Bloodborne. I cleared Layer 3 of the Central Pthumerian Chalice Dungeon. The Pthumerian Descendant posed a decent challenge. He was fast, could close or create distance between himself and my character, and I could not for the life of me get his party timing down. In my three attempts at him, I never once pulled off a successful parry. I ended up just staying aggressive in his first phase, closed the distance and performed a stagger into visceral attack, and then resumed my aggressive tactic. Throw in some bolt paper and I managed to kill him pretty quickly.
I then returned to the Forbidden Woods and continued exploring it. I... well, to be honest, I have no idea how much of it I actually explored. I spent a decent amount of time here, collecting items and killing as many enemies as I could, but I felt like I was constantly lost. I did eventually make it to the Shadows of Yharnam. It was a fun fight—definitely a good example of how to do a “gank” fight properly. It probably helped that having 30 points in Skill meant I was doing a hefty amount of visceral damage, and since the two melee Shadows are relatively easy to parry, I was able to take them out pretty easily. Actually, now that I think about it, though they entered the second phase, none of them ever did the super long range snake/tentacle arm attack thing, and I killed the last Shadow as it was transitioning to the third phase, so I never saw the crazy summoned snake attack. This fight definitely proved the benefit of exploring the chalice dungeons.
Byrgenwerth was an odd area. It is set up as a rather significant location in the game’s lore, but the in game area is curiously underwhelming. It’s small, has few enemies (though that hunter is a force to be reckoned with, I tell ya), and there’s little to do or find. The boss, Rom, the Vacuous Spider, is a bit of an oddity, too. It’s not a terrible fight, but it is a tedious one. Rom doesn’t have many attacks, but its attacks do a significant amount of damage. On its own, though, it’s not especially dangerous. Its attacks have obvious tells and are usually easily avoidable. The danger comes more in the spiders that begin spawning after ROM’s first teleportation. The spiders aren’t super aggressive, but they do hit pretty hard and take little damage from the front. A limited number spawn per teleportation, and it’s in your best interest to kill them unless you have a super high DPS. The main danger of this fight comes from managing the spiders while Rom performs one of the three magic attacks (it has melee attacks, too, but usually these are only used when really close to Rom, and it’s usually best to avoid that when spiders are nearby). Taking out the spiders and avoiding their attacks while also trying to keep an eye on Rom to see when it performs a magic attack can be difficult, especially as the fight drags on. Indeed, as I mentioned, the tedium proves the biggest foe. Rom will teleport away after taking a few hits, which spawns more spiders. Rom teleported three times during my fight with it, and I found that to be annoying. I can’t imagine doing this fight with lower level weapons and without the blood gems I received from Chalice Dungeons.
Next up is a location now in the running for my least favorite area in the game: Yahar’gul, Unseen Village. Holy smokes did I not enjoy this place. It’s pretty straightforward as far as exploration goes. My main gripe was with the enemies. They are mostly just stronger versions of the enemies found in Yharnam, but holy crap are they annoying. There are so stinking many of them, and many of them are summoned by a handful of Bell-Ringing Women throughout the area, which means those enemies will resonance after a short time until their Bell-Ringing Woman is killed. Worse, unlike the similar enemies in the Chalice Dungeons, killing the woman does not immediately despawn the enemies she summoned. It only prevents them from respawning (unless you die or leave the area, of course). I don’t know. I just didn’t enjoy the area, and the boss wasn’t much fun either. I wouldn’t say the One Reborn is especially hard, but it bears a similar (though slightly lesser) tedium to Rom. Six bell ringers provide—well, I don’t know, to be honest. Buffs? Healing? They do something to the One Reborn that isn’t good for you as the player, so the best thing to do is run all the way across the boss arena, climb some stairs, and slowly work your way around the upper level killing the bell ringers while avoiding their melee attacks and the attacks from the One Reborn. After killing them, it’s just a matter of killing the massive creature that is the One Reborn. Not a difficult fight, but I didn’t find anything about it particularly enjoyable, either. At any rate, I will not look forward to this location in subsequent playthroughs.
Lastly, I made my way through Cainhurst Castle. I debated whether I should wait a little longer before going here, but I decided to just go for it. Aesthetically this is a stunning location, and exploring it is pretty fun. There isn’t much in the way of enemy variety, but that isn’t to the area’s detriment. I’m sure the main reason to come here is Martyr Logarius, and what a fight he is. It took me three attempts, which was only slightly annoying because of the long run back to his boss arena. My first two attempts went badly because I tried too hard to parry him, not realizing that I missed so many parries in his second phase because his self buff deflects bullets. Once I caught on to that, my third attempt went much more smoothly. He was still a tough fight. I still made use of parries, but I didn’t try to use that as my sole means of inflicting damage. All in all, a tough and challenging fight that I will look forward to in future playthroughs.
From there I went to Nightmare of Mensis by way of the Lecture Hall 2nd Floor. The Nightmare is interesting and suitably creepy, especially with the Brain of Mensis proving a constant trouble when outside. Micolash, the boss of this area, is... well, he’s something. He felt similar to Rom in the sense that he’s not super hard, but he is tedious. The large boss arena that acts more like a normal area in the game stands out among the game’s boss arenas, but having to chase him through it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience. Once in a one on one fight, there’s little to speak of, at least in his first phase. He has a single attack—Augur of Ebrietas—which deals a hefty amount of damage (a little over half my health at 30 Vitality) and knocks you back, but it is easily counted by simply moving to one side. Like, you don’t even have to quick step. Just move to the left or right and you’re good. I didn’t even find myself needing to watch for the attack’s tell. I just continually strafed him while I attacked. The second phase introduces fist attacks which deal barely any damage and his most dangerous attack: A Call Beyond. This semi-AOE/tracking arcane attack is gnarly and almost impossible to avoid. Really, the best way to avoid it is to stay in his face and attack as constantly as possible. He staggers with almost every hit, so keeping up the pressure can almost stun lock him. Thankfully, I never had to deal with A Call Beyond. I simply never gave him the chance to use it.
I decided to head to the next optional area, Upper Cathedral Ward. Another creepy location with some tough enemies. The werewolves hit stinking hard, and the large area with the three proved too much for my skills. I ended up just running past them after dying to them four times. There are also several brain suckers, which have got to be the second most annoying enemy after the Winter Lanterns. The first boss in this area, the Celestial Emissary (or blue goobers, as The Demodcracy calls them) is entertaining but far from difficult. The second boss, Ebrietas, Daughter of the Cosmos, is something else entirely. This Cthulhu alien hybrid can dish out a lot of damage, and some of its more deadly attacks (I’m looking at you, charge) are rather difficult to dodge. In fact, I’m pretty sure I got hit by the charge every single time. I used a total of fourteen blood vials on this boss, but I’m proud to say that I beat her on my first attempt. I doubt I’ll be able to do that again, but I’ll take that feather and pin it my cap.
Before going on to Mergo’s Wet Nurse, I figured I might as well tackle the DLC. I gave the Hunter’s Nightmare a more thorough sweep this time around, which was no easy feat. While I was more appropriately leveled, the enemies here pack a punch. The hunters in particular deal a ton of damage. I made it through, though, to the first DLC boss, Ludwig. What. A. Fight. I knew this would be a challenging fight going in, but holy smokes. I think it took me six or seven attempts, and I only made it to his second phase two do those times. That first phase is tough. His movements are somewhat erratic, his attacks deceptively quick (some of which also have astonishing range), and his health pool is nothing to scoff at. His second phase is less erratic and his move pool seems a little more restricted. Overall, I found it much easier than his first phase, though that’s not to say it was anywhere close to easy. His attacks a still quickly, and I found it next to impossible to quick step through all his attacks in a combo. They were simply too quick. I felt relieved and accomplished when I finally beat him.
I am now in the next area (the name of which escapes me), and I’m close to the next boss. I am curious to see how well I get on from here.
