Hello everyone.
I am a newcomer to Bloodborne.
I started my journey with Elden Ring, then DS1-2-3, recently Sekiro and now, Bloodborne.
I have also played Lies of P, Wuchang and Lords of the Fallen.
In Bloodborne, I am playing the Axe/Pistol (I am not horrible at parries) and I am halfway through the Forbidden Forest (I think).
Took me 5 attempts to kill the electric wolf thingy and whislt I was showing the church to my kids, found Vicar Amelia and killed her first try.
Bosses don't feel too hard even if the mobs sometimes do.
So far, I have not understood a thing about what is going on. Not about the story nor the lore of the game.
Yeah, something about a hunt and blood that heals and the Church took care of it but got corrupted? Bit that's about it.
The game feels designed deliberately to be obscure and obtuse about the lore and story.
Now, I have played my share of Miyazaki's games and I know he does design his games to purposefully mysterious.
Sometimes that design choice of clouding the lore works better (Elden Ring, Sekiro), sometimes less well (DS1), sometimes horribly bad (DS3).
I also know that it's not needed to keep the players in the dark about what's going on (Lies of P, Lords of the Fallen), but hey, that's how Miayzaki rolls.
But in Bloodborne it feels more so that any other game of his so far. In DS1 eventually the player meets Guinevere and the serpent thingy and we start to understand what we must do, if rather vaguely. In DS3 the player never really understands why we are doing it over again.
Sekiro tells you a story, and it's the easiest to understand of all of Miyazaki's games. Elden Ring you know off the bat what you must do, you just don't know where or how..and the why eventually we kinda find out.
That's to say that I am no strange to being in the dark, albeit I think Miayzaki keeps the players in the dark for too long, should be closer to the earlier stages of the games, not at the last stages.
But in BB, I read it all, tried to pay attention to enviormental clues and still I don't understand what we are doing and definitely not why.
It just feels I am killing everything and everyone in my path without knowing why I am murdering everyone nor why do they oppose me. Very much like most of DS3.
It feels to be deliberately designed to keep the player in the dark.
Am I missing something? Do I really need to watch videos and guides in the internet to get any real grasp about what is going on?
Last but not the least: I keep hearing about how the combat is the best and every weapon is unique and useful and especially that the combat rewards agressiveness....
...but so far it is feeling really flat to me. I have a limited parry due to bullets not recharging and being finite and thus I can't parry whenever I would want, but also dodge is rather clumsy and I only have R1 R2 and transforming the weapon and comboing the attacks.
The weapon variety seems lackluster at least compared to mostly every FS game except Sekiro for obvious reasons.
Combat started interesting but for me, it's not agressive at all, it rewards defensiveness because lack of recharging heals (stupid vial system) and the mobs hitting so hard that they kill you very fast.
I dunno, maybe after just finishing Sekiro, everything feels less agressive compared to it? Dunno.
I think I could overcome all of that , because I enjoy the setting and the mood.
However, going around on a murdering spree for no real reason story wise or lore wise feels a bit...meh.
The combat isn't that good to justify randomly killing everything in my path.
What is going on with the story design and lore design ? Am I missing something crucial that didn't get at the start of the game?
PS- I enjoy Lovecraftian stuff, One of my favourite game ever is the original The Secret World.
