BE WARNED: THIS ARTICLE CONTAINS SPOILERS
Nightmare Slain
This is the message that you’re given by killing Bloodborne’s final boss, Moon Presence. After all of the work you’ve done, all of the prey you’ve slaughtered, you know that you’re at the end of your journey when the Nightmare is slain by your hand. Let the moon set, the morning return and the sun rise once again, your longest night is over.
As I write this, it’s been about 12 hours since I finished Bloodborne’s new game for the first time. It’s taken me a month and a day to finish completely, exploring as many facets of the game as possible, encountering every enemy, boss and NPC in as complete a way as I could. I made mistakes, yeah, I died a lot, I lost some NPCs to Iosefka’s Clinic but I made it to the end in one piece. I wanted to write a review of the game for my own blog, but the more I thought about it, the less a review would do the game justice (besides, they’ve already been done a million times). No, instead I wanted to write about the feeling that you get at the end of the game.
Simply enough, I was exhausted. Mentally and physically exhausted. The final two fights that Bloodborne throws at you, Gerhman and Moon Presence, run concurrently with each other (if you meet the requirements of having consumed 3 of the One Third Umbilical cords) with only a one minute gap for a cut scene. You’ve barely caught your breath from the tremendous Gerhman fight before you’re thrust back into battle with an unspeakable horror from beyond.
Bloodborne might actually be the first game I’ve ever played with a perfect combat system. Back when it was revealed, Souls fans around the world lamented the lack of shields in the game; as the prevailing play style across the three titles was to walk everywhere with your shield up, ready for action but largely safe. Bloodborne turned this on its head, instead forcing you to completely adapt to the combat mechanics of the game. Be aggressive, don’t wait for enemies to attack you, instead get in there quickly and kill them before they kill you. No longer could you perpetually circle enemies with your shield up waiting for the perfect opportunity to do some damage. No, instead you had to out dodge them, out damage them and outlive them all.
Against the normal enemies, the combat is meaty and satisfying as it forces you to anticipate every action each creature is going to take and counter that with your own repertoire of movements and attacks. But where the combat really comes into its element is when you’re fighting Hunters. Throughout Yharnam there are around a dozen hunters that you are tasked with dealing with. Some are optional, others are just in your way. What is magnificent about these fights is that all of the Hunters have the same range of movement as you, as well as the same trick weapons and sidearms. This means you end up in the first genuine fights of any game From Software have put out. You are genuinely fighting for your life in a kill-or-be-killed fashion, dodging around each other, trading hits and trying to score parries.
The first of these fights is Father Gascoigne, who also happens to be the first mandatory boss in the game (you don’t actually need to beat the Cleric Beast to beat the game). This fight is designed to shock and horrify you immediately because up until this point you will have never encountered an enemy like this. None of the other enemies in Central Yharnam attack with Gascoigne’s aggression or persistence, you’re forced to learn exactly what your Hunter can and can’t do. Sure, there were ways to cheese the fight, but over all this fight is what will determine if you’re good enough to finish the game or not.
However, the BEST of the hunter fights is most definitely Gerhman’s fight. Depending on your conditions he may be the last boss for you, or he may not. Either way, he is a punishing, vicious enemy to deal with. What makes the fight special and amazing is the room you fight him in. Up in the Hunter’s Dream, underneath the great tree in a bright, light graveyard filled with flowers, you fight him in the most serene environment found anywhere in the game. The music reflects this as it is lighter, less dramatic than other boss fight themes, accentuating the beauty of the experience. To beat Gerhman, you need to become the ultimate hunter and truly master the methods of fighting you have been building throughout the game. What you’re left with is something more akin to a ballet, skipping around the arena, trading hits and eventually conquering the most powerful Hunter in the game.
It is the Hunter fights that permanently left me breathless and feeling my heart beating in my chest. They are by far and away the most exhilarating combat experiences ever put into a game and what can only be described as the pinnacle of From Software’s combat system.
But how does this tie into my feeling of finishing the game? Well, outside of combat, what makes From Software games so enthralling is their sense of grandeur. As you work your way through their worlds you discover strange new creatures, marvel at wonderfully designed levels and are guided into some glorious architectural set pieces as you encounter new areas. With Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, I never had these experiences as I’d already watched EpicNameBro’s playthroughs of the games on YouTube, so I’d effectively ruined this sense of discovery for myself. With Dark Souls 2, I had the Collector’s Edition guide at the time I played the game so I’d read ahead on where I was going and what I was doing, again, spoiling it for myself.
With Bloodborne it was different. I’d decided already that when I got the game I was going to work hard and help contribute to theFextralife Wikis, which I’ve done. I’ve written walkthroughs for roughly two thirds of the game’s areas, I’ve contributed strategies for almost every boss and you may find plenty of my own guide videos throughout the wiki itself. For me, I didn’t want to ruin the experience, so I didn’t buy the guide, I wanted to be fresh and I wanted this to be a genuine From Soft experience. Every new area took my breath away. The first time I walked out into the Nightmare Frontier and I saw its alien landscape stunned me. When I came into Nightmare Of Mensis and saw the twisted, contorted skulls buried into the cave walls I was terrified. Pushing that first gate open into Central Yharnam, looking at the sunset through the arch in the Great Bridge took my breath away.
This is a game of moments, of being amazed and being terrified. Bloodborne is a game where a cheer of “fck yeah!” can be immediately followed by a cry of “holy sit, what the f*ck is that?!” They say that knowing your enemy is half the battle, so when you know nothing of a new area and a new enemy you’re forced to learn everything immediately, otherwise you’ll be tracking back from the last lamp you awoke at.
So my feeling of finishing the game, which consisted of mental and physical exhaustion is truly justified. I spent close to 40 hours, plumbing the depths and horrors of Yharnam, pushing myself further and further to reach that next lamp or the next shortcut. More than that though, as the pride at finishing the game has receded, I feel a certain emptiness and jealousy. You see, I’ll never experience Bloodborne for the first time again. I’ll not see anything genuinely new, no matter how many NG cycles I complete, which upsets me immensely. I’m now incredibly jealous of anyone from this point on who picks up Bloodborne and gets to experience all of this astounding game for the first time.
My message to you all is simply this: Savour every moment of New Game in Bloodborne. It might be frustrating, it might be hard, but once you’ve beaten the game, you’ll never get that sense of wonderment back again.
