The last time I playedBloodborne, I was too stubborn. During my 2017 attempt, I was intent on making my own way through Yharnam, to struggle to surmount FromSoftware’s cobblestone mountain on my own. I only wanted to turn to guides when I was really confused — and, given that it was my first From game, those moments did happen. But I still wanted to exhaust all options before I turned to the internet for help.
Seasoned By Souls
I started playing Bloodborne again in January, and those seven long years have changed me. In that time, I’ve played games likeThe Surge and its successor,Dark Souls,Sekiro,Elden Ring, andLies of P, and they have worn down the plucky idealist who wanted to do as much as possible on his own. He’s been replaced by a world-weary traveler who just wants to reach his destination.
I’ve played enough of these games — and given up on enough of these games — that I now have a much more pragmatic approach. Whatever helps me finish the game is good enough. By that definition, all of the information on the internet — in forum posts, guides, YouTube videos, etc. — is fair game. In fact, it’s more than fair game, it’s the map I keep in my passenger seat at all times. I don’t want a GPS offering constant guidance, but I do want a map I can consult when I need it.
Bloodborne Was Made For The Internet Age
And honestly? It feels like Bloodborne was designed with this style of play in mind. After defeating Rom, the Vacuous Spider, I was unsure of the best direction to go in next. I wandered the Yahar’gul Chapel area for a while, but felt like I was too weak to be tackling its shambling creatures. So I got on my phone and searched for the best area to hit next. The answer I saw most frequently was Cainhurst, but the path to getting there was convoluted enough that I would only have figured it out by looking up a guide or by Forrest Gump-ing my way through each of the required steps unknowingly.
After felling the fat arachnid of the lake, there’s no intuitive path that would lead you to find a hidden cave in the Forsaken Woods, run through its poison lake, climb an incredibly tall ladder, walk along rooftops and cobblestone streets until you find the back entrance to Iosefka’s clinic, search through it until you find papers summoning their recipient to Cainhurst, then head back to Hemwick Charnel Lane and run up to a random pillar, causing a ghostly carriage to appear and ferry you to a new location. You might do all those things separately in the normal course of play, just by exploring, but piecing them together on purpose is incredibly unlikely.
I never found my way to Cainhurst during my first playthrough, which is another reason I’m finding the map metaphor apt. A map, or guidebook, or travel app like Yelp, can point you toward cool things you might not even know existed otherwise. I was convinced Bloodborne was one of the best games of all time when I first played it, so why wouldn’t I use every resource available to me to see all it has to offer?
