And there is one specific hunter, who is unquestionably the hardest one in the game, the Bloody Crow of Cainhurst, who can dish out brutal amounts of damage and must be defeated to fully complete another of the NPC hunter's questlines, Eileen the Crow. So, essentially these hunters are the same as the invaders from Dark Souls but I would definitely say the hunters are a big step up in challenge from the invaders in the Souls games.

GRAPHICS

So, finally moving onto the game's graphics, they are largely excellent as the game's environments are rich will detail and can also be fairly varied as you make your way through the streets of Yarnham and later other areas such as cathedrals, woods, villages and of course Hunter's Dream. The character models are also pretty good as your character's faces are fairly expressive and offer better detail than the previous Souls games even though again their lips don't move when they talk! ;-) However the graphics do have a fair amount of aliasing to them with plenty of jagged edges to characters, buildings and structures.  So, while the graphics do offer a rich visuals for the most part, it wouldn't hurt to see the game get a remaster in the near future aswell to help resolve those ragged edges it suffers from. 

MUSIC

As for the music of Bloodborne, well its a terrific score overall, which was composed by various different composers such as Ryan Amon, Tsukasa Saitoh, Cris Velasco and Yuka Kitamura. And the boss themes overall are of a very high quality that are just as equally as good as those from the Dark Souls series. And some of my favourites from the soundtrack include the Cleric Beast, Gerhman, Orphan of Kos, Laurence: The First Vicar, Father Gascgoine, Lady Maria and my personal fav, Ludwig, the Accursed. There are one or two themes that could be better of course and the one I disliked the most was Micolash, Host of the Nightmare, which got pretty annoying after a while, so I turned it down!

However overall, I would definitely say that Bloodborne's soundtrack is right up there with some of the best soundtracks in gaming today.

FLAWS

As for flaws...yep Bloodborne does have some worth a mention.

For starters, I think a criticism that is often levelled at the game is of course to do with the lack of weapons in the game especially in comparison to Dark Souls, as in all there are only 26 trick weapons and 11 firearms and one fist type knuckle duster weapon (Gratia). So, yeah this is quite limited in comparison to the Souls games but for the most part their quality and versatility do somewhat make up for this but at the same time more would have been better but to be fair the Old Hunters, DLC definitely provided some great extra content for the weapons.

Another issue I had was to do with the lamps and Hunter's dream as you are unable to travel between lamps like you would between bonfires in Dark Souls as instead you have to always go back to Hunter's Dream to travel to another area. And this can become a bit tedious after a while if you really want to get somewhere quickly then the whole idea of Hunter's Dream being the go-between every other area is a flawed one.

And this brings me onto an issue to do with the blood vials in the game as it does get to the stage where you need to keep farming to get more because its not like Dark Souls, where your Estus Flasks are replenished back to full capacity when you rest at a bonfire and instead here if you die and burn up your blood vials, you simply need to get more, which can be quite tedious. And I often found myself after dying in a boss fight having to go the same areas to farm to buy more and I would actually probably recommend farming a big stockpile, which automatically will go into storage, so you don't run out quickly. But I would have preferred it if you could restore your blood vials on respawning similar to Dark Souls and its estus flasks.

I also felt the idea of the NPC enemy hunters in the game was a bit overdone at times as there are moments in the game where you simply want to get from A to B but before you know it you are faced with having to take more hunters on! Also given the difficulty that these enemy hunters pose it can make your life difficult to progress past them unless of course you simply run away from them, which is still an option I guess.

Another issue I had with the game is that it does lack the humour and colourful characters that you have in the Souls games as there really isn't much of that in Bloodborne although there is still the odd character here and there that does fit this category. However it is worth mentioning that there is still a pretty funny moment in the game where Gehrman tells a dirty joke to your character as he says you can use anything you like in Hunter's Dream and he whispers furtively "Even the doll should it please you(!)". I also noticed that the Chalice dungeons had a spin-off version of Patches, the character from Dark Souls, who's head is on the body of a spider, so maybe that will provide some humour! But overall though, I have to say that the game does lack the same colourful characters that the Souls series has to offer.

Another problem in the game was to do with the lack of blood rocks, which will allow you to fully upgrade your weapons to +10 and there is only one in the entire main game! You can however obtain another blood rock during the Old Hunter's DLC but this means you can only fully upgrade two of your weapons throughout a single playthrough and this frankly sucks, especially as you had access to at least 7 or 8 Titanite Slabs in Dark Souls 2 & 3. So, the lack of being able to upgrade more than two weapons in the whole game really is a letdown and one of the more annoying aspects of the game.

It would also have been nice if you could purchase blood stone chunks in the game that would allow you to upgrade to +9 but unfortunately you can't do this either in the main game. So, instead you are forced to try and farm for them from certain enemies and while you can pick quite a few of them up throughout the later stages of the game it would have been nice if there was an option to purchase them later on too.

REVIEW UPDATE FOR THE BLOOD CHUNKS & ROCKS

I since have discovered that you can purchase blood rocks and chunks from the messengers insight bath as you need 20 insight for a single blood stone chunk and 60 for a single blood rock. However I do have to say the insight requirement for both is just a bit too high especially for blood rocks given you can probably only upgrade maybe 3 weapons max per game but on reflection that's not necessarily a bad thing as it makes you consider which primary weapons you want to use at their full ability rather than upgrade them all to +10.

However at the same time I do find the process of farming for blood chunks to be VERY frustrating in the game as you can get a rare occassional drop from certain enemies in the (e.g. the blue eyed werewolves in upper cathedral ward) but its quite a slog to get them. And just why they DIDN'T allow you to purchase blood chunks from the messenger bath just like you can with blood stone shards and twin blood ones is frankly beyond me! I mean there are a resaonable amount of blood stone chunks to be picked up during the game but once you get them all, it becomes alot more annoying to try and farm for them. So, I think the fact they left the chunks out of the messenger bath and force you to spend 20 insight for them from the insight bath is a big oversight especially as there isn't a great deal of insight in the entire game unless you farm the hell out of chalice dungeon bosses!

Another problem I have with the game is how it can at times force you to take on very difficult enemies to get good weapons. A lesser example of this is the church pick (which just so happens to be my favourite weapon in the whole game!) as you have to fight a fairly tough hunter, who you can release from a jail cell and kill him in order to get it but you can at least cheese him by baiting his attacks and then waiting for him to back off and then go in for a backstab and visceral attack after he walks away from you down the hallway. But before this, you also need to get a cell key to open the hunter's cell door and that in itself is pretty tricky as you need to fight past a bunch of annoying research hall patients and navigate your way to the key itself!

However a bigger challenge is trying to get Lady Maria's weapon, the Rakuyo, which is a pretty cool looking hybrid katana that splits into two smaller swords but the main problem here is in order to get it you need to fight two of THE most brutal enemies in the game, shark giants. These big guys clobber the hell out of you with great ease and if you get too close they will also perform a grab attack where they will proceed to eat you! 

However there is a cheese strategy to obtain the Rakuyo without getting hammered by the shark giants but it does involve baiting them into action and killing off the annoying winter lanterns underground, who inflict frenzy damage on you and if they grab you, its one shot material! After this, you can kill off the giants standing on a ledge overlooking the pit they roam around but you still need to watch out for them as they can still hit you! I recommend also using a weapon such as the Boom Hammer as its firey weapon buff can deliver pretty effective damage and once you have killed off both giants you can then obtain the Rakuyo. 

However despite this it all begs the question: why not simply have the player buy the Rakuyo from the messenger bath once you defeated Lady Maria rather than fight these two big ass enemies?! I mean they could easily just have you pay say 100,000 blood echoes or something like that rather than fight these two giant knobheads, which make your life a misery! But nope, From Software are clearly a bunch of sadists, who want you to suffer for the great things in the game! Gits lol!  

I also had an issue that was to do with the online player system as I found the idea a bit flawed in some ways particularly the summoning system, where you use a beckoning bell to summon online players to help you fight bosses. However, on using this system its a bit hit and miss as there were times where I tried to summon other players and nothing happened and was kept waiting and waiting and ultimately I gave up and went on to try and take on the boss myself. So, it can be quite a frustrating system to deal with and not always reliable to use as you may end up having to take on the boss yourself.

And this brings me onto an issue with the AI of the summons, which can be really lacking in intelligence at times as there are certain summons that when they appear will just charge into fighting standard enemies and not follow you into a boss fight! As an example for the Vicar Amelia fight there is a summon named Henriett available but if you summon her she will just go ahead and try to kill EVERY enemy around her even the big giant guys with the large axes! So, this forces you with no option but to help her and she most likely will die in the process whether you help her ot not!

So, this is where things can get pretty frustrating as I wish From Software introduced a can of signal system to tell the summon to follow you rather than start a fight! I guess that's another drawback of your playable character being mute and not being able to say a word (well not orally anyway as they do speak through text to other characters).  

Also on a story note I feel the plot is somewhat confusing and hard to follow at times and it begs the question: is at all really just a dream??? And the reason I say this is because there are many moments in the game where different characters say they will wake up form their dream when they die, which suggests that they are currently in a dream state within Yarnham. So, when they wake up you have to ask yourself: do they wake somewhere else? Do they go to some sort of afterlife? I mean what really happens? Its definitely all a bit vague if you ask me but if I dig a bit more into the lore of the game then maybe there will be some answers there.

And last of all is one big question...why the hell are the bosses in this game so damn NOISY???! Yep, the bosses in Bloodborne are far from subtle especially the beast bosses, who like to squeal like hyenas and it can get pretty annoying rather quickly. As an example of this noisage there are Vicar Amelia, who squeals like a hyena, Laurence, the first Vicar, who also squeals like a hyena and last of all we have Ludwig, the Accursed, who guess what??? Yep, he also squeals like a hyena, actually no its more like a tortured horse being endlessly zapped with a cattle prod!  Now to be fair I do appreciate that a number of the bosses in this game are beasts, who by nature probably would squeal and roar anyway but it doesn't make it any less annoying.

And further to this point, I will take Ludwig (who is often regarded as one of the best bosses in the game) who has two phases and in the first he stampedes around like a wild mutated horse and squeals from the top of his beast/horsey lungs. However in the second phase, Ludwig suddenly man's up, finds his Holy Moonlight Sword and he picks it up and stands also like a man and starts to knock the crap out of you with it! Now, I would have to ask: why didn't they just have Ludwig sound like he did in his second phase from the start, which was alot more bearable! So, at some point he had to go from a wild horse into a wild horse-man but its a pretty strange transformation if you ask me and one that would have been better if they kept his voice consistent (with the second phase ideally!).

Anyway that's it for the flaws. 

SUM UP

So to sum up, Bloodborne is an excellent game that stands up just as well next to the Dark Souls games and it is unique enough in its own right in terms of what it can offer. The game's combat and boss battles are also for the most part very satisfying and the fast-paced nature of the combat is also a refreshing change from the slower pace of the Souls games. The game also features a terrific soundtrack and the graphics while not perfect are for the most part excellent and feature plenty of rich detail but at the same time a remaster of the game wouldn't go a miss, FromSoftware! ;-)

And sure there are some issues to do with the online play, some game features are a bit fiddly and the plot at times doesn't make a great deal of sense but that aside, Bloodborne is definitely well worth checking out and it offers a great challenge for any player and if you like the Souls game you will almost certainly like this.

Right, so that's it for my exhaustive review of Bloodborne and I will be back with another review of sorts soon.

Till then its ciao for now, and as they say in the game, may the good blood guide your way! ;-)