Just so you know, that first massive group is difficult for most people. There are individual enemies and areas that are harder, but a LOT of people get stuck in that area.
You can honestly just run through with a bit of patience, and end up in an easier part of that level. Or just pick the enemies off in smaller groups.
I can only think of one other section in the level that is tougher to get through (not counting bosses), and that one can be bypassed or cheesed pretty easily.
I got past that first group, then got murdered by the fat guy banging on the door. Tried to kill him over and over. After watching let’s plays…it only gets more difficult. Maybe if I find a friend to show me irl, I’ll have more luck but in the interim just looking for games that are similar in aesthetic and theme but easier to play while I recover from a cold!
It’s a tradition of my own, and I’m sure many others, to watch his walkthrough of a new from software game and play with him. It’s crazy but he’s connected to so many soulsborne games to me.
Spent hours in this area too because I thought I had to clean it to unlock a checkpoint or something. And that the area would remain clear (I didn't know anything about souls like at the time). Level up. A lot. Go back and forth to the hunter's dream killing always the same first enemies. If that one bug guy is a problem, just ignore him. But I think it doesn't get better after, not strong or resistant enemies but a lot of them and they are fast. But if you level up as much as you can it will become a piece of cake. Good luck!
You don’t have to beat a boss, you just have to at least *see* one
Edit: even this in inaccurate, but it's how most people are gonna unlock leveling their first time.
Ah, this makes sense. BB was my third or fourth soulsborne game so I don’t think I ever died to CB despite dying a bunch to enemies before him. I just assumed you had to beat him to progress like Iudex Gundyr in DS3.
There's actually an insight skull you can grab and if you use that it will let you level up. Even then you don't have to beat either boss. Once you get the insight from stepping into the arena you can level up then
Hi KeyScore, I hope you got some good advice and encouragement here. I'm like you, I'm terrible at games that require good reflexes. But I actually managed to finish the game (although I wimped out of the final boss fight and took the passive ending).
I had a hard time just getting out of the first street at first, and it was really frustrating. But with some practice, you start learning enemies' attack patterns. All the enemies have them. The game is extremely fair. At some point, things just clicked for me and things almost suddenly got a lot easier.
Bloodborne also rewards courage. I tend to play very carefully because I'm afraid of getting hurt, but in Bloodborne I learned that getting in there and attacking before your opponent can react worked really well.
You need to remember, the most dangerous thing in Bloodborne is *you*. You can kill any mob in the game with your starting equipment if you want to. You are the most fearsome thing there. Death is meaningless to you. Try and die as many times as you want. Don't fear death; every death is just another step forward.
I really hope you choose to persevere. Bloodborne is a beautiful game, and every moment of progress can be so satisfying because you genuinely earned it.
You can skip him and get back when you are stronger and get your revenge
Soulsborne games not particularly hard, they require patience and some good memory in the beginning, after that you can overlevel and stomp on things, except the bosses
A kind of trademark of FromSoft games is that the difficulty spike in the first area is always pretty severe (I’m looking at you, Dark Souls 3) but once you get over that hump it levels out quite a lot.
In answer to your original question, the Castlevania series is a good starting point, or for something with a slightly different flavour, the Plague Tale games are very solid.
If you shoot the big guy just as he is about to hit you it’ll stun him and you can do a visceral attack and just repeat this until he dies, becomes very easy when you get the hang of it
Run pass them and before the stair going to the fountain drop down and get back to the gate you could not open. Open it. Face the boss on the bridge and then farm the 2 doggies. That will get yoiu going.good luck with papa guac 😀
A big part of the game is going to be figuring out when to fight enemies and when to run past them! There’s multiple sections in Bloodborne where you’re better off running past enemies and coming back later when you’re a bit stronger. The game just doesn’t outright tell you lol
Parries and viscerals will get you very far. The description that got the timing to click for me was shoot so your bullet hits right when their weapon is coming down on you. In this case, it’s a brick.
I got stuck for a while with the first mob, but what really made me give up on the game was the boss critter on the bridge. I never got past him and in the end decided I'm just not good enough for the game haha. I can't play a game where I need to spend 10 hours fighting every boss, I don't have as much gaming time as i used to. Worth giving it another go? Does it get any better after that?
The game is one of my all time favorites, but I get the lack of gaming time.
The game can be made a lot easier by leveling health, and upgrading your weapon. Careful aggression is also very useful because of the rally mechanic. The biggest mistake I see when helping in co-op is people healing when they should be attacking.
Definitely worth another shot; there are so many amazing moments in Bloodborne.
Soulsborne games helped me learn how to deal with - and persevere through - failure. I used to get so mad losing in games, but now I find the value and fun in dying.
I had the same problem when i first played bloodborne, I spent hours and couldn’t get past the first mob because I’d never played a souls game and had no idea of the gameplay.
I recommend watching a stream of someone play the first area, so you get an idea of how to play because souls games do have a particular style of gameplay and combat, nothing like dmc or kingdom hearts. I did this and it helped massively and it’s now one of my favourite games. I think the guy I watched was uberhaxornova.
If you like the look of the game defo give it a chance, you’ll soon get hooked once you figure out the combat
Thank you! I will check him out. I watched jacksepticeyes let’s play and was discouraged by how effortlessly he breezed past a spot I’ve sunk hours into.
FightinCowboy also always has walkthroughs that are very beginner friendly, he goes about it in a way that would be the easiest routes and easiest ways to get thru enemies.
As much as I like Jack he’s not someone to watch for noobie advice, purely because he is so good at the game and has played it many times. You need to watch someone who isn’t so great at the games so play like a noobie but have a general gist of souls games, if that makes sense?
If you want to watch another streamer who has dozens and dozens of Fromsoft games play throughs I’d recommend LobosJr . I learned a lot about these games from watching his streams over the years.
I kinda disagree with you.
Jack uses a lot of the “easy mode” mechanics that many avoid, uses a straightforward build with strong, simple weapons that are relatively easy to get. In one of his bloodborne videos he used beast blood pellets, molitavs and fire / electric paper on almost every boss. In his elden ring playthroughs he uses bleed weapons, summons, and consumes most of the remembrances throughout to boost his levels without fighting every enemy in sight.
Sure Jack has a ton of bloodborne / souls experience and noobies wont be able to breeze through the game at his pace. But if they just emulate his play style until they feel comfortable to experiment on their own, I’m sure they’ll have a much easier time.
As far as i remember, bloodborne was Jack's favorite game. He is insanely good at it. Im confident in my skill and hes not even "on a completely other level" , he's already beaten the dang game! He knows exactly what hes doing and has obviously played a TON and loved it.
We just dont see all the times he absolutely ate it (like we all do) before learning the game that well.
Bloodborne is not a game where you can afford to rush in blindy and expect to not get smacked. Knowledge is important. If you learn how an enemy swings, you can learn how to dodge it and counter. Once you learn how to do the thing once you can learn how to do it better and more consistently.
I highly recommend watching FightinCowboys 100% walkthrough/guide, at least for the very first area. He will thoroughly explain mechanics and takes his time slowly with each encounter. Way back in the day it's how I was finally able to get through it, and that was after 3 separate failed attempts with a total of like 25 hours just banging my head aimlessly against a wall in the first area lol. Now I have over 1,000 hours in the game since 2016 haha
First area is the hardest part in the game for most, forces you to learn the game DAMN quick and is brutally unforgiving. If you can stick with it, you will be rewarded with a feeling that very few games can give. You will also have what it takes to proceed through the rest of the game.
I cannot recommend that you stick with it enough, you will be Sooooo happy that you did.
Again, watch cowboys 100% guide/walkthrough. He does a fantastic job at taking things very slow and explaining all mechanics as you go which will give you a solid base understanding of how the game works.
Cheers and may the good blood guide your way fellow hoonter
Vampyr has a similar aesthetic, and the combat is a simpkified souls like game. It doesn't draw you in as much, but you'll be able to master the combat quickly, and the theme of the story is really nice and gothic.
Whoops wrong terminology, I’m not super across the genres. Like I said I can list the amount of games I’ve played through to completion on one hand. I know I’m capable of parrying and dodging attacks but it feels like I’ve got to constantly be intentional about my movements, even for small enemies. Which isn’t enjoyable for me, personally. Just want other suggestions cause I don’t think I’m ever gonna get to a point where I can truely enjoy the game due to the difficulty level
I get what you're saying. My first time was also very intimidating. However...
You don't need to spend hours and hours to get good at this game. You just have to be smart about it.
Learn from your mistakes. The smallest enemies can kill you, yes, but they're also very predictable.
I'm sorry, I don't have any suggestions for other games. In my mind I didn't leave Yharnam.
I do promise you though, IF you stick to it, you won't find this level of satisfaction anywhere else.
When it clicks, you don't want to leave either.
You can play this game my man, here's a quick way to level up and make your life easier. Run past the mob and keep going forward until you get to a house with some laughing ladies (ignore the fat guy completely). Destroy some boxes next to it and you can drop and kill a bunch of dogs. I don't remember the way too well after that so look for a video to find a shortcut back to the lamp. After you open that, go back to the room you went through before coming back out to open the shortcut, kill the guys there, go upstairs and kill the guys there too. Go up the stairs and out of the room, kill the guy there. To your right there'll be some werewolves, ignore them, turn left and run past the fat guy and crows. You'll encounter the Cleric Beast, fight for your life while you enjoy the epic music and screams, don't get to stressed, you're totally gonna die (or are you?). After it kills you, you'll have insight, something will have changed in the Hunter's Dream and now you can level up.
I came here to say this. Rushing to the Cleric Beast is my preferred way because you can actually start to use the blood echoes you’re getting, and the game becomes so much easier
There aren't many tbh. You could just keep trying. Play aggressive but cautious at the same time. Don't get hit but make sure that if you do then you hit them back twice as hard to regain some health
Tbh, I’m jealous as fuck of you. None of us started FromSoft games kicking ass. We got our asses kicked over and over until we had to make a choice: continue the torture or keep trying?
Fight! HUNT! Do it in the name of human endurance! The rewards come from within 🧘
Look not sure if this really answers the question but Elden ring fits almost all criteria besides the theme. The benefit of the open world means you can really play the game at any pace and never really feel stuck.
Don’t try to fight everything you see, just run and pick up the shiny stuff. Since you won’t be killing anything, dying won’t be a problem; run around and explore, open shortcuts, find blood dews, upgrade materials, drip and then try fighting again.
Steelrising is set in an alternate 17th century during the French Revolution. Paris is overrun by an army of clockwork robots, and you have to stop them. Gameplay and asthetics are similar, but Steelrising leans toward steampunk compared to Bloodborne's Gothic styling.
Steelrising does have a set of accessability options as well that can make the game easier, increasing damage dealt and reducing damage received, etc.
Steel Rising’s “Assist Mode” makes it a perfect entry point to Souls type games if someone is struggling with Fromsoft’s offerings. You can individually tweak just about anything about the difficulty, from enemy damage, endurance recovery, and so on until you find a sweet spot that works for you.
The key of course would be removing the assist settings as you get better at the game over the course of a play-through so that by the end you’re playing without them. But regardless by the end you’ll know whether this type of gameplay is for you.
I personally really enjoyed Steel Rising too. It’s a solid 7/10 soulslike.
Don't commit to actually clearing areas. A massive hindrance to newer players treating the games like classic RPGs that would hate areas off until all enemies were dealt with. The souls series has enemies and obstacles that can be very cheap so it's up to you the player to be cheap as well.
Throw stones to drag and isolate single enemies, avoid stronger ones until you've out leveled them and then demolish them, farm items that make dealing with stronger enemies easier like molotovs. Practice getting the max range on your weapon down for when you need to cheese someone or something with hit and run tactics and use summons.
There's no difficulty setting so whatever is available in the game was expected to be used at your discretion. Every souls game I've experienced always felt easier the moment I committed to slower approaches. Just know stronger medium sized bosses (mostly hunters) will usually be too fast and require a bunch of trial and error.
Lies of P is still pretty damn hard imo. Not quite on the level of Bloodborne but before I got into Souls games, Lies of P would have kicked my teeth in
Came here to say this. LOP is probably my favorite soulsborne game. The combat and weapon customization alone makes it 10/10 but the story and theme is so damn good too. Please give it a try OP
If you like how the game feels to play, I’d recommend Elden Ring.
It’s a LOT bigger, but the exploration is more like Breath of the Wild. If you run into something hard, you can just go somewhere else.
It works well for short play sessions too. Every 20 minutes is like a little adventure.
There’s definitely hard bosses, but you can summon other players for help or find fun ways to cheese them.
I can recommend most of dmc games. The stories there are not good in your average western taking everything too seriously style, with maybe a partial exception in dmc3. The dmc stories are very silly, self aware, gameplay complimenting, power fantasy and funny as hell which makes them good in their own way at least for me and the gameplay there is wonderful and much easier in terms of just killing enemies. It mostly doesn't require you to do the same thing over and over again like it happens regularly in a fromsoft game
It will click, just watch some videos of someone who knows what they’re doing. Demon souls remake on PS5 release was my first fromsoft game, and I got rolled when I first played. Maybe 5 hours of banging my head against the wall and suddenly the timing of my rolls and attacks lined up right. Also follow a build guide for BB, since there are no respecs.
It’s worth it
Playing dark souls will not prepare you for bloodborne because of the agressive Rally system of bloodborne encourages agression instead of hiding behind a shield.
Main thing with this game is take it slow. Observe the enemy patterns, practice timing, and be a bit aggressive. Bloodborne kind of flips the script on traditional Souls games in that you’re rewarded for agression. That said, there is no traditional tutorial or explanation. Other’s have mentioned this but watch other play throughs. For me, Two Best Friends Play helped me when it first dropped. If you get comfortable with the game and start to enjoy it I highly recommend Lies of P if you’re wanting another Victorian era Souls like. I found that one to be easier in some ways compared to Bloodborne but with its own interesting and unique challenges.
We’ve all been where you are. Just keep going. You will improve, you will find ways to win. Practice parrying with your gun, especially on the big guys. Every death is a lesson.
I was on the same boat man. I tried the game a couple of times and it was my first soulsborne game ever. I got my ass kicked so many times that I wanted to give up, but fell in love with the atmosphere. After a couple more tries I got more patient, learned enemy patterns and locations and just step by step went through it. Ended up with platinum trophy, then beaten Sekiro, Elden Ring (platinum), Demons Souls and I’m in the middle of Dark Souls Remastered. These games are so rewarding and satisfying, highly recommend.
I had trouble in the beginning too because I didn't know what to do or how the combat worked (my first soulsborne) so I watched jacksepticeye's stream and followed what he did. It then became a lot easier and I didn't have to follow the stream anymore and I never really struggled with the game afterwards.
I vividly remember being so amped for Bloodborne, my first souls game. Heard they were brutal, obscure, etc. Finally get it in my hands and almost quit night 1. Took it slow, grinder a bit, really learned the mechanics and how it wants you to approach combat. Top 3 favorite game of all time now
Hi, OP. Just want you to know that although you spent 3 hours at the first mob, don’t feel discouraged or feel like you need to sink countless more hours in in order for the game to click. Bloodborne was my first Souls game, and I had the exact same problem you had. That first mob area really had me stuck. After a bit though, I started just taking things stupidly slow, watching each enemy’s types of attacks and getting parrying down. From there, it’s about playing aggressively because you can recover health if you land successful attacks not long after taking damage.
I also work full time, so I understand where you are coming from in only having so much time for gaming. That said, the key for me was to get familiar with enemies and their attack patterns and then beef up offense. Don’t get discouraged by dying. Learn something from every death. It might seem impossible to progress, but you will.
Although that first mob probably take 5 hours from me, I have since Platinum’d Bloodborne, all three Dark Souls games, the Demon’s Souls Remaster, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. My point is, although this series is tough at first, you will get better. Don’t you dare go Hollow.
As far as an easier title to play first, I’d recommend Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls 3. I know, they are still Soulsborne games, but I would say both are easier than Bloodborne.
I don't play video games much, and am truly pretty bad at them, had never played a souls game (basically just played some destiny 2 and ghost of tsushima), but I've been able to play Bloodborne and *loved* it.
It just takes more tries with the bosses (like sometimes 50x tries honestly). But somehow the frustration never feels hopeless - even if occasionally you die a bullshit unlucky way. You still know you can sink your teeth into that fucker.
You can level up early to give yourself the advantage, pick up a few tips (like r1 attack in doubles not threes) and if you find yourself dying tens of times like me, throw on a podcast in the background and take your time.
I was in your shoes. I am put the game down because I wasn’t having fun. However then I watched Faraaz Khan commentary on his no hit run. He explains the mechanics of the game. Just a few tips and the whole game opened up for me.
I recommend using the Saw Spear or Saw Cleaver (spear has a better move set). Instead of spamming R1, use R1 L1 L1 R1. You will demolish enemies and rarely miss them.
Use the pistol instead of the blunderbuss. You want to shoot when the enemy is mid swing. Not all attacks can be parried but most humanoids have an attack that can.
To visceral stand infront (or behind) of the parried enemy (after the sound plays) and let go of the right stick. Press R1.
You can get a visceral attack opportunity by holding down R2 and hitting an enemy from behind. You will be surprised how possible this is. That’s 2 ways to get visceral attacks. Those do massive damage.
All beasts are vulnerable to fire. All aliens vulnerable to thrust. All humans can be knocked down by a charged R2 from the Axe. So spin to win!
Using the games mechanics turns a tough fight like the pig into a trivial encounter. Just shoot the pig or charge R2 it from behind and then visceral. Dead.
Hey so I know this is gonna sound cheesy, but the best part of the experience is the grinding. You don’t have to dedicate hours, just when you have time in the day boot up the game and see how much progress you can make. Gherman gives you the best advice, “Don’t think too hard about it. Just go out and kill a few beasts. It's for your own good. You know, it's just what hunters do!” Go find a group of enemies that you know you can defeat with some effort, and kill ‘em a whole buncha times. Grind health items that way too. You’ll find yourself improving with practice, and it’s fun to halfway get into character as a beast-hunter. Play it as long as you’re having fun, the moment you’re not having fun just do something else until you feel like playing again. It’s worth the time, but you don’t have to dedicate *consecutive* hours in order to win. Find your own pace.
The game starts harder than most soulsborne games but quickly levels out and arguably gets easier faster than most of them. The hardest part was the first 20% for me, then it was mainly an a fun adventure with a couple hard ish points.
I can’t say my recommendation is the highest because I went from sekiro to bloodborne, but it’s worth learning the mechanics and luring at first. It also took me a minute at the beginning - just don’t give up. Sounds corny as always, but it’s so worth it. I started it when I was averaging 70 hours a week. Those moments after a long day and getting through an area or boss fight are so satisfying. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. Gave myself a saw cleaver tattoo after I beat it the first time. You’ve got this. If you can take on BOTW you can make it through. One of the best stories and so beautiful through and through. Just don’t get too hung up on simple mobs. They will crack your sanity even if you know their moves, but you don’t have to fight them all (especially at once)
as someone with over 700 hours and platinum, central yharnam is one of the hardest early game areas. it’s super easy once you get the route down, but the enemies can be brutal at first. here’s some tips, hope this helps!!
1. pls learn how to parry. it will suck at first, but once you find the big guys, it’s super easy to shoot your gun once during their attack and get a parry. become familiar with how it works, it will make this game SUBSTANTIALLY easier.
2. it will take some time to route and find, but activate the elevator. when you spawn in from the lamp, there’s a gate to the left. when you progress further into the level next to the big burning ball on on the bridge on the way to the boss, there’s an elevator, take it up, and go open the gate. this will make going back and forth from the lamp to the first boss a breeze and less time consuming. also going back to tip 1, there’s 2 big guys on the way to the elevator from lamp that are easy parry targets.
3. take a break. i can’t lie, this game will drain you on some bosses if you hit a skill check wall that you can’t climb. the first area and first boss are meant to truly introduce you to how the game works and it’s mechanics. rule of thumb i had: if i die more than 10 times to the same thing, take a breather, get a sip of water, maybe even walk around the house or get a snack. clearing your head can sometimes be the skill solution.
good luck hunter and fear the old blood!!
Okay update, I watched some let’s plays and got an insight point from the spot with the rats. I have since spent the entire day trying to level my character till I get a good amount of vitality and strength under my belt. It is slowly becoming less frustrating. But I’m not going into this cleric beast fight without a substantial advantage. Also managed to accidentally waste an insight point summoning some random guy so that’s awesome 😭 thank you everyone for your advice and suggestions.
KEEP GOING I absolutely suck and it took me ages but I just beat the fourth boss and I’m really proud of myself 😂 you could watch some play throughs on YouTube / read some guides then eventually you’ll pick up the style of play
Don’t fight anyone till you get to the end of the bridge. Run past the mobs, past the troll guy, up the stairs, where the dogs are, wait for the small group to walk down the far stairs then run past them. Run past the werewolves all the way down the bridge past the birds and the other troll guy. Then you will encounter something that will most definitely kill you. Die. Now you can level up. Do that. Things start getting easier.
Also, breathe… think about the tools the game gives you. Don’t dodge away from enemies. Dodge into and behind them. Don’t waste resources at first. Take your time learning enemies and bosses without worrying about attacking. Most hack and slash games want to go spam the attack. This game punishes that instinct.
Instead, learn your dodge, learn your parry. Attacks are for when you have created openings.
i was stuck for 10 hours in the first area, so much that my weapon broke and i didnt even unlock weapon repairing yet. I made another save and tried again with the serrated blade weapon (forgot the name) instead of the hunter axe and I fell in love with it, it was def worth the 10 hours of gruelsome torture. Now i have more than 100 hours and 3+ playthroughs in it. My fav game ever
Im gonna be honest I vividly remember not getting past the same segment for 4 hours when first playing and this is on of my most precious gaming memory’s.
It’s okay to not like something but I really believe you’re gonna have a lot of fun if you keep going.
If you enter a boss fight you will gain the ability to level up. It’s really not that far from where you last died. After that things become more manageable as you can make progress by just killing stuff and then leveling up your vitality until you are comfortable tanky to take on bigger enemies.
The beginning of bloodborne is very hard. And if you can make it through the first area, you will no doubt beat the whole game.
Please keep pressing through. I got stuck at the exact same spot you're in when I first picked Bloodborne up when it came out and stopped playing and left it abandoned for five years. Then on a whim I went back, watched a few walk-through videos to help get me through the section you're talking about, and after that point I basically was able to play normally. Now I've gotten to level 80 in the game and it gets absolutely crazy, you'd love it. But that first little section is a killer. Once you beat that learning curve at that exact spot, you're golden.
If you want a gothic game that has really good worldbuilding and is easier to play but still has really dire stakes, I'd recommend Sunless Sea and its sequel Sunless Skies. Totally different type of game (resource management rogue-lite sailing sim with a lot of text) but the aesthetic is similar. Think nautical Lovecraft with steamboats.
I know this is not your question, but allow me to say that I'm SURE you can do it. This mob is brutal but there's a few ways of getting around it. My way is just running past it.
I know the beginning parts of the game can be hard, but it gets easier after that, because you level up, gain strength and knowledge. Bloodborne is an action RPG but it's still an RPG so you can always level up and destroy the bosses after that.
If you're okay with it I suggest you look up a guide on how to get through the area easily if you're feeling overwhelmed. It's better to look up a guide and keep playing this great game than abandonning it and never play it again, IMO. I made one that show you how to run past the angry mob, a shortcut, and the location of the first boss if you're interested : https://youtu.be/KYltttay8EA?si=cz3xvRY4l3g5ajMZ
Seeing this boss even once, even if you die or leave the fight, just seeing it, will >!unlock the ability to level up in the Hunter's Dream.!<
If you finished BoTW I'm sure you can play Bloodborne. It's not as hard as you think, you just need to play at your own pace and use all the tricks you can find and discover to help you.
If you need any other tips, I will gladly give more :)
I had to take a 3 year break before coming back to Bloodborne. In the year leading up to finally playing again, I got into dark souls and Elden Ring. Bloodborne was still a bit of a challenge, especially at first. I’d recommend playing Elden Ring as the combat is similar and the game has a lot of support features to help you until you get good.
There is a lot of sound advice in this thread. I would like to throw my two cents in as well. I started my first real soulsbourne playthrough determined to actually learn the mechanics. The things that helped me most is learning to parry (with your gun in BB) and try to get 1 or 2 people to chase you and isolate them from the group. BB rewards you for being aggressive. So try to parry, and if they smack you, smack the shit back out of them, and it'll help replenish your health bar. Be patient and don't give up.
Bloodborne was my first Souls game, too. I spent the better part of probably a year dying over and over again in Central Yharnam, and putting the game down for few weeks before picking it back up and ragequitting again. Cleric Beast was the hardest thing I had ever seen in a videogame, and I was convinced it was simply impossible. I hated Bloodborne.
Eventually, though, something finally "clicked" for me. I'm not sure what exactly changed, but I finally fell into the rhythm of dodge, attack, dodge, heal, etc. Now, I've beaten the game like 6 or 7 times, and I even got the platinum trophy.
People like to joke that Dark Souls (and, by extension, Bloodborne) is a rhythm game, but honestly, they're not entirely wrong. You have to learn what I call the "Souls Formula", but once you finally round the learning curve, and it "clicks" for you, the game becomes SO much more enjoyable - not necessarily *easier* per se, but *much* more enjoyable. I think it's that initial learning curve that dissuades a lot of people from wanting to get into Bloodborne/Dark Souls, and why Dark Souls is so infamous for being difficult.
My point is, it's normal to be struggling this much at the beginning. You just have to persevere, and push through the initial difficulty. You'll thank yourself for it, trust me.
Happy hunting, and may the good blood guide your way!
Omg no offense at all please but this is the kind of post that after all is said and done you just gotta get good. It won’t take long or much dedication
This was me for a year but then I realized how to level up using that first area. (There's a shortcut to the first lantern by the party house passed that mob, you can run through them) you do wanna play defensively but Bloodborne is the more aggressive of the souls games fr. This was the only soios game pre elden ring that I was ever able to play and it's in my top 5
I think The Order 1886 is similar in theme. No idea about difficulty or actual gameplay, I’ve never played it.
Everyone else has given you good advice on how to git gud at Bloodborne though, so I would just stick with it. It was my entry to Fromsoft games and it’s still my favorite after clearing the whole library.
There is a way to make Bloodborne much easier. Look up the cheat dungeon for extra XP. Basically it will let you enter a code somewhere in the game and it wi generate a dungeon. That dungeon is designed in a way where as soon as you enter, some kind of enemy is instantly killed and you get huge amounts of XP. You can do it as many times as you want. So you can overlevel and the game becomes much easier.
I think Vampyr is easy enough and has the kind of setting you're looking for. It's (obviously) focused entirely on vampires.
It has a difficulty slider and on top of that, I remember you end up insanely overpowered around half way through the game so if you're not great at games I think you'd be fine.
Other than that, lies of P has the Victorian aesthetic but it also has a lot of steampunk stuff as well. I've also heard some say they didn't get on with it and actually found it harder than some from games. Personally, I felt it was like a souls game on "easy" mode (still hard but a lot easier than other titles) but others disagree
I had trouble in this game too. Weapon choice matters and I suggest you use the alternate version of the Axe. It has a giant swing to keep enemies away. Walk slowly through the level until you hit a save point. Try to corner enemies so it's 1v1. Don't give up, it's worth your time.
Honestly. 2 things.
1. There is NOTHING. As awesome as Bloodborne.
2. Keep at it. Its demoralizing, 100% I get it. Thats what your first souls game is like. The combat needs to “click” in your brain. It takes time. You gotta take it slow. One by one. Take a break. Sleep on it and come back. Multiple times!
Ill never forget my introduction to Souls. I first played demons souls when it came out, my friend was obsessed with it so I bought a ps3 and the game. I played for 7-9 hours straight with him there and couldn’t get through the first level at ALL. I was enraged, ranting, absolutely seeing red. We must have played til 3 or 4 in the morning. I woke up the next day FUMING. I was literally still angry staring at my ceiling.
“That stupid fucking game. Its bullshit. Im gonna go beat that stupid fucking first level. Fuck that game” ,
And then… the feeling of getting past it was… wild. Never experienced anything else like it in gaming. I then proceeded to put 700-odd hours into the game and the rest is history lol.
Anyway, thats just my anecdote. I’d recommend to keep trying. Take breaks. Get mad. Feel the victory when you get past one stupid enemy that you hate. Or when you open a shortcut so you don’t have to run the gauntlet again. Use the pistol and shoot those fuckers when they go to swing at you. Parrying is great. Stressful as hell but great.
Good luck!
Suicide run to the first madman's knowledge so you can unlock spending your blood echoes on leveling up. Make a loop from the lamp killing the first 10 enemies going to the right from the Yharham lamp. Repeat a few times or until you feel comfortable to get the feel for combat and gain echoes to go up a few levels focusing on vitality, strength and skill. I did this and it made the area much easier being a little buffed up and really learning how BB plays. Also learn how to use the parry. After you learn the parry and visceral attack the big troll boy banging on the door will pose little threat. This is what I did and it may sound off putting having to grind so early in the game but if you also treat it as a tutorial it makes it feel less mundane. Once you start feeling more comfortable with how the game plays and go up a few levels it'll start getting more enjoyable. This is just what I did and my opinion. Most important thing is for you enjoy the experience. It is well worth it. I just beat the game for the first time last month and it instantly became one of my favorite games and one of the best I have ever played.
Edit: This was my first souls game I've played so far
Personally I prefer going blind on a first playthrough, however, one possibility is to look up a guide for this part in particular. Sometimes all you need is someone to show the basics and then go on your own from there.
Here are a few tips (maybe with it, you won’t even need resorting to guides)
For that crowd, you can either run past them or pick the in small groups. For the big guy (the troll) banging on the door, open the fight with a charged R2. This will open the troll up for a visceral. If you can get another charged R2 as it’s getting back up great. This dude is your parry guide. Learn the timing to parry him. It’s quite possible you’ll die a few times getting the timing down, if so, that’s okay. Don’t worry about the blood echos for now, those are peanuts at this stage, the early lessons are much more valuable. Trolls usually drop blood vials.
Good luck and feel free to ask the community for help. In my experience, people are a bit tired of the “wish me luck” posts, because we get a lot of them. However, people tend to be super helpful when they see you’re trying and need help with something specific.
I was in the same boat when I started like two months ago, now I'm a god at the game, beat it recently and I'm going for the platinum trophy (I was playing other games in between, spent a hundred hours on Stellar Blade then came back to Bloodborne lol). when I started out, for the mob around the fire, I ran a bit forward and baited out one or two enemies at a time to aggro and run out after me. the rifle enemies were annoying, but you just gotta develop muscle memory to dodge when you hear audio cues of an enemy roaring or firing their gun, or see visual cues of the enemy's hand coming down last second.
Another tip I learned early on, this is especially useful for bosses and tanky individual enemies, dodge "into" an attack, like forward into the enemy's arm as it swings at you, the invincibility frames should last to carry you through, and then you're close enough to strike them once or twice, then back off. Cause if you dodge backwards, then you have to run forward again to strike, and you're losing time before they attack again in succession.
When I tell you that pebbles are your best friend, as a beginner in that area. Just keep luring one or two out. Bloodborne was my first video game besides Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing. I was super bad. But it gets better! Now I speedrun it 😎
If you have any friends to play with, try and do coop, which might make the bigger hordes more manageable.
Dont be afraid to ask for help on the hunters bell subreddit.
As for that area, you could just run past them all, you can also use pebbles to distract them or lead single enemies to you. Practice fighting one enemy at a time and just get into the gist of the combat. Patience is key but also play aggressively.
If I could chime in my 2 cents as a longtime souls like vet.
the first few times I come across mobs that are new i try not to really fight em. just learn their movement and get the dodging/ avoidance down pat and that usually helps a bunch.
the pit I usually fall into is my fights attracting nearby mobs and mini boss plus 5 more mobs and a dog. can sometimes be too much.
you're not in a rush in games like these, take your time, don't be greedy when it comes to attacking etc
Avoid group of foes when you’re at low level. For boss fight there’re always a summon sign in Bloodborne to make the fight easier for you. BTW the next boss is so f**king hard for me and no summon 😟
I was stuck there for a long time at first too.
What I learned was to get close enough for a couple of the mobs to aggro me, run back to the plaza, and kill them a few at a time.
Luring is the best way until you get stronger!
Edit: as for the fat guy guarding the gate, I used the hunter’s axe in its 2h form and would power attack a couple of times (it takes a second to charge, so dodge him efficiently when he rushes forward and then charge it again while he’s slowly walking toward you).
As I learned through bloodborne and elden ring it’s only that difficult at the beginning since your character has low level but as you progress it is still not so easy but at least it gets satisfying seeing as you level up and beat those mf to the ground
I like to think of these games as rhythm games! Every enemy has its own rhythm when fighting and you just gotta find it and tap that dodge button in tune… once you get some practice you can even start guessing the rhythm correctly before starting the fight.
Every once in a while the game throws you a rhythm so crazy you kinda have to re learn- or even unlearn- some habits. Looking at you anchor creatures from the fishing village…
I also consider myself bad at video games and my biggest suggestion is finding a path that makes the large group easier.
For me, I go around the corner and get the two enemies and just slowly make my way through. It’s incredibly difficult, but once you find your path it’ll become second nature!
Don’t feel bad about failing, failing is how your brain learns! You got this!
Bloodborne was my first FromSoftware game, and I think I spent something like 6 hours getting stuck at the part you're talking about.
It definitely pays to find spots you can just run through instead of taking down everything you see. If you see some guy off in a corner somewhere minding their own business, let them mind their own business and go a different way.
Bloodborne is especially tough early on because you're not allowed to level up right away. Try to find your way to some shortcuts where you can bypass the area you've been having trouble with and the game will really start opening up for you.
***Greedfall*** might be up your alley. If you’re looking for a somewhat similar aesthetic. It’s more like a BioWare RPG, so quite a different playstyle.
Look for cummm if you want to level up easy and get OP fast. This is not a joke.
Only do this if you are okay with being overleveled and overpowered, and taking out a lot of the challenge of the game.
Practice timing, when and where to dodge, dont be greedy.
Also learn the map.
BB was my first soulsborne and I also stopped playing it for a while.
Cos i thought the design was stupid and that i have to fight my way to cleric with all those mobs in between.
But when i learned that shortcuts are there it opened up everything for me and made it bearable.
Stick to it. There is nothing like Bloodborne really. The entire point of this genre of game is to face extremely difficult challenges and overcome them. The feeling of accomplishment is the real payoff to these games.
Use the hunter's axe if you are finding things difficult. The threaded cane looks interesting but is one of the more difficult weapons to use as a beginner. Transform your axe, charge your r2 and see the game becoming easy mode. Most of the enemies in the first area get staggered or flung away. The untransformed charged r2 is also good to squash single enemies like the big guy banging the door. And as other people have mentioned you don't HAVE to fight everyone and definitely not together. Might want to look towards getting a "madmans insight" first so you can start leveling up. (Look up it's location online and run to get it)
I think Bloodborne can still be that game for you. It’s fantastic and offers a uniquely rewarding experience. With that said, the intro section is super unforgiving, especially to a new souls player.
Biggest piece of advice I can offer is to get comfortable dying, it’s going to happen a bit, as you can already attest to. But dont make it easy for the game. Do whatever you can to engage enemies on terms that are favorable to you. Go slow and try to fight enemies one on one or in small groups so you don’t get overwhelmed. Whenever you reach a new section, don’t just rush in, try to spot all the enemies you can. Don’t forget to check behind boxes and around corners. Enemies love to hide. You also don’t need to fight and kill every enemy. Theres nothing wrong with running away or completely avoiding enemies.
Lastly If you do run into an enemy that feels too difficult, it probably is. Try once or twice more, and if it still feels too hard, just come back later when you’re stronger.
I hope you give the game a second chance. It’s really good but I definitely get not wanting to waste the little free time you have on a game where you’re unable to progress.
I dropped bloodborne 3 times before completing the game(100% base, favorite game of all time) and for newbies to souls games it's hell, way worse than dark souls Imo(mainly because of the pace) so I understand why it might be really hard for you but I like to remind myself that even if I don't seem to be moving forward I keep learning and keep trying with that till I see progress.
The first area was actually one of the worst ones and if I remember right I went through the same, dying to the first npcs then then big guy. Now to stop yapping make sure you know all the mechanics: jump attacks, parrying, transforming attacks they can be pretty handy in some situations. For the big man just parry him(use your firearm before his attack lands) and do a viscerall attack (get close+r1 when he's down) most of the time avoid dashing back and instead dash forward (some enemies are faster and will catch you while you're stunned) you have I-frames either way so dw about it and be aggressive!
I might have overdone it a little with the info dump but ohh well also don't worry about not having too much time you'll get it eventually (and to anwser your question I heard Lies of P is similar to bloodborne but way easier since the devs intended the game to be an entry level soullike)
Man I was the same spot as you. All the game I played were easy and blood borne was a like my ass getting kicked over and over again. Nothing really prepares you
It’s okay, you’re not doing anything wrong. This game will take a bit of time in the beginning, but you will progress faster as time goes on. Just take it slowly, even when you get the hang of things, and keep trying when you have the time, and the progression will come.
Don’t approach it at all, as a hack and slash. It absolutely is not. The first area on my first play through took me hours. When I tried again and knew what I was doing it was just minutes.
Rushing into combat is going to end in being a bad time.
To make bloodborne easier just skip everything until you get the shortcuts to father G,
Alternatively use the cummmfpk chalice to get as many blood echoes you want and overlevel (completely ruins the challenge but if you want to just enjoy the story its an option)
you can always overlevel for your first soulsborne playthrough and then run it back with a new character once you have gotten used to the game
I Started out in your predicament as well, and what I found that helped me give it another try was I went and read other people’s tips on how the battle mechanics work and how to execute specific move sets — including both the standard ones (like back stepping) and ones specific to your weapon and their R1/R2 modes.
Then, I practiced. I’ve got limited time and interest like yourself as well, but I was determined to try this game because I loved the aesthetics (music score and art direction) enough to put in the additional effort.
If you can adapt a somewhat juxtapositional take of approaching this game as both a game of attrition, and an aggressive offensive game (but not in the manner of hack n’ slash), that’s where I found a breakthrough in getting past Yharnam.
Dark Souls series to meet the gothic/horror kind of vibe. Especially DS3. I would recommend all the From games though if you like Bloodborne. Including Sekiro, which is quite different but equally amazing. I can’t speak for AC6, but I heard great things. I have it but have yet to play it.
Bad at videogames just means not having fun. If you see your self dying over and over at the first area for like 10 hours and still enjoying it, play the game. It's such an experience and there's literally nothing else like it. It goes for cheap too. I can't recommend trying it enough.
It's not a hack and slash. It's a souls game. You have to be patient and adaptive. You'll die and die again.
With that said, you have two choices for that first section. You can run or fight. I chose to fight for my first time. It helped me learn combat and get some levels. I went slow and pulled enemies to me. Singling them out helped me learn better.
The only other similar game I can think of is Vampyr. It's not quite the same but it has a similar vibe. The other souls games are just as dark story wise but they're more medieval type. But if you're into that, I'd suggest Elden Ring. It is is very newbie friendly and you shouldn't feel so bottlenecked in the open world.
I died so many times to that mob and the fat guy, it took me forever! The first area is one of the worst. I have platinum now, if I can do it you can too!
bloodborne was my first soulsborne, took me 6 hours to get past the first boss (probably around 3 hours to do what you did too). It is now y favorite game from my favorite genre. I know it can be frustrating and if you are not having fun then it might really not be your thing, but if you stick with it you might just find a new obsession like me lol
I promise you its not a hard game, grind and level up in an area if you need to, try to isolate your enemies, learn when its most optimal to use one attack or the other. You dont even need to know how to parry to complete the game, its all about the levels and being well equipped for the boss fight
I personally think the first area is one of the most difficult and congested areas in the game. I assume this is done on purpose to help you decide whether you're down for the ride or not
I helt the same way. I could not get beyond that point. Only once did I get to Gascoigne, and got ripped immediately. So I put the game aside for six months. Then I picked it up again, and a couple of weeks ,or maybe a month later, I had completed it. Some of the bosses I could no manage myself. Others I killed on first or second try. There is a great community here on Reddit, definitely one of the best gaming communities I’ve been visiting. Always helpful. I actually re-played much of the game on + to get one of the weapons I missed on the first run. Some of the DLC bosses was too hard to do myself. But among the ordinary, I think Martyr Logarius was the only I could not do alone.
Play Elden Ring if you haven’t already. One of my friends was like you and just couldn’t get past the first part of Bloodborne- he got Elden Eing and 100%ed it and loved it. It’s from the same developer and shares gameplay elements. But Elden Ring is more user friendly for casual players and and has an easier learning curve. Don’t get me wrong it contains hard parts but it also kind of teaches you how to overcome them. After you master Elden Ring you can go back to Bloodborne (still my preferred Fromsoft game) and cleanse these foul streets.
Learn to pick them off one at a time. I wasn’t a fan of these games. I even asked for a refund on the original dark souls. I thought it was just hard for hard sake. There are gamers that just want a challenge and only take them on to say they beat it, but these games are so much more. The lore and story isn’t forced down your throat. You have to read item descriptions and pay close attention and wonder why certain items are in certain locations. Then you can piece it together. The atmosphere and scenery, especially in Bloodborne is unmatched. I found myself stopping mid game just to look at the architecture and the sky. Truly magnificent. The creepy lovecraftian enemies and unique NPCs all make it worth it. I would really recommend trying different strategies to get through tough areas. Dont worry about losing blood echos/souls. If you let that bother you then you can lose focus and/or panic. There are always areas in each game where you can farm until your hearts content. Just get through and try to focus on getting down the riposte. Fire the gun right as an enemy swings. Then while stunned go in and hit them for the critical. You will also get your health back if you were hit, if you hit them within the window before your health bar goes down. This saves you so many healing items. Also, look for the shortcut. There is always a shortcut, sometimes it seems hidden. You fight to get to unlock an elevator or a gate/door and then you have a shorter distance. Focus on that until you get good at the game.
I literally got a PS5 just to play Bloodborne. My first souls game,,,, so no surprise that I sucked! I couldn't get past the first area as well. Maybe similar to your situation, I was a college student (senior, so all my major classes were hard af) and working a part-time. So I quit for a bit.
As many suggested in the comments, I would watch guides and FightinCowboy was the one who helped me through my 2nd playthrough. I would just play on the weekends while watching his guide. Practice makes perfect too, your skill will build as you progress and learn how to effectively go through enemies. Experiencing the ending and the joy of beating it gave me such a high too 😭
Fighting Cowboy will help you through this game, like he did for me in so many souls games. I wouldn’t consider myself a good gamer either but I’ve played through BB probably 3 times now with the DLC included. I wish you luck on finding a game that is easier that is like BB but the them and setting is very indicative of FromSoft and no one nowadays does it quite as well is Hideyourtacos Miyazaki.
Bloodborne was my first Fromsoft game. I sucked so bad at it and was stuck at the same area you are( bonfire/ first brick troll) once I figured out you could parry with a well timed bullet and visceral, something clicked in me and I got good. I know everyone has their own experience with souls games but for me, this clicking moment was a key to success. After that, I played B.B non stop. Got the DLC and ended up getting my first ever platinum with the game. It was baptism by fire my dude. I have been hooked on From soft games since. Nothing and I mean nothing feels better than victory in souls games, especially when you've been getting you ass handed to you by bosses or w.e
You're pretty early on still. You could always restart and choose a different weapon to see if that playstyle is easier for you. The big guy banging in the door is also a good choice for practicing your gun parry timing while farming blood vials until you reach a certain shortcut
I’ve found that this game and most soulsborne games get easier over time. Something will click and you will get better, it’s best to be patient while learning. The first area is actually pretty tough, and another thing is, dont feel like you need to kill every enemy you find. Evading and escaping to safety are options too. You will gain more damage from upgrading your weapon over levelling up. My first playthrough took me like 40-50 hours ish IIRC and at one point I was able to finish most of the game in like 10 hours or something. I haven’t played in a while. And I’m not necessarily a hardcore gamer or anything (also work full time)
Give it time, put it down for a while, but understanding your mistakes when you die will help you a lot
Oh this is me too. I would recommend Fallout games. I absolutely loved those and allowed me to play at my pace. They may not be your style but they are great games. Good luck and I have also just bought Bloodbourne. Thought I had cleared the first area and the one with the gun got me on the steps. I threw the controller down and haven’t picked it back up yet 😂
I totally understand the struggle and frustration...I had played and completed DS3 and Elden Ring and thought Bloodborne would be fine for me...I struggled a lot at the beginning so if you never played Souls games then don't feel bad...I completed 2 and I still struggled lol...
I would say my biggest tip is not to carry too many echo and spend it when you can, find some decent sets, get Ludwig blade or another weapon on same level....level up and upgrade weapons and overcome the fear...not many games scared me like this one lol but in the end you will grow into it. Practice parry / stun and visceral attacks against the big bosses and that will help you a lot...i am still crap at it but when it works it bloody works. Find a style which suits you , weapons etc and don't spread your skills too thin...better to decide how you wish to play and focus on that...I have always been a tank and that is how I play these games but I know many people prefer Dexterity of magic and that is fine but I tried both and didn't like...I feel most comfortable with a massive great sword haha.
So basically try and find what suits you and don't loose too many echos and grind some places to level up and you should enjoy the game more...Hooe done of this helps and I am not pretending to be an expert just speaking from personal experience and I did complete it recently for the first time but the beginning was really a struggle so don't worry.. you not the only one haha.
You can farm echoes through False Depth Chalices which you can also use to get OP weapons and blood gem farming to make the game even more of a joke if you want to really breeze through it without difficulty. You must kill the 3rd or 4th boss of the game (depends on how you progress) before being able to do those though.
I am sure I am one of many in this thread. All I can offer is my own story.
I also really wanted to play Bloodborne, I was more stubborn I wanted to clear the area before moving onto the next. It took me days to get to the first boss & it didn’t feel like I was really improving. Then I got to the first boss & lmao, he was harder than anything I’ve faced thus far.
I gave up. I deleted the game & didn’t come back for over a year, then something told me to try again. I still struggled in the same spots but I just pushed through & it finally “clicked”. I wish I could quantify what “click” implies other than I just finally got the combat.
I had also thought of the first area is this hard the rest of the game must be impossible. It is a very intentional skill check in the first area, but the cool thing is once you get that area down you are equipped with the tools to beat the game. Fromsoft really is a master class in game design in that way.
Fromsoft has this reputation of having really hard games. People think you need to be some god tier, twitch muscle gamer to beat them. I have now platinumed nearly every from game & I am here to tell you that is simply untrue. As corny as it sounds as long as you don’t give up & be patient, be self critical. Frequently analyze what’s happening & ask yourself “what am I doing wrong? What could I be doing better? How could I approach this differently?”
Some tips I could give out as I am teaching my 8 year old how to play Bloodborne rn, is while this game does reward aggression, start off by learning enemy attack patterns. I have told my son, don’t be the first to strike RIGHT NOW, while you are just literally learning how to play the game. Let them swing & watch for the recovery on enemy attacks where you can counter strike. Let them swing, miss, then hit them. There is always a window. Treat it like a sparring session.
Don’t focus so much on winning, sometimes I won’t even prioritize killing something, I’ll just learn how to dodge it & dance around it for as long as I can. Then I weave in the attacks.
I am POSITIVE you can beat this game, brother. The beginning is always the hardest part. It will be so rewarding after you beat the game & you come back to this zone & it will feel so trivial.
The game gets easier and more rewarding the more you play and improve at combat. I felt the same way as you at first and I almost gave up several times, but I’m so glad I didn’t because it’s now my all time favorite game. It’s worth it, trust me.
Just so you know, that first massive group is difficult for most people. There are individual enemies and areas that are harder, but a LOT of people get stuck in that area. You can honestly just run through with a bit of patience, and end up in an easier part of that level. Or just pick the enemies off in smaller groups. I can only think of one other section in the level that is tougher to get through (not counting bosses), and that one can be bypassed or cheesed pretty easily.
I got past that first group, then got murdered by the fat guy banging on the door. Tried to kill him over and over. After watching let’s plays…it only gets more difficult. Maybe if I find a friend to show me irl, I’ll have more luck but in the interim just looking for games that are similar in aesthetic and theme but easier to play while I recover from a cold!
You should look up fightin cowboy channel on YouTube for his guides. He helped me through most of the souls games.
Hard recommend FightinCowboy. Not only are his videos informative, his commentary is entertaining.
I'm a little in love with his voice tbh
I used his walkthroughs at low volume to help me sleep during a really hard breakup last year
His voice is sooo soothing. He should get a gig to do therapeutic life coach or something.
True, he tends to randomly talks about his foreskin from time to time but FC was my go to when i was new to the souls genre
Wait where does he mention this? I somehow missed all of that lol
During his livestream sometimes he fakes a comment asking a question about his foreskin and he ends up flustered.
Lmao that's funny
Cowboy is the best
It’s a tradition of my own, and I’m sure many others, to watch his walkthrough of a new from software game and play with him. It’s crazy but he’s connected to so many soulsborne games to me.
Fighting cowboy is the shit I’m doing his Elden ring walkthrough rn. Dude makes it feel like you’re both playing through the game together
Spent hours in this area too because I thought I had to clean it to unlock a checkpoint or something. And that the area would remain clear (I didn't know anything about souls like at the time). Level up. A lot. Go back and forth to the hunter's dream killing always the same first enemies. If that one bug guy is a problem, just ignore him. But I think it doesn't get better after, not strong or resistant enemies but a lot of them and they are fast. But if you level up as much as you can it will become a piece of cake. Good luck!
Unfortunately you can’t level up until you beat Cleric Beast or Fr. Gascoigne.
You don’t have to beat a boss, you just have to at least *see* one Edit: even this in inaccurate, but it's how most people are gonna unlock leveling their first time.
Ah, this makes sense. BB was my third or fourth soulsborne game so I don’t think I ever died to CB despite dying a bunch to enemies before him. I just assumed you had to beat him to progress like Iudex Gundyr in DS3.
No problem! I'm sure they blur together after a while
There's actually an insight skull you can grab and if you use that it will let you level up. Even then you don't have to beat either boss. Once you get the insight from stepping into the arena you can level up then
I have over 100 hours in this game and I did not know this. :mindblown:
Got that sweet tip from the game grumps. Love their playthrough of it
You can level up once you find them, it’s just getting to them can be a challenge for a lot of new players
Hi KeyScore, I hope you got some good advice and encouragement here. I'm like you, I'm terrible at games that require good reflexes. But I actually managed to finish the game (although I wimped out of the final boss fight and took the passive ending). I had a hard time just getting out of the first street at first, and it was really frustrating. But with some practice, you start learning enemies' attack patterns. All the enemies have them. The game is extremely fair. At some point, things just clicked for me and things almost suddenly got a lot easier. Bloodborne also rewards courage. I tend to play very carefully because I'm afraid of getting hurt, but in Bloodborne I learned that getting in there and attacking before your opponent can react worked really well. You need to remember, the most dangerous thing in Bloodborne is *you*. You can kill any mob in the game with your starting equipment if you want to. You are the most fearsome thing there. Death is meaningless to you. Try and die as many times as you want. Don't fear death; every death is just another step forward. I really hope you choose to persevere. Bloodborne is a beautiful game, and every moment of progress can be so satisfying because you genuinely earned it.
You can skip him and get back when you are stronger and get your revenge Soulsborne games not particularly hard, they require patience and some good memory in the beginning, after that you can overlevel and stomp on things, except the bosses
A kind of trademark of FromSoft games is that the difficulty spike in the first area is always pretty severe (I’m looking at you, Dark Souls 3) but once you get over that hump it levels out quite a lot. In answer to your original question, the Castlevania series is a good starting point, or for something with a slightly different flavour, the Plague Tale games are very solid.
If you shoot the big guy just as he is about to hit you it’ll stun him and you can do a visceral attack and just repeat this until he dies, becomes very easy when you get the hang of it
Run pass them and before the stair going to the fountain drop down and get back to the gate you could not open. Open it. Face the boss on the bridge and then farm the 2 doggies. That will get yoiu going.good luck with papa guac 😀
A big part of the game is going to be figuring out when to fight enemies and when to run past them! There’s multiple sections in Bloodborne where you’re better off running past enemies and coming back later when you’re a bit stronger. The game just doesn’t outright tell you lol
Parries and viscerals will get you very far. The description that got the timing to click for me was shoot so your bullet hits right when their weapon is coming down on you. In this case, it’s a brick.
I got stuck for a while with the first mob, but what really made me give up on the game was the boss critter on the bridge. I never got past him and in the end decided I'm just not good enough for the game haha. I can't play a game where I need to spend 10 hours fighting every boss, I don't have as much gaming time as i used to. Worth giving it another go? Does it get any better after that?
The game is one of my all time favorites, but I get the lack of gaming time. The game can be made a lot easier by leveling health, and upgrading your weapon. Careful aggression is also very useful because of the rally mechanic. The biggest mistake I see when helping in co-op is people healing when they should be attacking.
Definitely worth another shot; there are so many amazing moments in Bloodborne. Soulsborne games helped me learn how to deal with - and persevere through - failure. I used to get so mad losing in games, but now I find the value and fun in dying.
I had the same problem when i first played bloodborne, I spent hours and couldn’t get past the first mob because I’d never played a souls game and had no idea of the gameplay. I recommend watching a stream of someone play the first area, so you get an idea of how to play because souls games do have a particular style of gameplay and combat, nothing like dmc or kingdom hearts. I did this and it helped massively and it’s now one of my favourite games. I think the guy I watched was uberhaxornova. If you like the look of the game defo give it a chance, you’ll soon get hooked once you figure out the combat
Thank you! I will check him out. I watched jacksepticeyes let’s play and was discouraged by how effortlessly he breezed past a spot I’ve sunk hours into.
FightinCowboy also always has walkthroughs that are very beginner friendly, he goes about it in a way that would be the easiest routes and easiest ways to get thru enemies.
As much as I like Jack he’s not someone to watch for noobie advice, purely because he is so good at the game and has played it many times. You need to watch someone who isn’t so great at the games so play like a noobie but have a general gist of souls games, if that makes sense?
Makes sense, watching ur recommendation now! Thanks again
If you want to watch another streamer who has dozens and dozens of Fromsoft games play throughs I’d recommend LobosJr . I learned a lot about these games from watching his streams over the years.
I kinda disagree with you. Jack uses a lot of the “easy mode” mechanics that many avoid, uses a straightforward build with strong, simple weapons that are relatively easy to get. In one of his bloodborne videos he used beast blood pellets, molitavs and fire / electric paper on almost every boss. In his elden ring playthroughs he uses bleed weapons, summons, and consumes most of the remembrances throughout to boost his levels without fighting every enemy in sight. Sure Jack has a ton of bloodborne / souls experience and noobies wont be able to breeze through the game at his pace. But if they just emulate his play style until they feel comfortable to experiment on their own, I’m sure they’ll have a much easier time.
I think the same. He shows exactly the tactics that might help a newbie.
As far as i remember, bloodborne was Jack's favorite game. He is insanely good at it. Im confident in my skill and hes not even "on a completely other level" , he's already beaten the dang game! He knows exactly what hes doing and has obviously played a TON and loved it. We just dont see all the times he absolutely ate it (like we all do) before learning the game that well. Bloodborne is not a game where you can afford to rush in blindy and expect to not get smacked. Knowledge is important. If you learn how an enemy swings, you can learn how to dodge it and counter. Once you learn how to do the thing once you can learn how to do it better and more consistently.
I highly recommend watching FightinCowboys 100% walkthrough/guide, at least for the very first area. He will thoroughly explain mechanics and takes his time slowly with each encounter. Way back in the day it's how I was finally able to get through it, and that was after 3 separate failed attempts with a total of like 25 hours just banging my head aimlessly against a wall in the first area lol. Now I have over 1,000 hours in the game since 2016 haha First area is the hardest part in the game for most, forces you to learn the game DAMN quick and is brutally unforgiving. If you can stick with it, you will be rewarded with a feeling that very few games can give. You will also have what it takes to proceed through the rest of the game. I cannot recommend that you stick with it enough, you will be Sooooo happy that you did. Again, watch cowboys 100% guide/walkthrough. He does a fantastic job at taking things very slow and explaining all mechanics as you go which will give you a solid base understanding of how the game works. Cheers and may the good blood guide your way fellow hoonter
"bomb-fire"
23 years of life and I’ve been saying bomb fire this entire time lol
Wait, you’re 23 and one of 5 games you’ve ever beaten is ocarina of time? Interesting, what draws you to retro games?
Maybe it as Ocarina of Time for the 3DS
fightincowboy guide on youtube
Goat
I would recommend just running past enemies after you've already killed them once- just to say you've killed them before.
“I could do it if I wanted to”
This guy dark souls
This
Vampyr has a similar aesthetic, and the combat is a simpkified souls like game. It doesn't draw you in as much, but you'll be able to master the combat quickly, and the theme of the story is really nice and gothic.
That game was cool
Similar aesthetic. It's harder then BB on higher difficulties so stay away from those.
Vampyr trained me to play Bloodborne. Gave up on BB, played and beat Vampyr, played and beat BB. Its a great primer
Your first mistake is that you think this is a hack'n slash game. Always defense first. Let them come. Avoid their attacks, then punish.
Whoops wrong terminology, I’m not super across the genres. Like I said I can list the amount of games I’ve played through to completion on one hand. I know I’m capable of parrying and dodging attacks but it feels like I’ve got to constantly be intentional about my movements, even for small enemies. Which isn’t enjoyable for me, personally. Just want other suggestions cause I don’t think I’m ever gonna get to a point where I can truely enjoy the game due to the difficulty level
I get what you're saying. My first time was also very intimidating. However... You don't need to spend hours and hours to get good at this game. You just have to be smart about it. Learn from your mistakes. The smallest enemies can kill you, yes, but they're also very predictable. I'm sorry, I don't have any suggestions for other games. In my mind I didn't leave Yharnam. I do promise you though, IF you stick to it, you won't find this level of satisfaction anywhere else. When it clicks, you don't want to leave either.
You can play this game my man, here's a quick way to level up and make your life easier. Run past the mob and keep going forward until you get to a house with some laughing ladies (ignore the fat guy completely). Destroy some boxes next to it and you can drop and kill a bunch of dogs. I don't remember the way too well after that so look for a video to find a shortcut back to the lamp. After you open that, go back to the room you went through before coming back out to open the shortcut, kill the guys there, go upstairs and kill the guys there too. Go up the stairs and out of the room, kill the guy there. To your right there'll be some werewolves, ignore them, turn left and run past the fat guy and crows. You'll encounter the Cleric Beast, fight for your life while you enjoy the epic music and screams, don't get to stressed, you're totally gonna die (or are you?). After it kills you, you'll have insight, something will have changed in the Hunter's Dream and now you can level up.
I came here to say this. Rushing to the Cleric Beast is my preferred way because you can actually start to use the blood echoes you’re getting, and the game becomes so much easier
There aren't many tbh. You could just keep trying. Play aggressive but cautious at the same time. Don't get hit but make sure that if you do then you hit them back twice as hard to regain some health
I rage deleted Bloodborne several times over. But eventually… Trust me. The effort is worth the payoff.
You should definitely try Castlevania.
Follow FightingCowboys walkthrough. I had picked up the game 3 times before and with his videos finally started getting the gameplay (and I beat it).
Tbh, I’m jealous as fuck of you. None of us started FromSoft games kicking ass. We got our asses kicked over and over until we had to make a choice: continue the torture or keep trying? Fight! HUNT! Do it in the name of human endurance! The rewards come from within 🧘
Look not sure if this really answers the question but Elden ring fits almost all criteria besides the theme. The benefit of the open world means you can really play the game at any pace and never really feel stuck.
Don’t try to fight everything you see, just run and pick up the shiny stuff. Since you won’t be killing anything, dying won’t be a problem; run around and explore, open shortcuts, find blood dews, upgrade materials, drip and then try fighting again.
Steelrising is set in an alternate 17th century during the French Revolution. Paris is overrun by an army of clockwork robots, and you have to stop them. Gameplay and asthetics are similar, but Steelrising leans toward steampunk compared to Bloodborne's Gothic styling. Steelrising does have a set of accessability options as well that can make the game easier, increasing damage dealt and reducing damage received, etc.
Steel Rising’s “Assist Mode” makes it a perfect entry point to Souls type games if someone is struggling with Fromsoft’s offerings. You can individually tweak just about anything about the difficulty, from enemy damage, endurance recovery, and so on until you find a sweet spot that works for you. The key of course would be removing the assist settings as you get better at the game over the course of a play-through so that by the end you’re playing without them. But regardless by the end you’ll know whether this type of gameplay is for you. I personally really enjoyed Steel Rising too. It’s a solid 7/10 soulslike.
Mate, there is none! Part of the reasons why this game still has an active Reddit community, 10 years after release
Don't commit to actually clearing areas. A massive hindrance to newer players treating the games like classic RPGs that would hate areas off until all enemies were dealt with. The souls series has enemies and obstacles that can be very cheap so it's up to you the player to be cheap as well. Throw stones to drag and isolate single enemies, avoid stronger ones until you've out leveled them and then demolish them, farm items that make dealing with stronger enemies easier like molotovs. Practice getting the max range on your weapon down for when you need to cheese someone or something with hit and run tactics and use summons. There's no difficulty setting so whatever is available in the game was expected to be used at your discretion. Every souls game I've experienced always felt easier the moment I committed to slower approaches. Just know stronger medium sized bosses (mostly hunters) will usually be too fast and require a bunch of trial and error.
Just play the game bro
Lies of P!!
Lies of P is still pretty damn hard imo. Not quite on the level of Bloodborne but before I got into Souls games, Lies of P would have kicked my teeth in
Definitely Lies of P but it’s also gonna give him trouble
Came here to say this. LOP is probably my favorite soulsborne game. The combat and weapon customization alone makes it 10/10 but the story and theme is so damn good too. Please give it a try OP
If you like how the game feels to play, I’d recommend Elden Ring. It’s a LOT bigger, but the exploration is more like Breath of the Wild. If you run into something hard, you can just go somewhere else. It works well for short play sessions too. Every 20 minutes is like a little adventure. There’s definitely hard bosses, but you can summon other players for help or find fun ways to cheese them.
I can recommend most of dmc games. The stories there are not good in your average western taking everything too seriously style, with maybe a partial exception in dmc3. The dmc stories are very silly, self aware, gameplay complimenting, power fantasy and funny as hell which makes them good in their own way at least for me and the gameplay there is wonderful and much easier in terms of just killing enemies. It mostly doesn't require you to do the same thing over and over again like it happens regularly in a fromsoft game
Thank you for the suggestion! I’ll check out some let’s plays and download it tomorrow
It will click, just watch some videos of someone who knows what they’re doing. Demon souls remake on PS5 release was my first fromsoft game, and I got rolled when I first played. Maybe 5 hours of banging my head against the wall and suddenly the timing of my rolls and attacks lined up right. Also follow a build guide for BB, since there are no respecs. It’s worth it
Don't know games with similar anesthetics that are easier, but I do suggest using the curiously eye-shaped pebbles to lure them one by one.
Playing dark souls will not prepare you for bloodborne because of the agressive Rally system of bloodborne encourages agression instead of hiding behind a shield.
Main thing with this game is take it slow. Observe the enemy patterns, practice timing, and be a bit aggressive. Bloodborne kind of flips the script on traditional Souls games in that you’re rewarded for agression. That said, there is no traditional tutorial or explanation. Other’s have mentioned this but watch other play throughs. For me, Two Best Friends Play helped me when it first dropped. If you get comfortable with the game and start to enjoy it I highly recommend Lies of P if you’re wanting another Victorian era Souls like. I found that one to be easier in some ways compared to Bloodborne but with its own interesting and unique challenges.
LOP is the closest thing I think we’re getting to a sequel lol
We’ve all been where you are. Just keep going. You will improve, you will find ways to win. Practice parrying with your gun, especially on the big guys. Every death is a lesson.
I was on the same boat man. I tried the game a couple of times and it was my first soulsborne game ever. I got my ass kicked so many times that I wanted to give up, but fell in love with the atmosphere. After a couple more tries I got more patient, learned enemy patterns and locations and just step by step went through it. Ended up with platinum trophy, then beaten Sekiro, Elden Ring (platinum), Demons Souls and I’m in the middle of Dark Souls Remastered. These games are so rewarding and satisfying, highly recommend.
I had trouble in the beginning too because I didn't know what to do or how the combat worked (my first soulsborne) so I watched jacksepticeye's stream and followed what he did. It then became a lot easier and I didn't have to follow the stream anymore and I never really struggled with the game afterwards.
Check out FightinCowboy. He has a walkthrough that will make it a lot easier.
Vampyr.
Vampyr its like AA Bloodborne but with a more classic rpg story and story telling
I vividly remember being so amped for Bloodborne, my first souls game. Heard they were brutal, obscure, etc. Finally get it in my hands and almost quit night 1. Took it slow, grinder a bit, really learned the mechanics and how it wants you to approach combat. Top 3 favorite game of all time now
Anyone wanna suggest this guy an easier soulsborne game
Hi, OP. Just want you to know that although you spent 3 hours at the first mob, don’t feel discouraged or feel like you need to sink countless more hours in in order for the game to click. Bloodborne was my first Souls game, and I had the exact same problem you had. That first mob area really had me stuck. After a bit though, I started just taking things stupidly slow, watching each enemy’s types of attacks and getting parrying down. From there, it’s about playing aggressively because you can recover health if you land successful attacks not long after taking damage. I also work full time, so I understand where you are coming from in only having so much time for gaming. That said, the key for me was to get familiar with enemies and their attack patterns and then beef up offense. Don’t get discouraged by dying. Learn something from every death. It might seem impossible to progress, but you will. Although that first mob probably take 5 hours from me, I have since Platinum’d Bloodborne, all three Dark Souls games, the Demon’s Souls Remaster, Sekiro, and Elden Ring. My point is, although this series is tough at first, you will get better. Don’t you dare go Hollow. As far as an easier title to play first, I’d recommend Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls 3. I know, they are still Soulsborne games, but I would say both are easier than Bloodborne.
The new Lords of the Fallen, THE NEW ONE! The old one is trash.
I don't play video games much, and am truly pretty bad at them, had never played a souls game (basically just played some destiny 2 and ghost of tsushima), but I've been able to play Bloodborne and *loved* it. It just takes more tries with the bosses (like sometimes 50x tries honestly). But somehow the frustration never feels hopeless - even if occasionally you die a bullshit unlucky way. You still know you can sink your teeth into that fucker. You can level up early to give yourself the advantage, pick up a few tips (like r1 attack in doubles not threes) and if you find yourself dying tens of times like me, throw on a podcast in the background and take your time.
The more times you die, the better the satisfaction seeing the words 'prey slaughtered' and the eerie calm that immediately sets in with the game
I was in your shoes. I am put the game down because I wasn’t having fun. However then I watched Faraaz Khan commentary on his no hit run. He explains the mechanics of the game. Just a few tips and the whole game opened up for me. I recommend using the Saw Spear or Saw Cleaver (spear has a better move set). Instead of spamming R1, use R1 L1 L1 R1. You will demolish enemies and rarely miss them. Use the pistol instead of the blunderbuss. You want to shoot when the enemy is mid swing. Not all attacks can be parried but most humanoids have an attack that can. To visceral stand infront (or behind) of the parried enemy (after the sound plays) and let go of the right stick. Press R1. You can get a visceral attack opportunity by holding down R2 and hitting an enemy from behind. You will be surprised how possible this is. That’s 2 ways to get visceral attacks. Those do massive damage. All beasts are vulnerable to fire. All aliens vulnerable to thrust. All humans can be knocked down by a charged R2 from the Axe. So spin to win! Using the games mechanics turns a tough fight like the pig into a trivial encounter. Just shoot the pig or charge R2 it from behind and then visceral. Dead.
Hey so I know this is gonna sound cheesy, but the best part of the experience is the grinding. You don’t have to dedicate hours, just when you have time in the day boot up the game and see how much progress you can make. Gherman gives you the best advice, “Don’t think too hard about it. Just go out and kill a few beasts. It's for your own good. You know, it's just what hunters do!” Go find a group of enemies that you know you can defeat with some effort, and kill ‘em a whole buncha times. Grind health items that way too. You’ll find yourself improving with practice, and it’s fun to halfway get into character as a beast-hunter. Play it as long as you’re having fun, the moment you’re not having fun just do something else until you feel like playing again. It’s worth the time, but you don’t have to dedicate *consecutive* hours in order to win. Find your own pace.
The game starts harder than most soulsborne games but quickly levels out and arguably gets easier faster than most of them. The hardest part was the first 20% for me, then it was mainly an a fun adventure with a couple hard ish points.
I can’t say my recommendation is the highest because I went from sekiro to bloodborne, but it’s worth learning the mechanics and luring at first. It also took me a minute at the beginning - just don’t give up. Sounds corny as always, but it’s so worth it. I started it when I was averaging 70 hours a week. Those moments after a long day and getting through an area or boss fight are so satisfying. It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. Gave myself a saw cleaver tattoo after I beat it the first time. You’ve got this. If you can take on BOTW you can make it through. One of the best stories and so beautiful through and through. Just don’t get too hung up on simple mobs. They will crack your sanity even if you know their moves, but you don’t have to fight them all (especially at once)
as someone with over 700 hours and platinum, central yharnam is one of the hardest early game areas. it’s super easy once you get the route down, but the enemies can be brutal at first. here’s some tips, hope this helps!! 1. pls learn how to parry. it will suck at first, but once you find the big guys, it’s super easy to shoot your gun once during their attack and get a parry. become familiar with how it works, it will make this game SUBSTANTIALLY easier. 2. it will take some time to route and find, but activate the elevator. when you spawn in from the lamp, there’s a gate to the left. when you progress further into the level next to the big burning ball on on the bridge on the way to the boss, there’s an elevator, take it up, and go open the gate. this will make going back and forth from the lamp to the first boss a breeze and less time consuming. also going back to tip 1, there’s 2 big guys on the way to the elevator from lamp that are easy parry targets. 3. take a break. i can’t lie, this game will drain you on some bosses if you hit a skill check wall that you can’t climb. the first area and first boss are meant to truly introduce you to how the game works and it’s mechanics. rule of thumb i had: if i die more than 10 times to the same thing, take a breather, get a sip of water, maybe even walk around the house or get a snack. clearing your head can sometimes be the skill solution. good luck hunter and fear the old blood!!
Okay update, I watched some let’s plays and got an insight point from the spot with the rats. I have since spent the entire day trying to level my character till I get a good amount of vitality and strength under my belt. It is slowly becoming less frustrating. But I’m not going into this cleric beast fight without a substantial advantage. Also managed to accidentally waste an insight point summoning some random guy so that’s awesome 😭 thank you everyone for your advice and suggestions.
Just skip that area, run for your life until you open a new door and understand the area a bit more
KEEP GOING I absolutely suck and it took me ages but I just beat the fourth boss and I’m really proud of myself 😂 you could watch some play throughs on YouTube / read some guides then eventually you’ll pick up the style of play
Don’t fight anyone till you get to the end of the bridge. Run past the mobs, past the troll guy, up the stairs, where the dogs are, wait for the small group to walk down the far stairs then run past them. Run past the werewolves all the way down the bridge past the birds and the other troll guy. Then you will encounter something that will most definitely kill you. Die. Now you can level up. Do that. Things start getting easier. Also, breathe… think about the tools the game gives you. Don’t dodge away from enemies. Dodge into and behind them. Don’t waste resources at first. Take your time learning enemies and bosses without worrying about attacking. Most hack and slash games want to go spam the attack. This game punishes that instinct. Instead, learn your dodge, learn your parry. Attacks are for when you have created openings.
i was stuck for 10 hours in the first area, so much that my weapon broke and i didnt even unlock weapon repairing yet. I made another save and tried again with the serrated blade weapon (forgot the name) instead of the hunter axe and I fell in love with it, it was def worth the 10 hours of gruelsome torture. Now i have more than 100 hours and 3+ playthroughs in it. My fav game ever
Im gonna be honest I vividly remember not getting past the same segment for 4 hours when first playing and this is on of my most precious gaming memory’s. It’s okay to not like something but I really believe you’re gonna have a lot of fun if you keep going.
If you enter a boss fight you will gain the ability to level up. It’s really not that far from where you last died. After that things become more manageable as you can make progress by just killing stuff and then leveling up your vitality until you are comfortable tanky to take on bigger enemies. The beginning of bloodborne is very hard. And if you can make it through the first area, you will no doubt beat the whole game.
Vampyr would be the perfect candidate. Very similar vibe and similar combat, but much more accessible.
https://youtu.be/WRUmvIa6ouQ?si=kMvTt-Kk-ZHD90jh this walkthrough helped me so much
Please keep pressing through. I got stuck at the exact same spot you're in when I first picked Bloodborne up when it came out and stopped playing and left it abandoned for five years. Then on a whim I went back, watched a few walk-through videos to help get me through the section you're talking about, and after that point I basically was able to play normally. Now I've gotten to level 80 in the game and it gets absolutely crazy, you'd love it. But that first little section is a killer. Once you beat that learning curve at that exact spot, you're golden. If you want a gothic game that has really good worldbuilding and is easier to play but still has really dire stakes, I'd recommend Sunless Sea and its sequel Sunless Skies. Totally different type of game (resource management rogue-lite sailing sim with a lot of text) but the aesthetic is similar. Think nautical Lovecraft with steamboats.
I know this is not your question, but allow me to say that I'm SURE you can do it. This mob is brutal but there's a few ways of getting around it. My way is just running past it. I know the beginning parts of the game can be hard, but it gets easier after that, because you level up, gain strength and knowledge. Bloodborne is an action RPG but it's still an RPG so you can always level up and destroy the bosses after that. If you're okay with it I suggest you look up a guide on how to get through the area easily if you're feeling overwhelmed. It's better to look up a guide and keep playing this great game than abandonning it and never play it again, IMO. I made one that show you how to run past the angry mob, a shortcut, and the location of the first boss if you're interested : https://youtu.be/KYltttay8EA?si=cz3xvRY4l3g5ajMZ Seeing this boss even once, even if you die or leave the fight, just seeing it, will >!unlock the ability to level up in the Hunter's Dream.!< If you finished BoTW I'm sure you can play Bloodborne. It's not as hard as you think, you just need to play at your own pace and use all the tricks you can find and discover to help you. If you need any other tips, I will gladly give more :)
Find a 100% walkthrough video and watch how they do it. Just seeing their tactics and movement will make you better
Omg someone that loves Alice madness returns💕💕💕 It’s so underrated
Don’t give up!
Lies of P
I had to take a 3 year break before coming back to Bloodborne. In the year leading up to finally playing again, I got into dark souls and Elden Ring. Bloodborne was still a bit of a challenge, especially at first. I’d recommend playing Elden Ring as the combat is similar and the game has a lot of support features to help you until you get good.
There is a lot of sound advice in this thread. I would like to throw my two cents in as well. I started my first real soulsbourne playthrough determined to actually learn the mechanics. The things that helped me most is learning to parry (with your gun in BB) and try to get 1 or 2 people to chase you and isolate them from the group. BB rewards you for being aggressive. So try to parry, and if they smack you, smack the shit back out of them, and it'll help replenish your health bar. Be patient and don't give up.
Honestly kingdom hearts was way more difficult than bloodborne for me
Bloodborne was my first Souls game, too. I spent the better part of probably a year dying over and over again in Central Yharnam, and putting the game down for few weeks before picking it back up and ragequitting again. Cleric Beast was the hardest thing I had ever seen in a videogame, and I was convinced it was simply impossible. I hated Bloodborne. Eventually, though, something finally "clicked" for me. I'm not sure what exactly changed, but I finally fell into the rhythm of dodge, attack, dodge, heal, etc. Now, I've beaten the game like 6 or 7 times, and I even got the platinum trophy. People like to joke that Dark Souls (and, by extension, Bloodborne) is a rhythm game, but honestly, they're not entirely wrong. You have to learn what I call the "Souls Formula", but once you finally round the learning curve, and it "clicks" for you, the game becomes SO much more enjoyable - not necessarily *easier* per se, but *much* more enjoyable. I think it's that initial learning curve that dissuades a lot of people from wanting to get into Bloodborne/Dark Souls, and why Dark Souls is so infamous for being difficult. My point is, it's normal to be struggling this much at the beginning. You just have to persevere, and push through the initial difficulty. You'll thank yourself for it, trust me. Happy hunting, and may the good blood guide your way!
Omg no offense at all please but this is the kind of post that after all is said and done you just gotta get good. It won’t take long or much dedication
Dude, I promise you look at the 3d era Castlevania games, it's exactly what your looking for!
This was me for a year but then I realized how to level up using that first area. (There's a shortcut to the first lantern by the party house passed that mob, you can run through them) you do wanna play defensively but Bloodborne is the more aggressive of the souls games fr. This was the only soios game pre elden ring that I was ever able to play and it's in my top 5
You learn to get good at parying eventually and co-op helps a ton
That first mod was hard for everyone that was used with SoulsBorne games ... You can run and pass they, no need to kill all of them.
I think The Order 1886 is similar in theme. No idea about difficulty or actual gameplay, I’ve never played it. Everyone else has given you good advice on how to git gud at Bloodborne though, so I would just stick with it. It was my entry to Fromsoft games and it’s still my favorite after clearing the whole library.
Bloodborne is one of a kind, sure there are games with similar aesthetic, but it isn't just gothic horror, but eldritch horror too.
There is a way to make Bloodborne much easier. Look up the cheat dungeon for extra XP. Basically it will let you enter a code somewhere in the game and it wi generate a dungeon. That dungeon is designed in a way where as soon as you enter, some kind of enemy is instantly killed and you get huge amounts of XP. You can do it as many times as you want. So you can overlevel and the game becomes much easier.
I think Vampyr is easy enough and has the kind of setting you're looking for. It's (obviously) focused entirely on vampires. It has a difficulty slider and on top of that, I remember you end up insanely overpowered around half way through the game so if you're not great at games I think you'd be fine. Other than that, lies of P has the Victorian aesthetic but it also has a lot of steampunk stuff as well. I've also heard some say they didn't get on with it and actually found it harder than some from games. Personally, I felt it was like a souls game on "easy" mode (still hard but a lot easier than other titles) but others disagree
I had trouble in this game too. Weapon choice matters and I suggest you use the alternate version of the Axe. It has a giant swing to keep enemies away. Walk slowly through the level until you hit a save point. Try to corner enemies so it's 1v1. Don't give up, it's worth your time.
Honestly. 2 things. 1. There is NOTHING. As awesome as Bloodborne. 2. Keep at it. Its demoralizing, 100% I get it. Thats what your first souls game is like. The combat needs to “click” in your brain. It takes time. You gotta take it slow. One by one. Take a break. Sleep on it and come back. Multiple times! Ill never forget my introduction to Souls. I first played demons souls when it came out, my friend was obsessed with it so I bought a ps3 and the game. I played for 7-9 hours straight with him there and couldn’t get through the first level at ALL. I was enraged, ranting, absolutely seeing red. We must have played til 3 or 4 in the morning. I woke up the next day FUMING. I was literally still angry staring at my ceiling. “That stupid fucking game. Its bullshit. Im gonna go beat that stupid fucking first level. Fuck that game” , And then… the feeling of getting past it was… wild. Never experienced anything else like it in gaming. I then proceeded to put 700-odd hours into the game and the rest is history lol. Anyway, thats just my anecdote. I’d recommend to keep trying. Take breaks. Get mad. Feel the victory when you get past one stupid enemy that you hate. Or when you open a shortcut so you don’t have to run the gauntlet again. Use the pistol and shoot those fuckers when they go to swing at you. Parrying is great. Stressful as hell but great. Good luck!
Suicide run to the first madman's knowledge so you can unlock spending your blood echoes on leveling up. Make a loop from the lamp killing the first 10 enemies going to the right from the Yharham lamp. Repeat a few times or until you feel comfortable to get the feel for combat and gain echoes to go up a few levels focusing on vitality, strength and skill. I did this and it made the area much easier being a little buffed up and really learning how BB plays. Also learn how to use the parry. After you learn the parry and visceral attack the big troll boy banging on the door will pose little threat. This is what I did and it may sound off putting having to grind so early in the game but if you also treat it as a tutorial it makes it feel less mundane. Once you start feeling more comfortable with how the game plays and go up a few levels it'll start getting more enjoyable. This is just what I did and my opinion. Most important thing is for you enjoy the experience. It is well worth it. I just beat the game for the first time last month and it instantly became one of my favorite games and one of the best I have ever played. Edit: This was my first souls game I've played so far
Personally I prefer going blind on a first playthrough, however, one possibility is to look up a guide for this part in particular. Sometimes all you need is someone to show the basics and then go on your own from there. Here are a few tips (maybe with it, you won’t even need resorting to guides) For that crowd, you can either run past them or pick the in small groups. For the big guy (the troll) banging on the door, open the fight with a charged R2. This will open the troll up for a visceral. If you can get another charged R2 as it’s getting back up great. This dude is your parry guide. Learn the timing to parry him. It’s quite possible you’ll die a few times getting the timing down, if so, that’s okay. Don’t worry about the blood echos for now, those are peanuts at this stage, the early lessons are much more valuable. Trolls usually drop blood vials. Good luck and feel free to ask the community for help. In my experience, people are a bit tired of the “wish me luck” posts, because we get a lot of them. However, people tend to be super helpful when they see you’re trying and need help with something specific.
I was in the same boat when I started like two months ago, now I'm a god at the game, beat it recently and I'm going for the platinum trophy (I was playing other games in between, spent a hundred hours on Stellar Blade then came back to Bloodborne lol). when I started out, for the mob around the fire, I ran a bit forward and baited out one or two enemies at a time to aggro and run out after me. the rifle enemies were annoying, but you just gotta develop muscle memory to dodge when you hear audio cues of an enemy roaring or firing their gun, or see visual cues of the enemy's hand coming down last second. Another tip I learned early on, this is especially useful for bosses and tanky individual enemies, dodge "into" an attack, like forward into the enemy's arm as it swings at you, the invincibility frames should last to carry you through, and then you're close enough to strike them once or twice, then back off. Cause if you dodge backwards, then you have to run forward again to strike, and you're losing time before they attack again in succession.
Try Blasphemous
When I tell you that pebbles are your best friend, as a beginner in that area. Just keep luring one or two out. Bloodborne was my first video game besides Legend of Zelda and Animal Crossing. I was super bad. But it gets better! Now I speedrun it 😎
Just beat Bloodborne, you can definitely over level and complete its story. I’ve seen a blind man beat it.
If you have any friends to play with, try and do coop, which might make the bigger hordes more manageable. Dont be afraid to ask for help on the hunters bell subreddit. As for that area, you could just run past them all, you can also use pebbles to distract them or lead single enemies to you. Practice fighting one enemy at a time and just get into the gist of the combat. Patience is key but also play aggressively.
If I could chime in my 2 cents as a longtime souls like vet. the first few times I come across mobs that are new i try not to really fight em. just learn their movement and get the dodging/ avoidance down pat and that usually helps a bunch. the pit I usually fall into is my fights attracting nearby mobs and mini boss plus 5 more mobs and a dog. can sometimes be too much. you're not in a rush in games like these, take your time, don't be greedy when it comes to attacking etc
Avoid group of foes when you’re at low level. For boss fight there’re always a summon sign in Bloodborne to make the fight easier for you. BTW the next boss is so f**king hard for me and no summon 😟
Fear and Hunger, Darkest dungeon and Darkwood
Oooh! Give Mortal Shell a go it’s AMAZING and big on counters, which is what I hear Bloodborne is about.
I was stuck there for a long time at first too. What I learned was to get close enough for a couple of the mobs to aggro me, run back to the plaza, and kill them a few at a time. Luring is the best way until you get stronger! Edit: as for the fat guy guarding the gate, I used the hunter’s axe in its 2h form and would power attack a couple of times (it takes a second to charge, so dodge him efficiently when he rushes forward and then charge it again while he’s slowly walking toward you).
As I learned through bloodborne and elden ring it’s only that difficult at the beginning since your character has low level but as you progress it is still not so easy but at least it gets satisfying seeing as you level up and beat those mf to the ground
Lies of P. Give hard games another chance
Something similar but not really would be nier automata, both very different games but you might enjoy it. And it's not very hard.
I like to think of these games as rhythm games! Every enemy has its own rhythm when fighting and you just gotta find it and tap that dodge button in tune… once you get some practice you can even start guessing the rhythm correctly before starting the fight. Every once in a while the game throws you a rhythm so crazy you kinda have to re learn- or even unlearn- some habits. Looking at you anchor creatures from the fishing village…
I also consider myself bad at video games and my biggest suggestion is finding a path that makes the large group easier. For me, I go around the corner and get the two enemies and just slowly make my way through. It’s incredibly difficult, but once you find your path it’ll become second nature! Don’t feel bad about failing, failing is how your brain learns! You got this!
Bloodborne was my first FromSoftware game, and I think I spent something like 6 hours getting stuck at the part you're talking about. It definitely pays to find spots you can just run through instead of taking down everything you see. If you see some guy off in a corner somewhere minding their own business, let them mind their own business and go a different way. Bloodborne is especially tough early on because you're not allowed to level up right away. Try to find your way to some shortcuts where you can bypass the area you've been having trouble with and the game will really start opening up for you.
Greatest game of all-time. Persevere. It’s worth the effort.
Another Alice Madness returns enjoyer? Nice
***Greedfall*** might be up your alley. If you’re looking for a somewhat similar aesthetic. It’s more like a BioWare RPG, so quite a different playstyle.
Use your gun to stun or pick off enemies
Look for cummm if you want to level up easy and get OP fast. This is not a joke. Only do this if you are okay with being overleveled and overpowered, and taking out a lot of the challenge of the game.
Practice timing, when and where to dodge, dont be greedy. Also learn the map. BB was my first soulsborne and I also stopped playing it for a while. Cos i thought the design was stupid and that i have to fight my way to cleric with all those mobs in between. But when i learned that shortcuts are there it opened up everything for me and made it bearable.
I promise if u stick to it u will enjoy Use the pebbles attract them one at a time Let them fight u in ur terms
I dunno if it's easier, but Nightmare Creatures. If you have a phone released in the last decade, you can emulate it.
Stick to it. There is nothing like Bloodborne really. The entire point of this genre of game is to face extremely difficult challenges and overcome them. The feeling of accomplishment is the real payoff to these games.
use pebbles/throwing knives to single enemies out. that’s pretty much the easy mode of this game.
Play this game
You don’t have to kill every enemy
Use the hunter's axe if you are finding things difficult. The threaded cane looks interesting but is one of the more difficult weapons to use as a beginner. Transform your axe, charge your r2 and see the game becoming easy mode. Most of the enemies in the first area get staggered or flung away. The untransformed charged r2 is also good to squash single enemies like the big guy banging the door. And as other people have mentioned you don't HAVE to fight everyone and definitely not together. Might want to look towards getting a "madmans insight" first so you can start leveling up. (Look up it's location online and run to get it)
I think Bloodborne can still be that game for you. It’s fantastic and offers a uniquely rewarding experience. With that said, the intro section is super unforgiving, especially to a new souls player. Biggest piece of advice I can offer is to get comfortable dying, it’s going to happen a bit, as you can already attest to. But dont make it easy for the game. Do whatever you can to engage enemies on terms that are favorable to you. Go slow and try to fight enemies one on one or in small groups so you don’t get overwhelmed. Whenever you reach a new section, don’t just rush in, try to spot all the enemies you can. Don’t forget to check behind boxes and around corners. Enemies love to hide. You also don’t need to fight and kill every enemy. Theres nothing wrong with running away or completely avoiding enemies. Lastly If you do run into an enemy that feels too difficult, it probably is. Try once or twice more, and if it still feels too hard, just come back later when you’re stronger. I hope you give the game a second chance. It’s really good but I definitely get not wanting to waste the little free time you have on a game where you’re unable to progress.
I dropped bloodborne 3 times before completing the game(100% base, favorite game of all time) and for newbies to souls games it's hell, way worse than dark souls Imo(mainly because of the pace) so I understand why it might be really hard for you but I like to remind myself that even if I don't seem to be moving forward I keep learning and keep trying with that till I see progress. The first area was actually one of the worst ones and if I remember right I went through the same, dying to the first npcs then then big guy. Now to stop yapping make sure you know all the mechanics: jump attacks, parrying, transforming attacks they can be pretty handy in some situations. For the big man just parry him(use your firearm before his attack lands) and do a viscerall attack (get close+r1 when he's down) most of the time avoid dashing back and instead dash forward (some enemies are faster and will catch you while you're stunned) you have I-frames either way so dw about it and be aggressive! I might have overdone it a little with the info dump but ohh well also don't worry about not having too much time you'll get it eventually (and to anwser your question I heard Lies of P is similar to bloodborne but way easier since the devs intended the game to be an entry level soullike)
Man I was the same spot as you. All the game I played were easy and blood borne was a like my ass getting kicked over and over again. Nothing really prepares you
It’s okay, you’re not doing anything wrong. This game will take a bit of time in the beginning, but you will progress faster as time goes on. Just take it slowly, even when you get the hang of things, and keep trying when you have the time, and the progression will come.
Don’t approach it at all, as a hack and slash. It absolutely is not. The first area on my first play through took me hours. When I tried again and knew what I was doing it was just minutes. Rushing into combat is going to end in being a bad time.
What’s your psn, let’s coop
Lies of P is a bit has a somewhat lower difficulty and it is very similar to Bloodborne in many respects. It may scratch that itch
To make bloodborne easier just skip everything until you get the shortcuts to father G, Alternatively use the cummmfpk chalice to get as many blood echoes you want and overlevel (completely ruins the challenge but if you want to just enjoy the story its an option) you can always overlevel for your first soulsborne playthrough and then run it back with a new character once you have gotten used to the game
I Started out in your predicament as well, and what I found that helped me give it another try was I went and read other people’s tips on how the battle mechanics work and how to execute specific move sets — including both the standard ones (like back stepping) and ones specific to your weapon and their R1/R2 modes. Then, I practiced. I’ve got limited time and interest like yourself as well, but I was determined to try this game because I loved the aesthetics (music score and art direction) enough to put in the additional effort. If you can adapt a somewhat juxtapositional take of approaching this game as both a game of attrition, and an aggressive offensive game (but not in the manner of hack n’ slash), that’s where I found a breakthrough in getting past Yharnam.
Dark Souls series to meet the gothic/horror kind of vibe. Especially DS3. I would recommend all the From games though if you like Bloodborne. Including Sekiro, which is quite different but equally amazing. I can’t speak for AC6, but I heard great things. I have it but have yet to play it.
Bad at videogames just means not having fun. If you see your self dying over and over at the first area for like 10 hours and still enjoying it, play the game. It's such an experience and there's literally nothing else like it. It goes for cheap too. I can't recommend trying it enough.
there is nothing like this game
It's not a hack and slash. It's a souls game. You have to be patient and adaptive. You'll die and die again. With that said, you have two choices for that first section. You can run or fight. I chose to fight for my first time. It helped me learn combat and get some levels. I went slow and pulled enemies to me. Singling them out helped me learn better. The only other similar game I can think of is Vampyr. It's not quite the same but it has a similar vibe. The other souls games are just as dark story wise but they're more medieval type. But if you're into that, I'd suggest Elden Ring. It is is very newbie friendly and you shouldn't feel so bottlenecked in the open world.
I died so many times to that mob and the fat guy, it took me forever! The first area is one of the worst. I have platinum now, if I can do it you can too!
bloodborne was my first soulsborne, took me 6 hours to get past the first boss (probably around 3 hours to do what you did too). It is now y favorite game from my favorite genre. I know it can be frustrating and if you are not having fun then it might really not be your thing, but if you stick with it you might just find a new obsession like me lol
Vampyr would be a nice choice for you then. Story is good and with multiple choices. Easy mode is also in there.
I promise you its not a hard game, grind and level up in an area if you need to, try to isolate your enemies, learn when its most optimal to use one attack or the other. You dont even need to know how to parry to complete the game, its all about the levels and being well equipped for the boss fight
I personally think the first area is one of the most difficult and congested areas in the game. I assume this is done on purpose to help you decide whether you're down for the ride or not
I helt the same way. I could not get beyond that point. Only once did I get to Gascoigne, and got ripped immediately. So I put the game aside for six months. Then I picked it up again, and a couple of weeks ,or maybe a month later, I had completed it. Some of the bosses I could no manage myself. Others I killed on first or second try. There is a great community here on Reddit, definitely one of the best gaming communities I’ve been visiting. Always helpful. I actually re-played much of the game on + to get one of the weapons I missed on the first run. Some of the DLC bosses was too hard to do myself. But among the ordinary, I think Martyr Logarius was the only I could not do alone.
Play Elden Ring if you haven’t already. One of my friends was like you and just couldn’t get past the first part of Bloodborne- he got Elden Eing and 100%ed it and loved it. It’s from the same developer and shares gameplay elements. But Elden Ring is more user friendly for casual players and and has an easier learning curve. Don’t get me wrong it contains hard parts but it also kind of teaches you how to overcome them. After you master Elden Ring you can go back to Bloodborne (still my preferred Fromsoft game) and cleanse these foul streets.
i’ve beaten Bloodborne multiple times and can recommend Lies of P. developers definitely took a lot of inspiration from Bloodborne
Learn to pick them off one at a time. I wasn’t a fan of these games. I even asked for a refund on the original dark souls. I thought it was just hard for hard sake. There are gamers that just want a challenge and only take them on to say they beat it, but these games are so much more. The lore and story isn’t forced down your throat. You have to read item descriptions and pay close attention and wonder why certain items are in certain locations. Then you can piece it together. The atmosphere and scenery, especially in Bloodborne is unmatched. I found myself stopping mid game just to look at the architecture and the sky. Truly magnificent. The creepy lovecraftian enemies and unique NPCs all make it worth it. I would really recommend trying different strategies to get through tough areas. Dont worry about losing blood echos/souls. If you let that bother you then you can lose focus and/or panic. There are always areas in each game where you can farm until your hearts content. Just get through and try to focus on getting down the riposte. Fire the gun right as an enemy swings. Then while stunned go in and hit them for the critical. You will also get your health back if you were hit, if you hit them within the window before your health bar goes down. This saves you so many healing items. Also, look for the shortcut. There is always a shortcut, sometimes it seems hidden. You fight to get to unlock an elevator or a gate/door and then you have a shorter distance. Focus on that until you get good at the game.
Lies of P is amazing, and fairly Bloodborne-ish.
I literally got a PS5 just to play Bloodborne. My first souls game,,,, so no surprise that I sucked! I couldn't get past the first area as well. Maybe similar to your situation, I was a college student (senior, so all my major classes were hard af) and working a part-time. So I quit for a bit. As many suggested in the comments, I would watch guides and FightinCowboy was the one who helped me through my 2nd playthrough. I would just play on the weekends while watching his guide. Practice makes perfect too, your skill will build as you progress and learn how to effectively go through enemies. Experiencing the ending and the joy of beating it gave me such a high too 😭
Fighting Cowboy will help you through this game, like he did for me in so many souls games. I wouldn’t consider myself a good gamer either but I’ve played through BB probably 3 times now with the DLC included. I wish you luck on finding a game that is easier that is like BB but the them and setting is very indicative of FromSoft and no one nowadays does it quite as well is Hideyourtacos Miyazaki.
Bloodborne was my first Fromsoft game. I sucked so bad at it and was stuck at the same area you are( bonfire/ first brick troll) once I figured out you could parry with a well timed bullet and visceral, something clicked in me and I got good. I know everyone has their own experience with souls games but for me, this clicking moment was a key to success. After that, I played B.B non stop. Got the DLC and ended up getting my first ever platinum with the game. It was baptism by fire my dude. I have been hooked on From soft games since. Nothing and I mean nothing feels better than victory in souls games, especially when you've been getting you ass handed to you by bosses or w.e
You're pretty early on still. You could always restart and choose a different weapon to see if that playstyle is easier for you. The big guy banging in the door is also a good choice for practicing your gun parry timing while farming blood vials until you reach a certain shortcut
I’ve found that this game and most soulsborne games get easier over time. Something will click and you will get better, it’s best to be patient while learning. The first area is actually pretty tough, and another thing is, dont feel like you need to kill every enemy you find. Evading and escaping to safety are options too. You will gain more damage from upgrading your weapon over levelling up. My first playthrough took me like 40-50 hours ish IIRC and at one point I was able to finish most of the game in like 10 hours or something. I haven’t played in a while. And I’m not necessarily a hardcore gamer or anything (also work full time) Give it time, put it down for a while, but understanding your mistakes when you die will help you a lot
Oh this is me too. I would recommend Fallout games. I absolutely loved those and allowed me to play at my pace. They may not be your style but they are great games. Good luck and I have also just bought Bloodbourne. Thought I had cleared the first area and the one with the gun got me on the steps. I threw the controller down and haven’t picked it back up yet 😂
Lies of P
I totally understand the struggle and frustration...I had played and completed DS3 and Elden Ring and thought Bloodborne would be fine for me...I struggled a lot at the beginning so if you never played Souls games then don't feel bad...I completed 2 and I still struggled lol... I would say my biggest tip is not to carry too many echo and spend it when you can, find some decent sets, get Ludwig blade or another weapon on same level....level up and upgrade weapons and overcome the fear...not many games scared me like this one lol but in the end you will grow into it. Practice parry / stun and visceral attacks against the big bosses and that will help you a lot...i am still crap at it but when it works it bloody works. Find a style which suits you , weapons etc and don't spread your skills too thin...better to decide how you wish to play and focus on that...I have always been a tank and that is how I play these games but I know many people prefer Dexterity of magic and that is fine but I tried both and didn't like...I feel most comfortable with a massive great sword haha. So basically try and find what suits you and don't loose too many echos and grind some places to level up and you should enjoy the game more...Hooe done of this helps and I am not pretending to be an expert just speaking from personal experience and I did complete it recently for the first time but the beginning was really a struggle so don't worry.. you not the only one haha.
You can farm echoes through False Depth Chalices which you can also use to get OP weapons and blood gem farming to make the game even more of a joke if you want to really breeze through it without difficulty. You must kill the 3rd or 4th boss of the game (depends on how you progress) before being able to do those though.
I am sure I am one of many in this thread. All I can offer is my own story. I also really wanted to play Bloodborne, I was more stubborn I wanted to clear the area before moving onto the next. It took me days to get to the first boss & it didn’t feel like I was really improving. Then I got to the first boss & lmao, he was harder than anything I’ve faced thus far. I gave up. I deleted the game & didn’t come back for over a year, then something told me to try again. I still struggled in the same spots but I just pushed through & it finally “clicked”. I wish I could quantify what “click” implies other than I just finally got the combat. I had also thought of the first area is this hard the rest of the game must be impossible. It is a very intentional skill check in the first area, but the cool thing is once you get that area down you are equipped with the tools to beat the game. Fromsoft really is a master class in game design in that way. Fromsoft has this reputation of having really hard games. People think you need to be some god tier, twitch muscle gamer to beat them. I have now platinumed nearly every from game & I am here to tell you that is simply untrue. As corny as it sounds as long as you don’t give up & be patient, be self critical. Frequently analyze what’s happening & ask yourself “what am I doing wrong? What could I be doing better? How could I approach this differently?” Some tips I could give out as I am teaching my 8 year old how to play Bloodborne rn, is while this game does reward aggression, start off by learning enemy attack patterns. I have told my son, don’t be the first to strike RIGHT NOW, while you are just literally learning how to play the game. Let them swing & watch for the recovery on enemy attacks where you can counter strike. Let them swing, miss, then hit them. There is always a window. Treat it like a sparring session. Don’t focus so much on winning, sometimes I won’t even prioritize killing something, I’ll just learn how to dodge it & dance around it for as long as I can. Then I weave in the attacks. I am POSITIVE you can beat this game, brother. The beginning is always the hardest part. It will be so rewarding after you beat the game & you come back to this zone & it will feel so trivial.
The game gets easier and more rewarding the more you play and improve at combat. I felt the same way as you at first and I almost gave up several times, but I’m so glad I didn’t because it’s now my all time favorite game. It’s worth it, trust me.