Bloodborne

Bloodborne took a beating gameplay-wise this week. Why this happened will become obvious as you see the rest of this week’s entries. But I did play a bit of Bloodborne early in the week, and I have found my next boss – The Witch of Hemwick.

At first, I jumped in to replay an area and make sure that the old muscle memory was intact. But it’s been a couple of weeks since I feel like I made any progress (i.e. – boss trophy!), so I gave it a go.

I am not worried about spoiling Bloodborne as it’s been a few years, but everything is new to me. So the Witch of Hemwick is actually the WITCHES of Hemwick. And they summon annoying scythe-wielding helpers. I thought I was doing well, then basically phase 2 kicked in and I went down. Hard.

The next time I play will probably be Sunday afternoon. I have all these written on a Sunday morning (or try to), and I can’t wait for a proper Bloodborne session again soon. My main aim will be to defeat the Witches – I want a trophy!

Bloodborne’s biggest impact on my gaming coming up is that I am not letting it lie this time. Right now, that means I won’t be playing God of War Ragnarok this week. There is no way I can play both God of War and Bloodborne simultaneously, and I want to put Bloodborne to bed.

I am also thinking of modifying my backlog challenge to include Bloodborne. Yes, it’s a bit of a cheat, but I started playing it 6 years ago – I would say it qualifies!

So I will play God of War Ragnarok after Bloodborne? Probably not. I have November to try and finish Bloodborne, then I will fire up Callisto Protocol in December. If I can take a break between Christmas and New Years, that would be a good time to sink my teeth into Ragnarok. But so many games are coming out between now and the end of March 2023 – it’s a games overload!

It was a good week for progress in Bloodborne. I got to play for an hour or two every day, which helped the progress along nicely. One way I did this was by making sure I uploaded the save every night from my PS5 so I could play in my office on the PS4. Waking up super early (thanks Queensland for lack of Daylight Savings), I had a little time up my sleeve. So the initial review of overnight emails, then an hour or so of Bloodborne to start the day.

One advantage of this process is I had my original Bloodborne save still on my PS4. As I mentioned earlier, on my first play of the game I left the Cleric Beast undefeated, intending to come back. Thanks to Sony’s decision to make the PS5 need manual handling of PS4 save files, I know exactly when I walked away!

I ended the week defeating Amygdala, a boss I knew was part of Bloodborne. It’s been out for an entire console generation and is a beloved entry from FromSoftware. Spoilers were always going to make it through. One aspect of Amygdala I always appreciated was the name. The amygdala in our brains helps to process fear and anxiety – emotions the boss truly inspires!

But getting to Amygdala required some exploration. That is what I have been doing almost blindly during the past week. Playing Bloodborne has now hit a similar level to Elden Ring, where I can play a little tired to relax and enjoy. Yes, I may be going over already visited ground, but that helps me level up making things easier in the future.

One of the areas I was exploring was drawing my attention to an item to pick up. This triggered a memory in my brain. For you Bloodborne veterans out there, you know where this is and what happened next!

I have picked up a new item that I am enjoying called the Augur of Ebrietas. I met an enemy that used it against me while I was exploring, but now I have it. What is the Auger? I described it to Rabbit as Cthuhlu fingers!

In Bloodborne, you don’t block or parry as such. You fire off a pistol to interrupt an attack, and if you do it at the right time you can then do a special attack. What does this have to do with Cthuhlu fingers? Instead of needing a pistol, you can summon tentacles from your hand. Handy if you are using a two-handed weapon! Time it right, and you can do the special attack. Mistime it a little, and most opponents get pushed over, giving you breathing room.

The only area I noped out of while exploring was a lantern noted as Byrgenworth. This was down a path behind the Shadows of Yarnham boss. This had the first ‘normal’ enemy that freaked me a bit. The best way I can describe it is someone with an alien spider for a head. And not a ‘spider head’ – a full-blown spider, legs and all, where the head should be!

And some wondered why I thought Bloodborne would make a great Halloween game!

What a week in Bloodborne! I have defeated four more trophy bosses, including Rom, The One Reborn and Ebriatas. Bloodborne has definitely reached the FromSoftware ‘now it gets weird’ part!

The path to finding this fight was interesting, to say the least! Bloodborne (like all FromSoftware games) doesn’t hold your hand. I was going over an old area when a horse and carriage appeared, taking me to Castle Cainhurst. Then, after making my way through the castle, there is a weird platforming section. You can make your way to the roof, and see where wall sections connect, but you don’t know if you should go that way for sure.

Bloodborne rewards exploration more than it punishes finding that spot, so I tried. And I was rewarded for it – in a sense. All this to get to a punishing boss I still think of as ‘Zombie Gandalf’. According to the trophy list, the enemy is Martyr Logarius.

Now I am not a Bloodborne master. I stopped playing 6 years ago because the Cleric beast stopped me. Martyr Logarius is the first boss that took double-digit attempts since restarting Bloodborne. Magical exploding skulls and a wicked sword attack make for a strong opponent. There isn’t really a ‘safe’ range to be with that combination.

The rush and sense of accomplishment when I saw that trophy pop was real. I sit back in my chair and felt my limbs get heavy. The post-adrenaline fatigue started setting in. People ask why some punish themselves by playing games like Bloodborne. This is why. You don’t simply solve a puzzle or beat a boss. You face personal mountains and experience the highs and lows that come with them.

My biggest issue then was I fired up the PlayStation during my lunch break. Who wants to go back to work after an achievement like that? Bloodborne for lunch other than going over explored ground for grinding may be off the cards!

Now I am in a new weird area, where the Eye of Sauron (yes, I know it’s not called that) killed me twice. Weird werewolves that sprout worm things when you beat them greet you. I made my way past this and then had to dodge rocks thrown by giants. And now, spiders.

Being Bloodborne, not normal spiders. No, that would be ‘nice’. The spiders the size of a large dog aren’t where it ends either!

Progress is being made, and I am loving the journey. It might slow down a little thanks to Pokemon and The Devil in Me releasing, but I can’t wait to see where Bloodborne takes me next.