Transcript
Speaker: Hack some systems.
Speaker: Fuck some bots.
Speaker: We need this.
Speaker: This is all we have.
Speaker: And I think I found the cold opening for the episode.
Speaker: Hey there, everybody.
Speaker: Welcome back to Pixel It to a special bonus episode.
Speaker: We're talking about Bloodborne and we have our very first guest on the show.
Speaker: Kat from Pixel A Day is here.
Speaker: Hey, first ever.
Speaker: Wow.
Speaker: I am honored.
Speaker: Honored.
Speaker: Honored.
Speaker: I mean... I may not be the best guest that you'll ever have on, but I will always have been the first.
Speaker: You will always... That's it.
Speaker: And no one can take that away from me.
Speaker: No one can take that from you.
Speaker: I'm not even the best guest we've ever had on, so don't feel bad about that.
Speaker: And I've been here since the beginning.
Speaker: I'm excited to be here and I can't wait to hear how far Phil got into the game.
Speaker: Actually, I suspect that this whole hour might just be a support group for Phil.
Speaker: From what I heard.
Speaker: You heard enough.
Speaker: Phil, I just sent her wholesale the text conversation that we had.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Well, it's research.
Speaker: She needed to know.
Speaker: She needed to know what she was getting into.
Speaker: Oh, good lord.
Speaker: Yeah, you two just talk amongst yourselves for a minute.
Speaker: So, Bloodborne, we just finished up our Bloodborne series.
Speaker: Normally we talk a little bit about the game, like a little shooting of the shit, so to speak.
Speaker: It's a little different in this case because Phil has, he's certainly played the game.
Speaker: Oh, I played the game.
Speaker: He's certainly played the game.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So buddy, how you doing?
Speaker: I hate this game.
Speaker: Here's the thing.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Anybody who's listened to the first few episodes of...
Speaker: our coverage of the graphic novels know that I've always I'm intrigued by the world of Bloodborne.
Speaker: I've been excited to play it for a while, but I'm also not a good kind of player because I get worked up and I lose all coordination when I'm worked up.
Speaker: It's why I never drive after I watch a football game.
Speaker: just because I don't know what side of the road is proper anymore.
Speaker: And the thing is, is you're meant these games.
Speaker: Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, everything like that, it requires a level of learning rhythms, patterns, yeah?
Speaker: Like these guys are swinging in a certain pattern and everything like that.
Speaker: I need to learn that.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm not great at that because by the time I figure out the pattern, I get really frustrated and it's like I'm thumping the controller with both hands on the top, not really paying attention anymore because I'm just I don't know if this is a term anymore, but I'm completely on tilt at that point.
Speaker: Oh, I'm so.
Speaker: I'm so frustrated that I go, OK, I know what I need to do.
Speaker: Let's take a break.
Speaker: Let's step away from the game for a little while.
Speaker: Let's try again tomorrow and and let's, you know, just go back to doing whatever else you were doing that'll calm me down a little bit.
Speaker: And then the next day I turn on the game and it's like it's like I'm a newborn child and I've never seen or played this game before.
Speaker: And I have to kind of rework
Speaker: out in my brain how to do all of this stuff again and by the time I figure out how to do it I'm getting killed again and then suddenly I'm on tilt and four hours have passed and I go okay all right let's just take a break we'll try again tomorrow and it just continues in that sense it sounds like you're in a death loop I am
Speaker: This podcast brought to you by Deathloop.
Speaker: But that's pretty much how it goes.
Speaker: And it's frustrating to me because I. All right.
Speaker: First and foremost, I freaking love the aesthetic of this game.
Speaker: I love it.
Speaker: And, you know, and I will admit that I've watched videos of people playing and I've seen I've gone further in other people's vicarious, my vicarious experiences of other people playing this game.
Speaker: So I know how the game kind of transitions from a classic, you know, werewolf
Speaker: zombie kind of story to a more cosmic horror kind of thing.
Speaker: I love that.
Speaker: And I and I love it.
Speaker: And I love the aesthetic and I love the monsters.
Speaker: And I I hate this game because I want to get to there.
Speaker: I want to be there and I can't.
Speaker: My own inability stops me.
Speaker: And it's just like, why couldn't this just be a 30 hour movie, which I suppose anyone who has a YouTube account
Speaker: I can admit it basically is if you do it that way.
Speaker: But but and again.
Speaker: The the the process of playing the game is very satisfying.
Speaker: Landing a hit is satisfying.
Speaker: Defeating creatures is satisfying.
Speaker: There's something about it that's just it's it's just really well designed.
Speaker: And I can tell even though I hate it.
Speaker: where I am just mechanically wrong for this game.
Speaker: I, I personally feel that I am just absolutely not the right person for this game.
Speaker: But I'm made frustrated by the fact that it is.
Speaker: You want to be.
Speaker: So to sum up your opinion, Phil, you hate this game.
Speaker: You wish it never existed.
Speaker: And you think Miyazaki is a terrible game designer.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: That's that's that's the.
Speaker: I think I hate this game.
Speaker: I wish it never existed.
Speaker: I think Miyazaki is a terrible game designer and I'll probably be trying to kill the cleric beast again tomorrow afternoon when I'm hungover.
Speaker: Send your replies to philiswrongatbadsoulsopinions.com.
Speaker: WeHateYouPhil.com.
Speaker: Oh, WeHateYouPhil.com.
Speaker: I thought I had that thing taken down.
Speaker: No, to be fair, to be fair, like I said, I actually, in all seriousness, I recognize...
Speaker: the level of skill that went into the design of this game.
Speaker: I see why people like it.
Speaker: And I see what the value of having a game like this, where the whole point is that challenge.
Speaker: And I'm not above playing, you know, challenging games.
Speaker: Like I played the hell out of Catherine when that first came out.
Speaker: And that was a deeply frustrating and difficult.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: See, I actually I actually rage quit that one.
Speaker: So in a way, you're more hardcore than me.
Speaker: Well, then that's just it.
Speaker: I think it's just about how we're programmed.
Speaker: And I beat that game and this game, for whatever reason, just eludes me.
Speaker: But I know I'm going to keep playing it.
Speaker: And I'm just deeply upset by that sometimes.
Speaker: It's deeply upsetting.
Speaker: I mean, it's almost insanity inducing to bring it back thematically to the themes of the... Ooh, thematic transition.
Speaker: See, this is why we brought her on.
Speaker: Parallels.
Speaker: She knows what she's doing.
Speaker: She knows what she's doing.
Speaker: I mean, I totally agree.
Speaker: And like replaying the game, trying to replay the whole thing in one week, as much as that was a failed proposition to begin with.
Speaker: It really made me appreciate how much this game was designed specifically to not be able to be rushed through.
Speaker: Sure.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's such a slow burn.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's really all about like being lost and confused.
Speaker: for a long time and failing and dying for a long time and then you know and then failing and dying some more and then slowly like just putting one foot in front of the other and then eventually kind of becoming more familiar with the world or with the bosses or what have you and then and then eventually kind of mastering it if you
Speaker: if at all.
Speaker: But like, it's such a long, slow journey.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It requires the patience of a saint.
Speaker: Yeah, totally.
Speaker: So much patience.
Speaker: And I can completely appreciate that some people just don't have that patience all the time in their life.
Speaker: I feel like that time in my life has passed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, that I will happily dedicate dozens of hours to a really long, slow, frustrating game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've thought about that a lot recently where it used to be when Skyrim came out,
Speaker: I had played Daggerfall, for example, like that was when I started on the Elder Scrolls.
Speaker: That's that's how old I am.
Speaker: And open world games.
Speaker: That's all I wanted.
Speaker: I wanted these big, gigantic open world games, a game that would take me 50, 60 plus hours to get through.
Speaker: And now there is a real at this point in my life that.
Speaker: between both age and just, you know, things that are expected of me as an adult, I'm suddenly like, we can have some linear games.
Speaker: That sounds good.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I could just beat a level and go to bed.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Give me a solid five to seven hour experience.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Lovely.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Nom.
Speaker: Beautiful.
Speaker: Nom nom.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: No, I know exactly what you mean.
Speaker: Hashtag chef's kiss.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: So, yeah, I agree with that, that, you know, like what's funny is I go back to open world games now and I find myself not even trying to side quest.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: I just like, where's the next main quests thing?
Speaker: And it's like, hey, guess what?
Speaker: You got a there's a there's a troll up in the mountain and you could get some stuff if you go up.
Speaker: No, fuck that.
Speaker: Where's the next quest?
Speaker: Main quest mission.
Speaker: I find myself skipping dialogue, which I would have rather died than do in the past because I was a hardcore role playing guy.
Speaker: And I was like, I want to be immersed in the story, man.
Speaker: I want to hear the story and all the lore and everything.
Speaker: It's like, no, no, no, I don't have time for this.
Speaker: You want me to kill a guy?
Speaker: All right, I'll kill a guy.
Speaker: Luckily, there's not that much dialogue in Bloodborne.
Speaker: Thankfully.
Speaker: No, but I did.
Speaker: We just got done with Far Cry, and that's a franchise that I have just devoted days and days to.
Speaker: I love it, and I'm playing it again.
Speaker: I'm still playing it somehow, despite the fact that we finished up the book.
Speaker: And I found myself skipping the dialogue.
Speaker: You know, people would be trying to tell me about this cool quest I was about to go on.
Speaker: And as an old school geek, that was always something that was like, I want to know all about that.
Speaker: Now, I think if...
Speaker: bloodborne you know gave me more of that i would be sitting there listening to the dialogue listening to all of the story elements and then i die and have to listen to it all over again the dialogue is is replaced by um a nice australian man named vati vidya yeah yeah yeah exactly
Speaker: That's what you know what?
Speaker: Maybe that's what I need to do.
Speaker: I think I need to just start at the beginning of his thousands upon thousands of hours of videos and just watch that.
Speaker: Just go ahead and watch that.
Speaker: Just soak up the Bloodborne lore and I think you'll be happy.
Speaker: I think that might be what would make me happiest at this point.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: I love Vati Vidya.
Speaker: I love his Prepare to Cry series.
Speaker: The Prepare to Cry series is so good.
Speaker: And it is one of the few YouTube videos.
Speaker: The one that he tells, I think it's about Gascoigne, is so heart-wrenching.
Speaker: And you're like, oh my god, I didn't pick up on any of that in the game.
Speaker: At all.
Speaker: All you get is this Irish.
Speaker: I'm so dumb.
Speaker: All you get is this Irish guy talking about be soul of the shop.
Speaker: And you're like, oh, well, I guess I got to kill this guy.
Speaker: And so, Phil, you never saw Father Gascoyne, right?
Speaker: No, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Speaker: So how far did you get, Phil?
Speaker: I'm dying to know.
Speaker: Did you beat the Cleric Beast?
Speaker: No, I saw and was murdered by the Cleric Beast, which was further than I expected to get.
Speaker: Because I got to the great crowd, whatever, the bunch of assholes gathered around the fire.
Speaker: I got to a point where I was feeling real confident, actually.
Speaker: And I get to the point where
Speaker: I would, you know, take out one or two of the weird old nine foot tall zombie guys one by one, one or two at a time, and even would get pretty good at taking out that little crowd of them that was going up and down the hill.
Speaker: I even took out the executioner once.
Speaker: I was like, that was one of the proudest moments of my life.
Speaker: I took that guy at once.
Speaker: And so it should be.
Speaker: Yeah, I was like, I was proud of that.
Speaker: Like, that was it.
Speaker: And that's the thing.
Speaker: It was one of those situations where I was like, holy shit, I took that guy out.
Speaker: I feel power.
Speaker: I want to keep going.
Speaker: I can do anything.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: And then I die and he's respawned.
Speaker: I'm like, I can do nothing.
Speaker: Bitch.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You don't even stay dead.
Speaker: But then again, neither do I. And but, you know, it was always the crowd.
Speaker: And I would start.
Speaker: This is exactly what happened.
Speaker: I started like kind of.
Speaker: you know, picking them off one by one, you know, taunting people, throwing rocks, getting two or three of them at a time and, you know, doing my best to take out the gunners and the dogs, for whatever reason, were a pain in the dick.
Speaker: But I would get those guys staying out and eventually I'd have that whole area taken care of.
Speaker: And even even the troll on the other side of the door who's banging his fist on the other door.
Speaker: Originally, I was kind of freaked out by him, but he was super easy in the grand scheme of things.
Speaker: That guy was not a problem at all.
Speaker: So.
Speaker: Yeah, the big dumb guys aren't that bad.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: It's the little ones.
Speaker: Oh, my God.
Speaker: The dogs and the freak.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: And then I come around a corner and I'd be and by that time, I'm like just bled dry of health.
Speaker: And and and I and I get taken out by the next little mob group that's coming around the corner.
Speaker: And and I'm just so frustrated because I'm like, OK,
Speaker: I've lost what are they called?
Speaker: They're not souls.
Speaker: What are they called?
Speaker: Oh, blood echoes.
Speaker: I've got.
Speaker: Yeah, I've lost all my blood echoes and they're on the other side of this crowd of of minions that it took me forever to take out.
Speaker: And and on top of that, any time another thing kept happening that every time I would it felt like every time I was doing well, that I was like, hey, I'm actually taking these guys out.
Speaker: I got this.
Speaker: I figured this out.
Speaker: I would like take a turn and I'd end up in like the sewers somehow in that freaking house.
Speaker: And I'd be like, fuck, what is this?
Speaker: And I was like, fucking Theseus, just walking around this labyrinth, no idea where I was, and eventually something would kill me, and I'd go, fuck this, I'm done, I'm done.
Speaker: Did you get to the giant pig?
Speaker: No, no pig for me.
Speaker: No pig for me.
Speaker: Are the pigs in the books?
Speaker: No, they're actually never referenced.
Speaker: Well, that's rubbish.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I've never read the books, but I can tell from that one piece of information you've given me that they're rubbish.
Speaker: Tell me about the giant pigs.
Speaker: I need to know about the giant pigs.
Speaker: They're just giant pigs and they attack you.
Speaker: They are massive.
Speaker: That's really all you need to know.
Speaker: What more do you need?
Speaker: I don't know what the fuck I expected.
Speaker: Giant pigs.
Speaker: I don't know what I expected.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: You're right.
Speaker: It's pretty much what it is on the surface.
Speaker: There is, and that's what I appreciate about it, is it's like, it's like you're fighting through all this muck in the sewer and at the end of the sewer, you're walking down this, this,
Speaker: this little alleyway and you hear this splashing as a just a giant fucking pig comes in and runs your ass over and it's it's like oh oh okay i see all right now like a truck here's what i'm really curious about so kat you you you started playing the game again what a week ago yeah and now how far did you manage to get in the span of a week
Speaker: most of the way and i did some of the optional areas too because i was just like yeah i just want to see you know as much as i can see in this week in this god forsaken week i love that you had a quarter of the time that i've signed up for you had a quarter of the time that i had but i've played the game already yeah so you know it was five years ago but i have um if you're trying to make me feel better you are failing and
Speaker: No, no, let me put your mind at ease, Phil, because I'm totally with you on that first section of the game.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: I had the exact same experience the first time I played the game.
Speaker: And I think there are a few things that prevent Bloodborne from being a perfect game.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: And I think one of those things is that first section of the game is too long and too hard.
Speaker: That distance between the distance to the first lamp that's got a whole crowd of people and a troll and two werewolves.
Speaker: Oh, fuck.
Speaker: I forgot about the werewolves.
Speaker: Is just insane.
Speaker: Like, I remember fighting my way through that crowd and I know, like, eventually you realize you can just run through them.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: But then I'd hit the werewolves.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You can't run through those guys.
Speaker: Jesus Christ, like what a thing to hit the player with like right off the bat.
Speaker: It's werewolves and partial werewolves with guns.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: But still, damn.
Speaker: I could agree because it doesn't necessarily evoke what the rest of the game is really about, which is... No, it's actually more grueling and proportional to the rest of the game.
Speaker: It's disproportionately hard.
Speaker: It's disproportionately hard.
Speaker: Once you get into other areas, they're almost like...
Speaker: I don't want to say linear because that's just that's not the way they are, but they are a little bit more linear than the opening area.
Speaker: But they, you know, they have the shortcuts and all that stuff.
Speaker: But it isn't like because that opening area, you could get so far off track and so easily lost.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Because there's there's the high road, there's the middle road, there's the sewers, there's areas you can end up in areas that you're not even necessarily supposed to be in yet or like going towards.
Speaker: That's that is the problem with that opening area is that it is such a huge area.
Speaker: hill to climb to get over and then what's funny is basically Phil what happens is you get through that area there's two bosses there's the cleric beast and then he's actually optional um hypothetically say hypothetically you don't even
Speaker: You don't need to you don't need to beat him.
Speaker: Father Gascoigne is the one that you that you have to beat to kind of clear the area.
Speaker: And then you end up in Odin Chapel, which becomes I don't want to say like your base, but it does feel like a bit of a center area that you start.
Speaker: Yeah, it's a bit of a hub.
Speaker: It's a bit of a hub.
Speaker: So like this is all basically pre-hub, which and the hub is very common for these FromSoft games.
Speaker: So like, let me ask you, do you think that that was on purpose, that as a design that like that first part is meant to kind of separate the wheat from the chaff?
Speaker: Or is that just like a here, take that.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Like, like, like we're not, we're not fucking around.
Speaker: This is what we do.
Speaker: And then if you make it through this.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker: Get good.
Speaker: Fuck you.
Speaker: If you're playing this game, fuck you.
Speaker: I gotta tell you, you are speaking the voice of the game as I played it.
Speaker: So yeah, yeah.
Speaker: That's so do you think that was on purpose or do you think it's just kind of how it went?
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: What do you think, Kevin?
Speaker: I have no idea.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't.
Speaker: So it's weird because I'm I'm thinking about the previous games that were designed by from in the same era.
Speaker: And they all kind of have an opening stretch before you get to your central hub area.
Speaker: So like the easiest of them, I would say, is probably Demon Souls.
Speaker: There's, you know, you're not facing too complex enemies.
Speaker: Then Demon's Souls and Dark Souls two are relatively easy and straightforward to get to the main the main areas, the Nexus and Majula, respectively.
Speaker: You can tell I've played too many Dark Souls games.
Speaker: because I have all these things on the tip of my tongue.
Speaker: But then you have games like Dark Souls three, where you have to, much like Bloodborne, they actually parallel each other almost a little bit.
Speaker: You have to fight a boss before you get access to the central hub area.
Speaker: In Dark Souls 3, it's Eudex Gundyr, and in this, it's Father Gascoigne.
Speaker: So they have a little bit of a higher barrier, which makes sense because they were developed in parallel.
Speaker: So they have a lot of design philosophies that are interchangeable.
Speaker: Hmm.
Speaker: But at least I think in Dark Souls 3 and Dark Souls 1, the path to the boss, to the first boss, is pretty short.
Speaker: Oh yeah.
Speaker: And it doesn't have too many enemies on it.
Speaker: It's a funnel.
Speaker: So like I never got that feeling of fuck you player from those games.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Like the opening areas are they do ease you in.
Speaker: Bloodborne stands out for me as just that like, we're going to make you run a gauntlet straight away.
Speaker: I think that's what it was.
Speaker: I think that was what frustrated me.
Speaker: It felt like the game truly didn't respect my time.
Speaker: you know it was like you're gonna do this that's why i think it doesn't power like it doesn't represent the rest of the game because i don't think the rest of the game really does have that yeah it doesn't have a that feeling of the game hating you but the first bit is a little bit of that yeah yeah it is there's too few lampposts um there's there's not a ton there are some shortcuts but
Speaker: They're really hard to get through to.
Speaker: And there's actually a hidden shortcut.
Speaker: So, Phil, I'm not sure if you ever found this, but you know the side of the courtyard where the troll is banging on the door?
Speaker: Yeah, to the left of the ravens or crows, right?
Speaker: To the left, you break some boxes and there's a shortcut to like... And all the dogs in boxes and whatnot.
Speaker: Yeah, the dogs are being crate trained.
Speaker: Dogs in boxes is the name of my next podcast, by the way.
Speaker: We're just going to get on it.
Speaker: I'm going to find everyone who couldn't make it through the first stage of Bloodborne and we're just going to cry and drink.
Speaker: It would be very much like the, it's going to be very much like Dead Eyes.
Speaker: Have you listened to Dead Eyes?
Speaker: No, what's Dead Eyes?
Speaker: Oh, yeah, I'm getting through it right now.
Speaker: So basically, this actor, his name's Connor Ratliff, he was cast for a small part in Band of Brothers 20 years ago, and he was, ended up being fired for having, quote, Dead Eyes.
Speaker: Ha ha!
Speaker: By Tom Hanks.
Speaker: By Tom Hanks.
Speaker: He got fired by Tom Hanks for having, quote, dead eyes.
Speaker: Oh, no!
Speaker: And this podcast is an investigation into what actually happened.
Speaker: Oh, God.
Speaker: All right, you know what?
Speaker: I'm on that.
Speaker: I've got to listen to that.
Speaker: He's the logline for it's like it's serial, but for something really meaningless.
Speaker: Right, right.
Speaker: Oh, that's hilarious.
Speaker: Okay, yeah.
Speaker: So are you suggesting that Phil's podcast could be something like that, where he just interviews a different person every week who...
Speaker: Quit Bloodborne.
Speaker: Quit Bloodborne in the first area.
Speaker: Really early.
Speaker: I refuse to believe that I'd ever be at a loss for guests.
Speaker: No, yeah, not at all.
Speaker: That's it, you'd have an infinite supply of potential guests at your fingertips there.
Speaker: We have like several two minute long episodes like, yeah, how'd you like Bloodborne?
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Thanks guys for checking in.
Speaker: Like, comment, subscribe.
Speaker: Bloodborne still sucks.
Speaker: We're the Deadborn podcast.
Speaker: It's a shame.
Speaker: So I think that that opening area would have put a lot of people off an otherwise great game.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It's a great game all up.
Speaker: It's it's almost a perfect game.
Speaker: I think it's just it's a great game.
Speaker: It is.
Speaker: You know, what's and what's funny is you don't even get exposed to the really, really cool stuff.
Speaker: in that first area.
Speaker: It's just, it's universal horror werewolves and zombies.
Speaker: It's just dudes, dudes and dogs.
Speaker: Dudes and dogs.
Speaker: They got their pitchforks.
Speaker: They got their torches.
Speaker: They got, they got their guns.
Speaker: And, um, oh, it's like a Saturday night in Georgia.
Speaker: I mean, yeah.
Speaker: Oh God, I miss Savannah.
Speaker: Uh, but yeah.
Speaker: And that's the thing.
Speaker: I think that's why ultimately, despite the fact that I was frustrated to hell and back by my experience with the game, I kept coming back to it day after day after day.
Speaker: And it was because I could tell there was something there.
Speaker: There's a magnetism to it.
Speaker: Yeah, there's a satisfaction to the controls, you know, to the mechanics of it.
Speaker: It works on that level.
Speaker: It's just something that felt like it was constantly just beyond my grasp.
Speaker: And that was where I just started to scream into the abyss.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: You know, because there was you got to a point where I was like, is there actually anything I can do about this?
Speaker: And I wasn't sure there was.
Speaker: And I'm going to I'm going to lay down.
Speaker: a little, these are my tips for you, Phil.
Speaker: If you do, I'm going to lay it down.
Speaker: I'm going to lay it down.
Speaker: Anyone who's listening, by the way, and I know there are plenty of you who have dealt with the same thing I have, I'm grabbing a pen and paper and I recommend that you do as well.
Speaker: Get your study guides out now.
Speaker: Here's the cliff notes.
Speaker: Basically, so I heard something when you were describing what you were doing earlier that you were picking people off one by one.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Which is a strategy perfect tailor-made for Dark Souls.
Speaker: And the thing that what Bloodborne is, its combat is a thousand percent not Dark Souls.
Speaker: It has similar mechanics, but instead of a shield, you have a gun and you use the gun to create your parry window.
Speaker: All that being said...
Speaker: Bloodborne favors aggression and speed over cautiousness.
Speaker: Basically, what I what I always say is you just got to get up in there like you can't you can you can't be cautious.
Speaker: You have to just mind.
Speaker: The only thing you're cautious about is your stamina.
Speaker: But other than that, it's it's getting it's killing things as quickly and as overwhelmingly as you can.
Speaker: Okay, now here's my question based on that.
Speaker: This is a problem I ran into, because that was something I've heard by you.
Speaker: And the problem I kept running into is that, especially because that was the thing, and I did watch videos that would give you tutorials and stuff like that, and there would be a big crowd, and you want to roll in there and smack them around and that sort of thing and just be aggressive.
Speaker: Be aggressive.
Speaker: But the problem I found that I kept running into was my aim.
Speaker: I you know, I you get three, four good hits before your stamina meters down and I would roll into this crowd and attack them.
Speaker: And I found that like at least half of those hits would go wide, not hit anybody.
Speaker: So now, you know, and you've got the option of locking, but if you're locking, it's only on the one guy.
Speaker: Do you find that one method over the other is better or worse or?
Speaker: I usually found locking and knocking one guy down quickly and then moving on was the best way.
Speaker: The other thing is getting good or understanding the timing of... Step one, get good.
Speaker: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker: There's no step two.
Speaker: That's it.
Speaker: It's just the whole thing.
Speaker: And then step three is profit.
Speaker: This pamphlet is light.
Speaker: I like it.
Speaker: The art's terrific.
Speaker: It's really understanding the timing of your pistol because the shooting people and putting them into a stun takes none of your stamina or maybe a little bit of your stamina.
Speaker: So if you can shoot somebody and put them into the stun,
Speaker: then you can follow up with what's called a visceral attack and basically kill them in one shot.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: And that's actually how I took out the executioner.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So if you can, if you can really, if you practice just, if you sat down for a session and just practiced hitting the parry window with the gun, and it's, it's actually the thing about the bloodborne parry window is it's a lot wider than the dark souls one.
Speaker: You have a lot more opportunity in Bloodborne to hit to shoot them and get them into the stun animation than you do in Dark Souls, because Dark Souls only has a few frames and it's the moment that the weapon would hit your shield is the parry window in Bloodborne.
Speaker: It's like this kind of nebulous region of they're about to attack.
Speaker: So you shoot them.
Speaker: And if you shoot them at the right time, they go down on a knee and then you can stick your fist into their stomach and pull out their entrails, which is what I believe that the visceral animation is.
Speaker: I mean, I think I think we've all been there.
Speaker: That's just that's just practical.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Anyone who's had a drink at 2 a.m.
Speaker: on a Friday night in downtown Atlanta knows that you reach in, you pull out the entrails.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: At a certain time of night, things just get to that point.
Speaker: It's nobody's fault.
Speaker: It's just how things go.
Speaker: Alternatively, I just went with the axe.
Speaker: And you can just extend your axe and make it a long boy.
Speaker: And then just go for them wide swings.
Speaker: Are you talking about like when you un... It looks like an old fashioned straight razor and you pop it out?
Speaker: Yeah, so not the straight razor one, but the actual...
Speaker: so there's a straight razor one uh cal what you're talking about is the literal axe the one that's so when you because so i know what phil's talking about yeah yeah he's talking about nothing he's talking about the hunter saw so basically just restart the game which is fine because you haven't made any progress and when you start i'm
Speaker: When you start at the beginning and you pick your weapon, get the one that's the axe.
Speaker: It's just an axe.
Speaker: But when you do the trick weapon, it becomes a two-handed long boy axe.
Speaker: And when you swing, it hits like 50 dudes at a time.
Speaker: Yeah, you can just hit guys from like standing at the end of the road.
Speaker: On the other side of the road, you can hit them.
Speaker: Now, what about this strategy I was thinking about based on what you're saying here?
Speaker: Just like you said before, I start over and then I put the game back into its package and I sell it on eBay.
Speaker: What about that?
Speaker: How does that work?
Speaker: I think that counts as a win in some books.
Speaker: Finally, finally.
Speaker: See, that's all I wanted.
Speaker: I just wanted to win.
Speaker: You beat Bloodborne by selling it.
Speaker: I beat Bloodborne in a sense.
Speaker: Not Miss Lane.
Speaker: Now, here's a question.
Speaker: What about I can't help but notice that I went with the blunderbuss and everyone else seems to go with the pistols.
Speaker: That part of the problem, too?
Speaker: I'm not sure.
Speaker: I don't really know the difference between all the different guns.
Speaker: I don't know what the difference is.
Speaker: I think the blunderbuss, I think you might have the chance of stunning multiple people with the blunderbuss.
Speaker: But I think it's easier to stun with the pistol.
Speaker: Okay, okay.
Speaker: That makes more sense.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I was like, look, I don't care what game I'm playing.
Speaker: Phil's just nodding and putting the... He's putting the disc back in the box now as Kevin's telling him how to get through the game.
Speaker: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: I'm riding this down right now.
Speaker: I just imagine him cutting the disc up and making...
Speaker: making one of those like reflective collages with the shiny side.
Speaker: It's a mosaic in my window now.
Speaker: He's in the backyard inserting the disc into a lawn mower.
Speaker: He's getting on his ride on mower right now.
Speaker: Hey guys, I'm going to put you on mute for a second here, but I'm still listening.
Speaker: So...
Speaker: Interesting.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: What's that shredding sound in the background?
Speaker: Nothing.
Speaker: Don't worry about it.
Speaker: My dog's got diarrhea.
Speaker: No, it's just...
Speaker: I've got like shrink wrap.
Speaker: I'm like trying to somehow like, you know, seal it back up.
Speaker: It's brand new game.
Speaker: You guys want it?
Speaker: All you need is like a hair dryer and some shrink wrap, I think.
Speaker: But I know I know what exactly would happen, though.
Speaker: I know what would happen.
Speaker: I would like sell it.
Speaker: I'd get even if I let's say I tricked those bastards into giving me a full refund.
Speaker: Those bastards who just want to play Bloodborne.
Speaker: I'd just, I'd plonk it down and just, I'd go back and buy it again.
Speaker: I would just buy it again, because I'd be like, oh, I want to see what the thing is.
Speaker: No, it would reappear.
Speaker: Yeah, it probably would.
Speaker: You'd just turn around and it would just be there behind you.
Speaker: It probably would, yeah.
Speaker: It would be an Edgar Allan Poe short story come to life.
Speaker: It'd just be like, I can hear Bloodborne beating under my floorboards.
Speaker: How did it get there?
Speaker: I think that overview, by the way, has turned into you guys basically giving me a tutorial on how to beat the first 10 minutes of it.
Speaker: I just imagine I'm like playing out this entire story of you over the next year.
Speaker: You keep trying to get and then suddenly it's it's suddenly Phil.
Speaker: It's your wedding day and it's you've been you've been ditching these these copies of Bloodborne left and right.
Speaker: You think you might be in the clear and it's time.
Speaker: It's time to cut the cake and you slice into it and you hit something hard and you pull out a slice into the cake.
Speaker: PlayStation 4 greatest hits, Bloodborne.
Speaker: Cut to black.
Speaker: Emily's walking down the aisle towards me wearing a veil.
Speaker: I remove the veil and she's wearing an Eileen the Crow mask underneath it.
Speaker: No!
Speaker: I think if you dispose of the game, Phil, you should do it at least in a thematically appropriate way.
Speaker: Put it in a coffin.
Speaker: Wrap that coffin up real good with a chain.
Speaker: Padlock it.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I thought you were going to- Single for all eternity.
Speaker: I thought you were going to tell me that if I was going to- thematically, if I'm going to dispose of it in a thematically appropriate way, I should let it kick my ass.
Speaker: Oh, I'm not sure you can.
Speaker: This inanimate object is beating my ass.
Speaker: I'm not sure you can fight a PS4 game, Phil.
Speaker: Probably not.
Speaker: Probably not.
Speaker: Now PS5, that's different.
Speaker: Well, yeah, it's the next gen.
Speaker: Next gen, baby.
Speaker: It's got sentience.
Speaker: So, Kat, I wanted to ask you this because it was something that I noticed in the Bloodborne graphic novel in the very last one, which was not good.
Speaker: There's this random scene of Dark Beast Parle and the one reborn fighting each other.
Speaker: And it just seemed like
Speaker: I don't, does that make sense to you in any way?
Speaker: Because to me, it just seemed like the author was taking action figures and jamming them together at that point.
Speaker: Totally.
Speaker: It sounds like one of those Marvel movie mashups where they have Thor and Captain America fight each other.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Straight up fan fiction.
Speaker: What if this?
Speaker: Oh, gosh.
Speaker: Gosh, I don't know.
Speaker: I mean, they're both in a similar area of the game.
Speaker: That's what I said.
Speaker: I was like, I don't know if they know each other.
Speaker: I mean, know each other personally.
Speaker: They don't know each other personally.
Speaker: If they've gone to brunch.
Speaker: Well, they live in the same neighborhood.
Speaker: They're pretty much neighbors.
Speaker: They probably run into each other at the local farmer's market.
Speaker: I have a feeling that Dark Beast Parle is just terrible with putting out the recycling and puts it out on the wrong day and the one reborn is just like, it's Tuesdays, not Thursdays.
Speaker: The grossest farmer's market of all time.
Speaker: Odd couple style.
Speaker: Odd couple style.
Speaker: That needs to be playing.
Speaker: That might have motivated me more.
Speaker: That's actually, yeah, that's actually, that was the original score to Bloodborne and it was cut at the last minute, but data mining has found it right on the disc.
Speaker: So let me ask you, because this is pixel lit.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: So do you feel that you gained something from having read the novels now when, you know, you're playing or replaying the game?
Speaker: Has it enriched your experience of the game, having read that?
Speaker: That's a good question.
Speaker: Kevin, what do you think?
Speaker: Have you gained any insight from having read the books?
Speaker: Have I gotten more insight?
Speaker: If I may say it like that.
Speaker: Insight.
Speaker: I've been granted eyes.
Speaker: LAUGHTER
Speaker: I don't think it gave me any more insight into the world of the game that I didn't already have from doing my own lore diving.
Speaker: And in some cases, it was a little jarring.
Speaker: As I mentioned to Phil, the third trade paperback is about Eileen the Crow, but it feels extremely out of character.
Speaker: for her from what you experience in the game and what you know about her like via the lore so it was a weird juxtaposition of Eileen and the Crow in this story versus the Eileen and the Crow that you get to know through her plot line in the game so I think there was possibly a de-enriching you mean to say that these books made you stupider?
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: I am dumber now for having read it.
Speaker: May God have mercy on your souls.
Speaker: Exactly.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Oh, wow.
Speaker: Yeah, it's like it's like women who report their teeth loosening in their jaws when they're pregnant because the baby is leeching calcium from their bones.
Speaker: That's an appropriately blood-borne metaphor, I think.
Speaker: Very much so.
Speaker: That's terrifying.
Speaker: That's a thing.
Speaker: That's a thing.
Speaker: I mean, you know, you've had a kid.
Speaker: I mean, I did not care.
Speaker: You've latched the calcium from your mother's body like a little vampire.
Speaker: I remember doing that, don't you?
Speaker: I remember when I was on the inside.
Speaker: You remember that calcium rush?
Speaker: That sweet, sweet high?
Speaker: Yeah, greedy little calcium bitch baby.
Speaker: That's what I was doing.
Speaker: I was just devouring the calcium.
Speaker: Oh, boy.
Speaker: No, I don't remember that happening to my wife when she had my daughter, but I don't doubt it.
Speaker: But I will take your word for it and I'm not going to look into it any further because that is one of my more recurring anxiety dreams is my teeth being loose.
Speaker: Oh, absolutely.
Speaker: Oh yeah, same.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right, so don't ask any further about it because we all need to sleep tonight.
Speaker: I suppose that's true.
Speaker: At the end of the day.
Speaker: We do all need to get into bed tonight and go to sleep.
Speaker: And pretend there's a just and loving universe out there.
Speaker: Oh, yeah.
Speaker: No matter what Bloodborne says to us.
Speaker: No matter what Bloodborne says to us, it's a just and loving universe.
Speaker: Did you replay the game for this episode, Kevin?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Or do you just have Bloodborne, like, do you just have all the Soulsborne games deep in your veins?
Speaker: No, no, this guy knows this game.
Speaker: Like, this is one of Kevin's favorite games of all time.
Speaker: He knows this game backwards and forwards.
Speaker: Yeah, the last time I played it was last year when I was doing my little From Software run from... Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker: Yeah, I was giving daily updates on the Discord.
Speaker: You were?
Speaker: Oh, I'm on this area.
Speaker: Then five minutes later, I'm halfway through the game now.
Speaker: That's him.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Five minutes later, I've beaten the game.
Speaker: I've beaten it.
Speaker: Yeah, no big deal.
Speaker: And actually, so what's hilarious is I got, I inspired this, one of the other people on our server.
Speaker: He goes by Joystick Drummer.
Speaker: Oh yes, you were mentoring him.
Speaker: He's a real sweetheart.
Speaker: He's a real sweetheart and he does his videos from his drum set now, I believe.
Speaker: He started actually using his drum set in his videos.
Speaker: Anyway, he finally, he played Dark Souls 1.
Speaker: He got through it.
Speaker: He was very much like Hugh Phil, right?
Speaker: He was coming back every day saying, I don't know why anybody likes this.
Speaker: Playing it again.
Speaker: I'm trying it again tomorrow.
Speaker: He eventually got his way through it.
Speaker: And then he Dark Souls two absolutely broke him like he was trying.
Speaker: He was going to do the entire run.
Speaker: And he played Dark Souls two.
Speaker: And he he had to stop.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: It sounds so ominous when you say it like that, Kevin.
Speaker: He had to stop.
Speaker: He had to stop.
Speaker: And we haven't heard from him since.
Speaker: He was never heard from again.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: Well, that was a bit like you, Phil, because we went on the Discord and then we arranged a time for this call.
Speaker: And then you were not seen on that Discord.
Speaker: I started again.
Speaker: And I was like, Phil, how are you going?
Speaker: Phil?
Speaker: I think Phil's dead.
Speaker: That's more to do with like my natural Hermity style.
Speaker: I work in social media for work, and so my phone is constantly buzzing with notifications anyway.
Speaker: So things like Discord and everything like that tend to be just completely on mute, and I forget about that.
Speaker: I remember Kevin being like, hey, I'm making a Discord server for the show, you know, and that'll be fun, and people can be in there.
Speaker: And I was like, cool, I'll never be there.
Speaker: No.
Speaker: Cool.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: But yeah, that's good to know that you are all right, but I was worried.
Speaker: Yeah, I appreciate your concern.
Speaker: I genuinely do.
Speaker: No, there's a part of me.
Speaker: There's a part of me that thinks that our first ever foray into Twitch should just be me trying to beat this, like trying basically doing the challenge in that video where it's like, just get to the freaking cleric beast and beat him and that's it.
Speaker: And like, and then you're good.
Speaker: And just the screams and will echo throughout our neighborhood throughout
Speaker: eternity oh my god the children will not approach our home during halloween we will be the haunted house in many ways it's what i've always wanted so i don't know maybe that could be a shot i don't know maybe yeah i'd watch that yeah yeah why not so kat what are you currently working on
Speaker: Oh, well, I'm working on what's going to be my biggest video yet.
Speaker: I haven't actually officially announced it.
Speaker: So this is like a spicy bit of info.
Speaker: But I'm doing a retrospective of all the Ninja Theory games.
Speaker: Oh, now that sounds fun.
Speaker: Heavenly Sword, Enslaved, DMC, and Hellblade.
Speaker: I'm going to replay all of them and then kind of like talk about what, you know, try and remember what it was like to play them for the first time and see if they still hold up and then kind of try and chart the creative vision of the studio over the years.
Speaker: That's too cool.
Speaker: Because I've been a super fan from the beginning.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: So this is kind of a passion project for me.
Speaker: And I'm having fun.
Speaker: That's awesome.
Speaker: I think it'll be good to make a video on something that you like that's not near automata.
Speaker: Yes.
Speaker: Actually enjoy playing a game.
Speaker: How about that?
Speaker: Enjoy playing a game?
Speaker: What?
Speaker: What the hell are you talking about?
Speaker: That is lunacy.
Speaker: That's madness.
Speaker: And where can where can people find you on social media?
Speaker: I'm pixeladay on YouTube.
Speaker: I also write stuff so you can find me on Medium.
Speaker: I put my scribblings up there sometimes.
Speaker: And I'm on Twitter at pixel underscore a underscore day.
Speaker: And that's the main stuff.
Speaker: Fantastic.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: We'll put your, we'll put all those links on the description for the podcast episode as so people can give it, give it the old clicky clicky.
Speaker: Um, and I, yeah, I think we're, we're about wrapped up on bloodborne itself.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: I'm done.
Speaker: I've got the comic, and I've got the video game, and both of them make me cry for different reasons.
Speaker: Oh, gosh.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Well, Kat, thank you so much for being our very first guest.
Speaker: Thank you so much, Kat.
Speaker: Oh, thanks for having me.
Speaker: It's been awesome.
Speaker: Oh, thank God.
Speaker: Anyway, I know most of it was just Phil complaining about the hard time he was having, but you know, it's pretty fun.
Speaker: That's great.
Speaker: Phil can go on for hours and I'll just listen to him talk about what's making him miserable.
Speaker: It's really made up 75% of our friendship over the years.
Speaker: I hope you have a better run next time with the next batch of things that you're going to work on.
Speaker: It'll be tomorrow.
Speaker: It'll be tomorrow.
Speaker: I know that I'm going to keep doing this so that eventually I can post some screen cap or something like that.
Speaker: It's like, there, I'm done.
Speaker: Are you happy now?
Speaker: That Lord of the Rings meme where Frodo's going, it's done.
Speaker: Yeah, that's pretty much it.
Speaker: It's finished.
Speaker: I'll finish it and then I'm gonna crawl in bed and go to sleep.
Speaker: Like, that'll be the whole thing.
Speaker: I don't know why.
Speaker: You said Lord of the Rings and Frodo, and I just thought of that old YouTube video of the whole scene playing out in slow motion at the end.
Speaker: Oh, I love that one.
Speaker: Oh, I love that so much.
Speaker: Frodo!
Speaker: Frodo!
Speaker: Frodo!
Speaker: Oh gosh.
Speaker: All right.
Speaker: Anyway, this has been pixel.
Speaker: It remember to rate us five stars on iTunes and give us a rating.
Speaker: If any other podcasts platforms do that, I don't think they do anymore, but do it anyway.
Speaker: Do it.
Speaker: Find a way.
Speaker: Hack some systems.
Speaker: Fuck some bots.
Speaker: We need this.
Speaker: This is all we have.
Speaker: And I think I found the cold opening for the episode.
Speaker: Follow us on Twitter.
Speaker: Join our Discord.
Speaker: Go to our website.
Speaker: All that fun stuff.
Speaker: Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful day.
Speaker: Take care, everyone.
