Bloodborne

[Henry Spencer]

I'm going for an endurance build (on like 34 Endurance now) with Strength second place with around 25 points in that. I haven't bothered with either Arcane or Bloodtinge at all. Probably going to dump the rest of my points into Vitality and Endurance now. Level 56, btw. I'll post a pic of myself on the game tomorrow.

I just lost 50,000 blood echoes earlier on today after I beat

Rom, the Vacuous Spider

since the area straight after you beat that troll of a boss, Unseen Village is a real "fuck you" area and a pretty big difficulty spike. Guess this is where the real Bloodborne begins since so much weird shit is going down now.

H.P Lovecraft influence is now full force. Creepy enemies everywhere. Enemies are incredibly tough now and most of them just keep respawning over and over until you kill those bell ringing bitches. Those lasers that the H.P. Lovecraftian aliens shoot at you really fucking kill you and everything in its vicinity. And they do kill you. Hard. Like "goodbye, 50,000 blood echoes" hard. Not only that, but wherever I turn now, it seems like all of the warp points are dominated by Hunters who will also unceremoniously chop out your beating heart where you stand feast on it right in front of you and pretty much say "nope, you can't teleport back to your little safe haven, here". And in terms of story happenings, it seems like everybody is either dead or turning against you. From Software and Miyazaki in particular are really trolling me at this point.

That difficulty spike is harsh, man.

[OL]

Jeez, I'm a level 85, and I only just last night beat Rom. Not because I couldn't beat him before, but because I hadn't even found Bergenwirth yet; I guess I did a whole heap of side stuff, thinking it was the main storyline, when in fact I had just totally missed a certain path in the Forbidden Forest. Hadn't even been down that area with all the creepy-ass snake monsters until yesterday.
Yahar-Ghul or whatever it's called isn't proving all that hard at the moment, but probably just because I'm leveled so high already.

Personally, I'd recommend you trying to find the Nightmare Frontier and Cainhurst Castle right now (if you haven't already). This place will probably seem easy after you've leveled a bit in those other places. Plus, it'll let you see the end of Alfred's story, if you're so inclined.

[Axm]

I've been focusing on grinding my level up abit and doing those chalace dungeons. Beat two bosses in that. But on the way to the 4th boss main boss now.
And I started using Ludwigs Holy Blade and upgraded that. Like it alot.

[OL]

Jesus Christ, it just got disturbing.
I mean, yeah, the game was already creepy and dark and all, but now it's pretty much turned into Eraserhead. Just beat Micolash.

Went back to the Cathedral Ward to check on the NPCs, and Arianna was missing. She'd been having stomach pains prior to that. Ran down into the basement, and there she was sitting across from a slimy little mutant baby thing. It's implied that she'd just given birth to it.
What. The. Fuck.
Was creeped out by it and wasn't sure if I could do anything else with her, so I looked it up, and apparently you can kill the baby to get something for a certain ending. Kinda feel bad about it, but I think I'm gonna do it.

[Axm]

Jeez, I'm a level 85, and I only just last night beat Rom. Not because I couldn't beat him before, but because I hadn't even found Bergenwirth yet; I guess I did a whole heap of side stuff, thinking it was the main storyline, when in fact I had just totally missed a certain path in the Forbidden Forest. Hadn't even been down that area with all the creepy-ass snake monsters until yesterday.
Yahar-Ghul or whatever it's called isn't proving all that hard at the moment, but probably just because I'm leveled so high already.

Yeah, I went through that whole area in through Levels 40-50 and it was pretty much a nightmare - all of those giant poison vomiting snakes were not taking any shit. And the snake-human guys took a lot of damage before going down. The boss of that area is also pretty darn tough. Rom is one tough bastard when you're only like Level 50 and doing it solo. Really visually amazing intro and outro to that boss though. I had no idea whatever the fuck was going on though.

Damn those baby cries and the moon looking like it was going to crash into Earth were so creepy. What in the fuck is even going on?

Personally, I'd recommend you trying to find the Nightmare Frontier and Cainhurst Castle right now (if you haven't already). This place will probably seem easy after you've leveled a bit in those other places. Plus, it'll let you see the end of Alfred's story, if you're so inclined.

How the hell do I get there? I'm having a nightmare getting killed at all of my usual teleportation spots and would like, nay, love to head to those areas as respite from the Unseen Village, which is easily the hardest area in the game thus far, by a long shot.

EDIT: Here's a great article about Hidetaka Miyazaki:

Hidetaka Miyazaki: ‘I didn’t have a dream. I wasn’t ambitious'

In a rare interview, Hidetaka Miyazaki explains how he rose from unwanted coder to company president

“Now I’m president,” he says, “I get to meet a lot of other company presidents. They’re such weird people. I’m fascinated by them.” With a smile, he adds: “I use some of them as enemy characters in our games.”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... -interview

That's so interesting that he went from being an IT engineer at Oracle and entered the game industry at 29 straight to From Software (where he directed Armored Core 4 and For Answer before working on Demon's Souls) and within just a few years became the President. The most interesting part is how he came up with his storytelling style though. It's pretty unique.

[OL]

How the hell do I get there?

To get to the Nightmare Frontier, you have to collect an item called the tonsil stone. If you go to Hemwick Charnel Lane or whatever it's called, in the first area where the people are spinning around and screaming, you can go around to the back of the first building you see and there's a read light, so you can talk to the person inside. He'll give you the tonsil stone. Then, if you go back to the Great Cathedral where you fought Vicar Amelia, you head to the right of it, fight through a few enemies, and you'll find another church-like place, and if you have insight above 40, you'll notice one of those spidery Lovecraft alien things on the ceiling inside. Run up to the far door, let it grab you, and you end up in the Lecture Hall (which leads directly to the Nightmare Frontier).
Hopefully, you're not too far in the story to do it; after beating Rom, it seems to me like anyone not in the Cathedral Ward has turned beast, or there's just no answer at their doors/windows. So I'm not sure about the variables here.

As for Cainhurst Castle, I can't remember exactly how I did it, but when going through the little town in the Forbidden Forest, there's a path through a cave that takes you underground, across some poisonous areas, and then back up into Central Yharnam, letting you open up the gate that was to the right after leaving Iosefka's Clinic. Then you have a pretty straight shot for actually getting inside Iosefka's Clinic around the back way, and somewhere in there you'll find the Cainhurst Invitation. Once you have that, you go back to the Hemwick area to a spot where a little pillar thing is sticking out of the ground (near the broken bridge, where there are a ton of dogs roaming around). You run up to the little pillar, and a cutscene plays of a carriage taking you to Cainhurst.

I did all this thinking it was the main storyline, since I hadn't found that forest area with all the snakes and shit yet.

[Henry Spencer]

Thanks man. Yeah I can still get to Nightmare Frontier, since I did get the tonsil stone before I went to fight Rom. I never even had a clue about how to get to Cainhurst Castle or even inside Iosefka's Clinic, so that's enlightening stuff. In the meantime, I've just been playing through more Chalice Dungeons.

Also just so that people here know - Sony are releasing a fuckton of From Software's PSOne catalogue like Shadow Tower just came out on the PSN and Echo Night supposedly just came out too. Looks like since From Software got bought by Kodokawa, they're doing a good job getting all of their old games out there for us to play. Here's hoping they keep this up and put the entirety of King's Field on there too whilst they're at it. Would be great if they managed to convince Microsoft to put up their Xbox catalogue on Xbox One store (like Otogi series and especially Metal Wolf Chaos).

[OL]

In a rare interview, Hidetaka Miyazaki explains how he rose from unwanted coder to company president

“Now I’m president,” he says, “I get to meet a lot of other company presidents. They’re such weird people. I’m fascinated by them.” With a smile, he adds: “I use some of them as enemy characters in our games.”

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2 ... -interview

Only just read through that article.
Y'know, I really didn't know much of anything about the guy beforehand, but he seems like a really respectable sort. Didn't even realize he'd directed two Armored Cores, and it's really interesting to note that Demon's Souls wasn't initially his project; he came in to a failing project, did whatever he wanted with it, and had no worries about whether it was a hit or not.

Also, I just have to say this, because I've been thinking it for the past couple weeks; I'm really fucking happy for From Software. Seriously, it's amazing to see a relatively small company like them who, even aside from Miyazaki, has always developed most of their games with such a sense of integrity, such a usual unwillingness to dumb things down or be more "mainstream," and then seeing them achieve such a huge level of success with Bloodborne...
I mean, I'm seeing tv commercials for it all over the place, and every gaming site you go to right now is all about this game. People who never would have tried their work before are now interested. Sony is backing the hell out of From's hard work, and suddenly From Software is a big name. They achieved a good level of success with Dark Souls, sure, but it was never this big and talked about.
From Software was really fucking obscure just a scant few years ago, and now they're getting the attention, praise, and respect they've always deserved.
So yeah, with all sincerity, I'm happy as hell for them. I hope their success continues like this.

[Henry Spencer]

It's rising with each game. More and more sales with each game. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Bloodborne is the studio's best selling game yet simply because of the hype behind it. Think about it - it's really the PS4's first third party exclusive that has had this much hype behind it. And for good reason, those guys always deliver great games. It's well deserved and it is heartwarming to see Miyazaki saying as the head of the company that they're going to keep making the same sort of games they've been making for years, no watering down the experiences, no giving in to mainstream demands. I think it's more trying than ever now that they have tasted success that they could go that way, but with Miyazaki in charge, they're going to carry on being a beacon of light for those of us who enjoy these such experiences.

I do think he's a man of his word too, so the likes of Tenchu etc will come back and they will create more new IPs. Armored Core is pretty much a given and he wants to go back and direct a new Armored Core himself again.

No offence to Dark Souls 2, but it was pretty obvious that it's missing Miyazaki's direction. It's still a solid, really good game, just not "masterpiece" level that Demon's Souls, Dark Souls (and Artorias of the Abyss) and Bloodborne all are with their minimalistic storytelling, fascinating lore (Dark Souls 2 was missing this a lot) and creepy+beautiful atmosphere. It still had plenty of the demented characters, some good art and great gameplay, just the surrounding elements were missing that Miyazaki and his design team bring. I love all of the games the developer makes regardless and greatly look forward to what new games they make next, since they're on a roll now. I'm still playing catch up with all of the games they've made over the years, but just like with other niche Japanese developers that I really like such as ATLUS and Cavia, they're all worth playing.

[OL]

I think I'm right at the end... and man, that crept up on me. It's kind of weird; with the Souls games, at least you knew it when the end seemed to be approaching, but here it just kind of... pops up. The last area had some annoying enemies, but it certainly didn't feel like the big "game-ending climax" I would have expected.
I think the path to the boss has opened up, but I'm trying to grind a bit and do a bunch of chalice dungeons before I go there. I think I obtained the sort of "final" chalice, so I'm working towards unlocking it right now. Also leveling up my bloodtinge so I can use what seems like a really powerful gun I found.
I'm a level 100 right now. And I think I've found all the possible areas to visit and fought all the optional bosses.

EDIT: Fuuuuuck, I just tried messing with the character editor to create Vampire Hunter D (saw a gallery of peoples' creations, saw one for him, but thought I could do much better), and created a really good rendition of him. Damn near perfect, barring the fact that you can't make their eyes sharper or give them longer hair. So I saved it to my favorites and exited the game to go eat dinner.
I come back, and it's not there. Apparently you have to actually exit the editor for it to properly save your creation.
Fucking hell.

[Lunarautumn]

I noticed some people speaking of Eileen the Crow, When you find her the first time near the sewer entrance, after smashing the barrels and going through what looks like a window make sure you speak to her 3 times she will give you 2 gifts the second gift is after the 3rd time you speak to her. Just thought those of you that did not know like to.

[Lunarautumn]

Also I was wondering is one safe place better than another? the being at the Chapel seems VERY sketchy to me but I also noticed Iosefka, had a weapon in hand at our lat chat if you look through the hole in the door you will see it in her right hand and she seemed to have changed throughout our chats. She was determined not to open the door for anything so why the change of heart?

[OL]

As far as I can tell

the chapel is the safest place. I eventually made it around a back way into Iosefka's place, and she's apparently a bit of a mad scientist. She wants test subjects.
I just beat the game, and in that whole time, the guy at the chapel didn't do anything bad. He seems sketchy, but he didn't do anything. I'd recommend sending everyone there, although I did hear somewhere that one character you can send there might eventually kill everyone. So be careful of who goes there all the same.

[OL]

Flaws/Disappointments/Changes I Personally Don't Like in Bloodborne
written by
a guy who poured 65 hours into the game and loved it regardless

Alright, so I just beat the game yesterday and, without a doubt, am absolutely satisfied with the money I spent on it, just as I always seem to be with From Software's games. It really is the best exclusive on PS4 so far, and a wonderful experience all around. It's a truly brilliant piece of visual, aural, and mechanical design work, and as I've mentioned, I'm thrilled to see a game that really, truly deserves it getting all the press and hype that it really, truly deserves.
But having said that, it must also be said that the game is indeed an offshoot of a previous IP. And being a product of that nature, there are inevitably some disappointments and elements that veterans of that previous IP will think ought to have been changed.
I'm a huge fan of Demon's Souls, Dark Souls, and yes, even Dark Souls 2 (which tends to get a lot of flack from fans of the series). I spent almost countless hours journeying around the worlds in each of these games, and even more hours reading about or listening to explanations and theories on the games' backstories, lore, and production afterward, and Bloodborne will ultimately be no different.
So while this is essentially a list of negative points, it's coming from the perspective of someone who absolutely loves the subject being discussed anyway; I wouldn't have these complaints if I didn't genuinely care.
So I'll start with basic mechanical stuff like:

1.) The function of the lampposts has been changed from the bonfires for no reason whatsoever.
Dark Souls utilized bonfires as basic checkpoints, warps points, places to level up in one case, and places to heal and reset enemy positions. They became practically iconic because they were so important to the overall functions of the games they were in. If a player wanted to grind for experience, all they had to do was find an area with appropriately powerful enemies, kill as many as they could, return to a bonfire to reset their positions, and repeat. It had a great flow to it, and had a nice enough level of challenge. Later in the games, the bonfires could also be used to warp to other bonfires.
For no reason at all, Bloodborne did away with all of this. Instead, the lampposts only serve to transport you to the game's hub world, the Hunter's Dream. The player can level up, modify equipment, utilize the shops, and warp to other lampposts.
That's all fine and dandy, but the truth is that there's no reason for this much to have been changed. It's fine that the hub area is in place (it's a convenient one-stop for a number of different functions), but forcing the player to stop off here every single time they want to reset enemy positions is just silly. It forces you to sit through one long load screen to get to the hub, then another long load screen to get back to where you were grinding for experience. It's dumb that this is the case, when in previous games all one had to do was activate the bonfire, and instantaneously the enemies would all be back in position. Also, having to go to the hub to warp to another area is unnecessary as well. There should have just been a menu at every lamppost letting you directly warp wherever you want.
Of course that also leads into:

2.) The load times are painfully long.
No big explanation here, it's just the truth. Apparently they're working on patching this up, so that should be fine in the long run, but for a game that had so much time in development, there's really no reason the loading ought to be this long. It's at least a good 30-40 seconds every time you go to a major area, which means that simply resetting enemy positions forces you into these one to two-minute chunks of time where you're just sitting there doing nothing, which breaks up the flow of the game greatly. And in a game where you're expected to die over and over, this is a bit inexcusable.

3.) The healing system is unnecessary game-padding.
The Souls games had what was called the Estus Flask. It was your basic healing item, with the interesting point that it was refilled every time you stopped at a bonfire and reset enemy positions. It could be used about 10 times initially, and could eventually be upgraded for more uses upon each reset (or each time you die).
Bloodborne, however, switches this out in favor of blood vials, which are finite and can be found every now and then on downed enemies. Basically, this change makes it so you actually can run out of healing items. And when that happens, it forces you to go on a little side-excursion just to restock those items.
The reason for this change was likely the thought that "Oh, it adds extra challenge!"
But it really doesn't.
I found no challenge whatsoever in heading back to the same area I always did, killing the same weak enemies over and over, and restocking my supply of healing items. It made it so that if, say, I had been trying to overcome a boss, retrying and retrying, I'd eventually have to stop fighting the boss so that I could spend another ten to fifteen minutes farming blood vials.
There's no reason for that. It's not particularly fun. And again, it breaks up the near-perfect flow that the Souls games had already established. They really should have just utilized another Estus-style healing system in this one. There was no reason to change it.

The next one is a biggie:

4.) Bloodborne is less of an RPG than Demon's/Dark Souls was.
This might seem a bit controversial, but it really is true. In Demon's Souls and both Dark Souls games, there was a huge plethora of options when it came to customizing your character. There are a bunch of points to this, so I'll break it up:
-----a.) There are far fewer weapons in Bloodborne than in any of the Souls games.
There are only about 15 or 20, while the Souls games seemed to have dozens, if not hundreds. Granted, the weapons in Bloodborne have multiple functions and a greater amount of moves/combos, but that ultimately feels a bit needless. I found a weapon I liked near the beginning and used that for the entire game. There was no reason to switch it out for about 60 hours, really. And there may be more combos, but I found myself primarily using the most basic attack possible for the grand majority of situations, because it was fastest. So things are a bit underwhelming in the weapons department.
-----b.) There is no speed stat, and different types of armor don't affect speed at all.
In the Souls games, you could choose to be a speedy, lightly-armored type, you could go with mid-weight equipment, or you could have high strength and become a heavy tank, wearing metal armor which offers more protection but slows you down considerably.
Bloodborne has none of this. There is no weight limit for the equipment you carry, the various types of armor make no difference to your speed at all, and there's no way to make yourself even speedier. This means that the game is basically the exact same speed the entire way through, and there are no options to change that. You can't choose to be stronger but slower, and you can't choose to be weaker but faster.
and on that note:
-----c.) Armor barely seems to make any difference.
Sure, if you're hoping to resist poison or frenzy effects a little better, wearing a different armor set might help you out, but when it comes to basic combat, it barely seems to matter what armor you're wearing. They all have different stats, but if a sword swing is going to hit you for a lot of damage, the sword swing will hit you for a lot of damage. The armor seems more aesthetic than anything else.
-----d.) There is no actual magic system in place.
Aside from specializing in various speeds, the Souls games also allowed you to choose what kind of attacks you would specialize it; you could swing a heavy sword or launch fireballs at your enemies, and it changed the gameplay considerably.
In Bloodborne however, the choice is already made for you: you're going to be swinging a weapon, and you'd better get good at it. There are "magic" items late in the game which allow different kinds of attacks, but they're extremely limited, and very weak unless you've been powering up your arcane stat... which is unlikely, because these items come along so late in the game, and you would have been focusing on strength and endurance up to that point.
Sure, you might also choose to power up your ability with firing guns, but it's nowhere near as effective as melee weapons.
Basically, aside from weapon choice, you have almost no options as to what kind of character you want to be.
-----e.) Weapon advancement has been dumbed down.
Don't get me wrong, the weapon advancement works in Bloodborne, but it isn't as varied as in previous games. Before, you'd collect souls from the bosses along with various types of forging materials, and as you leveled up a weapon, you'd eventually come to a point where you could turn it into a sort of ultimate weapon by using specific items which have multiple uses. It created a great sense of variety and choice in the weapons you're using.
In Bloodborne, you simply level up the weapons as you get the materials... and that's it. You can also apply "bloodstones" to give them different effect (mostly just extra attack power), sort of like materia in FFVII, but it's nothing complex.
-----f.) Armor can't be leveled up.
Simple. Just like it says. You could do it in earlier games, but for some reason can't do it here. I think this partially contributes to my thoughts that armor makes little difference.

Basically, Bloodborne is less of an RPG, and almost more of a straight action game with some leveling up. It's like playing through Devil May Cry, but having to pump points into Dante's "strength" stat as you go. There are few options about how to develop the character, aside from just getting stronger.

5.) The ending creeps up on you with little warning.
In the Souls games, it was always pretty clear when you were nearing the end of the game, either because the area you were heading through was just that epic and grand, or because you knew you were close to completing the goals set out for you. In Bloodborne... not so much.
I actually thought I was heading through an optional area just before the final boss hit. There was nothing about it that uniquely made it feel like "this is the end." It was just... another area.

6.) Some of the bosses are just a bit uninspired.
Like I keep saying, don't get me wrong about this, because there are some really great bosses in here. Father Gascoigne was great, with his multiple forms; the Cleric Beast was excellent and terrifying as a first boss; Amygdala is probably the most Lovecraftian of them all, is intimidating as hell, and has some cool visual elements; Vicar Amelia is a bit like Sif in that her screams and whatnot kind of make you feel sorry for her. Logarius is a toughie, and has a great backstory.
But then there are bosses like Mergo's Wet Nurse, who just kind of... swings swords at you. Or the Witch of Hemwick, who I'm assuming was supposed to be kind of like the Pinwheel boss from Dark Souls, but turns out nowhere near as challenging or interesting. Then there's the Blood-Starved Beast, who's challenging, but isn't honestly all that different; it swings at you, it poisons you, and that's all it has going for it. Same for the Celestial Entity, Ebrietas, and Darkbeast Paarl. Micolash is sort of interesting in that his fight takes place over multiple rooms/areas, but he's super easy and not intimidating in the slightest. Rom is a little bit different, but more annoying than challenging. The One Reborn seems interesting at first, until you take out its "companions"; then it's easy peasy. And I'd pretty much forgotten the Shadow of Yharnam until I just looked up to see what I was forgetting.
So there are some good ones, but I'm still waiting for a boss that intimidates me as much as Ceaseless Discharge or the motherfucking Gaping Dragon did in Dark Souls. Or the goddamn Dragon God in Demon's Souls. I think I was expecting a few more wildly-inspired bosses here, but eh.
Wouldn't have hurt to have a literal Cthulhu in there somewhere.

7.) (purely subjective) I'm just not as much a fan of the lore in this than I was in Demon's/Dark Souls.
Don't get me wrong, the aesthetics are amazing in Bloodborne all the same, and I do really like a lot of the story and lore choices in it; the HP Lovecraft references and influences are an absolute joy to come across. But something about the whole thing just doesn't feel quite as concretely-interconnected and grounded as the Souls games. And it's weird that I feel this way, because I'm usually not even into medieval fantasy stuff otherwise.
Earlier games made it clear that you had traveled from afar, that you were on a grand quest and all that. They made it clear that the areas you're exploring are just one small part of a much larger world which exists outside of your little quest. They made reference to foreign countries, historical events, and important figures who helped shape these worlds.
Bloodborne, however... is much more dreamlike. Yharnam is an intriguing area, but it never feels like it's a part of a larger place; it feels like it's the only place that exists in this odd nightmare world. No reference ever seems to be made of anywhere outside of Yharnam. And, judging by the intro, it could actually be that it really is all just a nightmare; the character in the intro makes specific mention that whatever happens may just feel like a dream, just before you black out.
But if that's the case, then you really aren't exploring a genuine part of a larger world. It's one single self-contained place, which doesn't help to make it feel anywhere near as epic and grand as anything in the Souls games. It actually just makes it feel a little more... hollow.
It is an interesting concept all the same, but it just doesn't have the sense of grandeur that earlier games had, which is a little disappointing. Personally, I was a big fan of the pre-release idea that Bloodborne might actually take place in the same world as Demon's Souls, but it doesn't seem like that's the case at all, now that I've played it.

8.) (purely subjective) The music ain't anywhere near as good as in the Souls games.
Maybe it's because they moved over to hiring a western composer for it, but the music just isn't as enjoyable or individually-listenable as it was in earlier games. Don't get me wrong, it's fine music; it fits the scene whenever it comes up. But that's just the thing; it's almost more atmospheric, rather than standing as great pieces of music in their own right. It's nice if music punctuates a scene properly, but it's even better if that same music can be listened to later, out of context, and still be just as good. I don't personally think that's the case here.
I wish they would have gotten Motoi Sakuraba back for this one.

Like I said, I absolutely adore the game, or else I wouldn't have all these complaints. I think it's fantastic; there are just certain places where I feel like it could have been even more fantastic.

[Henry Spencer]

OK, cool. Now tell us what you did like about it.

I've read that entire post and disagree with some of it and agree with other parts you mention, but want to finish the game first and collect my thoughts fully, so I'll have to get back to you about it. There's one particular part in your post I vehemently disagree about, almost reaching Dorian levels of "how dare you!" Almost.

I will say that I agree with point 1 about the teleporting - it isn't as good as Dark Souls 1 system [Dark Souls 2 was just too open with its teleporting from the start, preferred the traversal of Dark Souls 1 with the teleportation later on]. It seemed like Miyazaki was trying to do it the same style as Demon's Souls, where there's a central hub that is totally separate from the actual game world, but for some reason without the same amount of NPCs in this central hub world, which is definitely a back step from both Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1. I feel that it feeds into the whole "loneliness" angle of Bloodborne though, which is why I think that may have actually been a conscience effort for Miyazaki and the designers to do that, or maybe they ran out of time, since I can't think of any other reason. It's especially frustrating that they force you to wait through two load screens to go from the lantern in the game world to the Dream World and then a further third load screen back to the game world again. Really bizarre design choice off them, there.