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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!
« on: June 28, 2025, 04:20:13 pm »
Game 12 - Bloodborne (PS4) - 26 Hours
In my opinion you can break down three types of difficulty in games. Classic difficulty, where the challenge is based on gameplay, combat, bosses, and so on; progression-based difficulty, where the challenge is figuring out where to go and how to move forward in a game's story, and story-based difficulty, where the challenge is understanding what's the story the game is trying to tell you.
Bloodborne, along with the entire Souls series, is famously difficult in all three of these areas. While I don't mind games that are challenging gameplay-wise, when games are obtuse with the story and direction I tend to not enjoy them as much. I did enjoy Dark Souls and Demon's Souls particularly with the fluid, responsive yet difficult gameplay and the beautiful and exquisite worldbuilding... but really, really don't like the storytelling. Even though this game is different in name, Bloodborne in the broad strokes is essentially the exact same as these previous games, including pretty much all of the gameplay, leveling and boss structure, weapon and character upgrades, stats, storytelling philosophy, you name it. Just with a different name and look.
The one change I liked the most was the inclusion of the gun - I used it to counter enemy attacks way more than I did parrying and riposting in previous games. I also tried out some of the randomly generated areas too and found them to be pretty enjoyable. I think the game has been way more optimized since it came out, I experienced a very smooth game with minimal downtime from loading. I actually didn't have that much trouble with the difficulty. Other than a few hiccups here and there I found my progression in the game to be relatively smooth, which was good because honestly I was kind of anxious to finish it and move on.
Alas, most of differences in this game actually made me enjoy it less. I really didn't like the world of Bloodborne. It was too grey and messy for my taste, with the level design feeling more slapdash and random than usual. I got really tired of coffins, weird status and gravestones literally everywhere no matter how much they made sense. I much liked the variety offered previous games. That said, I didn't explore every nook and cranny but I found that this game felt very same-y and after a while it just got boring. The change to finite-use health potions led to a lot of backtracking to replenish my supply which got old very quick.
I'll perfectly admit that I'm just not hardcore to get into the story. I also think it hurt my experience that I didn't play online this time around. I just get so frustrated at the lack of any really explanation and I just couldn't be bothered to investigate further beyond the very basic "the worlds messed up, you gotta save it" because there's no way of telling whether my conclusions are correct or not. I tried looking up story explanations online and when the best-referenced explanation was only about 1/3rd evidence-based and 2/3rds speculation and interpretation, I knew this story just wasn't something I was going to enjoy. To me stories that are designed like a puzzle to solve are fine if the pieces are hidden in the game, but when there are so many pieces missing I just can't see how anyone can come to a reasonable conclusion. It severely limited my experience of this game and combined with an art style that just didn't do it for me this game just really wasn't my cup of tea. If you really love this game's story and world, I can totally see why it would click for some. Just doesn't do it for me, though I do feel pretty alone in this regard. Maybe I'll restart the story and try for one of the other endings someday, or the old hunters DLC and I might think better of the game by then.
In my opinion you can break down three types of difficulty in games. Classic difficulty, where the challenge is based on gameplay, combat, bosses, and so on; progression-based difficulty, where the challenge is figuring out where to go and how to move forward in a game's story, and story-based difficulty, where the challenge is understanding what's the story the game is trying to tell you.
Bloodborne, along with the entire Souls series, is famously difficult in all three of these areas. While I don't mind games that are challenging gameplay-wise, when games are obtuse with the story and direction I tend to not enjoy them as much. I did enjoy Dark Souls and Demon's Souls particularly with the fluid, responsive yet difficult gameplay and the beautiful and exquisite worldbuilding... but really, really don't like the storytelling. Even though this game is different in name, Bloodborne in the broad strokes is essentially the exact same as these previous games, including pretty much all of the gameplay, leveling and boss structure, weapon and character upgrades, stats, storytelling philosophy, you name it. Just with a different name and look.
The one change I liked the most was the inclusion of the gun - I used it to counter enemy attacks way more than I did parrying and riposting in previous games. I also tried out some of the randomly generated areas too and found them to be pretty enjoyable. I think the game has been way more optimized since it came out, I experienced a very smooth game with minimal downtime from loading. I actually didn't have that much trouble with the difficulty. Other than a few hiccups here and there I found my progression in the game to be relatively smooth, which was good because honestly I was kind of anxious to finish it and move on.
Alas, most of differences in this game actually made me enjoy it less. I really didn't like the world of Bloodborne. It was too grey and messy for my taste, with the level design feeling more slapdash and random than usual. I got really tired of coffins, weird status and gravestones literally everywhere no matter how much they made sense. I much liked the variety offered previous games. That said, I didn't explore every nook and cranny but I found that this game felt very same-y and after a while it just got boring. The change to finite-use health potions led to a lot of backtracking to replenish my supply which got old very quick.
I'll perfectly admit that I'm just not hardcore to get into the story. I also think it hurt my experience that I didn't play online this time around. I just get so frustrated at the lack of any really explanation and I just couldn't be bothered to investigate further beyond the very basic "the worlds messed up, you gotta save it" because there's no way of telling whether my conclusions are correct or not. I tried looking up story explanations online and when the best-referenced explanation was only about 1/3rd evidence-based and 2/3rds speculation and interpretation, I knew this story just wasn't something I was going to enjoy. To me stories that are designed like a puzzle to solve are fine if the pieces are hidden in the game, but when there are so many pieces missing I just can't see how anyone can come to a reasonable conclusion. It severely limited my experience of this game and combined with an art style that just didn't do it for me this game just really wasn't my cup of tea. If you really love this game's story and world, I can totally see why it would click for some. Just doesn't do it for me, though I do feel pretty alone in this regard. Maybe I'll restart the story and try for one of the other endings someday, or the old hunters DLC and I might think better of the game by then.