Bloodborne

PorcusHawk wrote:

megablast16 wrote:The Nightmare Frontier is interesting, have you been there yet PH? 

There seems to be a constant threat of invasion in that area, or at least until you locate the woman with the sinister bell (haven't seen her yet).

Forgot to mention in the above post that I actually found her. Go over the small bridge into the area where the hunters showed up then keep going down towards the toxic river( if you look to your right as you approach the water you'll see her in an opening slightly above you). When you reach the toxic river go right slightly to an opening - there's another one of those green lanterns, like by the bridge, there - and simply follow the path round, she'll be in front of you! You can kill her with a sneak visceral attack if you want. 

megablast16 wrote:Forgot to mention in the above post that I actually found her........

Thanks, I need to go back to that area at some point soon. 

I haven't had a lot of time over the last couple of days, largely due to having to re-download everything after the HDD upgrade as well as getting involved on MLB The Show 15 and Bastion. 

The little time I have spent with the game has meant that I've made bugger all progress over the last few days and I'm still at the same lamp (the starting one in Unseen Village after beating Rom). I just haven't been able to get my act together in this area AT ALL and I frequently get killed by the respawning/buffed enemies that are the product of the Chime Maidens. I know where a couple of those aforementioned maidens are but there seems to be one or two that I haven't found and I soon get overwhelmed by their spawns. Of course, on death, the maidens themselves respawn so that old familiar Souls/Bloodborne repeat ad nauseam gameplay is currently in full effect.

Jeez, it's been hard work again today. 

I have only just managed to get to the next lamp in Unseen Village and it's taken repeated attempts over a few hours just to get that done, it's as if the game has just ramped up in difficulty and that small area has probably been the hardest part of the game so far, by a long shot. 

That next lamp takes you back to an area that may well look familiar although it has also changed a little since your last visit. Thankfully, I've only come across one Chime Maiden in this area (so far) and she was in plain sight so never presented the same annoyance than those in the preceding area did. However, it wasn't far in when I got jumped by three hunters, those on their own are bad enough, but now I have to deal with three of the fuckers.

I did find a route where I would sometimes only aggro two of them, including landing a nice visceral attack on one to start the encounter (but nowhere near enough damage to kill him). It did make things a little easier, two of them have been dealt with and thankfully these guys don't respawn. However, the one remaining was still causing me grief so I decided that he was best left until my next session.

I also managed to piss off one of the NPCs although I'm not entirely sure how and I wasn't too impressed when this seemingly friendly character started attacking me on sight. That was also not an easy fight but I did drop her eventually which allowed me to purchase her armour and weapon, the latter of which cost 40k in echoes although it could well become a nice little addition to my arsenal.

Finally found our how to reach the boss in the Nightmare Frontier, and beat it after a few attempts. It's actually similar to the Darkbeast in some ways and not too hard once you've got his attack patterns down.

Also made my way through Cainhurst Castle and reached the boss, but my 3 or 4 attempts to beat him didn't go well so made a tactical retreat back to Hunters Dream, thankfully I'd spent the 78,000 blood echoes I'd accrued beforehand so I didn't lose them all.

The hunter on the stairs in Byrgenwerth is also giving me grief, apparently the boss is close after that, so with no where else to go until I beat the hunter, and the Cainhurst Boss a work in progress, I've reached a bit of a wall at the moment.

Currently have four paths open to me, none of which I'm making significant progress in so similar to megablast, I also seem to have hit a bit of a wall.

1) Nightmare Frontier, although I haven't really been back to explore there since first discovering it.
2) Cainhurst Castle, opened a shortcut to the boss but haven't returned to take him on in a while.
3)Unseen Village, getting abused by the mobs although making very slow progress, opened a few shortcuts but also a little lost.
4)Upper Cathedral, just opened it up after discovering it ages back but also contains some real bastard enemies so haven't got far in there either.

Been exploring some of the early Chalice Dungeons that I created, completed the first couple but now lack enough items to create the third one, it also doesn't appear that I can purchase the items I need so I also seem to have a hit a wall there too.

Finally finished off Byrgenwerth after getting rid of the annoying hunter on the stairs and beating Rom, The Vacuous Spider. It's a misleading boss because it seems easy at first but then suddenly becomes really tricky and it took quite a few attempts in the end to beat it. Anyway, now the Unseen Village is open to me but I've only taken a few tentative steps into the area so far past the lantern. Also had a couple more tries at the Cainhurst Castle boss without luck, luckily I've opened the elevator/ladder shortcut so it's not too bad to get back there, although it's still a bit of a trek compared to some shortcuts with a few easy but annoying enemies to get past as well.

megablast16 wrote:.....now the Unseen Village is open to me but I've only taken a few tentative steps into the area so far past the lantern. 

Good luck with it, that area has pissed me (as well as another Souls vet who I regularly chat to on twitter) right off.

Finally made a bit of progress, just as well because considerable frustration was beginning to set in.

Beat the boss in Nightmare Frontier, although it took me fucking hours to find the thing, on the way I got invaded again before finding the bell ringing woman, again this invader was promptly dealt with. The boss itself wasn't too bad as you could pretty much safely camp under the thing and not get hit too often with just the occasional dodge required when it did its jumping attack. Admittedly, most of the time you would hit the boss for bugger all damage but assuming you have decent range on your weapon (Threaded Cane+8 FTW) you would occasionally hit a weak spot or two.

I may return to the Frontier at some point because there's a massive poison lake running through the level and I wouldn't be surprised if I've left some nice items behind.

Also finally made my way through the fucking nightmarish Unseen Village (revisited) and opened up a bunch of shortcuts. I managed to find the boss this morning too although I haven't beaten it yet but I've got close a few times, just need to farm some blood vials before returning. Those of you who played Demon's Souls will likely have a sense of deja vu when you meet this bastard.

I also had a couple more attempts at the boss in Cainhurst last night and did manage to get the piece of shit to below half health a couple of times before failing to his new moveset. I do have a feeling that a little more patience, practise and clever use of the environment will soon result in his slaughter too.

Managed to get to the second lamp in the Unseen Village, just past the big laser, but then was surprised to find myself in the area of the lamp from the first visit - and then got caned by three hunters! And that's as far as I've got in that area, I'll have to try and split them up because it's nigh on impossible to fight then simultaneously.

I did find a key for the Upper Cathedral Ward though so I headed there instead. It's a relatively small area but full of tough enemies, I managed to get through and find the boss, and another of those life saving shortcuts to the lamp. It's another one of those bosses that starts easy, transforms and gets a lot tougher, and the spawning minions are a pain as usual. Had a couple of attempts but no success yet.

megablast16 wrote:and then got caned by three hunters! And that's as far as I've got in that area, I'll have to try and split them up because it's nigh on impossible to fight then simultaneously.

I frequently make myself available to summon there as it seems to be a spot where loads of people need help, problem is, without being able to properly communicate it can still be a pain. That said, I have managed to help a few others deal with at least one or two of them, if not all three. 

I managed to solo them but it wasn't easy, neither was it done in one attempt, thank fuck they don't respawn . After my first couple of attempts I did notice something that may help you. 

In case you want to figure it out yourself, or already have:

Good effort on getting through to the boss in Upper Cathedral Ward, on my few excursions into that area I keep getting fucked up by those annoying bastards that eat your brain whilst stealing your insight, especially the one by the ladder. Fucking hate those things.

I hate those brain suckers too, especially when they freeze you and you're at their mercy. 

I found a good tactic was to try and get them just inside a doorway, then you can actually hit them through the wall while their freeze attacks can't hit you. Either that or dash in, get in a few, quick attacks and then back off why shoot their freeze attacks, then dash back in and finish them off.

I've also beat the boss now in that area, the Celestial Emmissary. He was an unusual boss, he starts as one of those small weird blue creatures and first you have to find him among a group of others. He's ridiculously easy at this point once you've found him, and you can take about half his health. Then he grows a lot bigger and gets a lot more aggressive with damaging sweep and slam attacks and he also starts firing off homing arcane missiles that do massive damage if they hit you, all the while you've got a group of those blue meanies respawning to deal with too. Overall one of the easier bosses though.

Made some decent progress yesterday. Finished off the nasty Unseen Village area (2nd visit), including the boss, The One Reborn. Also returned to Martyr Logarius in Cainhurst Castle, having leveled up quite a bit since my last failed attempt, and beat him too! I believe I'm quite near the end of the game now.

A gaming friend of mine, who's already completed the game and is now on New Game+, also made me aware of a secret optional boss I didn't know about. No spoilers but the area is accessible from right next to the lighted lantern in a previously completed boss arena, I haven't paid it a visit yet but I plan to today.

A co-worker has had a week off work and he has managed to see and do pretty much everything in the game. Earning the Platinum Trophy in the process!

Beat Celestial Emmissary last night and, as megablast already stated, a stupidly easy boss and by far the easiest in the game so far.

Today, I also discovered Ebrietas but despite getting close a couple of times I haven't quite finished her off yet but I did finally return to Marytr Logarius and slaughtered him. I also joined the Vilebloods which has got me back into helping other players as the items I need to level up in the Covenant only seem to be readily available by beating hunters, most of which I have already beaten in my game.

By way of taking a small break from my principal journey I have now decided to explore a bit more of the Chalice Dungeons as I've only done a couple and wouldn't mind seeing a bit more of what they are about.

EDIT: Ebrietas has now been taken care of, not an easy battle at all and took me quite a few attempts. I seems that the only path now open to me is the Nightmare of Mensis and my very limited early foray into that place was quite intimidating . I may just stick with the Chalice Dungeons for now, as I also got another one under my belt just before disposing of Ebrietas.

Made my way through Nightmare Of Mensis yesterday. The worst parts are an early section where you're constantly afflicted with frenzy, bring plenty sedatives and equip clothing that adds some frenzy protection, and it's also another level where you are at threat of invasion until you kill the bell ringing woman. Once you get past those two very tough parts though it's actually not too bad.

There are still some tough enemies to get through but if you've got this far they shouldn't pose too much of a problem. Once again there are some genius short cuts to discover, and then there's the boss. An unusual one this, I wont spoil things but just say it's a bit different to previous boss battles. 

Also found a lift into a strange nothingness in Nightmare Of Mensis, I don't know if it has a purpose or not but there's nothing to do down there that I could see.  You can see what I mean in the video below.

There's actually only one area left for me now before the game's climax, so I might delay going there and re-explore some previous areas and tackle some Chalice Dungeon's first. There's also Ebrietas to take care of, I've had a few attempts but they didn't go well - that fucker is tough!


EDIT: Ebrietas, Daughter Of The Cosmos is now taken care of, she was still tough but after some judicious leveling up since our last meeting I actually beat her at my second attempt this time. 

I've completed it now, and got all the endings! 

I decided take the advice of a friend to get them all in one playthrough. Once I'd reached the end of the game, but before going to the point of no return, I saved the game and then copied the save to a USB memory stick. You can then use that back up to overwrite the game's auto-save and play out all three ending scenarios. It may be cheating slightly but, as much as I love the game, I didn't fancy 3 separate playthroughs.

The first two endings are pretty straightforward and you just need to make one of two choices, although one choice involves a tough boss fight. The third one is more complicated and needs you to have collected three pieces of a specific item. Thankfully I had done because, although there are 4 in the game and you only need 3, a couple are very missable and can actually become unobtainable if you do certain things.

I'm only short of three Trophies for the Platinum. One for acquiring all the weapons, one for finding an ultra rare bloodgem (lvl 15 or higher) and the Pthumerian Queen boss Trophy, all three require extensive Chalice Dungeon time I believe so I'll probably spend most of my time there now trying to fulfill the requirements for the remaining Trophies or until I get bored. 

megablast16 wrote:I've completed it now, and got all the endings! 

I decided take the advice of a friend to get them all in one playthrough.

Each to their own but there's no way I could do that, only ever done that once in a game and that was on New Little King's Story (8 playthroughs on a 30hr+ game, no thanks, no matter how good the game is). I'll save those other endings for NG+ and ++, assuming I do those.

Well done on beating the game though . I'm still working on some of the Chalice Dungeons although I should probably just get back to the main game, in which I beat Micolash the other day but haven't gone further than that just yet.

I hear what you're saying but as I tend to trade my games in, as I will probably do with Bloodborne soon - I'm not much of a collector - and very rarely play lengthy games twice, let alone three times, anyway it just made sense to me to cheat a little bit with the endings while I've still got the game.

megablast16 wrote:I hear what you're saying but as I tend to trade my games in, as I will probably do with Bloodborne soon

It honestly wasn't a criticism and makes sense if you weren't planning on replaying it. I guess I just like to keep these types of games to experiment with different builds etc, especially if I feel like exploring the PvP a little more.

No probs PH, I didn't take it as such. I was just explaining my reasoning. 

Meanwhile I've been doing some Chalice Dungeons today. I'd only briefly dabbled beforehand and didn't really understand how they worked to be honest, but now I've completed a couple and got my head around them they're an enjoyable addition to the main game. I should have got into them earlier.

megablast16 wrote:No probs PH, I didn't take it as such. I was just explaining my reasoning. 

Meanwhile I've been doing some Chalice Dungeons today. I'd only briefly dabbled beforehand and didn't really understand how they worked to be honest, but now I've completed a couple and got my head around them they're an enjoyable addition to the main game. I should have got into them earlier.

Yeah, the Chalice Dungeons are great and I can definitely see me spending a few extra hours in there. Once you start getting to Depth 3 dungeons things can turn sour very quickly (if you're nor careful) as I found out last night, I ran into a dungeon exclusive boss but it was a different iteration of the ones I'd beaten in previous dungeons, however, this time there's no way I was getting past the bastard. I got close a couple of times, including an attempt where I was only a hit or two away but still no dice and I couldn't get near it after that.

So back to a couple of different dungeons that were only Depth 2 I went, that was so much more relaxing and I found some strange item that lets you create higher level dungeon entrance items from any excess others you have. I'm curious to see what other mysteries they contain.

Just completed this and whilst there is no doubt it's a great game I still don't think it matches up to either Demon's Souls nor Dark Souls.

The combat and general gameplay are arguably more FUN than those aforementioned games, the boss battles are fantastic, as is the atmosphere and there's no doubt that the level design is just as brilliant as you expect from FROM.

However, due to the fact that it's possible to see pretty much everything on your initial playthrough (even without a guide), the less memorable and fewer NPCs, reduced weaponry choices (hence fewer options to experiment with builds), less focus on Covenants and the limited PvP means I can't see the game having the longevity that Dark/Demon's had.

Maybe there's a reason why a large number of players are seemingly doing the USB save trick to see all the endings. I do look forward to having a crack at the NG+ but for the reasons I mention above, there may not be as much of an incentive to see it through.

PorcusHawk wrote:


Yeah, the Chalice Dungeons are great and I can definitely see me spending a few extra hours in there. Once you start getting to Depth 3 dungeons things can turn sour very quickly (if you're nor careful) 

I know what you mean. I got to the Lower Pthumerian Chalice Dungeon (depth 3, layer 2) without too many problems then ran into a boss called Undead Giant who dished out massive damage with a huge club for one hand and a scythe for the other. Took quite a few attempts, and many blood vials, to beat him. I can see now that it's going to be more work than I thought to get those final 3 Trophies! 

I see you got the "Yharnam Surprise" ending.

That very same Undead Giant caused me serious grief and it was only when I realised that I had more powerful attack gems that I could swap in for my weapon that I finally got past him. I then took a brief look at Layer 3 and decided I wasn't quite ready/in the mood to deal with that.

As for the ending, it kind of felt like the right thing to do, however, now that I've completed the game I've had a brief look at the guides and now realise that I could have done the 'true' ending had I been aware. Not only that but 

Spoiler in case of others who are yet to complete the game:

.

I manged to beat the Undead Giant today, first attempt as well. I also got to the layer 3 boss too, and look who it is, it's Rom: The Vacuous Spider! I got careless and got killed though, then decided to pack it in for the day. Apparently later on there are dungeons that give the player a handicap such as lower max health and the like, don't like the sound of that!