When I started this project, there were a few games in the FromSoft catalogue that I was particularly excited to get to. Dark Souls was one, Bloodborne was another, and the last would be Elden Ring. Having done a couple of other essays on Bloodborne’s design and some of the pitfalls but also interesting aspects of how they might draw in newer players, I was eager to take a more direct look at the early game and what it communicates.
Bloodborne has always held a special place in my heart as perhaps my favorite of the FromSoft games. Not necessarily because I think it’s the “best.” In fact, I have tons of criticisms of it that I wouldn’t lay at the feet of some of its compatriots. But it also offers a lot of interesting changes that held a great deal of promise, and its aesthetic is much more fascinating than much of the standard fantasy worldbuilding of the various Souls games. Not to mention that its combat is just fun in a way that is tough to describe without playing it for yourself.
While Bloodborne still retains a lot of basic DNA from the Souls games, its design does demand something extra. Which creates an additional challenge, because rather than starting anew in understanding how the game works and what it needs, the developer now needs to juggle even more problems.
To recap, I have been arguing in the previous essays that the various systems in FromSoft’s games create three basic needs that have to be effectively taught to players. The idea of a game’s “needs” are not unique to FromSoft games. We can understand any game through this lens to understand how well it teaches players. The needs I lay out here are simply ones that are present in these games we often refer to as the “SoulsBorne” games developed by FromSoft.
First, they need to prepare players for a challenge. Perseverance is a necessary skill that the player must adopt, as there is a process of encountering new areas and enemies and bosses, fighting and dying, and then reviving at the last checkpoint to try again. If players are caught off-guard by difficulty, they are more likely to abandon the game when it gets difficult. If they are introduced to the idea early, they can A) more easily decide if the game is right for them, and B) become mentally prepared for what will happen in the rest of the game.
Second, these games should encourage players to explore and look around. This part is important both for finding useful goodies, as well as avoiding traps. A lot of items might be just out of reach, and players need to find pathways to get to them. Or an enemy could be lurking around a corner, and players need to be aware of those possibilities and anticipate those positions. If the game does not encourage the player to look around, they will miss both of these things.
Thirdly, the games need to encourage clever thinking. While the game provides you with ample opportunity to repeatedly attempt the same section of a game over and over until you get it just right, there are often other options available. Sometimes those options include rethinking the strategy you’re using. Sometimes it may involve using items. Sometimes it may involve summoning someone to help. Sometimes it may involve just going somewhere else. Whatever the case may be, the idea that you just bang your head against the wall until the wall breaks – the “git gud” mentality – is contrary to the actual systems of the game. And they need to prepare you for that purpose.
On top of these, though, is a fourth need unique to Bloodborne: aggression. In the Souls games the player had a good number of defensive options, including a shield. Indeed, the “starting” build provides the player with a pretty sturdy shield that blocks most damage, teaching the player that using a shield is an effective way to deal with problems. However, Bloodborne specifically removes the shield from your grasp. It is possible to find a shield later, but it is one that you are discouraged from using: it’s weak, and if you bother to read the description it basically calls you a coward for using it. Rather than hiding behind a shield or backing away, the game wants you to stay close to enemies and take more risks.
The game’s systems back this up through a few things. Firstly, the speed with which you dodge and heal. Whereas in earlier games healing could be a rather slow process, in Bloodborne it takes barely any time. If you’re less worried about leaving yourself open for another hit, then you don’t need to create distance to heal. Just dodge a couple more attacks, heal, and you’re back in the fight.
Secondly, the fact that your primary defensive mechanics are dodging and parrying. Your secondary weapon is a gun whose most relevant feature is the ability to stun enemies. But that stun only occurs when the enemy is in the middle of an attack. So rather than hiding behind a big chunk of metal, you need to understand how an enemy attacks and either move out of the way or shoot just in the nick of time – both of which involve significant risk.
But third and most important is the “rally” system. When you take a hit, a portion of your health bar turns orange for a very brief period, before disappearing. This orange portion represents the damage you’ve taken, and what you’re able to recover if you land attacks on any enemy. The more hits you land, the more of that health you get back, potentially getting back just about everything if you act quickly. This rally system corresponds to an encouragement from the game to be on the offensive as much as possible. Rather than backing away to heal, attack to heal.
So part of what this game needs to do for a new player is teach them how to be aggressive. To communicate these systems in a way that is intuitive and encourages risk-taking. That is the aspect that is unique here to Bloodborne.
The Mysterious Beginning
Normally I’ve been disregarding the cutscenes, as they don’t provide significant mechanical context for the player. They are important narratively, but our goal here is not to understand the game from a narrative standpoint.
However, there is one very slight mechanical hint offered to the player in the opening cutscenes. After being put to sleep by a strange man in a clinic, your character awakens to see a puddle of blood on the floor, out of which rises a wolf-like creature. The creature slowly crawls toward you and is about to grab you when it catches on fire and dies. This sequence is so quick that any player could easily be forgiven for not thinking much about it, but I think it is meant to offer a clue to players about weaknesses: beasts are susceptible to fire. Which is in fact a real part of the game’s mechanics. The hint may be so slight that it doesn’t really qualify as a hint at all, but one thing I have been doing in these essays is trying to explain both what I think the game is doing from a design perspective, as well as what the player can learn from a gameplay perspective – two things which don’t always line up.
Upon properly awakening and gaining control of our character, we find ourselves in a small room with little else. There is a brightish light on a chair which we can interact with to read a note that says “Seek Paleblood to transcend the hunt.” Which means absolutely nothing to us at the moment. But we don’t really get any choice about what to do. One door behind us won’t open, so the only other door out is the required path. We quickly find ourselves with some tutorial messages which provide us with only minimal clues on how to play. We get attack and target locking.
Which is theoretically useful for the upcoming enemy, another (or more appropriately the same) wolf creature just roaming about a room. Since we know how to move, lock on, and attack, that is what we shall do. And doing so gives us clues about stamina, but also very importantly the rally system. Since the wolf doesn’t kill us in a single hit, just mashing the attack button gives us opportunities to hit it multiple times and see that we regain health that we’ve lost.
However, we do barely any damage, and without any real weapons or defensive strategies, the wolf kills us. Which, however, does prepare us for the difficulty. Even when that difficulty is artificially created, the idea that death is something to get used to is already planted in our heads.
Our death takes us to a strange new place, which we will come to call the Hunter’s Dream. Here we are given our choice of starting weapons. We may choose from a Saw Cleaver, an Axe, or a Cane Whip. All three are viable choices, though I would argue that a player is most likely to choose either the Cleaver (being the first choice offered), or the Axe (it dealing the most damage given our starting class, which as per already established rules was the first choice offered at character creation). We also get a choice of a gun, getting either a pistol or blunderbuss. The choice here is less clear, as the value of the gun is unclear. So a player could theoretically choose either, though arguably it may not matter too much.
There is not much else for us to do here, as the only other objects we can interact with are a doll that just lies there and a fountain shop that sells cool stuff…except we can’t afford anything. However, exploration does yield some further tutorial messages which gives us lots of additional information. Such as how to transform our weapon, how parries work, and how to sprint and dodge. When we’re done, we can interact with a gravestone to warp back.
We find ourselves back at the clinic, but this time there are more tutorial messages providing information that had originally been absent. Information that wouldn’t have made much sense for us earlier, and indeed might have been harmful for us to try out. Withholding information from the player winds up encouraging certain methods of play which can be used to communicate lessons without having to directly explain them.
There we can encounter the wolf creature again and very likely defeat it easily, though if not this gives us further preparation for death. And with that we can continue forward. The layout of the game is fairly linear, with small dead ends branching off. Indeed, after entering a courtyard and opening a door the path straight ahead is an immediate dead end, though one that contains an item for us to pick up. So we do get very rapidly taught that checking out different pathways gives us valuable stuff.
As we continue we encounter more enemies, and likely run into some of the first ambushes as enemies lying on the ground suddenly get up and attack. These enemies have rather slow attacks which are pretty thoroughly telegraphed, giving us good opportunities to try out shooting our gun and parrying attacks. We may or may not get the hang of it, but hopefully we can learn more along the way and get a better sense of how the mechanic works. Because we’ll certainly need it.
Progressing down our mostly linear path does take us to a large road with a couple of options. To the left leading downward is a gate that we can open that takes us back to a save point we would have found earlier – we have located our first shortcut. Additionally, a large enemy lurks behind some barrels here, which is rather tough and in fact provides us with a reward that we can’t make use of yet. This enemy is arguably here as a message that sometimes we’ll run into stuff that isn’t for us quite yet, so we should go off and do something else and come back later.
Resuming up the road on the right-hand path, we run into a bunch of enemies. Occasionally in small groups, but at the end of the road is a square with a significant number of them, including two enemies with rifles. This encounter is meant to teach players to play strategically. Rather than just running into the middle and getting slaughtered, drawing some enemies away by running in and back or perhaps using some pebbles you likely found earlier in the area can make getting through much easier. Playing aggressively does not mean playing stupidly.
After moving through some more, we reach a small set of stairs leading up to see…a dog. I’ve used previous essays to talk about the ways in which these games present you with various traps to draw you in and then ambush you, teaching you to be more careful and observe your surroundings. While a couple of these traps have already occurred, this is a big one. Indeed, a double ambush. At the top of the stairs you can see a dog enemy that you could easily rush down before it spots you. Dogs are pretty annoying enemies because of their movement and attacks, so getting the drop on it would be helpful. Of course, doing so would put you at the mercy of the other dog and the guy with the sword that are walking to that same spot.
Or…you could wait a moment, and see the two additional enemies making their patrol. “Aha!”, you think to yourself, “look how clever I am.” And so now that you can attack all three without worrying about getting hit in the back…you get shot by the rifleman hanging out just around the corner.
This setup reinforces the basic lessons multiple times over. You as the player should not simply take things slow and observe your surroundings, but make sure to check around corners and anticipate ambushes. Many of the ambushes in previous games were well-designed, but this one is especially clever because it can catch a player in multiple ways.
Further progress leads us to a bridge with various enemies and pathways branching off. Many of the pathways loop back to the bridge, though one does seem to take us further away. While we could continue to explore, the large archway at the end of the bridge feels like a natural point that we may want to check first. And indeed, we there find our first boss…the Cleric Beast.
Digression: Defensive Mechanics and Dodging
I wanted to take a moment to revisit something I’ve been harping on about in the previous essays: dodging. I made the argument that one downside of the Souls games was that they all but actively discourage the player from dodging and understanding how dodging works. The fact that so many of the games’ classes provide you with shield which seem effective, and the opaqueness of the invincibility provided by the dodges themselves, all make it harder for the player to get a sense of why dodges would be helpful. Best to just block, and use the dodge to “get out of the way” quickly.
However, Bloodborne specifically removes the shield from your repertoire. Instead, your main defensive mechanics are parrying and dodging. And parrying is only effective at certain points. Which admittedly creates its own problem.
But this means that if you encounter an enemy that can’t be parried, you need to learn to rely on your dodge. Like, say, against the Cleric Beast. What is likely to be your first boss (it is technically optional, as the arena is actually a dead end) serves as a great way to instruct you in effective dodging. Because that’s the only option available to you.
And one nice thing about the Cleric Beast is that so many of its attacks are big and sweeping. Why does that matter? An attack with a smaller hitbox – such as a stabbing motion – would yield a rather obvious way to respond (i.e. dodge to the side) which might teach us how to read attacks…but wouldn’t teach is about invincibility. Truly the core thing we need to know about the dodge is that we are genuinely and completely invincible for just a little bit during the dodge: attacks just go right through us. So the big sweeps of the Cleric Beast give us a lot of opportunity to realize that, hey, its big arms are just passing right through us if we dodge at the right time.
And this design helps provide the insight that the Souls games were missing. The fact that we are forced to learn how to dodge gives us the information we need about how the dodge actually works. So much about this fight is clearly designed to give us that learning experience.
Thinking Outside the Box
When the Cleric Beast goes down, we get a whole bunch of Blood Echoes – what serves as essentially our experience and currency. If we were paying attention, we might have also noticed that a little number at the top right of our screen increased: it increased by one when we first saw the boss, and by three when we killed it. We don’t know what it means, but surely it does something…
We do get a save point that we can use to warp back to the Dream, where we suddenly find that the doll is now standing up and chatting with us. It offers to use those Blood Echoes to level us up. At this point we can also head up the stairs and into the big building that was originally closed off to us, where we find the NPC Gerhman, who basically just tells us to go out and kill beasts. He may not be of much help, but we do find a workbench which allows us to repair and upgrade our weapons. Even if we don’t have any materials, we now know what we’re looking for, which gives us a good reason to return when we find the materials.
Since I’ve already covered leveling up and attributes in previous essays, we’ll just resume our old system: we go with what makes sense given our character, which means we’ll evenly spread points across the stats that increase our health, stamina, and weapon damage (which means both Strength and Skill).
Resuming our journey, we continue forward, encountering various traps that at this point we should be getting used to. A dark building, for instance, contains several enemies that will attack us from behind barrels or appear dead if we’re not paying attention and just rushing for items. FromSoft pulls this kind of stunt frequently, and if we keep getting caught at some point it has to become our own fault for not paying attention and being patient.
At this point in the stream I needed to rush forward a bit to preserve time, and I will do the same here. Two particular encounters are relevant: a giant pig in a sewer, and the next boss.
Exploring a waterway later in the zone takes you to a very narrow corridor with a gigantic pig creature at the end. Getting the pig to attack you causes it to charge, which in such a narrow space makes dodging impossible. While it is strictly speaking possible to attack it head on, the encounter is actually designed in a way to encourage you to find a way around. You’ve already been taught about how you can hold the strong attack button (R2) and hit enemies in the back to stun them, allowing you to perform a critical strike. This seems like a rather perfect opportunity for that, if you can find a way around. And indeed, if you search around the area and take some paths you might have bypassed earlier (specifically a ladder leading up), then you can reach this pig from the other direction, where it is completely unaware of your presence. Charge the attack, perform the critical, and it almost certainly goes down in a single hit.
This is useful for a couple reasons. One, it instills the lesson that you should think about how to approach problems, rather than just charging forward. The idea was communicated earlier at the square filled with various enemies, but this single encounter is meant to get you to think about what we often call “backstabs.” A useful tool.
In fact, a tool which could be used against the next boss, with the help of some other things. If we continue to explore we might come across another NPC playing music, and this NPC will give us a music box that supposedly plays her father’s favorite songs. We might not know what to make of this, although reading the item description yields the name Gascoigne, which is the name of our next foe. And indeed, using the music box during the fight briefly stuns Gascoigne, providing a significant opening to attack him.
Indeed, if you’re clever, you might notice that he’s completely open to all sorts of attacks…including one of those backstabs. If you’re quick, you could perform the critical hit and take down a massive chunk of his life. The music box works twice, as the third time causes him to enter a new phase where he transforms into a large beast (he does this at about half health anyway).
I bring these two encounters up in tandem because they provide valuable insights into teaching players to use their tool sets. The idea of using an item in a fight might seem strange at first, but we can get a lot of value from it. And the different kinds of attacks we can perform depend a lot on what we think of as “viable.” The charged attack that stuns an enemy is something we often think of as a one-off: you get a shot if you’re sneaking up on somebody. Bosses are thus invulnerable to it, because they’re always aware of us. But by taking advantage of a pause in the combat, a clever player can use this incredibly slow but powerful combo. It all depends on how well we learn an enemy’s patterns and movements.
Even though we won’t encounter any other special items like the music box, the point is not for us to be on the lookout for those unique items.[1] It is for us to think about how items in general could be useful for our fights. A particularly powerful combo is using an oil urn followed by a Molotov cocktail – something that enemies will use against us later in the game. Coupled with the weakness of beasts to fire, this pairing can be a great way to attack larger enemies (like bosses) that are more difficult to stun.
Using items is one of those things that some players do, but plenty don’t because they’re worried about running out or simply don’t think to do so. Even just getting used to putting an item in your toolbox that you can use later is a necessary step that can easily be overlooked. Giving the player an item specifically to use in a particular fight is a great way to help remind them to make use of this mechanic.
Concluding Remarks
The defeat of Gascoigne basically marked the end of the journey. While it only took a couple of hours due to distractions from other things, this whole sequence would likely take a new player much longer, and so there’s plenty for the player to learn along the way.
How does this game measure up in teaching players what they need to know?
Firstly, it’s done a good job of giving players that sense of patience that comes with knowing that death is easy. The very first enemy being effectively a “supposed to lose fight,” and the challenges that come soon after, all mentally prepare the player for challenge. You definitely know what you’re getting into pretty quickly.
Secondly, it’s done a pretty good job of getting players to explore the world without getting too lost. The linear arrangement of the world with its small branches may feel annoying, but it helps ease newer players in while allowing for some level of freedom. More important is that exploration tends to yield rewards. Only on one or two occasions were we discouraged from exploring because of an enemy that would kill us easily. And indeed, in one of those encounters (the giant pig), exploration rewards us with the ability to defeat that tough enemy. Checking pathways and paying attention to where we’ve been and not been is a lesson the game keeps hammering home.
Thirdly, the game is really trying to push us to think more strategically. How we approach problems involves more than just charging in and hitting the enemy until they die. And it’s also more than merely learning patterns so we can dodge effectively and find openings to attack. The kinds of attacks we perform, using items, finding ways to take advantage of other elements of the environment, pulling enemies away from larger groups – all of these are components of more careful and tactical play that the game is actively encouraging. Pitting you against multiple enemies that are easier to handle in smaller groups, finding your way around the giant pig, or Gascoigne’s music box are all microlessons in how to approach things not through the lens of “git gud,” but in taking a more strategic approach in analyzing your available toolset.
And last, the game needed to teach you to play aggressively, which it does quite well. And it does so without sacrificing that careful thinking required elsewhere. Aggression within this context means to attack when you might be hesitant, or to stay in the fray when your instinct might be to back away. However, it doesn’t mean charging headfirst into dozens of enemies. And the systems support this. The rally system, the lack of a shield, and the rapid healing offered by your blood vials all work together to encourage you to stay active and combative.
So far Bloodborne has done the best job of balancing its various needs in a way that a newer player at least has a good opportunity of becoming an expert by the end. Not only that, but it’s done the best job of pushing players toward a better understanding of the underlying systems that the Souls games struggled with. While we could certainly say that it suffers here and there, we see much less of the tradeoff that we’ve seen with the previous games between exploration and clever thinking. If we wanted to use a game to communicate careful and thoughtful design that was meant to help a player learn not just what the buttons do, but how to get past various obstacles, then Bloodborne is a great example to point to.
[1] Though a player could be forgiven for taking that lesson away from the experience.
Abstracting Games 