Bloodborne 2: What We Want to See
Apr. 25, 2017Bloodborne 2: What We Want to See
Now that Dark Souls is completed as a franchise (for the time being at least), From Software is moving on to other projects. Given how they evolvedDark Soulsover 3 games, we got to wondering howBloodbornewould evolve if they released sequels for it, especially since it’s so different from Dark Souls. What better a resource to thought experiment with than our own Fextralife community full of rabid Soulsborne enthusiasts! What follows is a breakdown of the features we would like to see in a Bloodborne sequel, with an eye towards what improvements we would like to see on certain features.
Weaponsare obviously a huge component of Bloodborne and the Souls series games and players have no shortage of opinions on what their ideal form should be. Bloodborne was a departure in that it featured a significantly less amount of weapons than Dark Souls games typically feature, but these weapons were trick weapons which transformed, effectively doubling their amount. Combined with the firearms, there certainly were options for player builds, but the general sentiment leans towards including more weapons both melee and ranged, without skimping on their quality.The Old HuntersDLCattempted to alleviate the perceived shortage and it’s probably safe to hope that the base sequel will feature a few more tools for the toolbox. Beyond number, a meaningful take on the variants of regular, uncanny and lost would be welcome as opposed to just differing gem slots. Going beyond that, evolving the transformations seems like a good fit here, and From could go foundational and have the transformations result in more dramatic changes, or even go crazy and add more than 1 transformation per weapon.
There were certain favorites that we’d love to see return. Some of the weapons included in the first game were strongly attached to by players and although freshness is good, some old standbys are always welcome.Logarius’ Wheelanyone?
Regardless of new tweaks, split damages through arcane and elementalgemswere not intuitive for players and were mostly frustrating. And speaking of gems, farming and grinding for just the right one was an exercise in tedium even by From Software’s standards. A removal of the obtuse and almost thankless nature of diving to get exactly what you need what be welcome. We don’t need to be swimming in them, but a little better payoff would be great.
AdditionallyHunter Toolswere great in concept but limited in usefulness, especially for those players who wanted a focusedarcanebuild. Granted the world of Bloodborne is a low magic setting but these were enticing toys to play with. Tying them toquicksilver bullets, and making several of them costly really hampered our ability to make dedicated builds around them. It would be great to have a new mechanic apart from using bullets, or to preserve lore, some type of rune or stat scaling that minimized their costs.
TheChime Maidenmechanic was an uneven implementation that pinned environmental PvP on the existence of a single NPC. The concept was interesting in theory, but in practice hurt the game’s online longevity by keeping players apart. It may be better to have them spawn instead in multiple locations and have them appear under more circumstances. In one possible method, perhaps a player who invades often and kills many hosts could have bell maidens start appearing in their own world even without ringing a sinister bell. Alternatively perhaps Hunters of Hunters could appear in a blood-addled player’s world without a bell maiden. Tweaks like these could make the online play more dynamic and also clump PvP players together, decreasing the barriers for interaction and giving everyone more of what they want. This was would also be an opportunity to further expand and improve theoathsand have them operate even more like factions for online interaction.
Another suggestion to improve the PvP experience would be a specific arena for dueling similar to Dark Souls 3. This is always going to be the easiest way to increase the game’s online competitive viability by giving players a dedicated venue to launch into. From Software has now demonstrated they grasp the concept of matchmaking options and these mechanics could be easily implemented, either through a separate launch in like in Dark Souls 3, a world location like inDark SoulsandDark Souls 2or even a chalice dungeon.
Furthermore, a player respec option like that found in the Dark Souls series would give PvP enthusiasts options for redoing builds with minimal grind and would give PvE players another option especially when facing a particularly troublesome section or boss. Being able to reallocate those points will go a long way towards keeping players motivated and engaged without cheapening the experience.
Speaking ofchalice dungeons, these (sometimes) procedural farming dives were one of the more polarizing elements from the first game. Some found them a treat in gem farming, others found them a tedious and repetitive excursion with little to no payoff.
Overall they could use an improvement to both their structure and mechanics to bring the idea to its fullest potential. Many of the story related dungeons were just a means to an end, because their primary rewards were just ways to unlock others. Having to clear a series of dungeons to get to the harder areas is one thing, but having them reward little for clearing each along the way really extracted a lot of their potential fun. When using theShort Ritual Root Chalice, better matchmaking options would be much better, allowing us to search through all the different parameters such as specific locations orrites. As far as rites go, increasing the variety of these offerings and other random dungeon effects would go a long way to making the dungeons more enjoyable and stay fresh longer.
As far as design, the samey nature of the dungeons made them boring over time for players, with the different dungeon settings all very similar to each other. Within these settings, the room layouts were very repetitive and ultimately predictable. Varying up both the dungeon themes for starker differentiation and adding more room layouts would give players more of the “game within a game” experience we hoped it would be. This can be expanded upon by tying drops to these locations and even to the types of enemy drops and where the enemy appears, similar to how the base game functions. This would give the dungeons more cohesion, make more sense (put a boss where they fit thematically for crying out loud) and give farmers more targeted direction on where they need to be hunting. When putting together a build, knowing which dungeons are going to deliver which range of gems will allow players of different specializations focus on a specific dungeons. Every dungeon could drop radials, and beyond each could be tied to its own specific shape. So when someone building for example an Arcane build comes along they know right away where to head to find radial and triangle gems.
The lore around these dungeons could use a boost. Right now, there really isn’t a good reason to go in there, other than because it’s there or because you’re farming. Theenemiesdon’t match each other, and overall there really isn’t a logical progression at work here so putting specificbossesin there outside of the main game felt odd, especially if you were expected to trudge through a bunch of repetitive content just to encounter them. For such a big portion of the game’s available content, there really needs to be an impetus to spend any time there at all. Perhaps a shadow realm recreation of base game locations with a lore reason, or some full fledged level design like exploring the catacombs would add freshness.
Thelocationsof the story were a hit with players but they didn’t come without their issues in how they were traversed. The most glaring departure from Dark Souls was the inability to warp to other zones. Instead, to enter other zones, you were forced to return to theHunter’s Dreamand then choose a different tombstone to travel to, similar to how theNexusinDemon’s Soulsfunctioned. This added an extra step that wasn’t necessary and it did not feel as tidy as it did in Demon’s Souls, whose archstones were leaner in amount of locations.
Once in the world, the locations all featured some of the conventions we were used to like unlockable shortcuts and hidden areas, but what they lacked was some verticality. Areas likeSen’s Fortresswere so memorable because they let players play in 3D space, and had to pay attention to above and below. Theinsightsystem was also a new addition and while it revealed new things to players and added some new shop interactivity and resistance, it’s something that could really be built on, even to a point of increased distortion of the game world. If insight did much more dramatic things, similar to theworldandcharacter tendencymechanics in Demon’s Souls such as spawning new enemies, impacting drops or opening new areas it could really give a reason to play around with raising or lowering it. While we’re talking about alterations, these conditions could possibly even give rise to changes to the players themselves, such as changing them into beasts or kin depending on what criteria they meet.
NPCquestlines have always been a fan favorite and if Dark Souls 3 is any indication, this is something we can hope to see expanded upon in Bloodborne 2. The few that were in the first game were great, but there was definitely room for more! These questlines really serve to tell the game’s narrative and create attachments to these characters and the stories they inhabit. Having the sequel chock full of interactions will really give a reason to spend time getting to know them and their motivations. And, when it comes to NPCs, no From Software game is complete without Patches. It should go without saying, but we’ll say it anyway: BringPatchesback.
Theloreand story in Bloodborne were stellar and unfolded exactly how a standard Soulsborne series game would, cryptic and full of half clues. At this point, we are quite accustomed to this formula and wouldn’t expect it any other way. Bloodborne had just the right amount of exposition and hidden info to keep lore hounds hunting without feeling like they were running into dead ends.
Overall we can see that Bloodborne didn’t do much of anything bad at all. It did many things great, and at worst a handful of its features felt unfinished more than just outright poor. We’ve collected a few of those incomplete features here, and believe with just a few more tweaks and some extra time spent developing them, these misses could easily become strengths. For a game we already scored a 9.5, shoring up these few areas while retaining everything that was good about the first could put the sequel in some rarefied air indeed. What are your thoughts? Hit the comments and let us know what you want to see in Bloodborne 2!
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Editor at Fextralife. I look for the substantial in gaming and I try to connect video games to the emotions and stories they elicit. I love all things culture and history and have an odd fondness for the planet Jupiter. I think my dogs are pretty awesome too.
Let me give a BB to proposed BB2 example…
The class I was remembering was Military Veteran which has an emphasis on melee weapons
Vit: 10End: 10Str: 14Ski: 13BT: 7Arc: 6
My proposed would set minimums which looks much like the current system
Vit: 9End: 9Str: 12Ski: 12BT: 5Arc: 5
Similar distribution, but 8 points lower
Well then you get 10 free points. Primary stats like Vit, Str and Ski have no starting maximum. So you could theoretically start with 22 Str.
Arc and BT are afterthought stats for this character and might have a 3 or 4 point cap, meaning you could get a head start of about 9 which is a little higher than what BB allows, but not to the point where your military vet looks like Merlin out of the gate.
It allows your military vet to be focused and customised right out of the gate, yet still fulfills the roleplay aspect.
The traits idea I’d have to flesh out even more, but in White Wolf’s games was a tremendous way to simultaneously add backstory and tweak the character
Sort of. Taking a bit of love from D&D and White Wolf games.
Starting class would set some parameters (like minimums) and maybe some temp maximums. But then would give some free points to tweak in between.
Oh so a point buy system for starting stats. So instead of a class select you can move around starting stat numbers instead?
I might not have worded that well. That’d be applicable on character creation only for the stats. So if you choose soldier in my example, the arcane max limit wouldn’t apply once the character started. Basically, rather than give all stats a hard coded start based on class, there’d be some wiggle room. So if you wanted a str/arc hybrid, you could give a boost to the arcane. Or you could focus on str, or add a Dex component.
In other words, it’s more about allowing my version of that ”soldier” class to start off on a little different foot than your version. Once the game starts, it’d be normal stat rules.
On the traits and flaws side of things, it’s like runes. The twist being you can elect to take some bad ones to trade up for more or bigger good ones. Naturally, you could elect to take none as well
This is one thing I’d change. Make it so decent gear is easily accessible for all general build types earlier on. It seems unfair that basic melee builds get great weapons more easily, while many good arcane and bloodtinge gear is hidden in secret areas later in the game. I’m not saying better gear shouldn’t be hidden like that, but at least have some good stuff somewhere in the open that can be used in end game.
Beast and Kin transformations (and maybe something else) somewhat ealier in the game would be nice too. They should be more impactful though. Except from one weapon each they had alsmost no effect. Also more freaky weapons like the Kos Parasite.
Hmm… I see what you did here. Nice editing work.
I disagree on a lot of that. Souls and its sister series Bloodborne are known for a few things, and one of those is how the decisions you make at character creation don’t lock you in to certain playstyles over the rest of the game. Gameplay can change as the player adapts and finds new things they didn’t think they’d like, not to mention a new player going in blind may not know that, for example, the really good guns and bloodtinge weapons don’t start to turn up until a well hidden area halfway through the game. A bad choice in the beginning could screw a person over.
I forgot one…
I wish a game would explore more tabletop RPG character creation mechanics, and I feel Bloodborne would be perfect.
Proposal:-Class selection defines minimum starting parameters rather than an absolute value (ex: Choosing “Soldier” creates a min Str. setting). Could also define maximums for others (ex: “Soldier” has maximum arcane setting)-From there, players are given X amount of free points. These can be allocated at will during the character creation screen. So a soldier might have a minimum of 12 str., the points could boost it higher-New feature called “Traits” which would also have a set amount of points or units to spend. These could be spent on bonuses like “Sure shot” which adds small bonus to say pistol weapons. Players could also elect to select “flaws” which would give more points to spend on beneficial traits or stats. So maybe the reverse of “sure shot.” The character selects “The Shakes” which hampers gun use, but allows the purchase of something else. Some of these traits could even become possible later (like an NPC that specializes in body modifications or the like).
It would take some balancing, but allow for much greater character depth.
as long as there is no shield and no straight sword I reckon they cannot really go wrong ^_^
