Bloodborne

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

continuation of DLC:

Spoiler

Since the axe guy that comes out of the cathedral slaughtered me, I made my way past the cathedral to the right. Another new thing... timebombs and turrents. Came by the alternate version of the Central Yarnham house and had to deal with some nasty guy right were the lamp is in the normal realm, he didn't mind my lightning much, but I took him out anyway. He dropped a seal for more stuff to buy.
Eventually found an npc and a shortcut to the bonfire. Don't know what to make of the guy yet.
Since i survived I gained another level, found a new hat (which isn't that good) and a new weapon. A hammer with fire function. Fun enough to replace Ludwigs's for now. Directly dropped shards into it and brought the hammer to +6. The shop now sells the hammer, timebombs and a new gun.

[The Shoemaker]

This game is $25 on Amazon today, good deal?

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

This game is $25 on Amazon today, good deal?

Hell, yeah!

[The Shoemaker]

This game is $25 on Amazon today, good deal?

Hell, yeah!

Turns out $25 was the American price..

Canadian price was $20!

[VictorViper]

This game is $25 on Amazon today, good deal?

Hell, yeah!

Turns out $25 was the American price..

Canadian price was $20!

Holy sweet jeebus batman's batmanses!

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

Since I am at the end of the main game and can now start to look up what e.g. I missed.
Here my short summary of what I figured out storywise (or at least, what I think I figured out)
Expect heavy spoilers!

Spoiler

The flashback at the cathedral when touching the skull shows Willem angry at Lawrence leaving Byrgenwerth for ideological reasons. From the item descriptions it seems like the scholars found old blood (blood of the elder gods) in the ruins below the land (= Chalice dungeons) and found out that by adminstering this blood, all illnesses are cured. Willem want to research the elder gods more by gaining insight and understanding them (with the idea to bring humanity up to their level), Lawrence wants to bring the humanity up to speed by injecting them with the old blood, curing them in the process.
Lawrence leaves and founds the Healing Church in Yharnam which quickly grows in influence as they heal the population. Two sub sections of the Church are established. The elite forms the Choir, tasked to 'make contact' with the elder gods (the formless Oedon is seemingly one of them). The babies in the Upper ward indicate the attempts (as umbilical cords are used to conatact) and the Daughter of Cosmos repesents a successful attempt to pull one into the waking world as the elder ones seem to inhabit the nightmare realm.
The school of Mensis is the scond group, kept secret from the population of Yharnam as they use human sacrifice (abductions) with the goal to contact elder ones in their own realm, instead of pulling them out. Eventually succeeding (the One reborn seems to be an incarnation of sacrifices as the abductions stop. Since the bloody ghost queen is a chalice boss and Mergo's mother, I assume she may be the original source of the old blood and Mensis managed to contact the correct elder god.
Their are indications that Choir and Mensis don't agree with each other, while Micolash wields an augur of ebrietas, indicating cooperation, there is an imprisoned corpse of a choir member in the hidden village (with the Ward key) and a Scholar of Mensis can be summon to help kill Ebrietas.

As it turned out, the old blood had side effects: Beasthood. The church formed the workshop hunters to secretly dispatch them at night, so the people of Yharnam wouldn't notice. Eventually a epidemic hit Old Yharnam and a lot of old blood was given. Beasts went out of control and the district was burned and closed off. At this point, the existence of beasts wasn't secret anymore and the workshop hunters were disbanded. The Church Hunters were formed, led by Ludwig, which didn't seem to make much difference between beast and potential beast. Basically the Healing Church's own inquisition.

Let's bring in the Vilebloods, they ruled Yharnam before the church came, eventually the Church hunters attacked their castle wiping them out (except for one woman, guarded by Longarius for some reason). This also relates to the rivalry between the nun and Arianna. The nun claims she has tainted blood, and if you look at Arianna's dress... it is found in Cainhurst, described as the Vilebloods fashion indicating a relation here.

The church eventually shut down Byrgenwerth too, as Willem is locked in and the halls are guarded by a choirmember. Though he seems to have succeeded too, by calling Rom.

Right now I assume that Gherman used an umbilical cord himself (one is in the workshop) to pact with an elder one creating hunters dream after the workshop hunters were disbanded (granted, I saw what my final boss will be).

That leaves the Amygdalas though, I assume they are some lesser elder beings (less enough to be considered faliures by the one that contacted them) and represent failed attempts by the Mensis school to contact Mergo. As they appear in Yharnam and hidden village, it may be what led the choir to investigate them. The hunters didn't seem to like them (there is a corpse of one in Hunter's Nightmare).

[VictorViper]

Since I am at the end of the main game and can now start to look up what e.g. I missed.
Here my short summary of what I figured out storywise (or at least, what I think I figured out)
Expect heavy spoilers!

Spoiler

The flashback at the cathedral when touching the skull shows Willem angry at Lawrence leaving Byrgenwerth for ideological reasons. From the item descriptions it seems like the scholars found old blood (blood of the elder gods) in the ruins below the land (= Chalice dungeons) and found out that by adminstering this blood, all illnesses are cured. Willem want to research the elder gods more by gaining insight and understanding them (with the idea to bring humanity up to their level), Lawrence wants to bring the humanity up to speed by injecting them with the old blood, curing them in the process.
Lawrence leaves and founds the Healing Church in Yharnam which quickly grows in influence as they heal the population. Two sub sections of the Church are established. The elite forms the Choir, tasked to 'make contact' with the elder gods (the formless Oedon is seemingly one of them). The babies in the Upper ward indicate the attempts (as umbilical cords are used to conatact) and the Daughter of Cosmos repesents a successful attempt to pull one into the waking world as the elder ones seem to inhabit the nightmare realm.
The school of Mensis is the scond group, kept secret from the population of Yharnam as they use human sacrifice (abductions) with the goal to contact elder ones in their own realm, instead of pulling them out. Eventually succeeding (the One reborn seems to be an incarnation of sacrifices as the abductions stop. Since the bloody ghost queen is a chalice boss and Mergo's mother, I assume she may be the original source of the old blood and Mensis managed to contact the correct elder god.
Their are indications that Choir and Mensis don't agree with each other, while Micolash wields an augur of ebrietas, indicating cooperation, there is an imprisoned corpse of a choir member in the hidden village (with the Ward key) and a Scholar of Mensis can be summon to help kill Ebrietas.

As it turned out, the old blood had side effects: Beasthood. The church formed the workshop hunters to secretly dispatch them at night, so the people of Yharnam wouldn't notice. Eventually a epidemic hit Old Yharnam and a lot of old blood was given. Beasts went out of control and the district was burned and closed off. At this point, the existence of beasts wasn't secret anymore and the workshop hunters were disbanded. The Church Hunters were formed, led by Ludwig, which didn't seem to make much difference between beast and potential beast. Basically the Healing Church's own inquisition.

Let's bring in the Vilebloods, they ruled Yharnam before the church came, eventually the Church hunters attacked their castle wiping them out (except for one woman, guarded by Longarius for some reason). This also relates to the rivalry between the nun and Arianna. The nun claims she has tainted blood, and if you look at Arianna's dress... it is found in Cainhurst, described as the Vilebloods fashion indicating a relation here.

The church eventually shut down Byrgenwerth too, as Willem is locked in and the halls are guarded by a choirmember. Though he seems to have succeeded too, by calling Rom.

Right now I assume that Gherman used an umbilical cord himself (one is in the workshop) to pact with an elder one creating hunters dream after the workshop hunters were disbanded (granted, I saw what my final boss will be).

That leaves the Amygdalas though, I assume they are some lesser elder beings (less enough to be considered faliures by the one that contacted them) and represent failed attempts by the Mensis school to contact Mergo. As they appear in Yharnam and hidden village, it may be what led the choir to investigate them. The hunters didn't seem to like them (there is a corpse of one in Hunter's Nightmare).

Atta boy.

[The Shoemaker]

I've tried to get into this game twice before, and it seems like the third time was the charm. After finally understanding the mechanics and exploring past Cathedral Ward, the game really opens up. Been playing non-stop for the last few days and I have just reached

Spoiler

the Unseen Village

, as well as completing every area before it that I know of.

Dark Souls 3 is my only comparison, but it's still interesting seeing the differences between games. I think I like the weapons and combat in Bloodborne better. Every weapon feels worthwhile in its own way, which is great. With that said I've stuck with the Saw Cleaver since the beginning, and I'm enjoying the Holy Blade alongside it. I tried out the cane, axe and rife spear before it as well.

The game is definitely a lot easier than DS3, or else I've just improved a lot since that game. Most bosses (beyond the first one) have only taken me one try, a couple at most. It's a comfortable difficulty, requires a lot of skill but nothing ever feels impossible. At level 70 I do think I'm pretty over leveled though. I haven't really grinded at all, just seems like by the time I get through an area I have a shit ton of blood echos.

I never knew insight did anything beyond call hunters to you and buy items. I noticed the game changing here and there, but I figured that was just related to my progress. I have about 30 skulls I could use to increase my insight further (at 20 now), I'm sure I'd notice a difference then

Spoiler

I thought Old Yharnam and the Forbidden Woods were pretty cool, the woods felt like a maze at times.

[VictorViper]

Spoil at your own risk, shoe:

Spoiler

Shit gets nuts at 40 insight.