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Bloodborne - A Magnum Opus of Gaming

It's just too good.

By JirasuPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Let’s talk about one of single greatest culmination of all things gaming. Coming out in March of 2015, this game is the achievements of three previous iterations in the same genre, by the same company. FromSoftware’s Bloodborne, is not only one of my favorite games to ever be released, but is also one of the single greatest games ever created.

Coming out after the releases of Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, and Dark Souls II, Bloodborne was a reinvention of the FromSoftware’s gaming formula. What was before an action game comprising of combat dodges, slower and more committed attack-styles, and a world filled with lore through the items you find, Bloodborne took these elements and turned them up to eleven. One of the largest changes that can be seen and felt early on was the removal of any kind of effective shield against physical attacks. Sure, there was the wooden plank in the vanilla game, but it was ultimately useless against any and all attacks. Now, your main way of avoiding damage is just by dodging. But dodging has been ramped up; faster and requiring less stamina than previous games, these changes highly encourage a much more aggressive style of gameplay. You’re also given a gun in your off-hand in order to parry enemy attacks and riposte them for massive damage. And most enemy attacks (even monster attacks) can be parried. It all boils down to some effective timing and enemy attack reading. With a little practice and patience, you’ll be ripping apart enemies in no time.

Another improvement that Bloodborne introduced was the rally system of recovering health. Before, the only way to get one’s health back was to consume either your estus flask, using life gems or other health recovery items, or by resting at a bonfire. Now however, life can be regained mid-combat by hitting your enemies shortly after you take damage. Again, advocating for a much more aggressive style of combat. Now, you can always get your health back instead of just defaulting to a healing item. And this also applies to visceral attacks, where you regain ALL your health lost should you land a successful visceral. Just these small changes to gameplay alone drastically made the game fell much more like a learning duel instead of trying to bait or even exploit enemy weaknesses to beat them.

The idea of progression and being triumphant at the face of adversaries is still looming at large in Bloodborne. The world is fairly linear but still open enough to allow the player to explore and find areas of the levels that someone else might find in a different order than you. There are plenty of sections and areas within the game that will be sticking points for people as they come across them. Ultimately the idea is to maintain a steady hand and to take your time. Don’t get frustrated if you succumb to the city of Yharnam or anywhere else in the game from time to time; it’s the world of Bloodborne.

Speaking of, the world is filled with an incredibly dense and detailed Gothic-Victorian style of worldbuilding that and architecture slowly falls apart into a Eldritch god induced nightmare. The world around you in the game drips and oozes lore; each building telling a story, even if the inhabitants of it have turned into the thing you sought to prevent from happening. There are a handful of NPCs that can be discovered on your journey across Yharnam. Each one with their own story to tell, should you lead them back to some semblance of safety. And of course, not every NPC wants to be your friend, or even talk to you for that matter. It’s just another layer of complexity to make the world that much richer and more interesting.

And Bloodborne can’t be brought up without mentioning the score of the game. Each track that coincides a boss fight (with the exception of one area in particular) is hauntingly beautiful, and truly encapsulates the boss it plays with. Each song helps tell the story of the boss, and how as your fight with the boss rages on, the score with adjust and adapt to the new stage of the boss enters. And the music only gets better in the DLC “The Old Hunters”. Granted, everything about the game gets better in the DLC, but even just the base game the music never misses a beat. The extra content that comes with the DLC is also arguably one of if not the greatest single expansions to a videogame ever made. More weapons, clothes, areas, bosses, music and more.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to play the gift that is Bloodborne and you have the means of doing so, you’re doing a disservice to yourself by not playing it. Fans across the world praise the game for how legendary it has become over the last six years it has been out. Fans also have been dying for anything else regarding the world of Bloodborne; whether that’s a highly anticipated sequel for the newly released PlayStation 5, or, a remaster/remake of the highest quality. The Demon’s Souls remake by BluePoint Games is what people refer to when they think of Bloodborne getting remade with higher fidelity graphics and a more stable framerate. Even with some shortcomings, BloodBorne is masterclass. Is it perfect? No, it’s certainly not. But there is no such thing as a perfect game. Bloodborne goes above and beyond the call of duty. It’s masterpiece; a magnum opus of modern-day video games.

action adventure
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About the Creator

Jirasu

Scripts about the things I find interesting. Most are for videos on my YouTube channel.

Check it out, if you're interested:

hhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiqQGl1HGmVKGMYD8DRaHZQ

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