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Edge cover revealed: Bloodborne, the verdict (review available tomorrow)

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A

aravuus

Member
Auctopus said:
... the verdict has told me that a lot of my favourite things about the Souls games are gone.
Click to expand...

Things such as? I'm curious

From what little I've read so far, the only thing I didn't really like is the fact that there probably isn't as many weapons as before. Then again, I played through DkS2 using like 2 or 3 different weapons tops.
 
J

Jomjom

Banned
Arion said:
Anything less than 10 will cause outrage. This is the one Sony fans have been hanging thier hopes on. The review thread will be a bloodbath if the game has any imperfections.
Click to expand...

All it takes is one 7 from Polygon to cause a bloodbath.
 
W

Wagram

Member
If anything fewer weapons will likely balance the game better. That's how I see it anyways. Plus can't you combine weapons or something like that in this? That's combinations.
 
S

Soriku

Junior Member
Took me 43 hours to beat Demon's Souls and do all the World Tendency events.

JonStark said:
:( :(

I nown weapons are supposed to be mor einterresting this time, but :(
Click to expand...

At first I was like "what?" but then again, the other Souls games had a gazillion weapons, yet I only used a few. The vast majority are useless to me. I don't know if I even needed 6 different weapons to get to the end of all the games. If I'm encouraged to switch weapons more, despite a lesser amount of weapons, I'm OK with that.

Also on treasure chests, most have nothing too good either in the other games, so hopefully they've fixed that as well.

Also if the game ever gets DLC (wouldn't shock me), I hope there are more worthwhile items to find. In Dark Souls 1 and 2 I already had my preferred build by the end of their stories, so 99% of DLC items were also useless.

I don't know what a lesser amount of items (assuming Edge didn't just miss a boatload) means for lore folk though.

Mupod said:
If I was playing any game but Monster Hunter right now this wait would be unbearable.
Click to expand...

lol. Once I finish Bloodborne, I'm going back to MH4 :p
 
S

Slair

Member
Kenzodielocke said:
I just want that Great Sword. Nothing more.

bloodborne_011_cs1w1_2mukd.jpg
Click to expand...

Little did we know this was the entire weapon selection :p
 
T

The Xtortionist

Member
JonStark said:
In 40 hours. Or the equivalent of a playthrough. Meaning the average player will fond only 6 weapons . which is considerably less than any Souls game.
Click to expand...

How many weapons do people honestly use in previous games? 1-2 is enough for me on a given run. It's also worth noting that BB's weapons have nearly zero overlap between them. Obviously more is generally better, but I'll take quality over quantity any day.
 
N

Neoweee

Member
DoubleTake said:
Since guns scale off of the Bloodtinge stat it could be very viable. Also consumables/gadgets only runs since those scale off of the arcane stat.
Click to expand...

I don't think it is so clear. There are four stats and four scalings, and different weapons (and presumably customizations) scale off of each. Even before these scans, we've seen weapons with requirements in 3 of the 4 categories.
 
S

sheepishlord

Member
Thanks Tcrunch! great summary. I'm made up the clip on lamp is back but i hope i can unequip it as and when once i've bought it..which will be ASAP.

DrROBschiz said:
I did like the weapon Variety in the first Dark Souls. Seemed like just the right amount and almost all unique

Plus many of them carried a story or were used by certain characters. It was roleplaying bliss.

Dark Souls 2 went to far with it. I am looking forward to the quality of items available in Bloodborne and I think the drops being items only will give Bloodborne a more Resident Evil 4 vibe to progression
Click to expand...

Yeah Dark Souls 1 had it nearly perfect but it did have a bit of fluff, the whips and nearly all of the daggers in particular were pretty hopeless.

I didn't really like any of the weapons in DS2 tbh, attack animations were such a step down. I can tell just looking at a single GIF of Bloodborne that they're back to the highest level though.
 
A

Alo0oy

Banned
I don't think the 6 (12 actually) weapons they found (there could be more) indicate that there is less variety.

In previous games there were a lot of weapons that functioned the exact same but were just reskinned with different stats, or became redundant later on, if Bloodborne gives you more freedom in customizing said weapons, the kirkhammer could basically be customized into a poison-based weapon, high dexterity weapon, strength-based weapon...etc.

Let's not forget that the Kirkhammer functions as basically a hammer AND a straight sword. I think we've already seen more variety in weapons in trailers alone than any Souls game.
 
J

JudgmentJay

Member
Servbot24 said:
Looked like they said because there is less tension when you already know what is coming (which is common sense of course)
Click to expand...

On the evidence of our 40 hours in Bloodborne, some of that longevity - that sense of almost infinite possibility - is gone. There is no class system as such; your starting stats are dictated by your choice of Trick weapon. Even so far as we are into the game, we have just half-a-dozen weapons and the same number of guns in our inventory, and there is little for sale from the game's sole merchant - or at least the only one we've found so far...
Click to expand...

So lack of starting class (even though there are...) and lack of weapons.
 
S

Spades

Member
I'm not sure if this has been posted, but here is a code for a free Bloodborne PS4 theme:

PBGAHJNCLQ99

It should have multiple uses, so go nuts.
 
N

Newtype-001

Member
Even though Bloodborne has less weapons than the souls sereis i feel like im more likely to try out other weapons cause the ones we've seen so far have all just been so cool and unique. In my time with demons souls i used 3 weapons and with DS1 i sawpped between 4. (Haven't played DS2 so cant comment on that)
 
T

theMrCravens

Member
People were this excited when Dark Souls 2 was just about to be released a year ago, but it was only a few weeks later that GAF started "hating" it.
 
mekes

mekes

Member
tcrunch said:
  • Playthrough did not involve Chalice Dungeon or multiplayer.
  • This is not an official review/no score, despite the cover of the game saying "THE VERDICT"
  • "Bloodborne is Hidetaka Miyazaki's brutal riposte to the section of his playerbase that thinks it has seen it all before."
  • Merchant sells a clip-on lantern (hello Demon's Souls augite).
  • "Yharnam spends the game in the grip of a perpetual night...that can only be brought to an end by the player finding and finishing off the source of the scourge of beasts." (this could be referring short term like...defeat a major boss, get some daytime, or overall, I guess)
  • Description on the first shield they found: Shields are nice, but not if they engender passivity.
  • Some enemies in the game can use spells
  • Confirmed Bloodtinge stat governs bullet damage
  • Transforming strikes and their follow-up attacks give you a way of reaching enemies that in other Souls games might be out of reach because they were pushed back by your earlier attacks - they say stamina management is a more diverse process in Bloodborne than in the earlier games
  • Clothes found in the world or from a merchant whose catalog expands when you defeat bosses
  • Bloodstone shards = titanite, coldblood = portable souls, most common items are blood vials (healing) and quicksilver bullets, but stocks can grow low later in the game
  • Surplus items are automatically sent to a storage box, and if you die your items are replenished from the box automatically
  • They say your starting stats are dictated by the trick weapon you choose, which runs counter to the origins shown in the character creator...
  • Only found 6 or so weapons and 6 or so guns in 40 hours
  • Very few chests, almost all have something good inside
  • Enemies only drop upgrade mats and items
  • Bloodgems are an upgrade item that allows you to change the attributes of a weapon, ex. increasing physical attack power, adding poison damage, or increasing scaling - all the weapons in the game are customizable with bloodgems
  • Did not beat the game but they feel like it is less replayable than its predecessors (this does not count the Chalice Dungeon or multiplayer components)
  • You can keep up to 5 dungeon configurations in your Chalice Dungeon stock
  • Lantern checkpoints are not "overabundant" like the bonfires of Dark Souls II, you open shortcuts rather than getting new bonfires (ala Demon's Souls), interconnectivity approaches Firelink Shrine type numbers of access and departure points in a few places
  • "Discrete areas flow together to create a believable world" - separating the hub from the main gameworld allows the world itself to be more coherent
  • They say in Souls you are frequently scared of dying, but in Bloodborne you are also scared of what is coming to kill you - "There is a moment in Dark Souls that we will never forget: down in the Depths, picking up an item from a corpse and a slime dropping onto our head. We spent the rest of the level panning the camera endlessly for unseen threats, no longer scared of dying, but of moving. Imagine a whole game of that." - For this reason they think taking the replayability factor to CD makes more sense.
  • Torch may be very important for newcomers/first playthroughs
  • There is a new mechanic they are not allowed to discuss
  • "If you thought From Software was going soft, Hidetaka Miyazaki is about to put you brutally back in your place. And if you've been watching this generation from the sidelines, unmoved by the remasters and rush jobs while you wait for the first true essential to arrive, now's the time. As if there was ever any doubt, Miyazaki and his team have done it all over again."

There's a Q&A about Miyazaki's ideas and philosophy regarding the game at the end.
Click to expand...

Man. I especially like the part about always being afraid of what is coming to kill you, if that lives up to expectation it should be an amazing experience, wrapped up with that Souls-like game play. And thanks for posting that tcrunch!

I wonder what the new mechanic is?...
 
T

The Xtortionist

Member
Alo0oy said:
I don't think the 6 (12 actually) weapons they found (there could be more) indicate that there is less variety.

In previous games there were a lot of weapons that functioned the exact same but were just reskinned with different stats, or became redundant later on, if Bloodborne gives you more freedom in customizing said weapons, the kirkhammer could basically be customized into a poison-based weapon, high dexterity weapon, strength-based weapon...etc.

Let's not forget that the Kirkhammer functions as basically a hammer AND a straight sword. I think we've already seen more variety in weapons in trailers alone than any Souls game.
Click to expand...

Right. Even if they only found 6 weapons, that's 12 unique move sets to use.
 
D

DoubleTake

Member
Neoweee said:
I don't think it is so clear. There are four stats and four scalings, and different weapons (and presumably customizations) scale off of each. Even before these scans, we've seen weapons with requirements in 3 of the 4 categories.
Click to expand...

In terms of guns the str and skill requirements are only for wielding them. The actual damage scales from Bloodtinge. So it is possible to do a guns only run.

Consumables like firebombs/molotovs seem to scale off of the arcane stat and nothing else according to the IGN video. So this may also be possible.
 
H

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
I'm of two minds about the game having fewer weapons and armor sets to find.

On the one hand, I know Souls games aren't loot games in the traditional sense, and in practice I usually stuck to just a couple of weapons and a few favored armor sets. For any given class, the bulk of the items you find are irrelevant. So how much will it really change things, for a first playthrough, anyway, to have this streamlined?

Nonetheless, the promise of finding *something* was a good motivator for exploration. Fortunately, the essence of the games inherently motivates exploration, so losing the loot component may not have much impact for me. Who knows, I may even like it more, knowing I can just focus my resources on developing a few pieces of equipment and stats.

I can't remember if they've already talked about this in detail, but what do you get from the challenge dungeons? Is it strictly about the satisfaction of beating an unfamiliar challenge, or are there item/equipment rewards as well? It sounds cool to have an endless supply of Souls-like dungeon crawling, but I'm not sure how long the inherent rewards will keep me playing it.
 
G

Gbraga

Member
Some great items, some disappointments.

The amount of weapons they found plus enemeis not dropping weapons definitely indicate less variety, imo.
 
P

piccio_ssl

Member
tcrunch said:
  • Playthrough did not involve Chalice Dungeon or multiplayer.
  • This is not an official review/no score, despite the cover of the game saying "THE VERDICT"
  • "Bloodborne is Hidetaka Miyazaki's brutal riposte to the section of his playerbase that thinks it has seen it all before."
  • Merchant sells a clip-on lantern (hello Demon's Souls augite).
  • "Yharnam spends the game in the grip of a perpetual night...that can only be brought to an end by the player finding and finishing off the source of the scourge of beasts." (this could be referring short term like...defeat a major boss, get some daytime, or overall, I guess)
  • Description on the first shield they found: Shields are nice, but not if they engender passivity.
  • Some enemies in the game can use spells
  • Confirmed Bloodtinge stat governs bullet damage
  • Transforming strikes and their follow-up attacks give you a way of reaching enemies that in other Souls games might be out of reach because they were pushed back by your earlier attacks - they say stamina management is a more diverse process in Bloodborne than in the earlier games
  • Clothes found in the world or from a merchant whose catalog expands when you defeat bosses
  • Bloodstone shards = titanite, coldblood = portable souls, most common items are blood vials (healing) and quicksilver bullets, but stocks can grow low later in the game
  • Surplus items are automatically sent to a storage box, and if you die your items are replenished from the box automatically
  • They say your starting stats are dictated by the trick weapon you choose, which runs counter to the origins shown in the character creator...
  • Only found 6 or so weapons and 6 or so guns in 40 hours
  • Very few chests, almost all have something good inside
  • Enemies only drop upgrade mats and items
  • Bloodgems are an upgrade item that allows you to change the attributes of a weapon, ex. increasing physical attack power, adding poison damage, or increasing scaling - all the weapons in the game are customizable with bloodgems
  • Did not beat the game but they feel like it is less replayable than its predecessors (this does not count the Chalice Dungeon or multiplayer components)
  • You can keep up to 5 dungeon configurations in your Chalice Dungeon stock
  • Lantern checkpoints are not "overabundant" like the bonfires of Dark Souls II, you open shortcuts rather than getting new bonfires (ala Demon's Souls), interconnectivity approaches Firelink Shrine type numbers of access and departure points in a few places
  • "Discrete areas flow together to create a believable world" - separating the hub from the main gameworld allows the world itself to be more coherent
  • They say in Souls you are frequently scared of dying, but in Bloodborne you are also scared of what is coming to kill you - "There is a moment in Dark Souls that we will never forget: down in the Depths, picking up an item from a corpse and a slime dropping onto our head. We spent the rest of the level panning the camera endlessly for unseen threats, no longer scared of dying, but of moving. Imagine a whole game of that." - For this reason they think taking the replayability factor to CD makes more sense.
  • Torch may be very important for newcomers/first playthroughs
  • There is a new mechanic they are not allowed to discuss
  • "If you thought From Software was going soft, Hidetaka Miyazaki is about to put you brutally back in your place. And if you've been watching this generation from the sidelines, unmoved by the remasters and rush jobs while you wait for the first true essential to arrive, now's the time. As if there was ever any doubt, Miyazaki and his team have done it all over again."

There's a Q&A about Miyazaki's ideas and philosophy regarding the game at the end.
Click to expand...

HOLY SHIT
 
F

FinalStageBoss

Banned
Less weapons is no big deal for me, I only ever use a handful in souls games. Most of the weapons I never even touch. As long as the ones we get are interesting, have faith in Miyazaki :).
 
Marvel

Marvel

could never
tcrunch said:
  • Playthrough did not involve Chalice Dungeon or multiplayer.
  • This is not an official review/no score, despite the cover of the game saying "THE VERDICT"
  • "Bloodborne is Hidetaka Miyazaki's brutal riposte to the section of his playerbase that thinks it has seen it all before."
  • Merchant sells a clip-on lantern (hello Demon's Souls augite).
  • "Yharnam spends the game in the grip of a perpetual night...that can only be brought to an end by the player finding and finishing off the source of the scourge of beasts." (this could be referring short term like...defeat a major boss, get some daytime, or overall, I guess)
  • Description on the first shield they found: Shields are nice, but not if they engender passivity.
  • Some enemies in the game can use spells
  • Confirmed Bloodtinge stat governs bullet damage
  • Transforming strikes and their follow-up attacks give you a way of reaching enemies that in other Souls games might be out of reach because they were pushed back by your earlier attacks - they say stamina management is a more diverse process in Bloodborne than in the earlier games
  • Clothes found in the world or from a merchant whose catalog expands when you defeat bosses
  • Bloodstone shards = titanite, coldblood = portable souls, most common items are blood vials (healing) and quicksilver bullets, but stocks can grow low later in the game
  • Surplus items are automatically sent to a storage box, and if you die your items are replenished from the box automatically
  • They say your starting stats are dictated by the trick weapon you choose, which runs counter to the origins shown in the character creator...
  • Only found 6 or so weapons and 6 or so guns in 40 hours
  • Very few chests, almost all have something good inside
  • Enemies only drop upgrade mats and items
  • Bloodgems are an upgrade item that allows you to change the attributes of a weapon, ex. increasing physical attack power, adding poison damage, or increasing scaling - all the weapons in the game are customizable with bloodgems
  • Did not beat the game but they feel like it is less replayable than its predecessors (this does not count the Chalice Dungeon or multiplayer components)
  • You can keep up to 5 dungeon configurations in your Chalice Dungeon stock
  • Lantern checkpoints are not "overabundant" like the bonfires of Dark Souls II, you open shortcuts rather than getting new bonfires (ala Demon's Souls), interconnectivity approaches Firelink Shrine type numbers of access and departure points in a few places
  • "Discrete areas flow together to create a believable world" - separating the hub from the main gameworld allows the world itself to be more coherent
  • They say in Souls you are frequently scared of dying, but in Bloodborne you are also scared of what is coming to kill you - "There is a moment in Dark Souls that we will never forget: down in the Depths, picking up an item from a corpse and a slime dropping onto our head. We spent the rest of the level panning the camera endlessly for unseen threats, no longer scared of dying, but of moving. Imagine a whole game of that." - For this reason they think taking the replayability factor to CD makes more sense.
  • Torch may be very important for newcomers/first playthroughs
  • There is a new mechanic they are not allowed to discuss
  • "If you thought From Software was going soft, Hidetaka Miyazaki is about to put you brutally back in your place. And if you've been watching this generation from the sidelines, unmoved by the remasters and rush jobs while you wait for the first true essential to arrive, now's the time. As if there was ever any doubt, Miyazaki and his team have done it all over again."

There's a Q&A about Miyazaki's ideas and philosophy regarding the game at the end.
Click to expand...

I9u4fVk.gif
 
D

DoubleTake

Member
Gbraga said:
Some great items, some disappointments.

The amount of weapons they found plus enemeis not dropping weapons definitely indicate less variety, imo.
Click to expand...

Less variety in what sense? Looks for fashionborne or actual usability? Because in terms of usability the trick weapons and customizations provide way more variety.

Think of it this way. In your first hand slot you have a straight sword and a hammer type.

Iyour second hand you have a halberd and a Axe. Or a rapier and gun. Or a straight sword and greatsword. Or a curved sword and a Scythe. Much more variety.
 
T

Toxi

Banned
Lack of weapons really depends on a few things. Are the weapons well-differentiated? Do they all have different movesets? Do the weapons allow a variety of stat builds?

I'll see when I play the game I guess.
 
D

Dinda

Member
I think Edge and a few people in this thread are jumping the gun a bit in regards to the less replay value.

I mean Edge didn't even finish the game how will they now what is to come? They just think about New Game+ like it was in the Souls games, but until we really know how it is this is a bit premature to say.

Who knows, maybe that one Merchant will stay with his stock from the beginning of New Game+ and will receive further new Items and Armor only available in further playthroughs.

Maybe we have bigger changes with enemies and Bosses in New Game+ than we did in the Souls games.

Who knows, maybe they are right, but until we know for sure it is stupid to state that.
 
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