Bloodborne has some SERIOUS design issues!

40 second loading screen when you die is a "matter of opinion" ?

Insight is no problem to get, you have those skull-items that give you it as well so not only from bossfights. But maybe get expensive if you need some1 to hold your hand through whole game i dont know, i play solo.

I've about given up on BB. I'm just not having any fun.

Even if the loading times were fixed it would still be crazy tedious. Idk. Maybe I'm just too far out of my comfort zone with no shield. The bullets travel sooooo slow and don't always stun for a riposte.

And the game is just too..........Japanese. I can't think of any other way to put it. It's the same reason I gave up on the DMC franchise/reboot. A game all about combos just grew tiresome after DMC3.

Call me a scrub, but games should be fun.

@aroxx_ab:

I thought Blood Borne had no Hand Holding ?

I don't get how people are struggling for insight, i don't think i've used a single Madman's Knowledge since the first one i found and used to revived the Doll.

In fact, i've had to buy useless items from the Insight vendor just to keep my insight from going too high a few times. It's incredibly easy to get and sustain.

@Thunderdrone: Sounds like somebody's pissed at how hard the game is.

you must remember that any console exclusive would receive 1,5 less avg score if it was multiplatform, so 9,5 become 8

Loading screens aren't design decisions, they're a technical issue.

On PC and Xbox sure, but on the PS4? no.

The Souls community was shitting on Dark Souls 2 within mere days of that game being out, Bloodborne has its short comings, but otherwise the community has been mostly behind it. Bloodborne's long game will have more staying power by virtue of being a vastly superior game.

@IMAHAPYHIPPO: it's really not hard at all. Just flawed, frustrating, and kind of boring and dissapointing. Myself, I'm let down that their is no valid reason to play past NG, and that my first playthrough was so dull and unsatisfying. This is a twenty hour game with forty hours of padding on top.

I also find the dead online scene... disturbing. It makes the game world feel... empty. Interactions with other players is about half the appeal of these games for me.

Um what, I handled both fights solo.

What was cheap about either? Gwyn is a pusswagon who you parry, he's a joke.

@jg4xchamp: bloodborne has a long game? Mind telling me what it is? I do not think 20 hours at best of content with no variety, almost no difference in builds and playstyles, and a barely functioning online component is a valid long game. It's barely a week after release and we've seen everything the game has to offer.

Come on now. You should have learned from Demon's Souls. There are no design flaws, or bad design elements. Everything with the game was purposeful and only adds to the quality of the game. The only reason people complain is because they are obviously casuals that have no skillz, and the games are too hard for them. Did I explain it right?

Meant more in the sense that the community will stick with it.

And I seriously doubt we've seen all the build types yet. Between the people working the games wiki and gaf, theres been a lot of shit that hasn't been played out yet. For instance the part where every weapon has a normal, uncanny, and lost version. All of which with different gem slots, meaning they can be altered and will scale differently, so might want to wait a bit on burying it.

The online needs some reworking though. At the least it needs something like what Dark Souls DLC had, that giant pvp tower.

@jg4xchamp: I just want to be able to summon people without a thirty minute wait, and I want invaders to hit me more than once every fourty hours. I miss being trolled, and I miss trolling. Those kind of shenanigans gave the games so much personality.

Agreed, but for me the invasions and summoning have been happening fairly quickly. Well more so me myself personally invading, and my myself either getting summoned, or summoning someone.

Most of it starts happening from I want to say unseen village forward. Old Yarnham and stuff was pretty dialed back in that regard, but I haven't done much in NG+ at this point.

@jg4xchamp: weird, for me that was the point where I started getting these bizzare long waits. I wasn't over leveled either. I've never been able to draw much invasions. Just two in over sixty hours. I haven't tried being an invader yet.

What the **** do I care what others are saying about it? Do I get to play on their hard earned money? No, it's my money. Game is great, but it does have flaws. No game is perfect.

I usually get summoned for an invade within a minute when I ring my bell in areas like Nightmare Frontier, Nightmare of Mensis, and Cainhurst. That being said I agree with how you feel about online in this game, the bell-ringing mechanic sounds cool on paper but works out horribly for anyone but the beckoner. As an invader you not only get summoned with 30% less health but have a 99% chance of encountering the beckoner and his co-op partners unless you invade in an area where a bell-ringing woman is spawned by default, i.e. the two Nightmare areas. Also, blood vial spam in PvP is stupid. And of course, the PvP covenant gives you absolutely no rewards for turning in blood dregs beyond a gesture.

I do not like Bloodborne's PvP at all.

Why would offline be an option then? The game is meant to be played, period. If it wasn't meant to play offline like say Titanfall then it wouldn't have an offline option at the start up menu

Because not everyone has online? The game is designed with online in mind that doesn't mean you can't play it offline

What role did you play in the design team?

Dude don't be a dick.. shooters are meant for online too but some still ship with bots.. same thing.. The game has online worked into it from summons, invasions, ghosts and notes. You miss out on quite a bit without it even if you never plan to summon

Is this a joke post? Considering how much of the game you lose when it's played offline it is clear that the developers intended for you to play online to get the full experience. It doesn't take being on the design team to understand this.

The only REAL problem is the long loading screens.

dude, I was just saying what other gamers were saying...I didn't say this

Several gamers were saying "best game I have played in 'YEARS' " not even game fo the year its the best one he played IN YEARS were talkign game of decade almost here

There are plenty of design flaws, but I don't see most of the ones listed in the OP as "design" flaws.

For instance, the fact that you can't teleport between lamps, and must first go back to the hub is one such flaw, especially considering how absurdly long the loading times are. I can't help but feel that they tried to copy Demon's Souls too hard without actually weighing the merits of old features that Dark Souls clearly improved upon. As others have mentioned, lots of other poor quality of life features like having to farm vials & bullets also exist in the game as a result of From's crude nostalgia of Demon's Souls.

The disturbingly few types of equipment, magic and dumbed down attire system (can't be upgraded or lose durability) also made the game severely lacking in variety. Nearly 80% of all players I run into are using either Ludwig or Chikage, and everyone appear nearly visually identical. There is for the most part only a single playstyle now, with half-baked features like magic merely adding to the playstyle in small ways. This in turn destroys replayability of the main game at least. Other features are simply the same features made to look like something else, namely the personal rune system which is really just rings with unlimited durability, and weapon runes merely offer static upgrades like regular upgrading, or offer effects similar to what enchants in Dark Souls would do.

Finally, the endgame in Bloodborne took a completely different and quite unwelcoming approach. In previous Souls games, to get the best gear you either have to improve covenant reputation (usually involves MP) or play through the game a couple times. In Bloodborne, the best gear (cursed gems) are exclusively found in Chalice dungeons. Random MP is nearly entirely out of the question in randomly generated dungeons. Getting good cursed gems also depends a massive lot on RNG, so the endgame grinding is quite comparable to grind-heavy ARPGs like Diablo 3 instead of traditional Souls games.

Ultimately, Bloodborne feels like 70% of what a Souls game should be. So much has been taken out, and so little added in. I only see myself enjoying a single playthrough and then I will move onto something more worthwhile, including Dark Souls 2 Scholar of First Sin. I falsely expected a lot more longevity from a Souls game, but in retrospect I wished I rented the game instead of buying it.

The loading screens aren't a design flaw either, it's a technical one. Either way this isn't just for things op doesn't like.

Literally everything wrong with Bloodborne right now seems to be connected to the loading times.

@SexyJazzCat: grinding for items is a problem. Lack of variety is a problem. Only one or two valid play styles is a problem. Waiting thirty minutes to play with others is a problem. Invading being castrated is a problem.

Yeah, I don't know, I was like 80+ by the end of the game, so it shouldn't be an over level thing.

Might just be the games servers are schizo, personally the health cut for invaders is dumb. For coop mates? Okay I get that, that almost seems fair. Invaders? **** you.

@parkurtommo: even without loading, grinding for bullets and vials between failed attempts at beating a boss would be god awful annoying.

There is nothing about how the lamps work and how vials/bullets work that isn't objectively a shittier design move than what the team has already shown to be a vastly superior way of doing things.

It definitely feels like a step down from the previous games in terms of RPG mechanics and variety. While the gameplay and level deisgn is absolutely fantastic, there's just so many poor design decisions that it feels like they learned nothing from Dark Souls 2.

Feels like that to me when you suck and cant beat a boss on your own so you summon some other player that jump in to your game and kill the boss for you.

LOL I'm just fucking with ya

Ever see how easily gamers give out 10s in user reviews? Even Ryse and The Order have 10s. Often times gamers go ape shit for a new game. I still think Demon's Souls was better.

People falling over each other to defend Bloodborne's loading times.

@jg4xchamp:

Me too....... they were still cheap. Ornstein and Smough for Obvious reasons.... Ganking.....

Gwyn was cheap because out of all the enemies in the game.... he breaks the rules the most..... usually enemies either swing light and Fast ir Hard and Slow with varying degrees of reach..... Gwyn and he's big ass sword has Speed, Power, Reach and absolutely no concept of Stamina and a ridiculously high poise..... you don't parry Gwyn because you want to.... you do it because there's pretty much no other options at your disposal...... you can't Cast any usefull magic... he'l fucking wreck you before you even get the chance..... you can't heal for the exact same reason..... you can't hope to block everysingle Hit unless you have a Fire Proof great Shield.... All the Medium Shields won't survive more than two hits......

Gwyn's one handed attacks are also timed ever so carefully to stun lock any one with less than 40 poise so getting hit by The beginning of his combo is pretty much a death sentence.

Sure you can dodge his combos and maybe you'l have enough stamina for a follow up attack.... but unless you break his poise or are wearing RoFaP then that attack will drain your stamina and leave you open for a counter attack.

Out of all the Bosses in Dark Souls.... none of them take away so many of all the options and mechanics you've come to depend on..... being able to Parry doesn't make up for losing evrrything else.... and in the end the fight suffered because of it.... theres literaly no dynamic.... its just tedious Parrying and Riposting and maybe dodge one or two of his grabs..... hence you need humanity to summon someone so you can have all those options available again...... 31 Humanity if you're playing offline.

@aroxx_ab:

Well..... thats one way of looking at it.

Insight makes the game harder.I don't get how people can bitch about that.The loading times are the only complaint I agree with from the TC.Everything else is just crying from the TC.

Weird how gamers blame the game for their being garbage at playing said game. I don't remember that in the snes days. Use the regen feature buddy, hit back.

The only legitimate complaint there is the loading times, which they say they are going to improve. It does get annoying having to go back to Hunters Dream, but I only do that about once a session.

Bloodborne does have a serious design issue; the design is so superior to the Souls games that it's hard to go back.

I heard besides the minor framerate dips into the 20s, the game had a frame pacing issue resulting in duplicate frame production. Though, I think other games in past have had this issue even at high framerates but they ultimately fixed them in short time. Digital Foundry brought this up so maybe From Software will update it for more consistent presentation.

thye only thing im not okay with is the ridiculous load screens, jesus christ this is ps4 right?

Or, you know, its fun to play with your friends.

@clone01:

Thats a better way of looking at it. :)

Where?, there's nobody defending the loading times, they're shit and even From has acknowledged that fact.

The hit regen is entirely useless in the later half of the game. The amount of health recovered isn't worth the risk at that point.

That's not entirely true, regen still works very well with weak fast hitting enemies or when parrying, even if you lose 3/4 of your hp setting up a parry, you get it all back when you pull off that parry.

I don't really mind the loading times, I'm waiting for that stutter patch, GTA V feels a lot smoother and it's a 30 fps game too.

DmC is a less combo intensive game than DmC 3,4 so are you high?

Moreover its SSS rating is not really based on combos per say but rather how often you hit em.

DmC by Ninja theory has less creativity despite the I would say casual friendly controls. The lack of lockon, switching weapons, and stances instantaneously crippled the variety or creativity of combos not to mention slowed combat down by a notch. Well perhaps it was the reduced FPS. Anyway in almost every DmC combat vid every combo starts with a launch-scythe-bread and butter-random smash cancel + every combo is just up and down unlike DMC4:

Music sucks don't know why every video game montage has to play shitty emo whatever rock music or annoying techno......