They Call Me The Hunter!

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peter
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They Call Me The Hunter!

Post by peter »

They also say that death is a part of life, and boy am I finding this out to my cost because yes - you've got it - I'm at last girding up my loins and taking on the acme of gaming challenges, the unforgiving, the incomparable, the frightening........ Bloodborne!

Universally recognised as one of the hardest, if not the hardest challenge that all gamers must one day face, I'm a couple of days into this monster of a game and have died about a thousand times already. Suffice to say that this short time in, I'm already finding the game so damn good that the constant being killed, the constant failure, the constant frustration of seeing ones progress dissapear to naught, is a price that is worth paying simply to be here - to be part of this assault on the acme of gaming achievements.

I can't say too much yet; I haven't the time to go into the details right now - but I hope that as I go through it I can take some of you along with me, to experience with me my successes, my failures, and my many more failures.

If any of you have taken up the mantle of Hunter before me I'd love to hear what you think about it, and of course any advice you have to give - so if you are on board for it, let's give it a whirl. Strap yourselves in, because it promises to be one hell of a ride!

:D
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
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peter
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Post by peter »

Okay, lets go in a bit deeper.

Waking up in the laboratory like place with some old guy crowing over you is the first thing that happens and almost immediately you get to put a character together and are thrown out into it, no explanation given. There are helpful little critters popping up from the floor to give you basic controller instructions, but not much more. One death in and you awake in a dream world which will be your effective base during the game. A quick scout about to collect a couple of weapons and then bang! out into Yarnham proper.

The first thing to get your head around is that dying is simply part of the game. The opponent density and ferocity is such that it is inevitable that you will die, die, and die again. The point is that while you are dying you are learning. You are picking up the goods and information that will allow you to progress. You are learning how to draw out the opposition, to lure them into the places where you can get them, but they are hampered by the environment or whatever, and you can finish them off.

Yarnham is a dark and labrynthine place and it is by opening up shortcuts that you are able to die, respawn and avoid having to kill every single opponent over and again that you have previously killed in order to get to the place where you are pushing your progress forward. The graphics on the PS4 remake are first class and have a dark and gloomy quality that gives the whole thing the atmosphere of the grave. The Hunter is a brooding and silent beast whose ability to respawn is his strength. He is remorseless and though he may, and will, die multiple times - he just keeps coming back.

I haven't fought one of the legendary bosses yet - hell, I'm only picking my way through half a dozen streets as yet - but when I do, I can apparently call on the aid of other players via the networking facilities, in order to help me do the job. Hope my internet connection is good enough to support this or I'm going to be royally screwed!

;)
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
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Post by Avatar »

Eh, not ported to PC yet. :D

--A
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peter
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Post by peter »

Shame Av - it's a superbly crafted game.

I'm just now on my second boss having dealt with the first one with not too much trouble. This second one is a bit more demanding but I think I'll be able to deal with him. He's like a preacher in a graveyard and while I can get his health bar down fairly easily, he suddenly launches this ferocious attack from which you cannot seem to get away. Problem is that as with all of the Souls games (to which this is related if not actually one of the series) every time you die you are transported back to your last "save" (inverted commas because it isn't really a save point in the traditional sense), you loose all of your blood echoes (the currency that buys you life) and every enemy in the entire game with the exception of bosses respawns. In addition, the health packs you pick up on your first journey through a given region (which you pick up from fallen enemies you have killed) don't respawn on the second killing. So effectively each traversal of a region gets progressively harder.

Still, I'm a couple of bosses in, I've picked up a side quest, and I'm gradually opening up the map. So, so far so good. He'll - I finished kingdom come deliverance....... I can do this!

;)
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
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peter
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Post by peter »

There are two kinds of people in the world; those who have beaten Father Gascoigne.......
and those who have not.

I'm amongst the first group, but boy was it a struggle! I died about fifty times in the process, each time regenerating about a mile away from the fight site - a site I had reach by avoiding or killing a good fifty or so lethal enemies before even getting to. Upon arrival, I was faced by an enemy armed with a shot gun, two hits of which would do for you, an axe that extended out some ten feet from his body and who morphed into a werewolf half way through the battle and could instantaneously leap onto you and chew you up for breakfast. He moved like lightening, never stopped following you and never allowed your fingers a break for minutes on end. You had to dance in, strike, roll away, run around him, strike, back off, race away.......

In the end I got him, slipping round behind him when he was sufficiently weakened and driving low-blow after low-blow iwith my saw-cleaver into his back. By then my hands were shaking and I was seeing white spots in front of my eyes. I was about done in. But he fell. What some reckon to be the biggest challenge of the game (I very much doubt this somehow but....) lay vanquished before me on the ground. I took the key from his lifeless form and reverently made my way up to the Cathedral Ward. Opening the gates a whole new arena of the game lay before me. Traversing the great cathedral, I stepped out into the setting sun overlooking the spires of Old Yarnham and sat, cross-legged on the ground. This was not a time to rush off on my next steps of the game. This was a time to relish, to savour the sweet soft feel of a hard won success. I was not going to rush away from this........

To be continued!

;)
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
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Post by Avatar »

:LOL: I know the feeling when you're forced to replay the same damn thing endlessly just to get to where you keep dying. Very annoying. :D

It gets to the point where you know you've made a wrong move and just reload immediately. :D

--A
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peter
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Post by peter »

In Bloodborne there are no earlier saves Av; where you are is where you are. Yesterday I collected enough blood echoes (the equivalent of hp) to be with a kill or two of being able to level up....... and then lost the bleeding lot! Back to square one.

But the game is clever enough in its design that the frustration of this is not (or has not as yet) become a grind. Different routes and so much terrain to explore mean that you can always change tack and go do something else.

At present I'm simply feeling out the new area, The Cathedral Ward, that I'm in. It's so labrynthine and maze-like that it's almost impossible not to become disorientated and lost. Even had I gained the requisite number of blood echoes to level up, it's highly doubtful that I'd have been able to get back to the place where I needed to be in order to do it. All part of the fun though!

:D
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
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Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2004 9:17 am
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Post by Avatar »

Yes, I meant the checkpoint...the place you respawn at if you die. :D That's a save, technically. :D

--A
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Post by peter »

Bloodborne is turning out to be a seriously good game. I've reached a stage where I'm able to visit multiple different places via the 'fast travel'' system (not really fast travel, but can't think of a better way to put it) and so if one area becomes too much for me I can simply turn my attention elsewhere for a while.

The story, never easy to grasp, is slowly firming up - thanks in large part to YouTube posts on the subject which make the cryptic notes and hints of the game more meaningful and also to a friend of mine at work who has played the game a few times and is able to steer me right if I seem to be going off track. There is an odd difficulty grading system of sorts that I had almost inadvertently discovered, in that the number and intensity of enemy combatants is dependent upon a thing called 'insight', which if allowed to accumulate in your stats, increases your awareness of the world around you (and thereby the richness of the experience), but with the counter effect of making the game more difficult. Not realising this I've let mine get pretty high, but am coping with it pretty well and so I think I'll stick with it for the moment.

Insight is the thing that you can use to call other online players into your world to help you with the hardest bosses, but to have other players wandering around in your game can apparently be disruptive as well as helpful. Given my pretty slow internet connection I've never gotten much into collaboration with other players in games and have no intention of doing so in this one, even though it seems that I might be able to (in terms of my connection). I know it is frustrating to keep being killed in a game - but I've ever been a slow player of games and so am pretty well adapted for the type of experience that Bloodborne offers. This way, when I kill a difficult boss, the satisfaction is the greater and I have no desire to dilute this by availing myself of third party aid in the difficult bits of the game. Like all the best hunters of the unreal worlds of the imagination - I hunt alone!

;)
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
User avatar
peter
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Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:08 am
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Post by peter »

Well - it can never be said that I didn't give it my best shot! I got five bosses into the game, progressed to a pretty decent degree into the story and was patting myself on the back in the belief that (contrary to the expectations of my step-son and others) I would be able to finish the game to at least one of the possible endings....... and then hit a wall that I simply didn't seem to be able to overcome. I reached a point where, irrespective of the particular section I decided to attack on that particular day (this is how the game works - you are free to work multiple different areas at any point, progressing and collecting as you go), I seemed to be stymied in any place I visited. I was either faced with NPC's who killed me with a few simple strikes and with a speed that I simply couldn't counter, or with bosses that were too strong, fast and above my level for me to be able to get beyond. On being killed for the n'th time (I'm talking in the level of tens, if not hundreds here) I lost heart. Unlike others I've heard about on the internet, I didn't unload the game in frustration - but I did decide to put it down for a while to concentrate on something a bit easier like developing a perpetual motion machine or mastering the art of running through solid walls.

I will (like Arnold Schwarzenegger) be back - I've spoken to a guy who tells me I've simply missed the route I should be taking and have wandered into areas of the game that are way above my pay grade - it's just too good a game to be abandoned outright..... But I need time to lick my wounds and recuperate. This may take some time because the game I have chosen to load up as my alternative for a while is not exactly known for its brevity.

I refer of course to Red Dead Redemption 2!

:D
The truth is a Lion and does not need protection. Once free it will look after itself.

....and the glory of the world becomes less than it was....
'Have we not served you well'
'Of course - you know you have.'
'Then let it end.'

We are the Bloodguard
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