Watcha Playin’?-Bloodborne Rut

A few months ago, after watching Waypoint’s Natalie stream Bloodborne (is anyone else sensing a pattern here?), I decided to hop in and give it a try. I’ve basically only played on my own stream since I had to recreate my character during my Valentine’s Day stream after a weird save SNAFU. Each time, I’ve been surprised by my progress and understanding of how the game works.

I’ve always been intimidated by SoulsBorne games. I’m not much of one for precision combat or playing tactically, so they seemed out of my league, and I still believe the Dark Souls games probably still are. But due to its aggressive combat system, Bloodborne actually started to make sense to me and I began to understand the hype around progressing through areas and exploring all the nooks and crannies.

Video game environments tend to influence my feelings a lot, so when they feel tense and predatory, I get more nervous than I would in an environment where I know I’m just flat out supposed to be scared. OG Bioshock is a horror game as far as I’m concerned. This made Bloodborne incredibly difficult for me to feel comfortable exploring in. You never know what’s going to be around a corner, or even on a roof above you, and the world itself is beautiful, but grim and spooky even when no enemies are around. But after a few rounds on stream, especially after I beat the Cleric Beast, I stopped feeling so nervous and began to enjoy looking for new hidey-holes around the map. Realizing that running away is a 100% viable option has made exploring so much more enjoyable, and I usually feel comfortable enough with the combat to deal with enemies when I need to.

But when I streamed on Monday, I felt like I had lost all that progress. I was missing hits on easy enemies, and couldn’t figure out why. I forgot how to get to Father Gascoigne’s area for like half an hour. And once I found him, I got my ass beaten more thoroughly than I ever have in this game. The second time I fought him on this stream, I didn’t hit him once and he somehow backed me into a corner of the graveyard and axed me into oblivion. I hadn’t even done that badly the very first time I fought him. In fact, I was pretty sure I was going to beat him the next time I played when I wrapped up the last stream I had done before this one. Instead, I felt deeply disconnected from the game and ended up quitting early because I just felt off and was getting disconnected.

I’m hoping the next time I hop in, I won’t feel this way. Maybe it was just because I hadn’t slept much the night before. I’m not really sure. But if this continues, I won’t be able to finish the game.