So I actually didn't play this DLC until a couple years after I first played Bloodborne. On a whim I finally decided to bite the bullet and spend the $20 on it. Once it downloaded and I jumped right into it, I couldn't put it down! It was a set of brand new weapons, bosses and areas from one of my favorite games ever. I played it all day on Christmas Eve 2020 and finished it early Christmas morning. What an interesting Christmas that was, slicing and dicing up beasts lol.

Speaking of slicing and dicing, let's talk about the new weapons. This DLC added a whopping 11 weapons and 5 firearms. That amount is insane, and not only that...they're some of the best and coolest weapons in the game. Special mentions go to Whirligig saw, Rakuya and Holy Moonlight Sword. Of the DLC weapons, those are the three I've used before and they're a ton of fun. Several others are really out there and weird too, like the Amygdalan Arm and the Kos Parasite. Never used any of the new firearms but they seem cool.

This DLC added three new areas and they're some of the best in Bloodborne. The Hunter's Nightmare has you going through a remixed version of Cathedral Ward. You can really see the parts of Cathedral Ward early on but it slowly twists into something unrecognizable and very different. That's one reason why it's awesome, it feels like a spin on an old area while also feeling mostly unique. It's also a very good pvp spot from what I'm told. Research Hall has you going through a very Tower of Latria-esque area. Tower of Latria in Demons Soul's was one of the most atmospheric areas in that game and this area's no different. It's extremely creepy and feels very unique compared to the base game's areas. I just feel bad killing the blob head guys because they're all failed experiments. Still, for the atmosphere alone this place is great but besides that, it's cool going room to room and up the giant staircase. The last area might be the best, the Fishing Hamlet is absolutely one of the most distinct areas yet. An aquatic area where you go through a village of fish creatures was not what I would expect from Bloodborne but its amazing. Holy shit though, fuck those giant whale enemies they are INSANE. They're harder than most of the base game bosses lol. Still though, it has a decent variety of enemies and a lot of new enemies at that. That plus the amazing aesthetics and really unique setting makes it a top tier area imo and a great end to the DLC.

Now for the big kahunas, the bosses. Right away we start with my favorite boss in the DLC, in Bloodborne and one of my favorite in the entire series, Ludwig. Holy goddamn is he amazing. He's just so fun to fight, that plus he has the best song in Bloodborne and his 2nd phase get's even better, top tier boss fight man. The first time I fought him, I beat him first try. I thought I got lucky but this time around again, I beat him first try. I guess he just isn't super hard, doesn't detract from how great of a fight it is.

In that same area is Laurence. Laurence is one of two fights in the DLC that I don't think are bad, but just aren't nearly as good as the big 3. The main reason for that is he's a reskin of Cleric Beast, just on fire and he has a 2nd phase. I do really like how we finally get to see him, after hearing about him so much in the base game. Laurence however is certainly the hardest imo, took me like 5-6 tries. Definitely one of the toughest in the game.

In the Research Hall, after pushing the lever at the top of the staircase, you unlock the Living Failures. Nothing really much to say about them, they're alright. The lore implications with the rest of the area's citizens and how they were supposed to turn into these guys is really cool, but other than it's just too easy of a boss and yeah I beat them first try.

Immediately after that though, we have another awesome boss. Lady Maria was a boss I was honestly a bit conflicted on before. When I first beat her years ago, I parried nonstop and she was the easiest boss in the DLC. Coming back to it again and this time doing the fight parry-less, it's way harder and way more fun. It's not nearly as hard as something like Friede in DS3, but it definitely wasn't braindead easy like it was with parries. Still easy enough for me to beat her first try tho lol, but yeah she was a ton of fun.

Last on the list of bosses is Orphan of Kos and hoo boy is he a doozy. He's absolutely one of the most aggressive and tough fights in the game but at the same time he feels completely fair. He telegraphs his attacks and combos quite well and he makes for a blast of a fight. Not as good as Gael imo but still an amazing way to end off the DLC. Also, I was so pissed this time around because I almost beat him first try, however I celebrated prematurely and lost with one hit left. I beat him on my 2nd go around but that still stung lole.

All in all this DLC is absolutely fantastic. It has some of the best areas and bosses in the series and despite having two not so great bosses imo, those two are still not bad and does not change the fact that this is my favorite DLC to any game. It's peak Bloodborne, which is insane because Bloodborne was already peak.

Finished the DLC, still need to finish the main game though. It was peak, some of the highest high ever reached by FromSoftware. Tough but exciting boss fights, great atmosphere enhanced by masterful soundtracks, especially the ones composed by Nobuyoshi Suzuki and Yuta Kitamura. A great revisiting of previously seen areas with new angles showing us intriguing elements of lore, while still not entirely clear, made me shiver or frightened at times, especially the laboratory.
I'll probably write on the game as whole when I'm done with it.

A constant cicle of running away and trying to forget bad memories. Bloodborne gave to the player the power fantasy of the hunter, but behind every "prey slaughtered" lies a deep sense of regret. A lot of time lost, a lifetime of lies where your only pleasure is being a hired killer.

The game has a slide showing your levels of bestiality and insight, but in the end they are the same. Like all of the souls games you are tied to do what your told to, only a pawn in a much bigger game of chess. Either become violent and nonsensical, or passive and stoic.

You are reminded at the whole game that you have to always come back to the Hunter's Dream, but this time you need to explore the Hunter's Nightmare. A nightmare that only exists to forever remember the sins of who came before you. Those who were hurt will not be totally compensated, but in the process of studying the mistakes of the past, you can avoid repeating them.

Ludwig and Laurence devoted their lives to serve their own sense of distorted justice, The Living Failures are direct consequences of that decision, and Maria is a person who forever regretted having been part of it all. It's almost as if she recognized that she is yet another tragic character from From Software, and killed herself in disgust. But the key point for me is the Orphan of Kos, it is a fight against a being who has just been born and whose only baggage is hatred for killing his own mother; it is perhaps the most difficult fight in the game, and rightfully so, is the moment of liberation from the molds of pre-determined life. Destroying the nightmare here means being able to start again, resolve your differences with your genetic and memetic inheritance to finally be able to live in peace.

"...Ahh, sweet child of Kos, returned to the ocean... A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea. Accepting of all that there is and can be."

Seriously fantastic. How did they manage to make 3 bosses that completely overshadow every boss in the base game? I ended up playing the DLC on ng+ because I couldn’t be bothered to play through a good chunk of the game again, so it ended up being quite a bit harder than it would’ve been normally.

Ludwig will probably go down as one of my favourite bosses ever. So much fun to fight and super difficult. I got annoyed at one point and ended up using a summon, but somehow, the summon ended up getting lost or something and didn’t even enter the boss arena, so I ended up having to fight a beefier version of Ludwig and I actually managed to beat him on this attempt!

The only thing I can say that was bad about this DLC is the living failures fight. I’m not exaggerating when I say this was probably the worst boss fight in any FromSoft game for me. I don’t know if this was just for ng+ but this fight was horrible. They ended up doing close to a half of my health in damage for each attack and their health bar was massive.

Lady Maria was another awesome fight. She can be super annoying at times, with a lot of her attacks being incredible difficult to judge properly, but being able to stunlock her fairly consistently ends up balancing this out in a way. I was probably on my 8th attempt or something before I realised how easy it was to parry her. I very very rarely go for parries in this game, but even I found that it made this fight a bit of a joke. Without that, this would probably have been on par with Ludwig in terms of difficulty, since Maria can very easily punish you for messing up or getting too greedy.

I somehow managed to first try Orphan of Kos??? Still a super fun fight, but part of me wishes I experienced the true horror of the fight.

Lastly, Laurence was a bitch! I didn’t like this fight much overall. His moves was super annoying and hard to judge/dodge for me. And again, ng+ made it more annoying, with some of his attacks literally melting 3/4 of my health.

They obviously nail the horror aesthetics in the base game, but I kind of think they did it even better here. Absolutely amazing art direction. One of my favourite moments was beating Lady Maria and then walking through the giant clock. The light beams through the opening and you walk through, only to be welcomed by a dirty, overcast fishing village.

I think they also managed to produce some of the most unique and fun weapons in this DLC too. The Whirligig Saw is insanely overpowered, but it's so much fun. I didn't use them much but the Amygdalan Arm, Boom Hammer, Rakuyo and Beast Cutter were also super cool.

There are only two problems with The Old Hunters DLC:
It is too good and I want more.
It is the only DLC for Bloodborne.

Two of the best boss fights in the game (possibly in all souls games) are in this DLC. Fantastic.

Best dlc in gaming history and here's why. Outstanding areas. All 3 of them are are of similar quality (which is extremely high btw). The level design they have is excellent and and the enemies are fair and fun. Jaw-dropping bosses, ludwig is spectacular with a haunting ost and visuals that will make your eyes cum. 1 vs 1 duel with lady maria which is another spectacular boss, orphan of kos which is one of the hardest in the game and also my favorite, laurance which I also really like, a reskin done right and an interesting gimmick fight with the living failures. The lore and story of this dlc is extremely intriguing and fun to unravel. The weapons are sooo fun to use and the new sets look cool as hell. This dlc and bloodborne and just peak fromsoftware.

A true nightmare

The Old Hunters probably alleviates one concern some people might have had with the original game: the bosses were too easy and it's also really just more of Bloodborne. What's there not to like here?

The new areas including a remixed Cathedral Ward are amazing and up to the quality the base game's high standard that was already set up here. The bosses themselves are all amazing even the multiple enemy one somehow which I was surprised by. The final boss will honestly kick your teeth in to the point I didn't stop until I nailed every parry on him and essentially memorized every move he did based on the animation itself. All satisfying fights with excellent themes I won't even list so you can experience that sound for yourself when you fight them.

It's really hard to argue with not getting this considering it adds several hours of Bloodborne to your experience tailored for the end game and delivers completely as an expansion to the original. If you want more of a challenge, it's here.

The perfect addition that not only complements the game, but also highlights its brilliance and competence. It was a surprisingly character-driven DLC. Whereas Bloodborne was a more atmospheric and grotesque experience, The Old Hunters centered around the Hunters you face.

I absolutely fucking loved this shit; like, there's no need to babble further on how much I like Bloodborne, but I have to applaud how the DLC managed to add to the base game without being "more of the same", it had a unique taste especially in terms of the cast. My biggest issue with the original game pretty much was The Old Hunders' biggest strength. The DLC not only brings excellent characters but adds extra layers to the existing ones.

By meeting so many important lore figures, you really gain a new perspective on the events of Yharnam. The complexity and dichotomy each character carries matches how much I thought while I was playing the main game months ago. I don't think I'll ever forget my encounters with Laurence, Lady Maria and especially Ludwig. Not getting excited thinking about this game is harder than the game itself, dammit... The thing is, Bloodborne inspired a new passion in me and the DLC intensified it. Since I finished the game in early 2023, I've been playing more horror games and even digging up some horror books. And that's not for nothing, it's not me wanting to "elitize" the game, but Bloodborne really has a higher and even ethereal quality about itself; it is so profound and complex I just love it. Wondering about Yharnam and its history is an ineffable delight that the game 112% invites me to do. The result being that I'm thirstier than any healthy person should be for more Bloodborne or the like, and more is what I got. I'm sure the DLC will age on me just as well as the base game.

The Old Hunters saga was one whose linearity was perfect. I like the original game's sense of freedom, but Old Hunters being linear allowed for stellar thematic cohesion. As purposely chaotic as they are, the places are like a subtle mini-story that I doubt is coincidental.

As of today, I will be unable to think of Bloodborne without thinking of Old Hunters. I still prefer the base game, but the DLC cast is honestly just as memorable. And now Bloodborne is officially the perfect video game and it's become my favorite I guess. This game brings out the best in me and now it has finally taken its rightful place as my top 1.

The Old Hunters offers such an essential link to its base game that after playing through a few times, it's hard to even distinguish them as separate products. Good DLC gives you more content to continue and improve upon the core experience, but great DLC does all that while deepening your understanding of and connection to the world that your character occupies. Bloodborne, in the tradition of From Software's approach to DLC, uses its additional content to flesh out its dense lore even further and, for those willing to decipher its disturbing mysteries, recontextualize events and characters at the heart of Bloodborne's story in captivating ways.

Plunged into The Hunter's Nightmare, you begin to make your way through a hellish inversion of an area you'll be familiar with from the base game: The Cathedral Ward. Standing in the place of its usual guardians though are dangerous, hostile hunters — those who have been cast down from the waking world into this sort of purgatory, likely for sins committed under Ludwig, the founder of the church hunters (and the first major boss you will take down in this area). As with many hunters, his intentions were good in the beginning, but as the scourge grew, he fell to the same bloodlust that took so many people and became an abhorrent beast…

It's easy to go and on and on about the immense lore implications revealed in The Old Hunters, but it unravels in such fascinating ways that are best left to be discovered firsthand. As side content that attempts to fill in some of Bloodborne's missing pieces (while introducing plenty of new questions of its own), it's fitting that The Old Hunters is defined by a sense of well-guarded secrecy. Even accessing the DLC is hidden away, found only by those who are specifically looking for it or by a lucky few who may stumble into it by accident. Further in, you meet Lady Maria, a person so key in shaping the events that take place in Bloodborne; she bemoans the hidden past you are uncovering, warning that "a corpse should be left well alone" and that she of all people knows "how the secrets beckon so sweetly." Director Hidetaka Miyazaki and his team are so good at creating intrigue through vague storytelling, never revealing concrete details and instead leaving us to reflect over characters' mysterious ruminations and their implications. Combined with this is typically impeccable environmental storytelling—their use of item descriptions, enemy design and placements, and level design to convey details of the world—with which From Software harnesses the unique qualities of games to give a confounding level of depth to their stories.

That is to say that the majority of this dense storytelling is naturally weaved into an actual game, and it's a damn good one at that. The Old Hunters offers an immensely challenging and atmospheric experience that rivals anything From Software have put out. The environments you traverse exude haunting beauty at every step, and the enemies you face are sublimely grotesque creations. Its levels are compelling as ever to explore (particularly the labyrinthine Research Hall, which is just a marvel of level design) and the boss fights are beyond incredible, pushing the players' skills to a level previously unseen in the base game and providing for moments of pure, unfettered adrenaline to take hold. If Bloodborne got anything right though, it was its dedication to its Victorian setting and the gnarly mix of Gothic and Lovecraftian horror that takes hold of it, all of which is translated in high form to its expansion.

All of this is simply to say that without The Old Hunters, there is no Bloodborne. Of course it exists and succeeds as a game on its own, but that The Old Hunters expands Bloodborne's already masterful game design with such exceptional, meaningful content makes the base game feel incomplete without it. Essential.

How were we able to drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Where is it moving to now? Where are we moving to? Away from all suns? Are we not continually falling? And backwards, sidewards, forwards, in all directions? Is there still an up and a down? Aren't we straying as though through an infinite nothing? Isn't empty space breathing at us? Hasn't it got colder? Isn't night and more night coming again and again? Don't lanterns have to be lit in the morning? Do we still hear nothing of the noise of the grave-diggers who are burying God? Do we still smell nothing of the divine decomposition? — Gods, too, decompose! (§125)

In typical Fromsoft fashion, they leave the best to the DLC. Nearly every problem I had with the base game gets fixed here. Great distinct areas, interesting story, memorable NPCs, amazing additional weapons, and fun challenging bosses. Also, I don't know what dark arts Yuka Kitamura conjured to compose Ludwig's theme, but I need more of that. Only con is the Living Failure fight, I don't know why Fromsoft is so keen on adding mediocre gimmick bosses like this one, but alright. Ludwig and Orphan of Kos (or is it Kosm?) are easily up there with their best bosses.

★★★★ – Excellent ✅

P.S. I never did a death count for bosses before, but I did for Bloodborne. I find the contrast between base game bosses and DLC so funny:

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BASE GAME
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Cleric Beast - 0
Gascoigne - 0
Amelia - 0
Blood Starved Beast - 2
Darkbeast Paarl - 1
Witches of Hemwick - 0
Shadows of Yarnham - 1
Undead Giant - 0
Merciless Watchers - 0
Watchdog of the Old Lords - 1
Logarius - 5
Amygdala - 0
Rom - 1
Keeper of the Old Lords - 0
One Reborn - 1
Celestial Emissary - 0
Ebrietas - 4
Micolash - 3
Mergo - 0
Gerhman - 6
Moon Presence - 0
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DLC
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Ludwig - 13 (ouch)
Living Failures - 0
Lady Maria - 0 (Hard fight still)
Laurence - 11 (ouch)
Orphan of Kos - 31 (Roblox oof)