I cleared out Hemwick Charnel Lane. While not my favorite area so far, I found it to be a nice change of pace. Up to this point, most areas have been pretty open. Even if they are contained within claustrophobic city streets, there are usually multiple paths to take, some of which lead to the same place and some of which lead to other branching paths. This makes exploration a joy, especially when areas connect to each other and provide one of those “Hey, I remember this place!” moments. However, Hemwick Charnel Lane is much more linear and self-contained. Except for one branching path after the area’s lantern that leads to a shortcut opened a little later on the area, there’s only ever one way forward, and this area doesn’t lead to any new ones. Not as exciting for exploration, I suppose, but it was nice to be able to worry only about tackling the enemies going forward instead of also worrying about which path to take and whether I would end up in another area entirely.
None of the enemies are new. Many of them are slight variations of previously encountered enemies, which also helped with the comfort of the area. Mostly, anyway. It’s kind of a creepy area. I found the crazy villagers dancing around the bonfire just after the lantern to be quite unsettling. At any rate, it didn’t take me long to clear through the area and reach the boss, the Witch(es) of Hemwick.
I think it’s fair to say that this is the only boss in the game that can be trivialized by having seen the fight before playing it. Watching the other boss fights might provide some insight and give the player a slight edge, but they will still require a good amount of effort. Knowing a bosses moves and patterns may help, but actually evading said moves is a different matter entirely. The Witches is Hemwick, however, all under the category of a puzzle boss, and knowing the gimmick ahead of time makes it super easy. Basically, a health bar pops up for a Witch or Hemwick, and then a weird creature will spawn, giving the initial impression that this will be the boss. However, the creature is just a mob nuisance. The witch herself is invisible. If you know where to look, finding her is super easy. There are set locations she’ll appear, and making her visible simply requires the player to run near her. Even if the player doesn’t know where to look, eventually a pinkish light will briefly reveal her location. At that point, just whack away and avoid the witch’s small move pool, if she even attacks. I found that mostly she would teleport away after a few consecutive hits. Get her down to half health by repeating this process, and eventually the second gimmick will rear its head. Upon finding the witch again, attacking her will not reduce the boss’s health bar, which would be incredibly confusing without prior knowledge of the boss fight. However, keep finding and attacking the witch, and the health bar will eventually go down. Upon depleting it and killing a witch, a second health bar with partially depleted health will appear. The game sneakily introduces a second with without informing the player. Again, though, knowing this gimmick ahead of time trivializes the fight. As long as the player keeps moving and finds and attacks a witch shortly after it teleports away, they aren’t a particularly dangerous boss. They can attack, but the attacks have poor distance and tracking, and the witch’s stagger easily. They can do a grab attack that does a significant amount of damage, but as long as the player keeps up the pressure, this attack is unlikely to be seen. The second phase also introduces a ranged stun attack almost identical to the one employed by the brain sucker enemy, which can be incredibly dangerous since the mob enemies, while easily to kill and avoid, can dish out a lot of damage in a short amount of time. I staid on the move, though, and never witnessed this attack for myself. All in all, an interesting boss fight fitting with the area’s nice change of pace, but not one that I will excitedly anticipate on future replays.
And because this post isn’t long enough already, I want to comment on the Chalice Dungeons. I cleared Layer 3 of the Pthumeru Chalice, which is a bit larger than the previous two layers. It isn’t large by any means, but it did take a little longer to explore. Plus, it had an optional side area right before the boss fight they the first two layers didn’t. The boss here, the Watchdog of the Old Lords killed me once, but my second fight went much more smoothly. I had to use quite a few heals, but I never felt like I was struggling to overcome it. All in all, not a bad experience.
I bring this up because I’ve heard a lot of mixed things about the Chalice Dungeons, and that mix usually ranges from ambivalence to outright disdain. I’ve even read comments from some people saying From Software shouldn’t have even included them, which to me is bizarre. I don’t think they are the best part of Bloodborne, and to be fair, the game wouldn’t suffer without them. However, I also don’t think the game suffers by including them. Maybe my feelings will change when I get to lower depths and defiled chalices, but my impression so far is that they are an interesting diversion that rewards the pursuit of difficulty. One could play through the entirety of Bloodborne (and indeed, many do so) without once touching a Chalice Dungeon, and his or her experience would not be lessened. However, those who seek to tackle the Chalice Dungeons will find themselves rewarded with blood gems that simply cannot be found in the base game. Now, for those looking for particular blood gems with particulate effects that cannot be found in the base game and that often require grinding Chalice Dungeons—I get that could be annoying, especially because employing more varied, creative builds will almost require this farming. But I feel like the fact that they are optional and do provide some kind of reward not found within the main game makes them an interesting diversion. I don’t know how much time I will spend in them, but at the very least I am satisfied with what I’ve gained thus far.
After a few days of not being able play, I managed to get a 45 minute session in. I entered the Forbidden Woods and got as far as the first shortcut to the lamp. I also made a side diversion to the back entrance into Iosefka’s Clinic to get the Cainhurst Summons, which I plan to explore when I have a few more levels under my belt. In the meantime, since I’ve acquired the Tonsil Stone, I’m going to head to the Nightmare Frontier and try to clear it out.
