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[Aria Jenneth]

So, over time, Bloodborne's become my go-to pastime while attention-intensive stuff isn't going on in Eve-- roleplay a bit, invade some luckless schmuck, roleplay some more. Bloodborne PVP takes some waiting, and Eve RP is tolerant of short pauses while I fight an honorable duel or track down some craven cur and slice his face off, so the two work well together. This also allows me to take a fairly passive approach to what is otherwise a pretty demanding game.

Only ... now the expansion's out, which makes this my active obsession until I can get through the damn thing ... which is being problematic, on account of NG+++ on a somewhat underleveled PvP character. (Curse you, Ludwig! ... oh, wait, too late.) It's a substantial expansion, with five new bosses and a pile of new weapons-- none of which I'm likely to use, but which I'm looking forward to seeing other players routinely armed with.

Aside from the hair-ripping frustration, I'm having a blast.

I recommend the game highly to anyone who has a taste for the "Souls" games' blend of depth and challenging, methodical gameplay, only Bloodborne's a little more with the snappy reflexes and aggressive offense and a little less with the cowering behind a tower shield (and, admittedly, with a little less depth).

I also recommend it for the story, which gradually shifts from ...

(Sorry-- update: just finally beat Ludwig! Rest in peace, you distorted pseudonatural not-werehorse.)

... from Bram Stoker to H.P. Lovecraft. It's a beautiful thing. *sniff*

Anyhow, just opened up a new area to explore, so, back to it.

[Elmund Egivand]

I wanna play Bloodborne and live my fantasy as a witch (beast?) hunter purging the infected, filthy city of the inhuman and the unclean for the glory of <insert Deity here>.

And dying horribly over and over again because in dark fantasy, victory is not given out like candy and you actually have to work for it.

Unfortunately I do not own a PS4.

[Aria Jenneth]

I've known of a few people who acquired a PS4 specifically for this, but that's not really a reasonable thing for most to do.

Dark Souls is a similar experience. It's on multiple platforms, and has a pantheon that isn't outright alien. (Praise the Sun!) If you have a console of any sort, I recommend the first over the second. It's questionable as a port to PC, however; Dark Souls 2 may be the better choice for PC-only. Demon's Souls was the proof of concept, and is a fantastic game in its own right.

All of them are straight ARPGs, with action strongly favored. There's a surprising amount of roleplay involved in online interactions, however, as many players get quite "into" their adopted roles. I tend to play a villain, as I love the PvP mechanics. My Bloodborne character is a jerk-ass bastard of a "noble" Vileblood iaijutsu master-- basically a murderous highwayman with pretensions who literally uses his noble blood to coat and strengthen his weapon.

I say "a villain," as that's the obvious role, but really it's not clear who the villains are. The Darkwraiths in Dark Souls serve the cause of Dark, certainly, but the Dark is the essence of humanity, and represents freedom from the gods of Fire, who fear humans and the darkness of their essence. (It may also represent the heat death of the universe, but who cares? FREEDOM!)

Likewise, the Vilebloods, despite their obvious vampiric overtones, may be the only power in Bloodborne that's content to be more or less human; they may be a pack of asshole European nobles, but they're not running around conducting experiments on people to try and find a way to transcend.

(Yet another reason to prefer DS to DS2-- the Brotherhood of Blood in DS2 are just psychopaths, with no higher purpose-- and no leaderboard.)

[Elmund Egivand]

I've known of a few people who acquired a PS4 specifically for this, but that's not really a reasonable thing for most to do.

Dark Souls is a similar experience. It's on multiple platforms, and has a pantheon that isn't outright alien. (Praise the Sun!) If you have a console of any sort, I recommend the first over the second. It's questionable as a port to PC, however; Dark Souls 2 may be the better choice for PC-only. Demon's Souls was the proof of concept, and is a fantastic game in its own right.

All of them are straight ARPGs, with action strongly favored. There's a surprising amount of roleplay involved in online interactions, however, as many players get quite "into" their adopted roles. I tend to play a villain, as I love the PvP mechanics. My Bloodborne character is a jerk-ass bastard of a "noble" Vileblood iaijutsu master-- basically a murderous highwayman with pretensions who literally uses his noble blood to coat and strengthen his weapon.

I say "a villain," as that's the obvious role, but really it's not clear who the villains are. The Darkwraiths in Dark Souls serve the cause of Dark, certainly, but the Dark is the essence of humanity, and represents freedom from the gods of Fire, who fear humans and the darkness of their essence. (It may also represent the heat death of the universe, but who cares? FREEDOM!)

Likewise, the Vilebloods, despite their obvious vampiric overtones, may be the only power in Bloodborne that's content to be more or less human; they may be a pack of asshole European nobles, but they're not running around conducting experiments on people to try and find a way to transcend.

(Yet another reason to prefer DS to DS2-- the Brotherhood of Blood in DS2 are just psychopaths, with no higher purpose-- and no leaderboard.)

I usually play the Souls game as a member of the Sunlight Covenant or similar, because helping other dudes kill bosses just feels good. I tend to just wander around stab something to death, get summoned, go help the other guy kill the giant thing, Praise the Sun, and being bad at gestures.

[Aria Jenneth]

Ah, I see I'm preaching to the converted.

Bloodborne went fairly light on the covenants; the equivalent of the Sun Bros was just added this last patch, the "League." All three of the other covenants ("oaths") are actively difficult to locate, requiring either a specific character quest or a challenging (and hard to find) optional area. Two of the three are focused on a new mechanic: trying to summon help, and accidentally getting an enemy, instead.

Vilebloods are the obvious "bad guy" covenant (though maybe not actually as bad as the good guys). They're straight-up PvPers, and not especially focused on any single method of getting kills. They even benefit from kills on NPC hunters, solo or in coop. (Don't sneer too hard at that; NPC hunters in Bloodborne are done Demon's Souls style-- deadlier hit for hit than any player, if not quite as smart, and possessing bottomless resources and a massive health bar. Killing one can be a workout, even in coop.)

I have yet to encounter a member of the Executioner oath in a context where it would be clear I was facing one; mostly I see Vilebloods with a sense of irony running around in Executioner kit. The only benefit of the Executioners seems to be opposing the Vilebloods and never working with them, which might be From experimenting to see whether the people who rail against nonconsensual PvPers are going to put their "blood echoes" where their mouths are and actually refuse to work with us alleged psychopaths, even if they get no other benefit. It's basically the antipirate covenant-- self-righteous, thankless, futile, self-defeating (how likely is a Vileblood to complain about an unexpected fight?), rarely used.

I've seen a few Hunters of Hunters, which seems the better way of surprise-hunting PvPers, if that's your thing. They're especially hard to get into. The bastard of an NPC Vileblood you have to slay at the end of Eileen the Crow's questline so as to get access is one of the hardest fights in the game, bosses included, and he appears in a boss area after the boss is defeated, which means you can't summon help.

'Course, that also means that anyone facing a Hunter of Hunters is necessarily dealing with someone who knows what they're doing. They're still a bit rare, though.

Mostly it's Vilebloods and League all the way down.

[Kador Ouryon]

Is Bloodborne worth getting back into with the advent of The Old Hunters?

I mean I've played pretty much everything in this vein since Demon's Souls and though I loved the Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror Bloodborne played upon I found PvP horribly unbalanced and some of the coolest weapons restricted to post NG.

That being said FROMSOFT usually does pretty good DLC (I'm choosing to selectively remember Artorias of the Abyss, Dark Souls) and a few more trick weapons wouldn't go amiss.

That being said I've not seen any new Arcane Tools or Attire on the Fextralife Wiki's so I'm kind of hesitant to pick it up.

[Aria Jenneth]

Is Bloodborne worth getting back into with the advent of The Old Hunters?

I mean I've played pretty much everything in this vein since Demon's Souls and though I loved the Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror Bloodborne played upon I found PvP horribly unbalanced and some of the coolest weapons restricted to post NG.

That being said FROMSOFT usually does pretty good DLC (I'm choosing to selectively remember Artorias of the Abyss, Dark Souls) and a few more trick weapons wouldn't go amiss.

That being said I've not seen any new Arcane Tools or Attire on the Fextralife Wiki's so I'm kind of hesitant to pick it up.

So, let's see ...

The Old Hunters adds a goodly infusion of new content and new areas, including, for my money, the freakiest yet. It's a meaty expansion. It also contains what is, thus far, my favorite boss in the game. Lady Maria is just ... ah, she's a woman after my own heart. Not, you know, counting the horrifying experiments and all. But still.

There's new attire (I already have three complete new sets, and GOD I want Lady Maria's hat, which I can get once I beat her), new off-hand weapons (including a gatling gun-- don't expect your quicksilver bullet supply to keep in firing for long, though), new Caryll runes, new tools, and, of course, multiple new trick weapons.

PvP: unbalanced is in the eye of the beholder, here. Early on, PvP seems kind of ludicrous (especially compared to the Souls games) because of the difficulty of dealing heavy damage and the ready availability of healing. Since all armor in Bloodborne starts at its max level and most sets vary in focus, not overall quality, almost all hunters are running with powerful armor at essentially all levels. As a result, unless you've put some work into your weapon you can end up whittling at an opponent's health total with your Blades of Mercy as though he were a block of wood. It doesn't have to be that way, though.

It's not about which weapon; it's about how they're used and with what modifications. As in Dark Souls 1, matchmaking is on the basis of level, so there's a tendency for Vilebloods to stop leveling at either 100 or 120 (late NG or early NG+) and focus on farming high-end cursed blood gems (weapon mods, for the observers out there) from the chalice dungeons. I personally run a lvl 100 PvP bloodtinge build with high-end blood gems on a Lost Chikage, which reliably three-shots other hunters even using just the light attack (two hits bring most to the point where they can be finished off with a pistol shot).

As an invader, my health total is gimped and I'm always alone, but duels against opponents of any developed build are quick, vicious, and very much tests of skill. The invader's gimped HP doesn't count for much-- maybe one sword swing more or less, which can make the difference in a close match, but needn't. About the only trick weapon I don't much respect is the starting axe, which is just too slow to bring a quick player down. Everything else can be made deadly. I'm well over a thousand kills in, and I still see people using old weapons in ways that make me blink and go, "What the hell was that?" That seems pretty reasonably balanced.

What I really prefer, though, is taking on pairs or trios of coop PvE players. Against a coop "gank squad," the gloves are off. I'll shamelessly use ambushes, environmental hazards, lead elixirs, you name it-- basically everything short of attacking when an opponent bows. That's too low, even for fighting outnumbered.

The balance in such a dynamic context is impossible to find. It's all in what resources you have, and how you use them. Long ago, I wrote a post criticizing DUST 514 for presenting a series of sporting matches rather than a war. Dark Souls and Bloodborne provide a war, albeit on a very small scale, and for that, I love them dearly.

(Best experience I've had to date: a seriously honorable player I invaded who directed his summoned assistants to duel me one by one, like I was a challenger at a dojo earning the right to face the master. I can't even remember who won; I barely care. It was just awesome.)

[Kador Ouryon]

Well I did see that the game introduced Caryll Runes that transform your character into either a Beast or Kin type creature offering different animations for certain weapon sets.

This I am really excited about especially since the Embrace Rune basically turns the Beast Claws into real claws. That's my first return build..... basically a SL43 Strength Twink that can use the Cannon and Beast Claws and invade/counter troll invaders anywhere between SL 20-79.

That being said its the Kin type creature I want to RP with the newly expanded arsenal of magic tools and Arcane 50 viability with Cold Abyssal Gems.

..... still it's not quite the same as Dark Souls for me so heres hoping that Dark Souls III really hearkens back to DeS with its new graphics and animations but keeps Dark Souls level of content and epic scope.

Also DeS is being teased for a PS4 port if rumour holds true.