Topic: Project Beast; possible sequel to Demons Souls?

[Flame]

So Europe's "Nightmare Edition" has been revealed



Personally, I'm not digging it. I hear the bell is supposed to be the equivalent of  soapstones, so whatever. It looks nice at least.

The quill set and notebook though... Feel almost budget generic "merchandise" tier.

And a CE with a digital OST? that feels a bit cheap.

meanwhile, this is a Collector's Edition you can currently preorder on the likes of Amazon and [parasitic bomb].



it also comes with the messenger skin. (at least the amazon preorder does)

if the US "Nightmare" edition ends up being no different from the EU one, I'll likely just get this one

[Blue Valkyrie]

Eh, I won't be buying special editions of FROM games again; don't get me wrong the Farem Knight statue was neat but the rest of the stuff offered was kinda weak. (Although the map of the kingdom was a neat addition)

But yeah the bell is summon/being summoned catalyst all in one this time.

[Flame]

also, the confirmed bonus messanger sins are Top Hat, Fedora, and bandages

seems like Tophat is exclusive to the Nightmare Edition

at least it isn't the kind most people were expecting

[Fxeni]

Bloodborne: The First 18 Minutes - IGN First

[Blue Valkyrie]

Nope not watching any more footage until I own the game! No spoilers for me! 

[Fxeni]

http://www.mcvuk.com/special-features/read/the-big-game-bloodborne/0166

“Yes,” Miyazaki confirms. “There will be a New Game Plus mode.”

He laughs.

“We’re having trouble beating it, though.”

 


From this neogaf thread about EDGE impressions (bolded parts I find interesting, and aren't spoilery):

You can get the issue, which has 6 pages on Bloodborne, on Amazon right now for $5: US | UK

    Playthrough did not involve Chalice Dungeon or multiplayer - they also did not complete the game in 40 hours.
    "Bloodborne is Hidetaka Miyazaki's brutal riposte to the section of his playerbase that thinks it has seen it all before."
    Merchant sells a clip-on lantern (hello Demon's Souls augite)
    "Yharnam spends the game in the grip of a perpetual night...that can only be brought to an end by the player finding and finishing off the source of the scourge of beasts." (this could be referring short term like...defeat a major boss, get some daytime, or overall, I guess)
    Description on the first shield they found: Shields are nice, but not if they engender passivity.
    Some enemies in the game can use spells
    Confirmed Bloodtinge stat governs bullet damage
    Transforming strikes and their follow-up attacks give you a way of reaching enemies that in other Souls games might be out of reach because they were pushed back by your earlier attacks - they say stamina management is a more diverse process in Bloodborne than in the earlier games
    Bloodstone shards = titanite, coldblood = portable souls, most common items are blood vials (healing) and quicksilver bullets, but stocks can grow low later in the game
    Surplus items are automatically sent to a storage box, and if you die your items are replenished from the box automatically
    They say your starting stats are dictated by the trick weapon you choose (which runs counter to the origins shown in the character creator...)
    Enemies only drop upgrade mats and items
    Very few chests, almost all have something good inside
    Clothes found in the world or from a merchant whose catalog expands when you defeat bosses
    Only found 6 or so weapons and 6 or so guns in 40 hours
    Bloodgems are an upgrade item that allows you to change the attributes of a weapon, ex. increasing physical attack power, adding poison damage, or increasing scaling - all the weapons in the game are customizable with bloodgems
    Did not beat the game but they feel like it is less replayable than its predecessors (this does not count the Chalice Dungeon or multiplayer components)
    You can keep up to 5 dungeon configurations in your Chalice Dungeon stock
    Lantern checkpoints are not "overabundant" like the bonfires of Dark Souls II, you open shortcuts rather than getting new bonfires (ala Demon's Souls)
    "Discrete areas flow together to create a believable world" - separating the hub from the main gameworld allows the world itself to be more coherent, interconnectivity is present and very complex throughout the game - they compare it directly to Dark Souls' "falling apart" in the second half and say that unlike Dark Souls, Bloodborne maintains its dense, interconnected world design through the entire game. They say several areas rival Firelink Shrine in terms of interconnectivity.
    They say in Souls you are frequently scared of dying, but in Bloodborne you are also scared of what is coming to kill you - "There is a moment in Dark Souls that we will never forget: down in the Depths, picking up an item from a corpse and a slime dropping onto our head. We spent the rest of the level panning the camera endlessly for unseen threats, no longer scared of dying, but of moving. Imagine a whole game of that." - For this reason they think taking the replayability factor to CD makes more sense.
    Torch may be very important for newcomers/first playthroughs
    There is a new mechanic they are not allowed to discuss
    "If you thought From Software was going soft, Hidetaka Miyazaki is about to put you brutally back in your place. And if you've been watching this generation from the sidelines, unmoved by the remasters and rush jobs while you wait for the first true essential to arrive, now's the time. As if there was ever any doubt, Miyazaki and his team have done it all over again."

There's a Q&A about Miyazaki's ideas and philosophy regarding the game at the end.

This was too entertaining not to post

Bloodborne Graphics Comparison [Alpha vs Retail]

[Blue Valkyrie]

It's obviously B-Team's fault. Damn you FROM! 

What is that older game anyway? Looks interesting.

[Fxeni]

Nightmare Creatures on the PS1.

[Blue Valkyrie]

Name rings a bell.

[Blue Valkyrie]

Bloodborne is out tomorrow, MY BODY IS READY!

((Going to pick up a PS4 and Bloodborne at the same time))

[Fxeni]

My copy's in the mail.

[Blue Valkyrie]

Bloodborne is easily the darkest and most twisted game FROM has ever made, some of the stuff I've seen and stuff that is implied to happen before I arrived made me go "Oh [parasitic bomb]" more than a few times. Bloodborne may start out gothic horror game but turns full on Lovecraft mid to late game. And I LOVE it.

Father Gasgoigne's family, and the children of the Orphanage. Yesh. 

Also soft and hard caps have been discovered.

(Note physical Def goes up regardless of what stat you level)

Vitality: Increases HP
Soft Cap: 30, little to no increases past the Hard Cap of 50

Endurance: Increases stamina (Unlike souls there is no more equip burden)
Soft/Hard Cap: 40 (Little to no increase past that)

Strength: Required for wielding certain weapons, increases damage with weapons that scale with strength.

Skill: (The Dexterity of Bloodborne) Required for wielding certain weapons, increases damage with weapons that scale with Skill.

Bloodtinge: Required for weilding certain weapons and firearms, increases damage with weapons that scale with Bloodtinge, however it mostly affects firearms.

Arcane: Increases damage with certain items and scales off certain weapons. Also effects the damage of certain Hunter's Tools (Magic).

The four attack stats all have a soft cap of 25/30 and hard cap of 50.

As for transformation that was rumored, you don't transform sadly but it does increase your damage for a time at the cost of reduced defense. The Beast Claw gauntlet weapon uses this mechanic naturally I hear.

[Fxeni]

I'm loving the combat so much more than the Souls games.

[Blue Valkyrie]

Only real flaw is how overpowered NPC hunters are, it's honestly cheap that their guns/weapons can nearly half your HP if not one shot you.

[Kieran]

I'm, er, having trouble making any real progress.  Like six hours in and I still haven't managed to kill either of the first two bosses kind of trouble.

[Fxeni]

Only real flaw is how overpowered NPC hunters are, it's honestly cheap that their guns/weapons can nearly half your HP if not one shot you.

The damage does seem to be higher than expected (compared to our guns), but it didn't feel like they're doing any more damage than the other ranged enemies the last bunch I fought.

[Blue Valkyrie]

For Cleric Beast try to stay behind it as much as you can, it can't defend it's self very well there. Also try to attack it's head with the gun or weapon to knock it down for a visceral attack.

For Father Gascoigne you can easily parry his physical attacks (takes a bit of practice mind you), or use the music box item (gotten from his daughter at the window past the short cut to the central square with the fountain) to stun him for a short time. (There is a cool down window and it only works three times I hear? So save it for his second phase)

Honestly using parrying for both of Gascoigne's phases and use the gravestones to your advantage.

As for the NPCs Fxeni go fight the one in the Grand Cathedral and tell me that. 

[Fxeni]

Ah, that one. That's a boss of sorts though since it's for a quest, so I wasn't counting it. I thought you were talking about the other various Hunters since you left it kind of vague.

For Gascoigne, fire is your friend for the final portion of the fight. Not necessary, but helps.

[Kieran]

Well, I did it.  It took me eleven and a half hours in total playtime to get sufficiently practiced and leveled, but Gascoigne and the Cleric Beast are naught but an unpleasant memory.  For the record, the music box doesn't just work 3 times, but if you use it 3 times while Gascoigne's still human, it triggers phase two early and nobody wants that.

And I can't help but think there are entire videogames shorter than my ordeal with the first two bosses in Bloodborne.  I have not yet worked up the resolve to press on past the Cathedral Ward lantern.

[Blue Valkyrie]

I recommend doing the area to the left of the Grand Cathedral door first before going after the area boss, you'll be able to use runes if you complete it. (Plus theres a rune in the area that reduces physical damage by a percentage on a broken bridge)

Once you finish that area go through the path in the area with the two giants and all the madman's wisdom to find the entrance to the old city (The door will tell you to leave but just keep interacting with it), beating the boss there will open up some options such as the snatcher enemies. 

[Kieran]

I did stumble across an entrance into Old Yharnam under a sarcophagus near the Cathedral Ward lantern.  Not going in there yet...

[Fxeni]

Ahhh, the snatcher enemies. I wasn't expecting those at first. I learned my lesson the first time!

There's a whole lot more optional areas in this game. I appreciate it quite a bit actually, it's fun to explore them (and to stumble upon them via random cutscene while looking around an old area).

[Blue Valkyrie]

The optional area the Orphanage is honestly the most disturbing area in both Souls and Bloodborne honestly.

[spoiler]
This is what I've gathered from the story in my three playthroughs...as well as the story of the area I mentioned

The Old Ones, all of them suffer from having their first/all children be still born and hope to turn people into beasts (or rather baby old ones) to act as surrogate children, the church or in the case of the upper church ward known as the Choir used the children of the Orphanage as subjects in their experiments to achieve ascension. My belief that they were once human children is from what we learn in the clinic once fully explored you see that anyone sent there were turned into these baby like emissaries. You also encounter multiple deformed baby like enemies outside the main building.

The second Old One encountered there is the Daughter of the Cosmos, she/it seems to be the main god the church worships. I have a feeling this is not what Laurence had in mind when he left to share the knowledge of Blood to the people of the city. (assuming thats what he did after that cut scene in the Grand Cathedral)

Of course this is just my interpretation of events at the Orphanage and I could be very wrong.
[/spoiler]

[Kieran]

Hrm.  I can't seem to find any way forward except the door into Old Yharnam.  Every other path away from the Cathedral Ward lantern is a dead end, unless I go spend ten thousand echoes on a key.

[Blue Valkyrie]

You'll need that key to reach the Grand Cathedral and The witch's area if I remember right. Do the witch's area first so you can get the rune workshop tool from that boss.