Miyazaki you genius. You’ve taken absolutely everything that made Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2 fantastic, and smashed them all into Bloodborne. The atmosphere, the gameplay, the setting, and of course, the difficulty. Recent Bloodborne gameplay footage has been released, which can be seen here, and boy is there a lot to talk about. Tons of new gameplay elements have been revealed, all of which will be discussed here.
The offensive
First up, weapons have seen significant changes, yet some similarities remain. Like in the Souls series, weapons are more than just an offensive tool. Most often, players designed their character to revolve around a certain weapon, picking specific stats to make that weapon most effective, and sticking with that weapon because its unique moveset appeals to you. Picking a weapon in the Souls series means picking a certain playstyle. Picking daggers if you prefer quick, light attacks, and claymores if you prefer slower, heavier attacks.
This remains in Bloodborne. Every weapon has unique movesets just like in the Souls series, but Bloodborne takes it to the next level. Pressing L1 enables your character to transform the weapon, giving it a new moveset alongside different benefits. What was once a simple blade can now be attached by flinging it to the end of a staff to form a scythe. What was once a small sword, with the press of a button, now becomes an elongated machete. The significance of picking a weapon to fit a certain playstyle has never been more significant. With new weapons comes new playstyles and tactics, and this excites me greatly. We also see that we can change the weapons form mid swing, enabling unique combos and possibilities. Every weapon in the Souls series had such a unique feel, and this most definitely will be amplified in Bloodborne.
The introduction of guns is also one of the bigger changes we’ve experienced. Many fans have expressed concern over this, stating that it encourages players to camp from afar, making guns overpowered. This is however, not the case. Guns such as blunderbusses and shotguns actually deal minimal damage, but stun the enemy. Ammunition is also scarce, meaning this further discourages players from a passive playstyle. Imagine this, you attack the enemy with a flurry of attacks, you see him wind up an attack of his own, you don’t have enough time to wind up your own attack, so you shoot your shotgun, stunning him, before moving in for the critical hit (similar to parrying someone in the older games). Speaking of critical hits, they can also be performed via an all new charged attack by holding down L2. Backstabs in the Souls series seem to be removed in favour of this. Psuedo-backstabs can now be performed by hitting the enemy with a charged attack from behind, stunning them before smashing them with a critical hit.
Dodging has also seen some changes. Pressing circle while not locked on performs the roll we all know and love from previous Souls games. However, when locked to an enemy, it performs a dash (which looks a hell of a lot cooler). This seems to fulfill the same function as a roll, but covering more distance.
Healing and difficulty
The biggest change to healing is that in Bloodborne, it’s mapped to a single button, getting it’s own unique space. Pressing triangle consumes a blood vial (which is Bloodborne‘s Estus Flask). What does this mean? It seems healing takes a larger precedence in Bloodborne, which is why we now have a designated button for it.
What I really want to talk about is the all new method for regaining health, which strongly encourages an offensive playstyle. In Bloodborne, when you get hit by an enemy, your health isn’t immediately lost. Your health goes into a “temporary” state that slowly depletes, but, if you attack an enemy while your health is in this temporary state, you regain your lost health. This strongly discourages a passive playstyle. Imagine you’re up against a massive boss, you’re out of blood vials, you get thwomped by the boss with a tiny sliver of health left. Do you retreat and keep that sliver? Or do you rush the boss to regain all your lost health, giving you a better chance against it? This new mechanic really complements what Miyazaki is trying to achieve. He doesn’t want players to be passive, there won’t be shields, we have guns instead, weapons transform, he wants us to use them, to rush the enemy. He’s stated on many occasions that he wants every battle to be one between life and death, and this new healing mechanic really puts in an element of a struggle for survival, a real risk/reward playstyle.
I hear fans already: “regaining health with attacks?! This makes the game way too easy!” Before Dark Souls 2 was released, there was a similar fear among fans. Whilst the developers said they wanted the game to be more accessible, people mistook this as “easy” and “casual”. FROM have also stated for Bloodborne that they don’t want to over-focus on punishing the player, yet they continue by stating they don’t want to offend the difficulty level, and don’t plan on making it easy.
Online and PvP
We know from previously released information that Bloodborne will have co-op. Unfortunately, no more information has been released as to how this co-op will function.
PvP will also be in the game, and FROM want to make this “seamless”. So instead of those ghosts you see in Souls games, you’ll actually be seeing other players.
Another tiny clue we were given is that PvP will include “hunting beast players”. What does this mean? We’ve been told before that if the player consumes too much blood, they transform into a beast (maybe this is like losing humanity in other Souls games?) How does this affect gameplay? Can we transform into beasts during a PvP battle? Are players who are in beast form more susceptible to being hunted by other human players? Not much information has been given, so I’m only speculating at this point.
Stats similar to the Souls games return, meaning we’ll be seeing a variety of players with differing builds in online play.
Level design
Players from the show floor have told us that the level design is complex rather than linear, like that of Dark Souls 1, with a higher emphasis on verticality than Dark Souls 2. This is brilliant news, I, among others, found Dark Souls 2 level design lacking, and a lot more linear than Dark Souls 1. Bloodborne is going back to what made Dark Souls great, the fantastic level design, tons of routes to take and lots of places to explore. With the new Gothic setting Bloodborne bears, exploring the areas sounds like an adventure in itself. Checkpoints of some form similar to bonfires have also been confirmed, so no getting to the end of the level, dying, and starting from scratch again.
Closing thoughts
My thoughts? I need a PS4, simple as that. From what we’ve heard and seen, Bloodborne looks phenomenal. The game oozes style from every orifice, from the level design to the weapons to the gameplay mechanics. You have no idea how excited I was for Dark Souls 2 to be released, now that Bloodborne is on the horizon for 2015, the urge to get a PS4 is overwhelming.
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