This is truly excellent just as you would expect from any souls game, but only getting to this after playing Sekiro due to the platform exclusivity means experiencing it as a half-measure rather than the full flip on the formula introduced in Demon's Souls that Bloodborne must have felt like on release. While its pro-aggression "take what you need" changes are deeply satisfying, there's a lot of legacy systems and options left intact which don't really point toward that goal, and by the end you'll find yourself waiting around for the exploitable attack to parry rather than going in and tearing shit up like it wants you to. There's tons of big cool slow weapons that if you choose to use them completely nullify the smelling blood and advantage-pushing gameplay. And what's up with the vials? Why is THIS the game where they let you tank everything? I can play a thousand games that play like Dark Souls and be more than happy, but Bloodborne's rebellion against its older siblings is incomplete, still living in their shadow. With nearly all of Bloodborne's mechanical goals I can't help but think "this is great, but DAMN did Sekiro push this 10 steps further."
Aesthetically, this is one of the most well-realized settings Fromsoft has put together. "You should do cocaine about it" doctors and grimy victorian cities slowly give way to forbidden knowledge and eldritch horrors as you lose your damn mind and it's a wonder to take in. Problem is, the main area of this game has a relatively poor sense of space compared to its sister games, taking away from the potential impact of the setting. The different nodes are indistinct and not the most memorable, with the middle sections all blending together in my mind. Each area is beautiful (despite the distracting aliasing all over the place, jesus this deserves a rerelease) in its own right, but there isn't all that much visual variety, with pretty much the same color palette throughout.
The bosses don't help, as there's a whole lot that are too easy for their own good and again, aren't super memorable by Fromsoft standards. That isn't to say that they aren't fun to fight in the moment or that they're complete misses, they're a blast like nearly every souls boss, but most of the ones I'll be excited to revisit whenever I pick this back up are in the DLC. Vicar Amelia is the coolest design though, holy shit. All that said, I'm sure there were plenty I missed as there was still more I could have done with the chalice dungeon system.
This sounds largely negative but that's only by comparison to the masterpieces it's related to. At the end of the day Bloodborne is still a brilliant work of art and I'm glad I finally have the hardware to experience it.
Aesthetically, this is one of the most well-realized settings Fromsoft has put together. "You should do cocaine about it" doctors and grimy victorian cities slowly give way to forbidden knowledge and eldritch horrors as you lose your damn mind and it's a wonder to take in. Problem is, the main area of this game has a relatively poor sense of space compared to its sister games, taking away from the potential impact of the setting. The different nodes are indistinct and not the most memorable, with the middle sections all blending together in my mind. Each area is beautiful (despite the distracting aliasing all over the place, jesus this deserves a rerelease) in its own right, but there isn't all that much visual variety, with pretty much the same color palette throughout.
The bosses don't help, as there's a whole lot that are too easy for their own good and again, aren't super memorable by Fromsoft standards. That isn't to say that they aren't fun to fight in the moment or that they're complete misses, they're a blast like nearly every souls boss, but most of the ones I'll be excited to revisit whenever I pick this back up are in the DLC. Vicar Amelia is the coolest design though, holy shit. All that said, I'm sure there were plenty I missed as there was still more I could have done with the chalice dungeon system.
This sounds largely negative but that's only by comparison to the masterpieces it's related to. At the end of the day Bloodborne is still a brilliant work of art and I'm glad I finally have the hardware to experience it.