Bloodborne... 7 Years Later 

Hey what's up! We're back with another Years Later Retrospective - Bloodborne! I covered this game a few years back, but I never got into much detail with it, so here we go. Yep... an hour... who here was around when my average video duration was like 5 minutes? Who'd a thunk it? What video games would you guys like me to cover next in this format? This video doesn't contain any discussion on PVP or Chalice Dungeons. Those are 100% optional, and very subjective. I like the Chalice Dungeons a lot, but they can get pretty samey after a while. But, it's a nice slice of free content that would have otherwise been ripped out of game and resold for $20 bucks. I'm looking at you at Activision and EA. PVP has never been my thing; it's, honestly, pretty gimmicky in BB with the gun mechanic and all. Sorry I don't have more to say on the matter than this. Thanks for watching all, take care.

Imagine making such a perfect masterpiece game that the only bad thing is the frame rate.

I love how every few years everyone just remembers this beautiful game and we all just stuff our head full of eyes all over again.

"We are born by the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood" Damn I love this game.

Bloodborne player, at first: "Okay, let's see what all the hype surrounding this game is all about." Same player, 5 hours later: "The sweet blood, oh, it sings to me! It's enough to make a man sick!" Same player, 30 hours later: **puts on Mensis Cage** "What we need... is _more eyes..."_ Same player, 100 hours later: **is literally a baby alien slug**

This game far transcended the realm of video games & became a timeless masterpiece

I'll never forget running into that little cathedral filled of giant spiders hanging from the ceiling. I immediately ran out and almost had a panic attack. Lol that was straight out of one of my worst nightmares. Bloodborne is a masterpiece of cosmic horror.

Bloodborne is still my favourite game of all times. Sekiro is the only thing that came close...but otherwise I've never played anything like Bloodborne.

I must have finished Bloodborne more than 20 times now. I keep coming back couple of times a year. I think it'll always be my favorite game. It was the reason I bought a PS4 and haven't regretted it since. Hoping Elden Ring surpasses my experience with Bloodborne but I doubt it. Bloodborne will always have a special place in my heart. It's my comfort zone for the past 6 years. Might sound weird but playing this game actually relaxes me after playing through it multiple times. Makes me feel at home.

The Bloodborne DLC is the greatest, most finely-crafted, most genius add on content I’ve seen in any game ever. It is difficult to overstate how clever it is, especially the unbelievably genius way it recontextualises the plot. Absolutely stunning.

Imagine a game being so good to this day that people decided to make a DEMAKE instead of a remake

We don’t deserve Bloodborne, such an incredible masterpiece. It makes me super excited for Elden Ring, knowing the quality Miyazaki is capable of putting out.

The thing about Living Failures and their meteor attack is that it always comes from the same direction. So if you stand behind that middle pillar it cant hit you..

You know a game is special when no matter how much you have played it you'll always have a great time with it.

The evolution of perfection in action RPG gaming, best and most tense, exciting combat in a video game ever made, nothing comes close, smashes games like God Of War to pieces in terms of playability, atmosphere and gaming satisfaction. A true gaming masterpiece, one of the best video games ever made in history.

Give that game its well deserved ps5 patch, dammit.

I think the reason people (including myself) like bloodborne so much is because it pays homage to gothic horror the best.

I can't express how perfect bloodborne is as a complete package. Its not just a game, but an experience.

Ahh good ole Bloodborne, I remember that one. 700 hours in, ng plus so many times I lost count. Man I miss Yarhnam. I'm actually considering taking another victory lap through bb after watching this. Great video. Your experience of how you slowly got in to Bloodborne and didn't beat it initially are very similar to my own circumstances with how I came to love Bloodborne. I actually disliked it at first and quit playing for quite a while but as you said, it gave me an empty feeling and it was like the game was calling me back, I was even dreaming about it everything. I eventually started making progress and getting better and now it is definitely in my top 3 video games of all time if not my first. It's crazy to think that I almost gave up playing my favorite game of all time in the first level for many months and How lucky I am am to have decided to keep going or I would have missed out on of the best gaming experiences ever created imo. Wow, what a time. Thanks for the vid, brought back many wonderful memories.

I noticed that many people that played through this game missed the hand lantern that lights up the surrounding area with out the need of holding a torch on your left hand. It only costs like 2000 blood echoes. It’s not as bright as a torch but it is still quite useful.

Everytime I get reminded of the games that fromsoft made I get more and more excited about Elden Ring. No other game franchise in history other than Souls and early CODs made me begging for more. I still play souls games even though I played 2000+ hours on each game! That's how you know it's good. + Mods make it 200x better.

7 years later and this game still looks as fantastic as when we first stepped into it.

I’ve always told my wife, “Bloodborne will be the game I show my grandkids.” My All time favorite.Well built video!

Watching this after playing ER, I still think BB has the best world out of all fromsoft games for me personally. Now I wonder if they'll ever do a BB 2 with the level of ER and how that would look like. Amazing video btw. Made me relive the game I love so much with how detailed the video is.

A few weeks ago I finally got the Platinum for Bloodborne. I don't usually chase after Platinum trophies but for a game so near and dear to my heart I had to.

Your analysis of the intro level was very good, i do have one improvement. I learned the exact opposite lesson on the bonfire enemy pack. If you are fast and aggressive enough, you can kill the packs of enemies before they have a chance to congregate, the resulting melee is against ~3 enemies plus snipers instead of 10. That part of the intro level was meant to teach aggression, because if you passively wait for each monster pack, they will gather into one large pack.

Only comlpaint I ever had with this game is that the jump is not remappable to L3

Starts off video talking about how great 30 frames is lol. Sry bruh but dark souls 3 became soo much better when it got an fps boost on my xbox series s console, I actually enjoyed it soo much more with 60 frames and the partical effects along with atmosphere was alot better with 60 frames. Stop making a case for 30 frames, bloodborne needs a 60 frame boost. I actually stopped playing sekiro because of the 30 frame problem. His whole video became null and void off the start.

The poise mechanic is only weird and confusing in the way you describe in dark souls 2 and 3. In ds1 poise is a pretty straightforward and transparent mechanic. It's just a stat given to you by armour (there's also one Ring that gives you poise and a couple buffs that give you poise) and you can see your poise stat in the menu.

Even 7 years later, Bloodborne is still my favorite FromSoft game despite me finding myself playing Dark Souls way more frequently. Eldritch horror is a personal favorite, and Dark Souls is one of my favorite games. Putting them together is a match made in heaven for me. Now if only we could get a PS5 patch or a PC release.

your argument about better immersion caused by lower fps is boomer talk and its not true. More fps is always better, also for immersion.

Something I have to say: I've played every FromSoft game extensively and I've NEVER been able to parry in any, except for Bloodborne. The gun-parry is just so much better than the shield parry.

Righteous isn't a bonus against Kin, it's a bonus against a few select enemies that are deemed as opposition to the church. Mainly righteous is good against the enemies in cainhurst. In bloodborne we have serration/fire for beasts, righteous for vilebloods, and thrust/elemental for kin.

I bought a PS4 just to play Bloodborne and I can honestly say it was money well spent. This game is just amazing.

Games are objectively better and more enjoyable at higher frame rates. The entire “cinematic 30 FPS” argument holds no water since a game is supposed to function first as a GAME. Better performance also leads to better immersion factor. Cant think of anytime I thought ‘oh gee, this games too fluid, therefore I’m less invested’ while playing.

7 years.. i haven't done my own playthrough of this masterpiece... i dont have ps4 but i do have pc i have completed DS1, DS2, DS3, Sekiro, and Demon Souls on ps3... the closest thing i have touched Bloodborne is probably the PSX or Demake version from fan one. its amazing

The absolute mental gymnastics to justify the 30fps not being so bad. Worst part is blood borne isn't even consistently able to reach that 30fps.

My favorite game of all time. It is simply a masterpiece.

One of the greatest games ever made, hopefully they announce a PC port once the Elden Ring hype dies down

Hey Tone, I love your gaming videos, but your cooking videos honestly gave me so much inspiration! I’d love if you’d bring back that series, they were great videos and make me take cooking more seriously

i cant believe its been 7 years!!! with each passing day, im hoping to playing it, they didnt release it for PC so my chaces are slim.

One thjng that made me sometimes chuckle when playing Bloodborne is when names like "Eldritch Horror" pop up. And I'm like "uuuh ok...what isn't freaking Eldritch Horror that I come across so far? You could a gave that name to like 50% of monsters in this game". Anyway, very well put together video. I'm sad you didn't actually cover the chalice dungeons as while everyone hated them I actually ended up spending like over 200+ hours diving deep DEEEEEP into them after finishing the game. I like the way they were made. I like discovering glitchy unfinished bosses because I'm so far beyond where even the game designers excpected me to venture. And I played the game as an arcane build the entire time and modified all my weapons to scale with arcane which I honestly can't say I saw anyone else do. Most people who played arcane settled on the moonlight blade or the broccoli head after all. I mained the whirly boi saw and ya...I can't wait to get it as Ihear it's in Elden Ring too!

24fps/180 for filmmaking is a lot different than 30hz gaming.

Bloodborne 100 years later: hasn't been released on PC yet

What's funny is how much better Bloodborne is compared to elden ring imo.

I recently discovered that on the lake in the fishing hamlet you can see buildings like yharnam, creating a feeling of a higher plane.

They have to be working on a remaster or something.

I don't think frame pacing issues were a part of game's artistic direction, mate.

Dark Souls 3 does NOT have an uncapped frame rate. It's capped at 60fps. There's a mod that lets you uncap it though. Also, there is literally no argument for a lower frame rate. Movies are a different story, but in games you don't get better "immersion" by having your character react slower, things stutter more.

The fact this still didnt get a pc port is a bigger sin than gwyn linking the flame

450 hours? You gotta pump those numbers up. Those are rookie numbers!

My favorite thing about the game is that it does Lovecraft better than any other game or medium to be released. It fundamentally understands the themes of cosmic horror and the terrifying nature of the unknown.

7 years, we still waiting for a pc release :(

As close as it gets to a perfect game for me. The ideal in terms of gameplay and presentation for a videogame. I think i have probably played like 500 hours and i will play 500 more

I love the in-depth analysis. Even after all these years, there's something about new Bloodborne videos like this that keeps me coming back for more. Bloodborne truly is a one of a kind work of art that will continue to age like fine wine. One gripe, though - I cringe when I see people use the "pulling" strategy on the Central Yharnam mob and say that's the intended design of that encounter. I disagree, and here's the way I think it most natural and fluid to accomplish: Go up the stairs to the right, just behind the gunman sitting behind the carriage as you enter the area. Follow the walkway to the end, whereupon a break in the fence will drop you to the mouth of the large door upon which the Brick Troll bangs. Certain parts of the mob will notice you and give chase onto the walkway, allowing you to dispatch them as a small group rather than a horde. Half of the mob will have patrolled out of the area as you were fighting on the walkway, and two enemies will have patrolled into the mouth of the doorway. You can wait for them to walk back out and be oblivious to your presence as they continue to patrol before you drop from the walkway, or you can go in and kill them if you're feeling aggressive (though you risk the dog and potentially the ground-level gunman joining the fight if you choose the latter). Most likely, only the two enemies will fight you should your presence become known in the archway of the door. From here, you can then defeat the dog (preferably with Molotov cocktail or throwing knife) and ground-level gunman from behind, after which one or two other enemies around the pyre will approach you. If you can afford it, Molotov the gunman atop the carriage for a quick kill while you handle the ground forces. Otherwise, a dodge or two as the gunman shoots at you may be required as he surely will see you fighting the two ground troops. Once the ground guys are done, sprint up the stairs and murder-kill the gunman with a delightful running R2 for style. If you didn't kill the first two patrolling enemies back at the large door, you will likely have to handle them now as they will have walked up to this area (if they didn't notice you kill the dog and attack you back on the ground level). At this point, the half of the mob which patrolled out of the area will be returning, only to see their compatriots strewn dead across the plaza and your miserable frame soaked in their blood and hauntingly illuminated by the flames of the pyre. Now, the mob has been reduced to a smaller group, which you can then massacre with ease, all without relying on the cheesiness of "pulling." I prefer to play games as immersively and efficiently as possible, and pulling is one of the things that breaks immersion for me. Regardless, I like your video and appreciate the hard work you put into it. I enjoy the connection you made between 30 fps being more cinematic and even dreamlike. It makes Bloodborne look more like a painting rather than a video game. I also like the way you designed your female character for some of your clips - very fashionable.

bloodborne is a true masterpiece, but defending the 30fps(ish because ps4 tanks) hardware impediment as "cinematic" artistic view is pure bullshit

7 years later, still no PC release. It's truly amazing.

i adore the art and design of bloodborne, i love how it looks and feels. no other game has quite captured that perfect aesthetic for me.

I have never seen someone defend 30fps lmao

As a gameplay animator I can assure you framerate has absolutely nothing to do with responsiveness (at least in these types of slow games - unlike first person shooters or racing and competetive games). It is up to the animators to create animations with clear anticipation or lack of it at all to keep the animation blending to required minimum. On top of that - proper implementation, blending systems, gameplay design choices and optimisation must go in line to keep high responsiveness. Input lag is the last piece of the puzzle here and boils down to the tv or monitor you are using. FPS can give you a further enhancement of responsiveness feeling by making the image more clear during fast camera and character movements, but it won't fix the lag bottleneck that is in the fundamentals of the game's animation, design, implementation and optimisation. Please don't confuse these two completely separate factors. Bloodbourne and every other Souls game suffers from this issue. That is the main reason these games are more difficult than they would be otherwise. It is also hilarious to me that even souls-like games like Mortal Shell are having the same problems BY CHOICE. However I like the style of some animations in Bloodbourne, many have very unclear and jerky anticipation. These things make souls-likes unplayable for me. But since these issues (concidered as animation errors by traditional animation standards) are apparent in every soulslike game and concidered as 'style' - I guess many people don't mind them at all and just enjoy the game, which is absolutely fine :) Cheers!

Every single person I've seen talking shit about Bloodborne or saying "I don't think it's my thing" have started singing completely different tune after playing it. It deadass is my favorite game ever made, an outlier in an otherwise immersive sim ruled Top 5 of mine.

I've watched and enjoyed both your bloodborne and DS3 videos. Your writing is so good and entertaining! Keep up the great content.

A charged heavy is not a visceral attack. The riposte after parry is known as the visceral. The locked 30 fps is not an artistic direction. The base PS4 just simply couldn't handle it. Quick step is very useful, reference vatividya or fightincowboy. It is well known that poise in DS goes up with heavy armours and rings. Living Failures meteor attack comes from the same direction every time. You can avoid them easily.

I can understad this being an exclusive for the life of the PS4. But, at this point, anyone buying a Sony system JUST to play Bloodborne for the first time is doing so second-hand. If there are even any of those people left. However, EVERYONE who owns a PC who has already played it and paid for it once is BEGGING to pay for it again, and the fact that they won't do it is perplexing.

Absolutely masterpiece... No single game has reached the level of atmosphere and lore of Bloodborne.

Ahh Bloodborne. I can say that it's my video game soulmate (borrowed from Valkyrie Aurora)

Higher framerate is better. I couldn't beat Ishiin on Sekiro until I played it on PS5 lol.

Great vid- although I thought the stamina reduction stuff was actually taken out? Apparently the lantern slowed regen in early versions of the game. I could swear this system was gone...could be wrong though. Righteous weapons don't do better against kin either- it is mostly enemies at Cainhurst, making it pretty situational. The kin bonuses come from gems. Other than that, great vid!

Used to play shooters and easy single player games only. A few days ago I bought BloodBorne and I love it already. It is hard for me but i'll accept the challenge. Am at the blood starved beast right now

Playing BB for the first time. Enjoying it so far and I think this will be one of those games I’ll play over and over again.

7 years ago: amazing 7 years later: still good 2027: yep still good

What a beautiful video, I too have deep feelings towards this masterpiece of a game, truly a work of art

Here's hoping for an official PC port!

I have been playing souls games on and off for the last 7 years, starting with Bloodborne. I am finally back into BB after a 4 or 5 year break and I finally understand this game. It is a dance - you do not mash buttons mindlessly, you flow with the movement of your character and the enemy, with every action being intentional yet happening almost always subconsciously. This is flow state in it’s most absolute form, and I wish it didn’t take me so long to figure this out.

Bloodbourne: Base game: 10/10 DLC: 15/10 Chalice Dungeons: -5/10 Over all bloodbourne 10/10 perfect game

The Upper Cathedral Ward scares me so much that in my other play throughs I don't even bother fully exploring it

"cinematic frame rate" lol, gimme a break

What a cozy ass video man. Thanks for adding the vibes to my morning routine.

i really liked this video you did a great job of expressing your feelings for the game and mechanics. i do have three things i think i would disagree with that you said. first i dont feel like fat rolling and poise are out dated (under explained yes like a lot of things in these games) but i feel they were omitted because fromsoft wanted fast melee focused combat so they removed /limited the options to play the game otherwise. two i dont think input buffering is inherently bad, i honestly dont know it getting rid of it would be something i want as i dont know if it would make the games better even with faster framerates and such. lastly i 100 % disagree that fromsoft do not have a progressive learning curve. although the game can feel sink or swim early on, its all well crafted as you mention to teach people but also to improve your skills at a rapid pace, later levels are harder and even in the first level you can find good progression in difficulty. its all designed to push you from beginning to end but is always intended to feel accomplishable each step is just put a little further them most people comfort zone including the first levels.

I just bought a ps5 2 weeks ago and the art design of this game on ps plus peaked my curiosity even though it is so old. I already beated all souls games and was playing elden ring last week. This game was too brutal for me at first until i watched your video and understood game mechanics. I didn't even know u could parry with ur gun and it is something so easy to do too:) the most important tip for was dodging to the sides or front not backwards. Thank you so much i just feel im playing on easy mod after watching this and i can finally experience the best designed video game of all time in terms of art direction.

After Elden Ring release, still Bloodborne is #1 FromSoftware game for me.

That point about thrusting and slashing is why the Balder Side Sword was such a good weapon in DS1. I was actually mad when I found out how rare it was and that I only got it out of extreme luck

Not that i disagree that BB is a masterpiece, but god the amount of bias in this "critical examination". It's all just based on taste really. This is better, that is worse...yet it's never really qualified in any other way than "i like x better than y". Great example of this being the poise rant. Poise is apparently esoteric and bad, but serrated weapons is a stroke of genious. Neither game explains these mechanic, you have to figure both out on your own. But one is great, and the other is terrible. Don't get me wrong, i liked the video and it was interesting to listen to. But i think the moniker of "critical examination" is the wrong choice of words. Personal retrospective is probably describes it better.

I have multiple sclerosis and can't play games like bloodborne and mortal Kombat. I've been missing something on bloodborne up until I watched your video. It's the fast triggering I can't keep up with

Bloodborne is better than Elden Ring.

Superb video and definitely ‘worthy’. You really got me in the mood to play the game again…will have to wait until I get a ps5, though. Just one small thing - at one point (about 38 mins in) you say “mak-a-bray” which I think is meant to be macabre. In US English it’s pronounced ‘mah-kaarb’ and in British English is pronounced ‘mah-kaa-bruh’ (similar to its original French version). It’s a weird word! Having said that, your excellent use of vocabulary throughout was a delight. Seriously, great video.

Yeah.... 7 years later and still not on PC ffs.

Righteous modifier is not a buff vs Kin. Righteous weapons buff the player vs church enemy. Namely Cainhurst enemies. Excellent video. Bloodborne truly is a masterpiece.

Still hoping it gets a PC port...

Me going back to Bloodborne after years: "Ah, you were by my side all along. My true mentor...

I started playing it yesterday god i underestimated how hard it was

Still playing this game can’t get enough of it

I feel like I understand this game now. Thank you for this video. I love the souls games but haven't made it very far on them. Understanding the mechanics now I hope to get past the learning curve. Please make a video about the mechanics of Elden Ring if you play it .

"30fps gives a cinematic feeling, making it more atmospheric" Aaand disliked. Lol.

fantastic video my guy! Really loved how you broke down the combat, you should compare/contrast the entire series in a separate vid

Craziest thing is im playing it for the first time this week and im loving every bit

Elden ring don’t hit the same after I played bloodborne

A real masterpiece and not a overrated recycled dark souls with another name.

Absolutely amazing game. It's not a perfect 10/10 unfortunately, due the the framepacing that make even 30FPS feel sluggish at times (tho the 60FPS mod made by a fan is amazing and if you've got a jailbroken PS4 Pro, heavily recommended. PS4 Pro Only tho, on the regular PS4 it's max 45 FPS and very inconsistent). The chalice dungeons also are the weakest aspect, as they are very repetitive, even the premade ones. I generally skip them nowadays after platinum'ing the game. Outside of those issues though, it is one of the best games in the past 10 years. No contest. If Sony got their heads out of their asses and allowed FromSoftware (or any other company that could do it) to release a 60FPS update for PS5 (or even better, port the game to PC now that God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn etc have set a precedent), this could very well become one of the best games of all time.

I love your saying of “hand sweating and ball shrinking”. Hilarious