Bloodborne – one of the compelling RPG games so far – is the right choice for people who want to showcase your power in the onslaught with a bunch of enigmatic monsters in a ravaged city, especially when the true madness almost takes over everything in every scene. Its dark fantasy is somewhat like other FromSoftware’s games such as the Dark Souls series.
For all RPG enthusiasts, Bloodborne can satisfy each of your senses, from hunting adventures, solving the puzzles to encountering the terrifying endemic illness that expands through all the streets like an epidemic.
1. What Is Bloodborne About?
- Game genre: Action RPG with focus on strategic fight options
- Platform: PS4
- Multiplayer: YES! Connecting to other players in a cooperative session
- Network connection: required in both online and offline mode
- Age rating: 16+
- Ease of play: Tutorial available in-game but it’s easy to miss. It’s recommended to read through the game manual to know how the basic things work.
2. Bloodborne Game Elements
Bosses
There are a total of twenty-two powerful bosses in Bloodborne. They all feature a big health bar and tend to drop many special items. They are always considered as what the player needs to try hard to finish up the game as fast as you can, except those living in the Charlice Dungeons. As a player, you’re allowed to use the summoning option to defeat these bosses.
Stats
In Bloodborne, stats refer to player attributes. Each time your level is increased, you’re awarded one point of stats.
The game uses numerical values to represent stats like Strength and Skill, which also determines what weapons and armor your character can be equipped. On the other hand, stats like Arcane and Bloodtinge show how much damage a certain weapon or item can make.
Blood Echoes
This is the main currency in Bloodborne. The more enemies you kill, the more echoes you obtain. Also, achievements like consuming Coldblood or selling items also give you more echoes. On the contrary, you will lose your echoes when you buy new items or talk to the Plain Doll (a friendly character) to level up.
When your character is killed, all of your echoes will be lost and left on the ground where he/she dies. You can then retrieve these echoes by coming back to that location and either collecting them or kill the nearby enemy who stole your echoes.
Classes
Classes (also called Origins) in Bloodborne are different from traditional Classes found in previous Souls games. In particular, the game offers you an “Origin” section, and you will pick up an origin with a short back-story and starting stats, as well as several Blood Echoes.
The way you decide to shape up your own characters is up to you. Once leveling up, you’re able to have your stats customized until you feel that it suits you the best.
There are a total of nine starting classes in Bloodborne as follow:
- Milquetoast: It’s for fresh gamers who love to get well-rounded but hate any particular cure with boosted strength.
- Lone Survivor: It is decent in vitality. If you have the habit of increasing the HP first, it’s a good choice.
- Troubled Childhood: If you like attacking your enemies in a co-op session, it can bring you the best battle ever!
- Violent Past: It’s ideal for any player who thrives on handling the crowd, especially when it tends to be weak in firearms.
- Professional: Being extremely talented and highly educated is what we remember you about this class. Choose it if you want to boost endurance during the battle.
- Military Veteran: Strangely enough, if you seek more physical attacks, this class would be a perfect choice.
- Noble Scion: Are you confident that you can survive and recover blood after the death? Noble Scion is your best choice.
- Cruel Fate: It’s a class with the well-spread stats that can raise the likelihood of your enemies drop.
- Waste of Skin: It’s for gamers who want to form into whatever character they wish.
3. Bloodborne Gameplay
The whole story feels a bit complex yet solid and appealing, not to mention how its gameplay mode completely makes sense. Your journey gets started for one night only (from afternoon to dawn). You will experience the similar vague and strange storytelling that the Souls saga used to be popular for.
Don’t miss reading the game descriptions and browsing through some great fan theories to know what’s happening in Bloodborne. The game kicks off in the middle of things, which is so true in all the last Souls games. So at least you might be given a goal in advance: slaying the archdemons, ringing the bells, and exploring the cure.
1st Floor Clinic/Sickroom
Your character will be transfused blood by a mystic man sitting on a wheelchair (it sounds cool as an action movie to watch), and then being whispered to locate the Paleblood (the biggest mysterious element in the entire lore of Bloodborne). At this point, you might have no clue for that sort of Paleblood, and no one can tell you about that. Once you get out of the clinic right from what has just begun, it appears that Yharnam (the city where Bloodborne’s events occur) does not seem excited about the whole talk!
In this stage, you need to handle your first enemy in the sick room so that you can find the Lamp to get into the Hunter’s Dream (a location where the player goes after their first death). To do this, you need to diminish the first foe with your visceral attack.
For that reason, all nightly hunts take place due to Yharnam beast disaster. Worse than that, people in the town suddenly found themselves unexpectedly attracted to the hunts when they turn out to be less human than ever! Unluckily, you’ve already had been given blood by someone else; you’re not completely human either. And guess what? Everyone now sees you as a foul beast.
Hunter’s Dream
You’re awake in a mysterious fog, in a world recognized as the Hunter’s Dream. You met an old man called Gehrman who is lying without any movement. He tells you that he will support you whenever you need. Don’t worry about the details of your journey yet, just hunt the beasts because that is what a hunter is good at.
Central Yharnam
What’s going on next? You meet Gilbert who has a warm voice calling out of the winder by the first lamp found by you. Apparently, he has never heard about Paleblood, but then will ask you to find for him the Cathedral Ward where the healing church is based.
This is when you have to start his quest line, meet Eileen the Crow (a hunter) at the central sewer and find the daughter of Viola for the music box.
Sure enough, once entering Yharnam, bizarre things start to happen. Right after killing a hunter, who is not completely a human but the beast himself, in an inexplicable madness slaughtered his beloved wife, you need to find the key to the Tomb of Oedon.
Next, you’re guided to the Chapel where you can locate the initial piece of information showing what’s going on in the city. Keep fulfilling your quest for Paleblood by going through Oedon Chapel to encounter a man without legs and survivors who should be sent to the chapel by you.
Cathedral Ward
Now you make way to the Cathedral Ward where all the statues and objects of worships stand in line with the walls, describing the monsters unlike anything else you’ve encountered before. A woman named Amelia stays here, and when you start to approach her, it’s easier to hear the prayer.
Chat with Eileen the Crow at the front door only after you can unlock the shortcut leading to Cathedral Ward lamp. At this time, you will be attacked by Henryk, a true mad hunter, so don’t be hesitant to beat him up as Eileen the Crow told you. Next, guide the Lonely Old Woman to the Cathedral Wand before going back to Viola, and then, bring her the Red Jeweled Brooch.
Forbidden Woods
First of all, you need to own the password “Fear the old blood” to successfully access and met a man behind the huge door in Cathedral Ward. After it opens, you’re led to the Forbidden Woods where the Yharnam inhabitants roam and go nearly mad. But note that, only one person who is not cursed with that epidemic yet, and offering you strange stuff known as the blue “Tonsil Stone.”
Byrgenwerth
Now your task is to take the Tonsil Stone to the Grand Cathedral for a boon of gods. While going through the forest, you will encounter some creatures which are unlike anything you saw – they are in the form of the beast plague. Watch out since these monsters can cast some terrifying spell straight from their tentacles.
Walking through Byrgenwerth, it’s easy to witness how desolate the place looks, but don’t forget to save some time for exotic creatures there, such as flies, spiders, and even men. Going further along the path, you’ll see a squid-faced creature who seems hungry for nothing more than knowledge. Thus, the insights you’ve earned could be devoured by it for sure.
4. What’s Amazing About Bloodborne?
You might have heard that “Bloodborne has kept ruining other video games this year”. Yes, no doubt!
This does not mean that everyone is the fan of Bloodborne, but you will always hear something like “I don’t care about that Bloodborne, but it’s surely a cool game.”
Encourage Aggression in an Appealing Way
Unlike the Dark Souls 3, Bloodborne knows how to drive greater aggression in the best possible way. You will regain your lost health once you counter-attack instantly. You will be given a reward for constantly hitting a certain boss. And much better than that, you can gain skills to take advantage of the bosses – like turning them into the prey.
Bosses in Bloodborne are Dynamic and Focused
Another great thing about Bloodborne is that bosses usually approach you proactively and focused strongly on the player’s skill. The game chooses to push the combat timing and mutual knowledge of every encounter to the forefront during the combats.
This makes it different from other games which only drive the builds and backstabbing constantly. Almost every boss in Bloodborne was made from a stagger mechanic, where the players can freely hammer into any part to drop their health status as well as unleash more powerful attacks.
Lower-Level Players Can Outmaneuver Mechanic!
What’s more special here is how the game’s battle system enables lower-level players to freely outmaneuver the boss’ stagger mechanic. And they would be able to eliminate all bosses despite their low amount of health, stamina, and physical attack capabilities.
In detail, encountering one of the earliest bosses is not a big deal for a level-4 player. What you do here is to simply work way around its weak points and perform visceral attacks to take its blood down to zero with one combo attack.
Better than this, instead of focusing on new builds and increasing further attributes for a stronger character, the motivation behind Bloodborne is to let the players deal with the same bosses and then master their moves. They’re dodges, swings, and damages you cast in the combats.
It Gives You New Experiences in Performing Combats
With the easy-to-play controls, combats in Bloodborne aren’t challenging, but in fact, they’re more intense than expected. The foes can hit you hard, but don’t rush since the trick here is not about getting hit, obviously.
While the previous Souls game versions love the idea of combining evasion with defense, Bloodborne brings a different experience when being all about dodging and attacking. These are important parts of your fighting combos, which can be chained together during the combat if you want. Let’s roll towards your enemy by clicking R1/L1 on your game console for a critical attack.
Besides, based on the weapon you’re availing, this would give you some fascinating options, from swinging to strike a foe low down to hopping back one step to evade. Remember to press the circle while pushing your left analog stick, which can help you roll in one certain direction.
When you want to lock on one enemy, hit the Circle plus the analog stick on the left or right together. Doing so could give you a chance to sidestep dodge faster even than a roll, but this lock-on feature also depends on what sort of demons you’re facing.
And quite like other Souls game editions, the hunter can observe his stamina at the top of the game screen and right under the health bar. This exposes the number of attacks and dodges you can do before recharging again.
5. Bonus: How To Defeat 6 Great Bosses in Bloodborne
For most gamers, playing Bloodborne might feel easier than other Dark Souls brothers. But you still see a lot of them die continuously, especially when they try to send the Bloodborne great bosses to hell. This is the reason why we want to share with you the secrets on how to be a badass – when you find no difficulty in KILLING ALL BOSSES in the game.
The bosses that we mention in this post include Cleric Beast, Father Gascoigne, Witch of Hemwick, Vacuous Spider, The One Reborn, and Darkbeast Paarl. Read our quick boss battle guide with every cool tip and trick for killing all of them with ease.
Cleric Beast
Never keep standing in front of the Beast too long, or else you’ll be at the edge of death. Try to run toward it and position yourself behind. It surely turns to strike you, but don’t panic! Just keep dodging and moving around to the Cleric Beast’s back.
However, if you unluckily get stuck in this situation, calm down and hurry to back away so that the beast could run away from the wall. Once you see any room behind it, take this chance to move back and start hitting it from behind. What if the Beast flies into the rage (meaning it will attach you fiercely)? Well, stay back and let it strike the air a bit before resuming your attack.
Father Gascoigne
Father Gascoigne makes him extremely strong by transforming his melee weapon into a longer and sharper blade. So, stun him about 3 times while he remains the human form.
Before facing him, let’s acquire the Tiny Music Box from a young Yharnam girl (his daughter). Find it next to the gate to the sewers right in the plaza of Central Yharnam. When he changes into the hostile beast, play the music box in your item collection. At the same time, ensure yourself to a position close to him before using the box. If not, you won’t spare enough time to move around right behind his back to inflict a Charge Attack.
Witch of Hemwick
When encountering Soot Monster hatching in the midst of a chamber, don’t get yourself fooled early since it’s not the boss. Witch of Hemwick will be one of the Bloodborne great bosses you should be cautious about, and she’s just right on your left.
Hit her until she shows up. But as you see a purple glow appear below her, stay away as fast as possible so that you won’t be attacked by that. However, that purple glow differs the light purple shade surrounding the Witch when she disappears.
The One Reborn
After all Bell Callers are sent to hell, get back to the ground floor to prepare for facing The One Reborn – one of the Bloodborne great bosses you can’t ignore. It looks very tall with a skeleton at the highest point. It has one gooey thing at the base of its body. Bear in mind that trying hard to kill The One Reborn in the front is an awesome way to get killed soon.
The best strategy you can use here is to dash around its rear-end or land rapid attacks on the boss’ hind legs and butt. Also, avoid anything spat out from it by going over the stairs because that vomit attack can’t reach the stairs if the boss isn’t next to that area. During the battle, once seeing the boss’ midsection shines red, stay away from it or its attack.
Darkbeast Paarl
Darkbeast Paarl is an electrified dog – like a beast with a scary skeleton face. It looks like the child of the Blood starved beast and Vicar Amelia, but it was born with an electrifying feature. Throughout the fight, move away as far as possible from the boss as it starts standing still and intensifies its electricity. Never let yourself be out in front of it.
Stay under the boss and hit it as much as possible. If you want to boost your damage to it, use the Fire Paper. After releasing enough damage, the beast will soon lose its lightning power. At this point, keep attaching it and be careful as it begins backing up to strike you back a few times.
Vacuous Spider
Vacuous Spider is one of the toughest bosses the game offers. The challenging part is a bunch of spiders spawning more to guard their boss right after you hit it. Don’t worry about how to destroy such a large amount of horrifying creatures, instead of doing that, focus more on the boss.
Here’s the best strategy for you: Race through the spiders to strike Rom (another name of the boss). Those spiders won’t be able to aim and attack you accurately if you run fast through them. They also do not follow you at all!
Conclusion
Bloodborne is not the game for weak-heart types, especially when the most intimidating beasts of the game are waiting to combat with you anytime and anywhere. Make your fight easier with those Bloodborne great bosses by picking up some great tips and tricks in this guide. You’re almost getting close the end, warriors – all your suffering and hardship will be rewarded!
In sum, all you need is the high patience and willingness to work out every rhythm of the Bloodborne. The in-game journey appears more vital and memorable than you’ve experienced before, especially the whole world of Bloodborne feels like a puzzle cube that just fits perfectly. Well, FromSoftware has successfully proved that each of us has a masochist after all, just because Bloodborne is one of the compelling RPG games so far.
