The genius of Bloodborne (contains spoilers)

Bloodborne is one of the best games that I have ever played, having a variety of factors that contribute to it and all of them being stellar in my eyes. Mind you, I am not a hardcore gamer, I only pick up the controller occasionally so in theory Bloodborne would be one of those games that completely put me off, after all, the Souls' series infamous difficulty has been commented ad nauseam.

Lady Maria, one of the first hunters.

You start the game as a foreigner who has travelled to the city of Yharnam to receive a cure for your ailment after hearing about the miraculous properties of the healing blood produced there. Of course, this blood also has the minor side effect that it makes people turn into beasts. Thus, you are cured but in return you must become a hunter of Yharnam, killing beasts until the night comes to an end.

The first area where you get to play you are met with a dark and oppressive atmosphere at Iosefka's clinic and as you read the short tutorial by the messengers on the ground you will eventually get to meet the first enemy in the game: a werewolf. The thing is that it will probably kill you taking you on your first trip to the hunter's dream. This is a 'main hub' where the player can teleport to different lamps in the game, level up or improve your weapons. I find this system very useful compared to for example, the first souls game where teleportation was much less prominent and you had to run around the map much more. Some would argue that this new system might break immersion but I feel like it works well together with the shortcuts that you can open in different levels.

 Messengers emerging to deliver a message

The hunter's dream

The combat system has also shown what I would call an improvement compared to other Souls games. Where previously you would hide behind your shield, finding an opening to deal two or three of your own attacks, Bloodborne encourages an offensive play style where your shield has been replaced by a gun which staggers enemies. In fact, there is only one shield in the game which is pretty much useless, cementing the fact that you are not going to be much of a defensive player. Also, after you have been hit, you can gain part of your health back if one of your attacks land on the enemy. This aggressiveness and fast paced dodging is ideal for a new players since the combats require much less patience even though you must still have an idea of the attack patterns to win. In the other souls games, the healing items are much more limited, you can improve the capacity by levelling up, however, they recharge once you die, meanwhile, in Bloodborne you have a maximum 20 blood vials that can be refilled from enemy drops, causing you to have to farm them if you used too many against a boss, for instance, but also allowing more margin for mistakes if you have a full set when facing an enemy.

Player character equipped with the useless shield.

The visuals of Bloodborne are absolutely stunning, from the towering gothic buildings such as the clocktower and the gritty fishing hamlet, to the labyrinthine forests that occasionally feature in the game. The scenery can sometimes become repetitive since the former urban landscapes are predominant in comparison to the rest, nonetheless, every level has a sense of cohesion since you can stand in different places and see others that you have previously visited or will visit later. In addition to being able to see the relation between the various zones, the shortcuts within each level also seem coherent as you can see perfectly how they connect two areas. Some of the bosses in the game also have very interesting designs, most of them visually based on Lovecraft's works and very easily transmitting a sense of fear and dread when you face them, moreover, a large majority of them are also much bigger than the player which furthers the idea that you are confronting an otherworldly creature.

 

Cainhurst castle

Yharnam, with the clocktower visible  

Cute Puppy Paarl

The music in the game is goosebump-inducing and greatly adds to the difficulty, getting your heart to race from tension and making it more likely for you to make mistakes when fighting bosses. I am not an expert on music so I will allow you to judge for yourselves:

The Cleric Beast theme

Personally one of the things I most enjoy is the insight mechanic as the more insight you have the more secrets of the world of Bloodborne you will be able to uncover which also makes revisiting old places with a higher amount of insight more interesting. This is true for Yahar'gul where many things change during your second visit or looking at the exterior of Oedon chapel where you will eventually be able to see one of the Amygdala. Finally, I must mention the Bloodborne lore. Bloodborne is an incomplete story, you can infer many things from what characters say or item descriptions which is an innovative storytelling tactic, but most of the things will never be explicitly stated. If you have played the game and are interested in the lore I would recommend reading The Paleblood Hunt, a document put together by a fan which explains the full lore according to their interpretation. The various endings play into this too, the 'good' ending having the character turn into a Great One with the appearance of a slug. This might not seem positive from the human perspective, loosing all your identity to become something greater, but it is precisely this difficulty to understand what is good about the ending that truly follows the game's themes.

Player turned into a Great One, being held by The Doll.