Bloodborne: The Best RPG of its Generation
9.5
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Bloodborne: The Best RPG of its Generation

In this article I take a real, hard look at FromSoft’s lovecraftian title Bloodborne. It isn’t a sugar coated, hand-holding type of review. The game itself is utterly brilliant, but not every aspect of the game was well thought out, tested or implemented. I took my time with the game before reviewing. Let’s look deeper than the surface and get into the nitty-gritty of this PS4 exclusive.

Genre: Action RPG
Developed by: From Software
Published by: Sony Computer Entertainment
Release date: March 24th, 2015
Platforms: PS4 (Reviewed on PS4)
Launch Price: 59.99 USD

 

Bloodborne Review

 

Design in Bloodborne

Let’s start with game design. The developers absolutely crushed this aspect of the game. I haven’t had this immersive of an experience in years. The overall detail of the city of Yharnam is profound, dark, dramatic and downright horrifying. You will find yourself getting lost admiring the artwork of buildings and statues and feeling like you really were in a plague (of beasts) ridden Victorian England.

The interconnected world that we all loved in Dark Souls is back. It absolutely blows my mind how they figured out how to tie it all together, and yet the game wouldn’t be the same without it. As you progress through the game you cannot help but feel From is a puppet master, cleverly guiding us through their world in such a manner you felt you were doing it all on our own.

Character and enemy animations and effects are much improved over previous From titles. You’ll notice your clothing move as you run or ride elevators. Enemies talk to you while fighting and move as if they have their own goals in the game. Enemy and Boss AI is also much improved, creating some of the most thrilling and challenging boss fights to date. This is hands down some of the best AI I have ever seen in a game (it often feels like it is learning your attack patterns and countering them).

Music and sound are outstanding. Having played the game wearing my surround sounds PX4s, I was able to experience the full glory of this. From the whispers enemies mumble to you under their breath, to hearing the ominously heavy footstep of the Snatcher Bagmen as they approach, the game continues to amaze with its attention to this often over looked aspect. The musical score is the best I’ve heard since Demon’s Souls and helps create the haunting mood that the game so clearly portrays. Music and sound can often make average game good, but in this case it simply makes a good game even better.

  • Exceptional artwork, creating one of the most immersive atmospheres to date.
  • Interconnected World with varying environments to explore and multiple ways to get to them. See the maps on the wiki, your mind to be blown.
  • Improved enemy AI that seems to know just when to attack and Boss fights that will leave your heart pounding.
  • An original score that rivals any game and subtle sound effects that enhance the gameplay experience.

  • Boss AI can get confused sometimes in Co Op, leading to some strange attack patterns.
  • Lack of warping between Lamps (checkpoints) adds an extra loading screen… and those are infamously long.
  • Some of the music is recycled between Boss fights.

 

Combat in Bloodborne

Combat in Bloodborne is extremely satisfying; it may in fact be the best part of the game. The combat has a very steep learning curve that once mastered is gratifying, challenging, and addicting. Its high risk high reward system either leads to moments where you feel like such a badass that you can’t help but “Brush Dust Off“, or where you end up looking at “BLOODBORNE” for the next 60 seconds. I have had moments where I was literally fist pumping in my living room or…throwing my controller down and kicking it across the floor as a result. No other game can create the feeling of downing that one boss that’s been kicking your ass for hours (or even days). NONE…ok maybe Dark Souls…

Weapons in the game all feel unique and well designed. The transformations and abundance of different attacks makes learning a weapon take much longer than other games, but also creates a bond between player and weapon (wouldn’t trade my Blade of Mercy for anything). Firearms add another facet to combat not seen in other From games, allowing for some unique combat experiences/play styles. They seem either extremely useful or extremely useless depending on your build, play style and the enemy you are fighting, however. There are not a wide variety of weapons to choose from in Bloodborne (compared with the Souls games), a point that has been largely criticized by many players. It remains to be seen how this will impact the longevity of the game.

Armor has been replaced with Attire and is no longer upgradeable. There are roughly 23 Attire Sets in the game, most look different and unique, but a few are recycled from other Sets. My biggest criticism with this change isn’t the lack of variety, but rather the lack of upgrading, pigeonholing players into specific Sets/pieces of Attire. For players who like to min/max it can be annoying, but Fashionborne is still a thing and probably always will be.

Upgrades are the most simplified they have ever been. Every weapon uses the same upgrade material (and quantity of it). The new addition here is the Blood Gems. These Gems can be slotted into your weapons to increase the damage done, change damage types, improve scaling (or add scaling from another stat if none exists), add poison to the weapon or even reduces stamina costs or add HP regain. There is a wide variety of effects to be sure, unfortunately unless you have a very very unique build, 90% of the time the best gem you can put in your weapon is one with “Damage Type UP +%”. This pretty much makes 75% of the Blood Gems in the game inferior and thus sold to the vendor for more Blood Echoes.

  • High risk high reward combat that can give you some of the most thrilling moments you’ve ever experienced.
  • Addictive combat that doesn’t feel repetitive due to combination attacks.
  • Unique and engaging weapons that players can really connect with.
  • Simplified upgrades that make it very easy for anyone to understand.

  • Dying means looking at another 60 second load screen.
  • Camera angle during combat is the #1 cause of deaths (replacing gravity in Souls games).
  • Lack of weapon variety leaves a player wanting more. “Uncanny” and “Lost” are only a pretense of variety.
  • Armor cannot be upgraded.
  • Oversimplified upgrade system is simply not interesting.

 

Story in Bloodborne

I must confess here that From’s stories in their games have always been a bit of an enigma to me (and many players). It really takes some digging, time and patience to get to the bottom of what is really going on. I will try and simplify what I know in an attempt to loosely create an understanding (without spoiling too much). If you want to be spoiled, you can read the detailed Lore page.

Yharnam was a city built on top of a labyrinth of the ancient Pthumerians, a civilization that could commune with the Great Ones. Scholars researched this for many years and found blood that could cure illnesses. People came from all over to be healed in the city, but what they thought was their savior ended up being their undoing as they one by one turned to beasts. The game takes place years after these events and you arrive in Yharnam under unclear circumstances and must unravel the mystery.

NPCs in Yharnam have unique and shrouded storylines that will require many playthroughs to fully explore, unless you settle for reading the outcomes.

I’m constantly amazed at how much depth there is to the story, and how well hidden it is in obscure parts of the game. It is very easy to overlook and many players will finish the game wondering what it was all about. For the players who delve in and really dig, there are answers to the questions they seek. The community is usually divided on the lore aspects of the game, sparking much debate and excellent theories. I find it to be a particularly endearing and unique aspect of FromSoftware games…

  • A unique story told in a unique way and that adds replayability for investigation and testing purposes.
  • Enough clues that the player can make theories but not so many that they are black and white.

  • Very little explanation of what is happening in the story if you are unfamiliar with Lovecraft concepts.
  • Very easy to miss important story related information and even objectives within the game.

 

Multiplayer in Bloodborne

FromSoftware games have always thrived on their Multiplayer aspect. From the unique way in which they interweave players into each other’s game worlds, to the summoning mechanics we have all become accustomed to, they have been constantly pushing the envelope in this department. Unfortunately, they pushed it too far in Bloodborne and broke it.

Let me start by saying that I have co-oped almost the entire game and I absolutely love it…when it works. That’s the real issue here, it doesn’t work or doesn’t work in a timely manner more often then not. In the Souls games we had signs on the ground that we could see, letting us know if there were players around, letting us choose who we wanted to summon etc. Now we have a bell that rings and you stand there wondering what is happening. You don’t know for sure if there are players nearby able to be summoned, you can’t choose which to summon if you have some sort of preference but don’t want to limit yourself to a password, and you don’t know how long it will take. I have wasted countless hours waiting to be summoned or waiting for someone to appear even in scheduled coop with level, password and connection coordination. It can be very easy to summon a random player, but it isn’t easy to summon specific players (friends), even with a password. This is the single biggest negative in the entire game.

* [Updated November 2015] The multiplayer aspect was improved in later patches, making the game much more co-op friendly.

PvP is a mixed bag. I find that actual PvP when it happens is outstanding most of the time – bar the obnoxious healing spam. Again, the issue here is when it happens. Since you can only be invaded when a Chime Maiden is alive in your world, you are highly dependent on that Chime Maiden doing her job (ringing that bell). More often than not, she goes on strike and doesn’t summon anyone, as evidenced by our 4 hour event. Another interesting thing is that after I have been invaded (provided I live), if the other Hunter departs via death or disconnect, my Chime Maiden will not summon a second invader. Just won’t happen. So I have to port out and back in to get invaded again. There are also framerate issues sometimes when PvPing, but those are minor compared to the Chime Maiden issue. To add insult to injury, the absence of signs and intentional summons of invaders into your world makes hosting fightclubs a convoluted task.

Chalice Dungeons are a new feature in From games, that are also a mixed bag. I have enjoyed the few I have done well enough, but I do feel like it’s starting to get repetitive. The dungeons look the same and you can see that they used pre-constructed segments that are just randomly pieced together not unlike the Time Splitters 2 (2002) map editor. The loot inside the dungeons is almost non-existent. You mostly get materials to create more Chalice Dungeons. Some of the bosses in these dungeons are downright amazing and others are simply recycled Bosses or even regular enemies from the game. I can’t help but feel that this wasn’t FromSoftware’s idea and just did the best they could to have a go at MMO elements that they are not experienced with. You can see the potential in them while playing, but unfortunately they just didn’t reach it, and they suffer from the same summoning issues the rest of the game does.

 

  • Fun and engaging Co Op makes you wants to play the game over and over.
  • PvP is exciting and heart pumping due to fast paced combat.
  • Chalice Dungeons will give players environments to explore even after they have completed the game.

  • Connectivity issues ruin your enthusiasm for Co Op over time.
  • Connectivity issues ruin your enthusiasm for PvP over time.
  • Chalice Dungeons are all so similar and the reward system so lackluster they can get repetitive.

 

Final Impressions

I wanted Bloodborne to be the game that I would be playing for months and months to come. I wanted it to be the game I couldn’t stop playing if I tried. And, while it’s an amazing game, it simply wasn’t that for me. Your first play through will blow you away. If you can overcome the steep learning curve, and hang in there, you will find Bloodborne is a a once in a lifetime experience. And, while you can tell I’m conflicted about aspects of the game, the game is truly a must-own title. I will always remember the moment Dark Souls clicked for me and I was hooked. This is the closest I have been to that experience and I think many other players would agree with that.

In closing, my advise is: buy the game, play the shit out of it, and put it on your shelf and look back fondly on the experience you had, because it will be one you will never forget.

If I could say one thing to Fromsoftware it would simply be what every single teacher I ever had has said to my parents, “He isn’t living up to his potential”. We can all see what could be and we are all dying for it, but somehow, for some reason, it’s just not happening…

  • The best RPG experience I have had on console since Dark Souls.
  • A world that is vast and detailed and completely immerses you in it.
  • Some of the most fun I’ve ever had Co Oping.
  • Challenging and rewarding combat that makes you feel alive.

  • Infamously long load times with a static screen break the overall flow of the game.
  • Multiplayer connectivity issues prevent the game from being a true masterpiece.
  • No incentive to replay the game on the New Game Plus except for difficulty, since there are no items, spells, weapons or trophies necessitating a second playthrough.
  • Bugs & Glitches. Some are gamebreaking, most are infuriating. There’s more of them than in the other titles, and players may find themselves locked atop elevators leading to optional but important bosses.

 

What did you think? Let us know in the comments!


Check out our Bloodborne: The Old Hunter Review, or other gaming Reviews

About our Reviews

Visit the Bloodborne Wiki

9.5

Brilliant

Story & Setting 10
Gameplay 9
Design 9.5
Replayability 9.5
Pricepoint 9.5

Summary

A fantastic game that holds its own against Dark Souls. A brand new setting and new gameplay mechanics add a freshness to the Souls formula. There's a lot to explore and experience including savage death. Right now, it's the best RPG of the current gen.

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Comments

50 responses to “Bloodborne: The Best RPG of its Generation”


  1. Just read Upper_Krust’s really long comment. Thank you for taking the time for it! The “Generation” comment certainly meant PS4, and it is indeed in its infancy… but right now it is the best RPG on its generation haha.

  2. >

    To be fair, if you’re good at parrying, BSB, SoY and FG are jokes too.

    I know some people for example struggle like crazy on SoY, and in 4 NG+ levels, I have yet to die to them. In fact, my last kill in NG+4, I don’t even think I healed a single time. The 2 guys with Katana’s are easily seperated due to all 3 having very different movement speeds, which when you pair that with the like 5 seconds of iframes you get during the visceral animation, makes them pretty easy to damage and get away, and the caster guy has virtually no poise and can pretty much be stun locked if you’re agressive.

    I guess my point is, I think it depends on your weapon choice and how good you are at using exploiting (in the good way) mechanics.

  3. >

    I can’t agree with that at all.

    – Wonky Camera and bad lock-on: Cleric Beast (aka Manus 2.0 only rubbish) & Dark Beast Paarl.
    – Stand at bosses legs and attack without dodging: One Reborn, Amygdala AND Rom to an extent.
    – Defeat by Parrying at a distance: Gehrman
    – Defeat by Cheesing: Gascoigne
    – Just too damn easy: Witch of Hemwick, Celestial One, Micolash, Mergo’s Wetnurse
    – Weakest ‘superboss’ ever: Moon Presence
    – Falls off Roof and Kills self: Djura

    Okay Bosses: Martyr Logarius (aka Gwyn 2.0), Blood-Starved beast, Vicar Amelia and Shadows of Yharnam.
    Challenging enough: Ebrietas.

  4. >

    …as opposed to several Bloodborne Bosses you could beat by just standing still and attacking its legs (One Reborn, Amygdala).

    …does the Witch of Hemwick or the Celestial One even require any dodging or strafing at all?

    Dark Souls 2 had its fair share of poor bosses but it had 10+ bosses that (IMHO) were FAR better designed and more memorable than anything in Bloodborne (Pursuer, Mirror Knight, Mytha, Najka, Darklurker, Nashandra, Sinh, Raime, Alonne, Alva and the Ivory King). Heck I’d probably even put the Ruin Sentinels ahead of any Bloodborne boss other than some of the Chalice Dungeon bosses like the Pthumerian Descendant.

    Bloodborne’s best boss (during the core game) is Gascoigne and the first 2/3rds of his fight can be cheesed behind tombstones while the last third can be made redundant with an item.

  5. >

    Thats one two of his attacks where if you can walk under his left arm when he swings.

  6. >

    I’ve read countless replies on these boards where people said the exact opposite, that it’s Bloodborne which has the one dimensional bosses. Just yesterday someone was advising a new player on the Starved Beast, and said “keep strafing to the left”.

    Clearly, design is not an exact science, and is open to how each of us perceive the gameplay during boss fights.

  7. >

    Indeed, there are glaring flaws in Bloodborne, and there are poor boss battles, but the majority are superior to past games. From an artistic standpoint, FROM outdid themselves. From a mechanics standpoint, some are better than others, but they are always interesting.

    Dark Souls 2 was a travesty when it comes to boss battles. Some were good, and some NG+ fights were great, but in general, it was a resounding MEH.

  8. ^Boss design is far better then DkS II where 90% of the bosses could be beat by circle strafing to the left.

  9. Probably the best review of the game I have read…albeit given the typical sycophantic reviews from the press that isn’t exactly saying much. :D

    >

    Slightly disingenuous unless by ‘generation’ you mean the Playstation 4/XBox One generation…a generation still in its infancy.

    Bloodborne certainly isn’t better than Dark Souls (except in terms of graphics and audio); and I would (nay will) argue its even weaker than both Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls 2.

    >

    It is very immersive from the start and I agree the amount of detail is astounding.

    >

    The Level Design is of a genuinely high standard (although some of the levels are disappointingly brief: Lecture hall, Byrgenwurth).

    >

    – I didn’t notice much improvements in enemy animations (or effects)?
    – Clothing does rise up when you go down elevators, but for the most part this seems overly exaggerated.
    – Townsfolk enemies do have several lines of dialogue. But this isn’t a trend continued throughout the game.
    – Enemy and Boss AI has NOT been improved as far as I can tell. Several of the Bosses can be cheesed (Gascoigne behind Tombstones; Amygdala and One Reborn can be beaten by standing at their feet and attacking) etc. Mob AI fares little better. You can attack an enemy 5-10 feet behind another and the second enemy won’t hear you (or ‘activate’)

    >

    The music and sound was generally of a very high quality.

    >

    Maybe I’m getting too good at these games but I killed every boss except Gascoigne (4 attempts) on either the 1st or 2nd try.

    That said, combat was, for the most part satisfying.

    >

    The main problem with the melee weapons is that they are all useful in any situation. I never seem to be at a disadvantage using my Saw Cleaver (unlike Demons Souls where some enemies were extremely resilient to certain damage types). Therefore there is no real value in having to switch to another weapon.

    The problem with the guns is that you can now parry AT RANGE. Meaning the Risk/Reward of the parry timing becomes just a Reward since you don’t necessarily need to put yourself in harm’s way to perform the Parry.

    >

    …and that’s 23 sets IF you find everything. For me the biggest mistake with the Attire is not allowing it to be dyed and coloured. If you don’t have lots of sets then at least allow players to customise the sets in certain ways. I wanted to be able to run about in bright red attire ala Alucard/Hellsing (yes I know you can get covered in blood). But I think really allowing colour changes would have massively covered up for having so few sets (less than 25% of the sets of Dark Souls 2).

    >

    – Gem variety was a bit pathetic (DMG+, Blunt DMG+, Thrust DMG+, Slow Poison…and a few others that were very rare).
    – Gun Bloodgems are ridiculously rare – only found 3 in my entire playthrough (whereas I must have had 100+ redundant, weak DMG+ gems).
    – Still waiting on a Fromsoft game where adding a Fire Effect to a weapon actually looks like a fire effect (yes I know Fire Paper adds a fire effect but why doesn’t a Fire Bloodgem?) Tonitrus was cool but there is no excuse for not allowing each weapon to have a lightning effect with the relevant bloodgem.
    – Bloodgem Worskshop Tool gained from (IIRC) an optional area (Hemwick), which seems a bit silly.

    Additional Failures

    1. Total Content FAR less than either Dark Souls or Dark Souls 2.
    2. Required Content (for completion) about 30% of the game’s total making for an extremely FLIMSY experience.
    3. Lack of Classes hurts variety/replayability.
    4. Boss Design is easily worse than any Souls game.
    5. NG+ made overly difficult (and reportedly with little to find therein anyway)
    6. Beast Mode…there isn’t one
    7. Game Balance; weaker than any previous Souls game. Player damage starts to eclipse enemy health increases around the halfway point; with the multitude of optional areas making the designers incapable of balancing each area against player power (which is too easy to accumulate).
    8. Levelling Up far too effective a way of circumventing game difficulty – I think the drop to 6 attributes resulted in each being individually more effective and thus as a consequence each level up has greater benefits. I noticed returning to a boss even 5-10 levels higher made a MASSIVE difference.
    9. ‘Where to go next’ was a problem SEVERAL times in the game. Yes Dark Souls 2 had the whole terrible design of how to get to Huntsman’s Copse, but Bloodborne makes the same mistake 3-4 times. I shouldn’t have to talk to every NPC and backtrack to every locked door EACH time I defeat a boss on the random chance something new has been unlocked. They had this problem solved back in the days of Doom…its called a KEY!
    10. Healing System far inferior to the Estus System. Blood Vials promote casual play; farming and are simply far too prolific. Plus I have heard others comment that they ruin PvP (though I haven’t done any PvP myself yet).
    11. Regain System promotes (lazy) hit trading on enemies.
    12. Stupid Nomenclature such as Coldblood 2 or Ritual Blood 3. Markedly inferior and more confusing than something like Soul of a Lost Undead; Soul of a Proud Knight etc.
    13. Insight. A good idea totally wasted and inconsequential.
    14. Torches…useless once again (though they are always great for that ONE house in Yharnam with the Wheelchair guy). Irrelevant for the rest of the game (outside the Chalice Dungeons anyway).
    15. Chalice Dungeons simply poorly balanced (I should clarify by this I mean the fixed Chalice Dungeons, not the Root Dungeons). The Chalice Dungeons are optional but have fixed difficulties, meaning that if you visit them 5-10 levels (overlevelled – and you’ll never know what the appropriate level is because its all so obscure) then they are complete ‘cakewalks’. Wouldn’t it have been better to balance the Dungeon against the player’s level when it was created?

    Nitpick #1. Enemy Displacement. Overall I liked the enemy designs (Nightmare Realm is great for Aboleth and Gug fans) but having studied the Levels themselves several of the levels have very few new enemies. The game has about 10 ‘full’ levels and about 35-40 enemy types discounting variants and bosses. But you will face about 15 enemy types in the first 2 levels. Additionally those 15 enemy types comprise the majority of variant enemy models. The result is that after the first two levels you have seen 40% of the enemy roster and of the remaining 60% I’d estimate at least half are rarely encountered. So you end up feeling like you have witnessed the vast majority of the enemy designs after the first two levels. Contrasted against the previous Souls games where new enemy designs were more staggered and not as front-loaded.

  10. Great review, thanks for a lot for your effort! I mostly agree with pretty much everything you wrote. In general I like the game but I would only give it a 7 out of 10.

    I’m a huge Demon’s and Dark Souls fan and played them up and down. I just loved them and got addicted to every one of them. Those games were a 9,5 out of 10 for me!

    Unfortunately I’ve never had this feeling with Bloodborne, though. I really wanted to love it the way I loved the first three games but for me Bloodborne almost turned out to be a bitter disappointment.

    First off, they stole the single most important piece of equipment in my opinion… shields! I was a constant shield user in Dark Souls and loved the strategic way you had to use them in combat. Since you don’t have any real shields in Bloodborne, the combat gets more hectic and unnecessarily stressful for me. It’s such a shame and means a huge downfall for me.

    Secondly – as you have also mentioned in your article – the co op is pretty much broken. Apparently you had more luck with your co op sessions than me, because I almost never got to play with other random players. I keep on waiting for an eternity but in 90% of the cases, nothing will ever happen. I even changed my network setting already to worldwide but that didn’t do much.
    The other way around doesn’t work much better, either. When I offer to be summoned, most of the times nothing ever happens. I can’t believe that so few players are looking for co op partners… there must be something seriously broken with multiplayer.

    The loading time are annoying, too. Particularly in a game where you are kind of supposed to die a lot.

    The game is still a very good of course, but it got a hefty dent for me :( !

  11. >

    You’re over-thinking it.
    I’m not making any accusations, I was just pointing out a very basic flaw he made in the titling of his review.
    I wasn’t gonna read it anyway, reviews aren’t really worth the time. Just watch some gameplay videos.
    Also it wasn’t “very clever”.
    It was like, a bit clever, barely even a joke, I actually agree with the assertion it’s the best RPG of this current gen. Still a turn-off though.

  12. I think you’re blindly missing out on a very clever quip. With the dearth of RPG fare in the current generation he’s saying it’s the best of maybe half a dozen games.

    There’s one reviewer who had the title questioning if it was the second best game of ALL time. You wanna throw the idea of “mark” around maybe that’s a title to look at.

    Also I’ll share some old man wisdom with ya. A smart consumer looking at reviews should start with the one and five star reviews. Find the features that divide the people who already made the buy. Then you take the middle road write ups to fill in any gaps. To think there’s nothing to learn from someone who loves or enjoys a product is crazy talk. Even a paid spokesperson has valuable info if we wanna get down to it. And that’s definitely not the case here

    Your vehemence in such an accusation speaks volumes, but little to nothing about Cas. This post OFFICIALLY marks the end of this line of discussion in this thread.

  13. >

    Marky means to be or act like a mark.
    I say he’s “marky”, as in he is acting like a “mark for the game”.
    Mark opinions are never to be taken seriously, because they’re marks.

  14. >

    You’re missing the point I don’t care about the review.
    Because your title was so vehemently positive it comes off marky and hurts your credibility, is what I meant.
    I wouldn’t have read it anyway, just pointing out a basic flaw. For a review/reviewer to be trusted it has to be calm and objective, not marky.

  15. I agree with all the points you make in this review Cas. If they introduced a patch that fixed load times and connectivity issues this game is a 10/10 in my book. Dark and sinister victorian gothic setting, Lovecraftian story elements, tight combat system that’s extremely intense, and brilliant world interconnectivity. Whoever used the term masterpiece to describe this game is absolutely right in my opinion.

  16. @Forum_Pirate
    truth
    >
    or when someone misrepresent another persons opinion/argument to mislead their audience. Such as if I where to lie and say, Forum_Pirate wants to eat baby’s and he once said: “The actual problem arise when I try to saute a 3 month old with tartar sauce, it’s not tender enough. The best meat is the thigh of a human baby” -Forum_Pirate

    The other problems arise when it’s consumer reporting and you do not disclose conflict of interest or are not upfront with your bias or sophist rhetoric to mislead the consumer. While you cannot divorce yourself from your subjective opinion, it’s not your job to give the reader your onion as much as it’s more important to paint a truthful picture so they can make their own opinion on weather the product is worth buying.

  17. You should, in fact, always speak of your opinion as fact. Because it is. My opinion of tomatoes is that they’re disgusting. This is factually correct because my preference makes it so. The statement ‘tomatoes are the best food ever’ is equally true. As the factual nature of the appeal of the taste of tomatoes is entirely dependant on the speaker, they are all simultaneously correct and incorrect.

    It’s not until you add qualifiers that it can be wrong (and not necessarily then.) If you want to argue, argue those.

    The actual problem doesn’t arise until people try to pawn of subjective opinion as objective truth. (IE my opinion is that water is composed primarily of carbon molecules) or states other opinions aren’t equally valid (provided they’re logically consistent with the speakers preferences and reasoning.)

    I try to confine ‘best’ to mechanical or design discussions separate from preference where I can actually prove my point and use favorite or preference elsewhere to make that distinction because best implies an objective state, but you can reach an objective truth from a subjective premise (IE the series of traits that make BB can be compared to the subjects preferences to determine what is objectively best at meeting those subjective preferences) so it isn’t necessarily misplaced in this case either.

    In any case, I liked the review. I far prefer that type of review to the ‘numbers’ type. I can more easily see the various attributes of the game and wether I’m likely to enjoy them or not.

  18. Thank you for your review, I agree with many of your points, for example I too find the camera awkward. For me it’s either walking through small doors, or the mud tunnels in Chalice Dungeons.

    This is my first “Souls” game and it’s the most I’ve been addicted to a game since WoW or Zelda. Praying for some DLC and will be buying Dark Souls 2 at some point.

    For me it’s a 9.5/10 :)

  19. Very well written review, and I think I agree with basically every point.

    One thing I think you could’ve mentioned was covenants, or lack of it.
    Their design bothers me quite a bit, and I think (from your comments on the board) you aren’t a big fan either.

    They feel half-done, unfinished and unimportant. Covenants changed how my character felt and played in DKS1/2.
    SunBro, BloodBro, Blue Spirit, Forest Hunter..
    It was fantastic, it was excellent side-content, had a purpose and a goal (each of the covenants)…
    And now it’s simply gone.

    I’m not saying they were important to everyone, but to me, the way they handled it in BB was very disappointing.

    As for the arguments about the title I see are happening…
    I don’t really see anything wrong with it, the game IS brilliant, if flawed.
    For half the game (pre-Rom), I’d say it’s a near-perfect PvE experience, on par with Dark Souls 1 up until you finish Anor Londo.
    IMO, then it drops off, in story, in design, enemies, bosses, atmosphere, even area connectivity… everything… But it’s still enough to be a fantastic game.

    Whether you label it RPG or action with RP elements is irrelevant, to me.
    I think it’s a MUCH better RPG than something like DA:I – despite how streamlined it is in certain areas compared to DkS.

    (the honors probably won’t last long, Witcher 3 looks ready to destroy everything and anything this year, but as of now, it’s easily the best game on PS4)

    In the end, I think the review summed it up nicely.
    A fantastic game, but flawed, and one that could’ve easily been quite a bit better if they “played” up to their potential.

    To use a sports analogy, it’s that feeling of…
    You finish first in your regular season, and you have a deep playoff run, but you lose in the Conference Finals.
    It was great… But it’s just not quite what it could’ve/should’ve been.
    For a bubble playoff team (some other game developer or some other game franchise), the Conference Finals run is simply great. But for a regular season winner (FROM with these titles), the expectations are simply bigger -as a Souls game fan.

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