Today I took down Amygdala, the Shadows of Yharnam, Rom the Vacuous Spider, and The One Reborn.
The first two, I one-shot (I think they're also bosses that I one-shot on my very first playthrough. While I think, like the Witch of Hemwick, I've never died on the Shadows of Yharnam, the previous times I'd always summoned an ally, and this time I truly solo'd it, which meant having to deal with their snake abilities more). Rom took me two attempts - the first simply because I got greedy and tried to slash at her while her spider minions were still around (I know some people just go right for the kill, but I find the fight is much easier if you're diligent about taking out all the adds). The One Reborn I think I got an honest death from, simply by failing to dodge out of the... er... rain of limbs it summons sometimes.
While I think Elden Ring is the easier game, I do think that enemies telegraph their attacks more in Bloodborne - which makes sense, as your only options are to dodge or shoot them right at the perfect moment to "parry" them. As such, I've had an easier time avoiding damage on most bosses.
I think in previous playthroughs I headed to the Hunter's Nightmare earlier than this point, but I think that it's really tuned to be an endgame area (certainly by the time I've finished it in previous playthroughs, the remaining bosses were trivial). This time, I'm really trying to mostly finish off what's there in the main game before heading into the DLC, which hasn't been too bad, and also will hopefully mean that Ludwig won't utterly annihilate me over and over.
While I wouldn't want the game to just fully embrace the whole medieval fantasy aesthetic of Dark Souls or Elden Ring, I do think, now, with those games under my belt, I wish there were more build options in Bloodborne. I don't know if it was intentionally made a smaller game than Dark Souls (certainly the development time was remarkably fast - Dark Souls II, Bloodborne, and Dark Souls III all came out one year after the other, which is something you expected from contemporary Ubisoft making Assassin's Creed games, but pretty amazing given that Bloodborne is considered by many a masterpiece, and Dark Souls III is also pretty beloved (DSII I think has gotten a critical redemption, though it's still not held up with the same respect as the original).
Elden Ring took three years from announcement to release, and there's a vast wealth of potential builds for your character (I only wish the final boss were not immune to all conditions, as it really takes a fun bleed-focused build and makes it suffer).
If we ever get a Bloodborne II, I'd love to see it given the scope of... well, it might be a lot to ask for it to be as big as Elden Ring (and arguably off-theme - a claustrophobic city is a good setting for a horror game) but I'd love to see the character options fleshed out.
One thing I'd probably do is make a distinction between the more mechanical Hunter's Tools and the more otherworldly ones, and perhaps having some kind of "Ingenuity" stat to govern the former, with Arcane or some similar notion governing the latter. Giving the player an FP-like meter to fuel stuff like special Trick Weapon abilities (similar to the Ashes of War or Weapon Arts) along with Hunter's Tools and... oh, we'll call them "Eldritch Invocations" to borrow a phrase.
It doesn't seem like From likes doing physical-damage ranged damage builds (though I am noticing that my current Bloodtinge-focused character hits pretty decently with his Evelyn pistol).
Naturally, there are tons of quality-of-life improvements that have come in subsequent games, like being able to re-spec, being able to sell "XP items" for their proper value, having the XP you need to level up shown on your Status screen, and being able to warp directly from checkpoint to checkpoint (hell, in Elden Ring, there's no reason to need a Homeward Bone or Bold Hunter's Mark equivalent because you can just warp anyway). Actually, also, just being able to rest at a lantern instead of warping back to the Hunter's Dream would also be great.
Now, I don't know how inclined From would be to revisit Bloodborne's lore and setting. Dark Souls is really the only exception so far, among the Soulsborne games, to have any direct sequels, and you could even read the plot of Dark Souls III in a meta way as a criticism of the very concept of sequels (a world that has been forced to continue on existing past its intended age is collapsing under its own weight).
But while Elden Ring is probably, ultimately, my favorite of FromSoft's games so far, I also liked how Bloodborne took the formula and explored a new genre (even if basically all of them have some Cosmic Horror elements).
Still, given all they've learned in the eight years since Bloodborne came out, I'd love to return to the gothic nightmare and gear up with my trick weapons to fight some beasts again.
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