Hear me out, after playing through Bloodborne and the DLC, I really don't see why Bloodborne isn't in the discussion of being one of the best games of all time. Here are my arguments:
Story: The story of Bloodborne is, in my opinion, brilliant. You can run through the entire game without understanding the story and still think it's a great game, but if you really pay attention to what's going on around you, read the descriptions of items, and connect the dots then you're greatly rewarded as a player. It's unique in a way that the story isn't really spoon-fed to you but it's all there. You feel like an outsider lost in this world and you're discovering your way through it. I mean seriously, every boss has a deep background and so does every character. They're all part of this extremely convincing world and it's great to read up on it.
Soundtrack: The soundtrack for Bloodborne is fantastic. There's nothing quite like fighting a boss frantically while listening to the choir go nuts. I would post examples, but the titles of soundtrack videos can have boss spoilers in them. If you don't care about that stuff, then I really recommend listening to it.
Gameplay: The gameplay is extremely deep and diverse. Every weapon has a moveset and you can really familiarize yourself with all sorts of tricks you can pull off with each weapon. The bosses are tough but once you learn their moves and practice, the boss becomes easy. There are a lot of weapon combinations you can use, completely different character builds you can make which change the way you play the game, and more. Every weapon feels great and every level is very well designed. At some points of the game, From Soft actively tries to mess with the players which is cruel but still fun to experience.
Replay Value: Because there are so many different build options and the boss fights are so fun to do, bloodborne has great replay value. I've made many builds for co-op, PvP, and going through the story in a different way and I've invested many hours into doing each of those. There are short cuts to areas of the game and once you really know the areas, you can work your way through them very quickly.
Atmosphere: This is in large part due to the story, graphics, soundtrack, and level design. The atmosphere in Bloodborne is excellent. It's very dreadful, very dark and, as you get to know what's going on around you, it's very unsettling.
Multiplayer: You can make entire builds solely for co-op or PvP regardless of the story mode and play that way. Of course you'd need to know the levels in order to build this way effectively (shortcuts to items, etc.) but the game can definitely sustain itself on multiplayer. Helping others out with bosses, invading other worlds, it's all good fun and it's rewarding too.
Taking all of this into consideration, can we make the case that Bloodborne is one of the greatest games of all time? It's not a casual game and it's an exclusive so it doesn't have a very far reaching audience but despite that it excels because those who do play it love it. This hinders its popularity when compared to other titles such as The Witcher, but I'm talking purely from a quality standpoint. Bloodborne really does something special with its soundtrack, story, and gameplay that I think is very unique and unlike any other game out there.
Log in to comment