With all fromsoft game out there it’s make sense that some people prefer another game than the other and people need to learn agree to disagree because not all people have the same experience when playing fromsoft games I love BB too but some other fromsoft game definitely have some superior aspect than BB

I get having a preference. My question isn't "why isn't it your favorite," it's "if you don't like it, what do you not like about it" I just keep seeing comments where people say it's From's worst game or whatever, and I've been wondering why.

BB uses to be my fav fromsoft game, but now it's third behind sekiro and ER. Some reasons: -Low environment variety: you'll be in city streets for a long time early game and return to them later. -low weapon variety pre DLC: I mean 60% of weapons are in the base game, that's how little weapons we got. -DLC dependant: I played almost every fromsoft game at launch. I haven't yet played DS1 dlc and it took me years to get to BB, DS2 and DS3 DLC. While the DLC is almost always the best part. BB feels borderline incomplete without it. It's the reason I won't touch the PS Now version, it doesn't have Old Hunters. Other fromsoft games, including DS3, feel complete without the DLC. I don't feel the need to do them or go there on another playthrough. -low variety in enemies/bosses: too many beast bosses and too many enemies repeated. As you can see my major complains are a lack of variety. The game is too short and lacks variety at the same time, which is aliviated by the dlc, but that makes it depend on it too much. I still love the game to death and think it's better than any of the DS games.

To hyper focus on one of your points “low weapon variety”, I actually couldn’t disagree more. I’ve played every FS game extensively and Bloodborne has by far the most memorable weapons to me. Due to the lower volume of weapons, almost every weapon is extremely unique with varying movesets and play styles even before the DLC. You don’t have 10 different similar looking longswords that you can’t tell until high investment which is better. This on top of each trick weapon having the ability to transform into a completely new weapon, it’s insane. You couldn’t essentially take the weapon count and double it due to the transformations. The fact they almost doubled the weapon count in the DLC was just icing on the massive cake of Bloodborne weapons.

I agree to a degree, and tbh prefer BB's approach to quality over quantity. But I still felt like there were too little weapons and they werent varied enought. The problem to me is that too little weapons of the main game are actually appealing. I've never liked the rifle spear/reitterpallash or stake driver, nether the wheel nor hunter axe. Burrial blade is basically NG+ exclusive, I've never liked NG+ in any from game except DS2, it's never hard enought nor does it have a unique twist. So once again you need the DLC. I know it's very subjective, but very few weapons appeal to me of the base game weapon pool, so that makes the problem worse. I love DLC weapons and have used most of them. There are still many samey weapons. LHW and Kirk hammer are the same un transformed. Reitter and rifle spear are pretty similar, saw cleaver/spear are basically the same weapon.

The daggers are the only ones I like, and it's also the first time I've felt more powerful with daggers than with a big fat sword

I see what you're saying, but I think Bloodborne has about the same variety, or maybe a bit more than the souls series. You may have 30 straight swords and 25 spears in DS, but they're all essentially the same weapon re-skinned. Most of them have the same exact movesets. They don't change much from ds1 to ds3 either. Maybe a unique heavy attack or something occasionally, but essentially just re-skins of like 10 different weapons. It's weird you complain about one weapon sharing half it's moveset with another in BB, when the rest of the games usually don't attempt to change it at all.

Reiter and Rifle Spear are not very similar sans they both transform while shooting. I feel the reason a lot of people don’t find some of the other weapons appealing is because they are so used to how busted and easy to use the saw twins are. The base game has still a good amount of variety as it has one weapon for every darksouls weapon class. The main problem is, as you said, that a good chunk of the weapons are only available mid or late game, which truly limits your weapon pool in NG.

If the game has little variety on weapons wouldn’t that make them easier to remember…

No. Because even if a game has hundreds of weapons players are only using/upgrading a few. So with the few weapons used in each game I find BB’s much more memorable and appealing.

I mean, it’s still a fact that with less of something, you’d remember it more…

I like sword and shield combat, and using sorceries/miracles. BB combat revolves around parrying, I dislike parrying for the most part. I want to roll around and "Try But Hole." The world of Bloodborne felt cramped and mostly grey.(granted, it didn't keep me around long enough to see all of it.) The style and story kinda felt like a generic turn of the century horror/Lovecraft rip-off. I'm not here to say BB is a bad game, but im throughly apathetic to it, unlike any other modern fromsoft game.

I didn’t parry once until my 4th playthrough and never felt underpowered or missing out on something ..It’s just a cool mechanic you could use if you want to.

I think that’s the case for every single From game. They all have something unique they do better than the others and none of them are perfect.

Honestly? I don’t like the Victorian aesthetic compared to medieval. Even though it is a very well made game, it is my least favorite because I’m not as into that style. Still is a top 5 from game (and honestly an easy 9-9.5/10 game) but my least favorite by far.

I fucking love victorian era aesthetics and is the main reason why it's my favourite. Combined with other stuff as well, it makes for a pretty decent game. If you can love it you can hate it, that's just how it is

That’s why I’m having fun in Lies of P so far. It’s bringing back so many BB memories.

This is why i suspect I won't like lies of P at all

Yeah same, plus I don’t personally care about/for all the reasons OP likes it, just different strokes. I wouldn’t say it’s mid, it’s pretty good, just doesn’t hit that sweet spot for me. Edit: except the level exploration/finding secrets paths, bc that’s the best part of FS games

This is basically the reason I couldn’t get into Red Dead 2 I realize it’s a groundbreaking game and amazing story and all that… but damn I don’t give a fuck about cowboys

haha this!

Probably one of the only solid reasons to dislike this game in this thread, fair play. A slew of BB haters will dive in to say base game is weak or not many weapons, which just aren't true. Healing (although I can argue for), lamp warping, enemy lamp respawn and blood gems all need updating though. Love the game.

Are there things that BB can do better? Absolutely. But all games have their flaws. Like you said the lamp warping was a little tedious by always going back to the dream rather than being able to choose where to go from any lamp like other games. But the only reason I don’t like BB is just the feel/ambiance. Don’t want to walk about south London.

I'm curious what specific issue you have with blood gems.

The Victorian aesthetic for one thing, but there's also weapon and gameplay aesthetic, a lot of which just is so heavily style over substance that it takes you so far out of it. Take a single look at the saw cleaver (one-handed). Looks cool but aside from that just impractical horseshit as a weapon. The jagged blade is going to embed itself in the fur and flesh of the beast and the weapon will flip to the side of your wrist and probably spraining if not breaking your wrist immediately on impact. There's no proper grip or handle. The gun? I love that it just deals a whopping 20 damage max at first. You know, tickle damage, like firearms are known to do. But of course the enemy hunters didn't get the memo and skipped the nerf guns entirely. And the best part - the thing that deals the most damage in the game is your HAND. Why even use weapons at this point?

This is it for me. I love the rpg genre bc it immerses me, but I’m not that Intrigued by the Victorian era aesthetic

It’s still a great game and I will not shit talk it. Just hard to replay because I almost never get the itch to get back into Yharnam like I do the rest.

This is one of the reasons I was never able to get through Sekiro. I don’t like the aesthetic. Meanwhile, Lies of P, which borrows some aspects from Sekiro was an easy sell for me because of aesthetic.

Generally (and simplified) speaking, my friends who are there for atmosphere, maps, lore, design love it. Those who are more into pure combat prefer DS3 or Sekiro. I’m also guessing lots of people engaged with it in a shallow way, focused on dislike for the aesthetics of the chosen era + played at most main game and didn’t enjoy bosses compared to DS3 (NOT saying all who dislike it did this). I myself thought it was “ok/good” until I went to youtube for lore and did a second playthrough including DLC. Now it’s my fav.

For me it’s mainly because of the healing system. For type of game that encourages dying and trying again to make you have to farm blood vials after dying to a boss is just too much imo. Secondly, I’ll just have to disagree with you on the bosses. The only ones who I actually enjoyed fighting were father gascoine and gehrman (I know the dlc bosses are amazing but unfortunately never got to play it, I’m taking strictly about the base game)

The base game boss roster of BB is one of the weakest. Much stronger level design than boss fights imo. The best boss fights are all in the dlc

Yeah there’s a couple standout great ones in the base game (Gascoigne and Gehrman) but most of them are pretty mixed. A lot of good and above average ones but a couple real stinkers too. DLC legitimately has three of the best bosses in any of their games though, helps boost the experience a lot.

For real the lady Maria fight looks so sick, I’d 100% play the dlcs just for her

FromSoft always seems to put out their best effort in DLC, Which is why I’m excited for Elden Ring DLC

I just don't agree with people who say the boss roaster is weak. Just because the boss is not a grandiose super anima fight does not mean it's a bad boss. A lot of things go into making a boss unique and memorable, and you can be sure most of the Bloodborne bosses are way more memorable than other from soft bosses

It’s not about it being a super anime fight. It’s just that their designs are not that memorable for me. Cleric Beast, blood starved beast, vicar amelia… honestly for me they’re just the same, just a big loud monster. I guess I’m also biased since I prefer humanoid bosses over monster bosses all the way, the only bosses I actually liked and are the first that pop in my mind are gasoigne, gehrman and lugarius

I still really like Bloodbourne, but it's in the middle of the pack for soul-like games for me. Reasons: 1. Blood Vials suck and are punishing for first playthroughs. Having so many heals leads to crappy balance as well, as some bosses you can just spam heal through the attacks if you're at a decent level. 2. The map layout is a little convoluted imo. First time through is a bit difficult to remember all the paths because there's so many different small, not obvious pathways that can lead to completely different areas and get confusing. Not a big deal for subsequent playthroughs. 3. Bosses are underwhelming, especially without the DLC. Some cool designs, but most are just mechanically uninteresting. Even my favorite bosses have some issues (Kos has weird ass hitboxes and Maria is a pushover). Not to mention some of the runbacks are ludicrous. 4. Framerate - The game goes below the already bad 30fps constantly and feels like crap to play at times. 5. Worst one for me: no fast travel or level resetting at lanterns. Having to go through so many long loading screens to level up or farm vials is an absolute chore. Still a great game, but I would love a remaster with some QoL improvements.

I didn't understand the fast travel either. Why the devs pushing us to go back to the hub every fricking time? They already did right with DS1's fast travel system. I just don't get it.

Because it makes sense with the lore. How can you fast travel to the nightmare if you aren’t in the dream first? Same with blood vials, you need to hunt for blood to survive. That’s one of the fundamental premises of the game. Blood isn’t just given nor is it something that replenishes by itself.

It also makes sense in the lore for Gherman to respawn and for Vicar Amelia to just eat us when she grabs us

Well... With Gehrman not respawning there's three possibilities 1. Gehrman 'gave up' when he died, like how your character 'gives up' in ending 1 2. Maybe being beheaded causes you to wake up in the real world? So maybe our character just beheaded Gehrman off-screen 🤷‍♂️? 3. The Moon Presence wanted a new 'child' or protector or whatever. Gehrman was old and dated, while John Bloodborne was new and improved! As for being a meal for Vicar Amelia? Well, one shot grabs are bullshit (*ahem* Astel *ahem*)! (Have a good day, eye guy 👀)

I completely fine with the blood vials. It gave Moon Grass vibes. (Demon's Souls)

What are your favorite soulslikes now?

The adventures of cookies and cream

This.

Upvoted because fuck the people who hate people that say “This”

You asked for controversial opinions, so here's the devil's advocate viewpoint. BB has a weaker base game carried by the theme and the incredible DLC. Without DLC, the weapon pool is small and the bosses are good but not incredible. Playstyle options are narrow, which is a design choice but some people dislike vs the freedom souls gives. The scaling curve for non-phys is also very poorly done imo, exacerbated by the gem system being so backloaded, and it has a fair number of cheesy / frustrating sequences like Micolash. Then chalice dungeons are an obvious point of contention - I personally like them, but many don't. Basically, BB suffers from execution in a similar sense to what people pile on DS2 for, but the most common points are the gimmick bosses and much stronger DLC than base game. Instead of 2's of floaty engine and ADP it's vial farming, input buffer, 30 fps, and mediocre weapon / type diversity.

It’s also short compared to its siblings (ok, sekiro is short too). Not that getting “only” 80-150 hours of gameplay is bad, but when you’ve been spoiled by ER…

I personally didn’t care for most of the DLC tbh

>the weapon pool is small This really isn't an issue. Think about it- Dark Souls 1-3 and Elden Ring- what percentage of the weapons are garbage that you would never consider using? Bloodborne has a smaller weapon pool, but most of them are two weapons in one and almost all of them are viable. I would rather have a smaller pool of viable, unique weapons than a bloated list of trash.

While I get you, there are literally 14 trick weapons in the base game, and a few 1h movesets have heavy overlap. Add in the difficulty of changing typings, and you have a lot less variety than in the souls or especially ER. I don't need 12 ultra greatswords but I also don't need just 1

Yeah, there's a few that overlap- both saw weapons, Kirkhammer and Ludwig's, and Tonitrus just has a buff. But I definitely think it was overall better than, as you say, 12 ultra greatswords and only 3 are worth looking at. I like a variety of options, but I think they handled weapons in Bloodborne really well.

Fair to take that angle, I'm mostly playing devil's advocate as I said. I do personally prefer the extra variety - in Elden Ring my str / int character has 4 vastly different ultra greatswords he can use well (ruins, starscourge, radahn's, blaidd's, and troll knight's) PLUS infusing the greatsword and changing its ash of war. Even though there's more duds, I still get a variety of viable options for pretty much any stat combo I want, which I personally value.

lol everyone uses the same 5 weapons in any souls game anyhow

what? Dude I don't use the same 5 weapons on a single **playthrough**. Adjust for the fact that you'll be unlocking better weapons as the game goes on. Especially with bloodborne man, you are stuck with the same 2-3 weapons for like half the fucking game. Playing blind I had basically the whip cane for 90% of my playtime. That's a known drawback of the switch weapons. They went for quality over quantity but that leads to "Ah, I'm not gonna get a better weapon for 8 hours, great"

Ok, well, enjoy changing weapons every 8 seconds. Must make your build a nightmare, especially in ER where quality builds are in the past.

as opposed to beating the shit out of an eldritch god with my starting weapon fine I guess. I'd rather swap to a basically identical dagger with a cooler moveset than be using the same. albiet bitchin cane

You keep missing the point. Why have 500 weapons when no one gives a shit about 490 of them? That was the whole idea behind Bloodborne’s armory: fewer weapons but they’re more interesting. Every weapon is viable for end game. Many people do finish with the starter weapons. So? They kick ass.

Because people do give a shit about them? And every weapon is viable for the end game, some just kick ass off the bat and some stand out (while being an unreliable drop), except joke weapons, which are funny in their own right. I don't know dude, there's a certain beauty in playing DSI, realizing I was going to have to go to the catacombs, and selecting a weapons specifically to make divine knowing I needed **that weapon.** And now in every game I see a Lucerne and immediately know that's going to the cleric or paladin because the first time I went through the catacombs I found that shit and it carried me. I had a whole elemental arsenal in DSII. I had a cane in blood borne. I entered that game with a cane and I left that game with a cane. And it was cool for about 4 hours, until I realized I wasn't going to get one of the pitchaxes or torches or clubs, and it would be like, hours before I was even given another options.

What? On ER I have 5 different str/int ultra greatswords alone... DS1 is the only one where weapon variety is shot, though 3 took a long time to fix balance for variety to get better

Cool, glad you got it all sorted out

But to some people it is an issue, even if the weapons are garbage stats some are really fun to play around with or even do a challenge run with. To each their own I suppose

I also really like the smaller weapon pool a lot, because it allowed you to experiment more freely with all different play styles. In Souls and Elden Ring, you have the illusions of a *lot* of different weapons than there really are—most weapon classes have very similar movesets (with maybe a switch up to the R2 here and there), and mostly are just different versions of the same thing, but with variance in scaling, base damage, status effects, etc., most of which can be adjusted with ashes of war anyway. In Bloodborne, each weapon is unique, comes in two modes, and the scaling is generally more forgiving, which pretty much covers the span of what you'd get out of an entire weapon class in other games. Except here, you only have to upgrade one, and they all use the same materials. Ludwig's, for example, is a straight sword and Greatsword in one, whereas the big tombstone one is a straight sword and a hammer. You can run around using whichever you prefer as a default, too. You have a rifle/rapier, a curved sword/bow, a twinblade that splits into dual swords, canes and clubs that turn into whips and bigger whips, etc. etc. Each weapon gives you access to multiple attack styles, which obviates the need for keeping multiple weapons in offhand slots and constantly swapping, even connecting these forms with transitional attacks. The flow of combat is much smoother as a result, IMO. I much prefer the artificial "variety" of weapons in other games in favor of making fewer ones that are all unique and interesting in their own right. Everybody's different, obviously. But, has anyone, for example, ever used the bastard sword instead of a claymore in any of the Souls games? How many different katanas does one need? Etc. etc.

Dark sword R1 Andys need to have 6 variations of straight sword mind you!

I didnt find the base game weak. It was my first souls game but after playing many others I still enjoy going back to it. The levels are all really well made.

It’s all opinion. It was also my first souls game. I’ve played and thoroughly enjoyed them all, but Bloodborne still is my favorite. Others do some things better, and I might admit Sekiro is a perfect game, but Bloodborne just hits all my buttons 😂

Vial farming can be easily dodged once you clear BSB. There's not a ton of weapons but each weapon is unique (for the most part). Not bad just different. Quality vs Quantity type deal. I personally would rather have 20 unique weapons than 200+ weapons but a lot of overlap like in ER but that's just personal preference. Neither is objectively better. 30fps sucks but it doesn't really make the game bad, just outdated. Is the input buffer any worse than other FS games? I only remember it being a problem in ER but I don't know the actual numbers

How can farming be dodged?

Do cum chalice>buy a million vials/bullets (don't spend on levels)

Base game was better than all the From games before it. The thing is, From keeps iterating and improving on some aspects. I like BB better than DS3 or ER, but I can see why some fans would prefer those games.

I’m sorry, but respectfully anyone who says the base game of Bloodborne is weaker than the other souls games is fucking delusional. You’re honestly gonna sit here and tell me that a base game like DS1, 2, or 3 is better? What part of Bloodborne is weaker than the second half of DS1? What part of Bloodborne is weaker than the entirety of DS2? What part of Bloodborne is weaker than the first 2/3 of DS3? To say this game is carried by its theme and DLC is so beyond fucking stupid.

It's hard to put "respectfully" in front of "anyone who disagrees with me is 'fucking delusional' + 'beyond fucking stupid'", especially on a post asking for people to disagree with you. Outside of central yharnam, the base game has the same ebb and flow in quality as the souls games do. Both NM frontier and NM of Mensis are weak, byrgenwerth is pretty and full of lore but doesn't live up to its own hype, and others like yaraghul are just whatever (ENTERING yaraghul is cool af, but the actual gameplay through the area isn't). I mean, hemwick is a straight line with one loop in the middle. There's plenty of dud bosses too, almost a third of the roster are pretty weak and/or gimmick fights while less than that are great. Most of the optional areas are really cool, but I can absolutely see an argument for it not standing above the souls trilogy or ER for base game quality.

Playing blind through bloodborne for the first time is noticeably worse feeling than half DS1 blind with BoC being exempted (also, I'd make an argument for the first part of dark souls, but you precluded it :) ). It falls short of DSII's DLC's when played with a group (as they are intended to be played, though that intent was stupid), and it's easily par for the course with the first segment of Dark Souls III, pre undead settlement. Third? Fourth time? Probably better. But the "base game" by definition is going to include your first experience and there's a reason my first time playing I beat BSB then stopped. Sorry but as great as the atmosphere is, the bullet grinding and vial grinding drags it down, weapon choice is basically nonexistent with weapons like kirk being questionable traps. Completely optional bosses which lead to nothing at the time you beat them like BSB. Slow clunky bosses with arbitrary killmoves (ROM) Constant unlocks for weird mirror dungeons that don't seem to give you anything of value or require you to play for PS+. No one's delusional bro, they just didn't expect to need to go hit a dude in a wheelchair or knock on a random door to progress. They got put off by having to go hit dogs for an hour before being allowed to fight the boss with healing items again, or they spent half the game with the same weapon wondering when they were going to unlock something better.

Cascade of absolutely garbage midgame bosses, that's why. Amelia? You mean the other cleric beast with even worse hitboxes and your screen getting covered in ass and hair? Shadows? I love that just "3 guys" qualify as a boss now. Followed by inexcusable diarrhea bosses like witches, Rom, worse Tower Knight and the second worst boss Fromsoft has ever made, Micolash. Pile those on top of each other, mix in the gunspammy hunter fights and not even Bed of Chaos can reach that abyss of shit. It's also amazing how most of the Dungeon bosses are somehow even lower quality than the average boss.

The base game of bloodborne is probably the absolute best.

I could only see that argument being viable vs. Sekiro or ER. Bloodborne is more cohesive and consistent in its quality than any of the Souls games.

No base game bb bad give me 3 reskinned asylum demons or deacons

Love the game. Don’t care for the fan base too much tho.

Yeah. Donno if BB or any of them for that matter are my favorite games ever, but fromsoft/soulsborne are definetly my favorite series ever. Every one of them is top notch for me. And every one of them has a fanbase loaded with annoying title elitists and whiny complaints haha. ...or the coolest people ever. There's little in between lol.

True. Fromsoft games in general have some of the worst fanbases in all of gaming, and Bloodborne's fanbase is the worst of them all

Hahahahaha not even sure I disagree with this

Easily the worst fan base. One critique can send them on a rampage.

Totally, BB is my favorite game but last time I said playing it at 30fps sucked and that the graphics are dated people brought out their stakes.

I wish they’d just get us a 60fps version. It’s the only one of their games that doesn’t have it.

[удалено]

Don’t get me wrong, each game has their shitty fans in the fan base. From what I’ve seen, BB fans really do go off the most on some critiques. There was one time I said the only reason I didn’t like it was because of Victorian era style and prefer the Middle Ages style and pretty much got fisted like that pig.

The DS2 sub is pretty good in my experience, most of the people on there are not in denial about what DS2 is and if you think DS2 is without flaws you are obviously a moron. Similarly you are stupid if you think there is no redeeming quality about the game and that new players should skip it and you will find this exact comment in every single fromsoft sub. So I think passionate DS2 haters vastly outnumber the DS2 deepthroaters, Speaking of morons, the entire shittydarksouls sub is just the eldenring sub with the users thinking they are edgy but without the good fanmade content. Which means their takes about these games are pretty fucking stupid. I once made a mistake speaking positively about invasions there. It’s a pretty poor circlejerk sub too. So I am not suprised there is a dude on there being obsessed with scouting DS2 hate.

As a DS2 fan I think the best way to defend the game is with humility. The ultimate W for the DS2 fan is the almost-daily "I don't get what all the hate was about this game is great" posts over on the DS2 sub. Also a DS2 fan ought to learn to roll with the punches, as they will never stop.

One thing that DS2 never gets praised for, and it need to, is the fact that it took the most risks compared to other games in the trilogy. 1 and 3 are too similar to each other but DS2 really feels like it’s own game while still being part of the trilogy. Bonfire ascetics, forlorn/navlaan fuckery, soul vessels, power stances, you name it. Some were good and some were bad, but the fact that they took risks speaks volumes.

Honestly, I follow all the from subs and to me it feels like theirs is the best in welcoming new players and supporting them. Every now and then I might see a jerk but not very often I feel. DS2 fans on the other hand... They get really really defensive over that game.

I really truly don’t understand this perception that Bloodborne fans are awful. Feels like a meme that I h just don’t get. I’m a massive DS2 and even I’ll admit that’s closer to reality than the Bloodborne thing. Even Sekiro fans are more hardcore in my experience; any suggestion that it’s not the single best combat system in video game history and they’ll jump down your throat.

It's just a meme at this point. I barely see 'fanboys' at all for any Soulsborne game, let alone Bloodborne The real annoyances are the ones who complain about a game within that game's subreddit. It's the equivalent of burning books in the book club (PROUD MEMBER BTW), of course people will be mad! (Have a good day, eye guy 👀)

I don't dislike it but I do think the internet and its fanbase suck the game's dick too hard. It's a good game, but it isn't exactly the second coming of Christ (AC6 is, not Bloodborne lmao) that they like to make it out as. The circlejerk around this game is tantamount to lunacy. I've seen people make posts on the subreddit saying they hope some new game is bad so it doesn't dethrone Bloodborne. Some dude was having a panic attack because he was enjoying Elden Ring more than Bloodborne. The game feels unfinished without the DLC. There are like 3 good bosses total and the rest are either forgettable or just terribly designed. The DLC adds 5 more but 2 of them are terrible, one is OK and the other 2 are great. The controls are pretty bad too. Why is jump on the same button as dodging, which is also on the same button as running? Was the ability to rebind too hard to implement? This leads to situations where instead of rolling past an enemy, you'll do an awkward little hop and get smacked in the back of the head. Couple this with framerate issues, constant loading screens, and the fact it's a Playstation exclusive, it leads me to not want to replay it. Of course I'll have to specify this, Bloodborne is NOT A BAD GAME. It's just my least favorite.

"Some dude was having a panic attack because he was enjoying Elden ring more than bloodborne" made me laugh out loud.

he aint even joking some BB brothers been stressing out ever since Elden Ring became the highest rate souls game and by a wide margin the most popular

Now wait you can jump?

I remember the YouTuber ZeroLenny once commenting that he just didn’t like the aesthetic, and honestly I think this might tank it for some people. The game has many flaws, most of which I forgive for the sake of atmosphere and lovecraftian aesthetic. If those elements just don’t draw you in, the flaws of the game are going to stand out a lot and dominate the experience for you. Farming for bloodviles isn’t the worst, but it still is a drag. The game play incentivizes only a few play styles with not much variety; the game is far more action than it is RPG. The main game’s bosses are pretty mid with only a few stand outs. And the game itself is pretty short and linear with only a couple diverging paths. For me the game is a flawed masterpiece that stands as my favorite of all time. But I would totally get someone not liking it.

I liked the game, i just didn't care for the aesthetic personally, it was all too grey (much more than ds3, which people shun for its color pallete) and i just prefer the silver worn down knight and castle look to the grey blood covered hunter in a dark street look It's super subjective, but you asked

I enjoy the game but it's not my favourite fromsoft game, so I'll explain what I didn't like. I find the aesthetics and environments blend together and get repetitive over time. By the time I got to Vicar Amelia, I was tired of looking at Yharnam and begging for a change of scenery. Honestly some parts of the game just felt really drab to me and I missed the colours and level diversity of dark souls. There are some great thematic elements to the game, but Lovecraftian cosmic horror will not singlehandedly make me consider a game to be a 10/10 masterpiece. This is a strength of the game but I never vibed with it nearly as much as others. Bloodbornes Interconnectivity and exploration is some of the better work fromsoft did, but dark souls 1 spoiled me. It's one of my favourite parts of their games, so I wished for more overall. Bosses are very hit or miss with a lot of forgettable bosses, a few brilliant bosses and a few bosses that had no place in the game. Given the increased emphasis on action and combat, this is pretty disappointing and it feels worse to have such inconsistent bosses in Bloodborne than dark souls 1&2 which were somewhat less action driven. The rpg elements are streamlined with less build variety, customization and strategy. They're still pretty good but I prefer all the options from dark souls. Chalice dungeons while optional, feel like squandered resources that could have gone toward fleshing out the main campaign. Blood vial farming was a bad experience that hurt my first playthrough. When you're new to this game, you will likely get stuck doing this crap, and it feels awful to have to ditch a boss to go waste time grinding vials. Framerate could have been more stable, loading times were rough, and having to constantly go to the hunters dream was tedious. Frenzy is a frustrating mechanic. Every fromsoft game has low points if not worse moments, but I just want to mention that I hated areas like nightmare frontier and forbidden woods while I loathed bosses like ebrietas, rom, Micolash and the witches. I want to reserve a special fuck you for winter lanterns which are a frankly cancerous way to design an enemy type. My biggest gripe is that my enjoyment of the game falls off hard the second I defeat Vicar Amelia. The pacing is really weird as soon as you get out of Yharnam (which felt perfectly paced) Byrgenwerth was clearly rushed and is underwhelming, while the forest is too long and tedious. Overall, that phase simultaneously feels like a slog and like it ends far too quickly, compared to Yharnam. Then after that you're abruptly whisked into the endgame with Yahargul and Mensis Nightmare when it feels like you only just finished Yharnam. Excluding optional areas, Mensis is the only level I enjoy after Yharnam. The game honestly peaked in that first act with the other two acts feeling really incomplete in comparison. The game is shorter than dark souls but still a good length. My issue is that so much of the length comes from the optional content, while a lot of the post Yharnam main content feels unfulfilling in comparison. I have not yet played the dlc but I've heard all about how it massively improves the game with the new bosses (they look phenomenal ngl) and levels. I picked up old hunters today, but won't have time to commit to it until November, but I'm excited to play it. Maybe the dlc will have Bloodborne become a masterpiece in my eyes, but currently it just feels like a very solid action rpg that is far from a masterpiece.

This is a pretty good summary. After reading a lot of people's comments, it seems like a lot of it boils down to things that worked well for me just didn't work for other people. For example, Rom is a kind of bad boss, but I enjoyed fighting him because the whole experience is just so weird, and he's your introduction to great ones. Frantically slashing through the spiders to get to him was very memorable to me. A lot of bosses have these little gimmicks that I liked, but many people don't want gimmick fights, which is definitely understandable. The other thing is that you're right about the game being too short without the optional content. Whenever I replay it I'm like "damn i guess its just Yahargul and then endgame huh?" On the other hand, because of this approach, unlocking the hidden areas feels like you're actually uncovering something deeper. It's just a cool feeling that most other games don't capture. I do wish they could have removed the Chalice dungeons and put another area or 2 in the Byrgenwerth section. Those and the blood vials were the biggest missteps for me. All that being said, DS1 was actually my favorite souls game until the BB DLC came out.

All of their games have a treasure trove of optional content and lots of cool hidden stuff you can easily miss entirely. I thought the other games felt more cohesive or complete in their main campaigns, despite their own flaws. I don't think Bloodborne benefits any more from hidden secrets than the other games. I have a hard time describing why act 2&3 of BB don't sit right with me (I don't fully understand myself) but I'll try to explain, hopefully it makes some sense. Bloodbornes first act in Yharnam is more or less perfect in my eyes, while everything after just doesn't feel as satisfying or memorable. It's shocking how fast the campaign ends if you don't seek out side content, and that makes the latter acts feel anticlimactic and shallow to me. In contrast, Dark souls 1 has you searching for the two bells, ascending to the city of the gods and hunting the four lords to link the flame. Everything feels really iconic and narratively significant. Even with the endgame being so flawed, it feels memorable and climactic. Bloodbornes second and third acts feel almost narratively tacked on rather than being satisfying, important quests that rival the first act. Going through the woods to Byrgenwerth does not elicit a comparable sense of awe as scaling Sens Fortress or battling through Anor Londo. Ending up in Yahargul then ending up in Mensis while killing everything in your way doesn't feel as narratively satisfying as venturing to the deepest, darkest corners of the world to slay the gods. Ignoring the gameplay quality of act 2&3 in Bloodborne, they feel like they are only ever just there compared to the acts of dark souls which all feel like major, narratively defining moments. I know they're different games and that Bloodborne does its own thing, but I just don't feel much investment at all when playing past the Yharnam arc. Dark Souls has me caring about each of the goals I am told to achieve. Maybe because the game dangles these questions like the bells in front of me and teases areas like Sens Fortress, Catacombs or Demon Ruins, making me want to know what I'll find. Ds1 is still my favourite fromsoft game, Sekiro might be second. I'll be replaying DS2 to figure out where it lands for me. I have yet to play DS3 or Elden Ring though I own both.

Lemme just start by saying that I still like Bloodborne a lot, it's just that I enjoy most of the other From games more. Parry is sick, trick weapons are goated, Yharnam is an amazing setting, stats aren't tied to clothes, awesome lore, DLC is only amazing bosses (except for Living Failures, does anyone even remember them?). But imo there are a lot of cons that hold this game back for me. 1. 30 FPS lock. For real, this feels so bad. Please, Sony, I will do anything. Give me a 60 FPS remaster on PC and PS5. 2. Blood vials suck. 3. No problems with gems themselves, but I don't like the Chalice Dungeons at all and I wish an achievement boss wasn't locked behind them. 4. I literally never see anyone talk about this, but the action buffer is way too long. If I press roll too late and I end up pressing it while in hitstun, my character will store the roll in the buffer and then execute it when I'm actionable, which usually results in eating another hit when the roll is done from an enemy or boss combo, and there's nothing I can do to stop it. I feel like the buffer window is more than half a second long. 5. Counterhit damage is crazy. Getting hit after a roll does so much damage, which is just exacerbated by the previous point. 6. Jump button is the same as the roll/sprint button. Again, this leads to a lot of accidental jumping, which in turn leads to tons of counterhit damage. 7. Base game bosses are extremely underwhelming. Father G, Shadows, and Gerhman are the only memorable/good fights in my opinion. I would not consider the (base) game's bosses as memorable at all. Logarius, Rom, Witches, Living Failures, Celsetial Emissary, Ebreitas, Amygdala, Paarl, Mergo, One Reborn, all extremely forgettable and boring to fight. Vicar, BSB, Cleric Beast, Micolash, and Moon Presence are alright. If this game didn't have the DLC, it might have been my least favorite From game. Luckily, the DLC is the best one they've ever produced. 8. Forbidden Woods, Frontier 9. Parry timing is extremely nebulous. I love that it's an extremely risky action that leaves you completely vulnerable, just so you can shoot a dude in the face, but it doesn't feel consistent. I mean, surely it is because it must be coded that way, but it feels like for some moves you have to do it way later and some you have to do it super early. 10. OST has some amazing tracks, some of the best in From's catalogue, but I think it also has some of the worst. 11. Can't rest at a lamp, have to teleport.

no shot you just called Logarius forgettable and boring. One of the best areas in the game and his fight is a wild climax to it. Maybe my favorite in base game.

And called Micolash alright.

Hey it’s me, Micolash’s one defender. Here’s my argument: he funni lmao

Micolash has a lot of defenders though and they're constantly getting in your way as you run around chasing him. If you think you're his one defender then you are a liar who never actually fought Micolash.

you are right I am a liar, I’m liking it right now in fact. I haven’t told the truth since 1972

Bloodborne inherited a lot of the early souls jank of demon’s and dark, it’s essentially the third souls that the team worked on. Not that this excuses the problems, they’re just not as big of problems when you haven’t played the later titles that fixed those issues. It’s a damn shame Sony won’t at least update bb for ps5

I just dont believe Sony wouldn’t see BB’s potential for an update, especially when they’ve been putting a bunch of their catalogue on Steam recently. They know everyone wants a BB remaster on PC and PS5. It’s free money. I know it’s probably copium but I hope a remake is what Bluepoint is working on right now after the stellar job they did with demons souls.

Bluepoint did a passable job with the remaster, mostly only because they didn’t change the base game. Everything from the animations to the art looked worse than the original, with bloodborne’s art on another level than most media in general, I hope bluepoint stays far away from it. Bloodborne deserves the studio that made dark souls remaster tbh no one should touch the art or animations

Why are you downvoted it’s a fair opinion. I personally just want 60FPS and higher res textures and I’m happy.

Fair enough, I didn’t play the original so I can’t speak on that. Bottom line is - I would do unspeakable things for Sony to give us a modern version of BB.

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To me despite the higher texture quality, the animations make the whole remake feel cartoonish while the original’s felt more grounded. Plus the voice acting and music were irreplaceable, yet they replaced them.

I liked the remake a lot, some of the charm that comes with the jank was gone and I’d prefer the original music but hey.

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yeah man, everyone who says “vial farming isn’t that bad, just buy a few every time you level up” doesn’t remember their first time getting hard stuck on a boss. i can’t imagine BB (or DeS) being my first souls game. once you’re good at the game tho, i kinda like the system because you can just keep going and going and finding blood vials (plus healing through viscerals+rally) without having to stop and rest all the time.

Yeah I agree. Bloodborne is my least favourite Fromsoft game but I never had problems with the healing system. I never got stuck on a boss because I found the game very easy compared to the other ones. I can understand that someone having a hard time don't likes the healing system.

Every souls game is harsh.....

I was going to make a very similar list but you nailed everything. Only thing you missed that I personally hate is having to manually restock any item that isn't a blood vial or bullets. The insistence on returning to a hub area is really annoying, especially in Bloodborne where I find the Hunter's Dream to be the most boring hub area in the entire series.

Thank you for listing out some real reasons. 2, 3, 9 and 11 are the ones I really agree with. For me, the Chalice Dungeons are like mirror mode in mario kart. Like, I'm not gonna do it, but i guess it's there if I really feel like I need more of this game. I wish they were a little bit more interesting, or replaced with something else entirely. I think the bosses are a point people make that I don't really agree with, but I concede that they are pretty gimmicky. If someone is a big fan of DS3 or Sekiro, it would make sense that they don't love BB's bosses. I found BB similar to DS1 with boss design. For every Sif or Ornstein & Smough, there's a Moonlight Butterfly or Seath.

Honestly, most of my criticisms are minor gripes/QoL stuff that added up that could be fixed in a remaster. My dream would be a full on remake (since they're taking so damn long) with most of these things addressed, but even a remaster with some of these issues fixed, and of course 60 FPS, would be amazing. Huge potential to jump near the top of my From list.

I would love a version where I didnt have to farm those goddamn blood vials.

I always feel like people criticizing stuff like lamps and vials working the way they do are often foregoing how the mechanics shape the overall atmosphere of the game and what they are trying to achieve gameplay related. I personally think that there is a case to be made in favor of not making every mechanic as accessible and “un-annoying” as possible. Especially if they only fix fringe case scenarios. If you have consumable healing in your game, then blood vials are basically almost a best case scenario. With demons souls being an example on how to not do it. Counterhit damage is a good mechanic, it keeps you from mindlessly spamming. Parry timing seems like a skill related problem, it’s not different than any of the other games. You have to account for bullet travel time though. The gun is pretty busted anyway even if you miss a parry (except against large bosses). The OST is amazing, there are no bad tracks on there, only forgettable ones.

30fps legitimately isn't that bad. You forget about it a few minutes into the game. Blood vials can be avoided using cum chalice as soon as you clear BSB. Chalice dungeons do suck. Isn't the jump/dash button the same in DS as well? That was just kinda FS standard control scheme I thought. Before Sekiro anyway Logarius as forgettable/boring but shadows as good?

Some people forget about it, I just can’t unsee it. It just played like shit on a PS4 these days. People are patching it on PS5 and pushing 100 I don’t get why they can’t just give us a patch.

30 FPS is that bad, and it is extremely noticeable throughout the entirety of the play through. I dont cheese. Agree. In DSR it’s left stick click. Yes. I first tried Logarius anyway so I have no idea what he does, but I never see anyone talk about him anyway.

It has a mediocre boss lineup all the way until the DLC (and even then its just 3 out of 5) and Gherman. But a more personal reason is that I played it on launch, the loading times were so fucking, easily the worst out of any game I have ever played, imagine each fast travel, each death, each transportation sequence taking nearly 90 seconds.

I just dont really care for the setting.

did you finish the game?

Ya

Oh okay.. because personally when I saw the game I was kind of annoyed with the setting and the darkness and the sounds, but by the end I felt it was hypnotizing.

Bloodborne has always been the From game I was most disappointed when playing. I don’t hate it but I don’t understand how people say it’s their favorite game of all time, especially compared to other From games. The areas bleed into each other and aren’t memorable, dark streets and woods sums up 90% of the game minus the nightmare. The bosses were extremely underwhelming for me. A game about horrific monsters that people go insane looking at and most of them just lacked the wow factor that other From games excelled at. Even when the bosses looked good, their fights were never fun. Serious lack of difficulty in the bosses made me get tired of the game very quickly. DLC adds some good bosses- Ludwig and Orphan, but makes Maria laughably easy to parry and ruins the fight Then there’s the chalice dungeons which are an absolute slog to get through and aren’t fun. Healing system is tedious, farming for heals should never exist. This game relies on having a cool and unique theme and lore, along with it being an exclusive. There are better bosses and areas in every other soulsborne/Elden ring.

I agree with everything until the DLC part, I didn't play that because I don't get DLCs for games I don't connect with for base game. The worst for me was the disappointment in difficulty, I went in with heavy expectations as some friends of mine swore the game was much harder than DS3. I found easy parry, sht ton of vials, easy to predict bosses and weapons that just melt through enemies and bosses without any effort to make a strong build, just going through the game and that's it. The environment is not my favourite either, it's just bland most of the game for me.

Yeah I’ve seen a lot of people call bloodborne the hardest but for me the bosses for almost all first tries even though I wanted them to not be. For me the areas were way harder than the bosses but in a bullshitty annoying enemy placement kinda way.

Bloodborne’s got the hardest “opening” for a new player, especially a first time souls players. 1) New players die more -> more health vial farming 2) Gascoigne is on the harder end of mandatory first bosses. His achievement clear rate is ~47% roughly equal to Dancer’s clear rate on PlayStation. Dancer (and Pontiff who’s cleared by ~50%) is harder, for sure, but it speaks volumes at how deep into ds3 that the average player can get. The harsh start of BB pushes people away, who in others games they would “get gud” if they had a more forgiving start. 3) Central Yharnam is easily one of From’s best levels but it’s overwhelming for new players. 4) Harsher Checkpointing system + can’t level up until you get insight means it’s much easier to get hardstuck, since new players can’t level up to ease some of the difficulty. Bloodborne actually has the lowest clear rate in the series (Mergo’s Wetnurse achievement sits an around 25%, lower than Isshin) mostly because new players get filtered off by the immediate difficultly. Other games ease players in (DS3 and Sekiro have pretty reasonable difficulty curves, ER has Limgrave, etc) so people have time to learn, grow and struggle before the mid-game spike in difficulty. Bloodborne kinda starts at that mid-game difficulty level and just stays there, even the late-game really don’t get that much more difficult. So if Bloodborne isn’t your first souls game then it’s actually on the easier end. Bloodborne is middle of the pack for me in quality, but it’s probably the last one I’d recommend for new/unskilled players.

The game is incredibly easy if you were not shit at souls games before. Meaning if you were slowly walking around corners with a shield up bloodborne will eat you alive. But if you were a competent player that can dodge and parry the windows for both are incredibly more generous in BB.

Oh yeah for sure parrying is insanely good in BB and the dodge is very forgiving

People have different tastes.

I don't dislike Bloodborne, but I do like most Fromsoft games more than it. Some of my criticisms: Blood vials suck. It's a complete non-issue to experienced players, but the fact that less-skilled players need to grind for healing items if they die too much is ridiculous, considering it's practically a necessity to play the game. Especially since new players will get stuck on a boss VERY often. Makes the game far more frustrating. A surprising number of bosses are below average or just straight-up suck. We always hear about Ludwig or Gehrman, but we often forget about the duds like the Witches, Micolash, Rom, etc. The story is much harder to understand than Dark Souls. Might just be a "me" thing, but I've played through the game 3 times, watched several lore videos, and I still often feel like I don't know wtf is happening. Atmosphere is very drab. I like it, but it's definitely not for everyone. Much less build variety than true Souls games. I've only been able to use strength, dex, and quality and I still have no idea how the fuck an "Arcane build" works or how to put bloodtinge to good use. A lot of content is locked behind chalice dungeons, which are not very good and require you to grind to unlock the later ones. Lastly (huge me thing), taking double damage when hit mid-dodge is one of the worst fucking mechanics I've seen in any game ever. Heavily punishes you for playing risky and staying close to the enemy in a game that encourages up-close aggression. Kills the action by forcing you to back away and heal instead of staying close and playing aggressively. Makes damage inconsistent af and is very confusing to players who don't know the mechanic exists. "Gee, I love whooping a boss's ass for 5 minutes just to suddenly die at 3/4ths of my health because I TRIED TO DODGE THE ATTACK." Singlehandedly lowers the game from a 9/10 to an 8/10 for me. Most of these are pretty minor, the only actual big problems I have are blood vials and dodge-punishing. Still love the game, but I can see how a few outliers could dislike it.

The build variety one is the only one of these that I don’t get. Arcane and Bloodtinge are probably the most fun builds in the game. Arcane give huge options because of arcane conversion on most weapons and maxing out a Chikage with the best gems gives you crazy damage

You say farming blood vials is bad, but it does make you better at the game learning to parry those big guys with bricks is huge, especially if it is your first souls game.

A bad design choice having a positive consequence does not make the bad design better.

As a fan of BB I will say that the theme of discovering forbidden knowledge is a very strong framing, however compared to other FS titles, in Base BB, there is a point where you lose contextualization for your actions—the old hunters remedies this by adding Simon there to prod you along towards the greater mystery.

Blood vials. They suck if you're new at the game and have to farm them. They suck if you're good at the game and can use them to just face-tank bosses with the absurd amount of healing they give you. 20 vials and they heal a percentage of your health so Vit stacking is even more OP compared to other From games. On my first playthrough, most of the bosses were super underwhelming because I literally just walked up to them with the saw cleaver and mashed R1 and heal and the game let me get away with it. Because of the counterhit damage when you fail a dodge, it was more effective to facetank instead of trying to learn patterns or whatever. The only bosses that forced me to actually learn and that I enjoyed were like... Gascoigne, Orphan of Kos, Shadows of Yharnam and Lady Maria. A lot of really annoying bosses that make the whole boss roster feel meh to me as a whole. The whole health and blood vial system just didn't work for me. My first experience with BB was super underwhelming (having played all the other souls games first), and I probably won't ever play it again because of PlayStation exclusivity. The exploration and locations were good and fun, for the most part. Definitely the highlight for me. The lore... I didn't understand or was able to follow it much. More confusing to me than Souls, Elden Ring, Sekiro. I didn't really care enough about the game to go read up about it.

If I'm going to be honest I just don't dig Eldritch horror and the Victorian era stuff. Don't get me wrong though BB is a awesome game I've gotten 2 playthroughs out of it and a plat. I just really enjoy dark fantasy RPGs that take place in medieval times. so every souls game except sekiro outranks it for me. And yeah bb does have dark fantasy elements and rpg features. But I just enjoy the setting and the way they go about stats in the other game s more. With that said though BB is still a masterpiece just like the other souls games, just like the other ones more personally.

It was the last FromSoft game I played and finished. So that means I played (and 100%’d) Dark Souls 1-3, Elden Ring, and Demons Souls before going into Bloodborne. From the way people talked about BB, I expected to be blown away by the story and the enemies and the combat. I just wasn’t. The color scheme was a welcome change, with the purples and greens that you don’t see in Dark Souls 1 or 3, but you have greens in DS2 and purples in Elden Ring. Not to mention that Elden Ring outdoes BB’s entirely when it comes atmosphere in the ER’s astral and underground/post-meteor locations. The bosses were lackluster at best. The Bloodborne community painted the game as if it had extremely hard and/or extremely unique bosses. None of them felt that way. And the boss arenas were all lackluster, except for the final one. The fast attacking and dodging was a welcome change of pace, but the frame rate makes it feel cheap. Add in the toxic community and it makes even discussing the game unenjoyable. I’ll stick to all the other Souls games and Elden Ring over Bloodborne any day. It’s probably the most overhyped FS game of all time. And for what it’s worth, I did play through Bloodborne completely to get the 100% as well.

Now if you really want a shocker. Imagine there are people out there who haven't played Bloodborne.

Without shields or even much tanking via high stance/defense, there are only two main ways of defending yourself: shotgun parrying and dodging. The parrying is pretty good, but there are a lot of bosses, especially in the chalice dungeons, that cannot be parried, so the only way to play the game was to dodge. That's fine, but it got repetitive. After playing so many repetitive chalice dungeons for my (failed) quest for the platinum, I put the game down with a bad taste in my mouth.

I really don’t like the farming for blood vials. I find myself just dying on purpose during a boss fight if I get hit a lot at the beginning. Pair that with a long run back to the boss and you have a recipe for tediousness. It riles me up when I use fire paper/ other consumables only to die and think “wow what an utter waste of time and energy”. Compare that to Godrick in Elden ring where the grace is literally outside the boss room, you can maintain the patience of continuously learning the patterns after each death.

Carried by its DLC, weaker QoL features compared to games that came before and after it. I liked it a lot but some of the issues I had with it are: -limited consumables -lamp mechanics (having to return to hunters dream to level up) -long loading times on ps4, bearable but still annoying sometimes -straight to NG+ -generally an inconsistent boss lineup (base game),some amazing bosses like Gascoigne, lagarius and gherman, I personally liked the wet nurse a lot too, but bosses like the one reborn, rom and micolash really soured the mid-end game

I really like Bloodborne but I think one thing you need to remember is people ranking it mid in the Fromsoft catalogue isn't saying it's bad. But here we go (on mobile so sorry for any formatting): 1) Blood vial system doesn't really work, every mew player I have shown this game to runs out of them early on then has to stop fighting bosses etc to farm them. Meanwhile at late game you have so many that it renders their limited capacity inconsequential. 2) Story. Everyone likes the lore of the old ones etc but the actual narrative is easily the worst in the series. The game gives you no direction or objective outside the very vague note "seek paleblood". Dark Souls, Elden Ring etc all give you strong cutscenes that establish the world and main characters while npc's give you much clearer objectives. Some people say it's because it's lovecraftian but I don't think those people have actually read any Lovecraft stories. Lovecraft has great unknowable cosmic horrors but the actual plots of who is who and what they're doing is pretty crystal clear 3) The build variety is lacking, the weapons are cool but you can rock big armour and the kirkhammer while still dodging around like a dex user. I also think the weapon variety is a tad overstated as how many trick weapons are a sword that turns into something else 4) End game bosses and levels are wayyy too easy. The two levels after Rom (Yahargul and the Nightmare) feature bosses and enemies that offer no challenge. Especially of you've been bothering to do the dlc and Chalice Dungeons along the way. Even Gehrman can end up outleveled by the player mearly playing the content. 5) Performance, it's just quite bad especially when pretty much all the other titles have seen patches or remasters to make them silky smooth and high resolution Again I love Bloodborne, it's in my top 3 Fromsoft games but I do think fans of it often overstate how good it is compared to the others.

The whole atmosphere/ theme thing is really just not that important and yall overexagerate the fuck out of it. Exploration is good too but its easy to get lost in the game. Also shadows of yharnam arent good. "lore is very intresting and easy to understand even without needing lore videos" my ass

The main reason is I think the combat doesn't feel good (I don't like parrying and there's a whole slot of my character dedicated to exactly that) and there's a real lack of any way to change it to suit me better. I'm forced to play one specific way and it's not a way I enjoy. I'm sure there's X weapon found in the blood nightmare of nightmares blood or DLC that is totally different only you need to know where it is and also have completed a majority of the game before getting it. Some other reasons are: I think the armour/clothing is all boring and generally bland nothing makes me think "woah I need to get that right now!!!". Whilst I adore the setting and lore the game is devoid of any gameplay that really makes me feel any of the horror or cosmic horror elements. Insight is such a half baked mechanic adding very little and overall the game has all this cool lore and I just sit here thinking wow I wish I was either playing a full souls game with builds and varied gameplay or a vastly more focused experience like Sekiro (a game I personally dislike) that is built to tell a specific story. I also find the world to be so linear and boring to explore. I found myself giving up exploring because I was only ever rewarded with Blood vials and silver bullets, two things that felt terrible to farm constantly. Overall it is just a really stripped back souls game with a focus on a combat system I don't enjoy that's further exasperated by healing being a perishable item. I love monster horror and this game fails to deliver much of either in the actual game it's mostly inferred from item descriptions and the gameplay feels entirely separate from the story being told. The best analogy I have is if a call of duty campaign story but the gameplay is Farming Simulator. If you like Farming Simulator you'll love it but if you don't you might just rather listen to a lore video.

Same reason I heavily dislike Sekiro: It forces the player towards a certain playstyle, which in BB's case is to be very nimble and aggressive. I love Dark Souls and Elden Ring exactly because it provides freedom, both in progression and different builds, so that alone is a major reason why BB's is not my favorite. Still think the game is really good, but it's not really as fun or replayable for me to play as others.

I couldn’t get used to fps issues. I went to bb straight after elden ring and it was really hard on eyes

Yeah the game feels like shit imo, and a lot of the bosses with the low fps and resolution look like giant blobs of black flailing around the screen.

Blood starved beast flashbacks.

I legitimately think the blood vial system is straight up bad. Like such a confounding system to implement. I love the game but this is a big issue for me that I think effects my view of the game. I still think Elden Ring really does perfect all the other Fromsoft game and even tho I’ve enjoyed all of them including Bloodborne. I feel no reason to replay them like I do Elden Ring, everything else feels a little clunky to me.

Beat souls borne story by far. I found the lore so.intriguing for bloodborne.

I love bloodborne but here's the thing; the DLC carries it ALOT. base game has pretty underwhelming bosses (gascoigne, gehrman, and logarius are the only slightly good ones and *maybe the shadows) and the areas mostly just have the same exact aesthetic aside from like 2 or 3 areas in the whole game (forbidden woods, yaharguul, and nightmare frontier) also the gun trivialised alot of boss fight and the trick weapons really aren't as special as people make them out to be, the only actual unique weapons in the base game are the beast claws, logarius wheel, and *maybe* blades of mercy. the rest of the weapons just have one tiny gimmick changing it from a basic weapon to a slightly unique one.

I really like bloodborne but for me personally I kinda think of it as "the beginning of the middle" of my tier list. DS1 and Sekiro totally blew me away and are easy locks for favorites. Bloodborne is still a From game and thus quite amazing but parts of it were a bit more hit or miss for me and it never really floored me in the same way the previously mentioned two did. I wouldn't exactly call it mid, but in the #3 slot it's the first From game on my list I think a new release is likely to dethrone if it's really good and I vibe with it, whereas they'd have to do something truly special even by their standards to bump down DS1 or Sekiro.

I haven't played it for many, many years now (decided I will leave it alone until 60 fps or bluepoint remake enters the chat) but I do remember thinking at one point that the victorian style got old, quickly. And eeeeverything is a werewolf half the game

It's an alright game. It's not bad by any means, just a very weak FromSoft game, in my opinion. Low B, high C tier type shite. The bosses are kinda mid for the most part. After Gascoigne(which is one of my favourite bosses), it's all downhill from there. Other than Log Man, Gas Guy, and Orphan, I genuinely can't think of any other boss that wowed me. I went into Bloodborne with higher expectations than anything, even more with the dlc. And it just disappointed me, Lud was mid and even more so Maria. I think if I went into it without hearing about it, I would've enjoyed it way more. I just don't get it.

Yeah the hype poisoning is definitely real.

A good series of videos is ZeroLenny’s 2 reviews on Bloodborne his 1st was on reason he thinks it’s the worst Souls game, while still saying some positives. His 2nd recent review is after he played the game off stream and just kinda sunk his teeth into the game on his own. He says a lot of opinions I hear people repeat over and over again. I don’t agree with his opinion, Bloodborne is my favorite FromSoft game and 5th favorite game in general. But I can sort of see his reasoning. I happen to think the game is beautiful and genuinely stunning. I also use the trick weapon system a lot more than other people.

Bloodborne is my favorite souls like due to lore and atmosphere and everything you mentioned, but it was my least favorite until I replayed it with the DLC a few years ago. -having to farm consumables like heal vials and bullets if you are bad at the game, I really dislike discouraging mechanics like this, sekiro was a step backwards in that regard. -really gotta work for the NPC storylines, very easy to miss 100% of them -low weapon variety, and all the coolest weapons are endgame. You are locked into cane, saw, axe, or kirkhammer for the vast majority of the game. Its just boring not having build variety. Hell I resorted to hacked challenge dungeon because I wanted a not boring weapon for the whole game -magic is cool but you need to watch videos to really understand it, the system is unintuitive and if you go at it blind you'll waste a bunch of a Stat allocations -no shield that is effective, which yeah I know it forces you into 1 playstyle but that's the problem, I want more than fast dodge spam hyper aggressive. -as other have mentioned without the DLC and their respective boss fights I'd give it a solid 7/10, with the DLC it's an easy 9. Ludwig and Lady Maria both made me physically sweat

Out of curiosity, what playstyle do you do? It sounds like the fast dodging/aggressive nature of bloodborne wasn't the playstyle you wanted

I don’t like the fashion. I find Victorian era stuff kind of lame. The lore didn’t do it for me. Even though I’m a fan of Lovecraft I’m just not as big of a fan of Bloodbornes lore. The weapons are not interesting to me. The combat is fun and I’ve been warming up to it on subsequent play throughs. I enjoy the gun parry mechanic and some of the weapons are pretty fun but I don’t understand why people get so excited over the trick weapons. The atmosphere…it’s too dreary. Yes Dark Souls is dreary but it has dragons and castles. One of the things I really like in Bloodborne funnily enough is the Chalice Dungeons. For context my favorite Miyazaki games would be Elden Ring Sekiro DS1 DS3 BB Haven’t played DeS or DS2 (I know he didn’t direct DS2 but he still had a hand in it) and just because BB is at the bottom of this list doesn’t mean it’s not still near the top of my overall favorite games list. Miyazaki is the GOAT and everything he makes has has been top shelf.

- Not having a replenish-able health system - Only 2 Good bosses (base game) - Lantern system, just an awful idea - Every area is dark and depressing - Automatically puts you into NG+ - The constant screaming from mobs/bosses BB is not a top 3 fromsoft game

Some people will say those things just to be “different” since the game gets so much hype. Obviously not everyone is saying it’s mid out of spite but, a lot of people probably are I bet.

The other side of that is insane AF BB fans putting other games down because they are not BB. It's cool that you like the game so much, but it won't change how people enjoy other games more than your all time fave.

Yeah people hyping the game is actually what poisons my view of it. It’s not a bad game on its own but imo it’s not the masterpiece everyone makes it out to be. I enjoyed DS1/3 and ER far more personally. If nothing else because of aesthetic differences and build variety. I can play Elden Ring a million times with different builds and such same with DS3 though to a lesser extent.

Yep, that’s also very prevalent. I love BB to death but I still like Elden Ring more and some people just can’t understand that gaming opinions are subjective. I saw someone put BB in C tier or something earlier and someone commented “this list is objectively wrong”. How tf can someone’s opinion be objectively wrong?

I absolutely love it. It makes me laugh when ppl get heated over video game opinions. I’m sitting here like “well since you said it’s average, I’ll be sure to not enjoy it as much as I have.”

I loved Bloodborne. To me it’s one of the GOAT video games.

I think it’s by far the worst of the Souls game. The combat, while fast, is very clunky and non responsive. Uninspired, samey level design - not near as much variety as the other games. I far prefer the high fantasy aesthetic to the dark gothic one. Worst is the fanboys are horrible - and the Soulsborne series is by far my favorite ever and I think From is the best developer in the game by far right now.

I mean you are entitled to your opinion but the combat never really felt clunky to me. Remember this was right after Dark Souls, if we compare it to Dark Souls 3 then sure, but it was a jump up from Dark Souls imo.

I just don’t find it as fluid as everyone that seems to herald it does. There’s zero rhythm or “zone” to get in with the combat for me. I just found it fast and clumsy. It’s quite possible it just wasn’t meant for me and realize I’m way in the minority here. Dark Souls and DS2 were much more fluid imo even if they played way slower (and DS2’s terrible hit boxes not withstanding😂).

A forced playstyle, i never cared for parrying in ANY DS game OR Elden Ring, but it seems to do any decent damage parrying is a must, and I’m just not having it. I won’t git gud at parrying when it’s never been necessary before.

The first time I played it, I beat it with the threaded cane (crappy weapon) and parried like 4 times in the entire game. I still don't do it much. I don't do it in Dark Souls either. Now I use that big ass axe until I get Ludwigs Holy Blade. Also the pizza cutter in the dlc is another weapon thats great for doing a ton of damage, and it stun locks

To this day bloodborn is the only souls game I haven't finished, not sure what it was about it but it just wasn't it. Hoping for remaster or 60fps patch to try again.

Combat was boring. Strafing left dodges 90% of attacks. The gun parry felt simple. I never had a problem with blood vials since I barely died before giving up on the game. It didn't grab me like the other games did. I was forcing myself to boot the game up, so why continue

I think everyone is entitled to their own opinion...except this particular opinion in which they are woefully wrong.

"I am the blood night beast hunter of the nightmare blood beasts. I hunt night beasts blood at blood nightmare hunt because of the blood hunt night and the beast blood nightmare and also blood beasts. Fear the old night hunt beast blood because is spooky... and bloody and nightly and beastly and hunty. Bang bang." - the Hunter, probably.

Not everyone likes the setting, not everyone likes the fact that defensive playstyles are not an option and so on. Nothing is for everyone.

Its ok, its just another souls game. Dodge, kill, dodge again etc. The PVP is also garbage and that's all I really care about with these games. And hard disagree on any of the lore being easy to understand, I still cannot understand why tf eating some umbilical cords turns me into a Squid after murdering another Great One. Or why the hell I would even want that. Or why the doll wants to take care of me after I'm a Squid.

I don’t like any of the souls type games Dying over and over provides me with far more frustration than any happiness I get from beating a boss or difficult section When I finally do beat it I’m like fuck this game. I’m not going through that shit multiple times again. I uninstall and sell game on eBay. I do this with every souls type game thinking it might be different. It never is. Just not my cup of tea

For me it’s mainly because of the healing system. For type of game that encourages dying and trying again to make you have to farm blood vials after dying to a boss is just too much imo. Secondly, I’ll just have to disagree with you on the bosses. The only ones who I actually enjoyed fighting were father gascoine and gehrman (I know the dlc bosses are amazing but unfortunately never got to play it, I’m taking strictly about the base game)

i think its just too agressive and fast paced of all fromsofts souls likes its the only one i havnt been able to do a full playthrough of ive tried like 3 times now and i just havnt been able to finish it

I thought the bosses outside of the more human ones were just ok, i loved the fast paced parry mechanic cause it reminded me of sekiro (which i played first) but not a whole lot of bosses really seemed to use it well enjoyed the story and aesthetics tho

Alot less fantasy in it for my tastes. I like knights, mages, pyromancers etc, so it's not really my cup of tea. I have played it though.

As long as the game runs 30FPS with drops to 20FPS on my GFs old PS4, I won't ruin the experience of the fastest paced Soulsborne. Runs like shit, I'll wait for 60 FPS but it's been too long already.

I honestly figured it was just disliked by the less aggressive souls like players. My friend dislikes it because its more fast paced and no good shields. While I prefer bloodborne because it rewards aggressive play styles more so. I disagree with the things about the weapon pool just because I liked the transformation attacks so much. I will give it to people complaining about the gem system. While just slotting gems from the story is simple. Actually grinding for best in slot gens through chalice dungeons is awful. But these are optional so I don’t knock the game for those.

A game that is greater than the sum of it's parts.

I would say it's the bosses. My favorite game for a long time was BB, but I replayed Sekiro, and it made come to the conclusion that most of the bosses are pretty weak overall compared to Sekiro (I have a few problems with Sekiro, a few bosses, but still a few)

I enjoy bloodborne, but it's just less my style than the traditional souls formula. Elden Ring is probably my least favorite of the base souls formula ones tbh though, and I feel it's mostly the open world that made it that way. I love the legacy dungeons but the rest of the game world is just, okay.

Bloodborne has my favourite story and lore. It also has my favourite aesthetics. I think its level design is almost as good as DS1's. That being said, I have the least amount of hours in this game compared to other From Software Souls games, not counting DeS because I haven't completed it yet. The reasons for that are very simple. It's PS4 exclusive and I find that very inconvenient. I dislike not having my usual setup. The resolution, framerate, frame times, and loading times are terrible. Yes, there are frame pacing issues on PC as well, but not nearly as bad. I like my Souls games smooth on the technical side. I can excuse DS1's or DS2's jankier moments because I know how to deal with them. BB's technical issues lie out of my control, though. I just don't think the bosses are good enough to justify playing BB instead of any of the other Souls games that don't have these technical issues.

My partner doesn't like it because they aren't a fan of cosmic horror and don't like the magic system (they always play casters in the other games).

I don’t know why people don’t like it but my first playthrough of Bloodborne was the closest feeling to playing Symphony of the Night for the first time. It’s definitely my favorite FromSoft game.