This review contains spoilers
I don’t think anyone would argue that Bloodborne isn’t a challenging game. However, The Old Hunter’s expansion makes facing the challenges in the base game look like a walk in the park. Even after you conquer everything the base game has to offer, you still might not be prepared for the horrors present in the DLC. Every single aspect of the DLC is a test of might and patience that is unparalleled by anything from the base game. The difficulty of the Old Hunters DLC might even be unparalleled by anything from the Soulsborne series. It’s a brutal affair. With all of this in mind, is it still worth the struggle? Absolutely. The Old Hunters rivals Artorias of the Abyss as the supreme FromSoft DLC output, and Artorias of the Abyss is an exemplary piece of DLC content. Like Artorias of the Abyss, The Old Hunters adds new levels, enemies, bosses, and weapons, and fleshes out aspects of the lore that weren’t present in the base game. While Artorias of the Abyss is difficult, it is not nearly as demanding as The Old Hunters. Every stretch of this expansion demands the player’s maximum level of Bloodborne prowess.
A misleading mistake some players make when trying to tackle the DLC is based on how early you can access it in the base game. The DLC can be accessed as early as defeating Vicar Amelia in the first half of the game. When I purchased the DLC, I was eager to experience more from this game and was relieved that I didn’t have to play through most of it to access the DLC. Little did I know, I’d have to level up enough in the base game not to get annihilated at every point in the DLC. Prepare for the DLC like you would prepare for a final boss. Immediately, the bizarro Cathedral Ward area known as The Hunter’s Nightmare proves to be a substantial endeavor. The place is crawling with saif hunters, hunters in the DLC that look like Gehrman and fight like him too. These enemies are similar to the hunters if they were built like club bouncers and had their tenacity. You will encounter one at every step of the way in The Hunter’s Nightmare, making getting past each one the biggest obstacle in this first level. Reposting is practically mandatory for these enemies. The Hunter’s Nightmare is also home to some of the most ruthless standard hunters in the game and the area as you trek through this without encountering a new lantern for quite a while. I stuck my proverbial toe in the water that is the Old Hunters DLC and got stung by a proverbial jellyfish. I learned that the DLC content was not to be treated as a lark and prepared immensely afterward. I didn’t get to the next lantern in The Hunter’s Nightmare until beating The One Reborn in the base game.
Once you overcome the odds and discover the Nightmare Church for relief, you are in good standing to fight the first boss, Ludwig. Along with Gehrman, Ludwig was one of the first hunters. He’s obviously seen better days as he’s transformed into an abominable horse creature the size of a house. To give you a scale of what the Old Hunters have to offer, Ludwig is not the hardest boss in the DLC. He is, however, harder than any of the bosses in the base game. His movement is incredibly erratic, and he is the hardest boss to find a window to attack. He caught on to my backstab strategy implemented on most giant bosses in Soulsborne games and launched me across the room with his hooves. His landing move is difficult to time because he plummets so quickly, and he’ll even emulate a train to run you down and deplete most if not all of your health bar if you get caught in it. The saving grace of this fight is it’s much easier if you summon an NPC hunter to help you given that Ludwig will be distracted half of the time. His second phase is triggered by a cutscene in which Ludwig gets on his hind legs and brandishes a lurid green greatsword. This phase is much easier because Ludwig’s backside is finally vulnerable, but his sword slam attack will kill you even at full health if you get caught in it. If you thought Ludwig was a hectic fight that tested your full abilities, he’s merely a sampler for what is to come.
After scouring a long, dark prison hall and riding the heaviest elevator known to man, you will arrive in the Research Hall. It’s an architecturally interesting area with a winding spiral staircase towering in the center of the building. There are about three or four levels in this place with many rooms on opposite sides of the staircase. The Research Hall is the living quarters of Iosefka’s patients, forlorn abominations created due to failure. They look like humans in hospital gowns but with a gigantic, hideous growth like a blotchy scrotum protruding from their heads. Some of them are even reduced to being sentient blobs. They constantly throw tantrums like toddlers to defend themselves because they have little control over their senses and faculties. You’ll find many of them in the side rooms of the Research Hall crying out in anguish, resting on sodden beds in total darkness. Some are even restrained in chairs. It’s a genuinely disturbing site. What’s even more disturbing is that they cry out for help from Iosefka, the person who put them here in the first place. The large door in the hall's center takes you to the Lumenwood Garden, where you’ll fight the Living Failures, more cases of Iosefka’s medical catastrophes. Their fight is like a bulkier version of the Celestial Emissary, except that the Living Failures have a collective health bar and magic attacks.
The next boss is at the center of a clock tower right next to the garden. You approach a woman sitting in a chair in the center of the room when she grabs you unexpectedly. This is Lady Maria, another hunter in the league with Ludwig and Gherman. The doll in The Hunter’s Dream is also modeled in her image. She fights in the same fashion as the other hunters, swiftly dodging your attacks and waiting for a chance to strike while dual-wielding cutlasses. After a certain point, she adds blood and fire as collateral to her sword swipes. Lady Maria is my favorite fight in the DLC, and it’s not because she’s much easier than the other bosses (except for maybe the Living Failures). The ease in this fight is a testament to your proficiency with reposting. If you don’t repost or you suck at it, Lady Maria is a formidable foe. If you have practiced the art of reposting up until this point, Lady Maria will be at your mercy. I experienced a fair amount of difficulty when I couldn’t repost but was proud of myself during my last playthrough when I eviscerated Lady Maria with countless visceral attacks.
The next boss in The Old Hunter’s is the bane of my existence. I do not lose hope and give up easily on a boss in any video game, including Dark Souls. However, the countless failures at the hands of this boss matched with the cyclical monotony of running back and forth between the lantern and this boss time after every defeat was starting to drive me insane. The numerous failures made me fall to my knees, and I felt like I couldn’t beat him. He was relinquishing my confidence as a gamer. He is my Achilles heel, my kryptonite, my dark star. To this day, I still feel a sense of dread and intimidation with this boss, like confronting an abusive stepfather.
...No, I’m not talking about the Orphan of Kos. I beat that ugly shrimp on my third attempt (although I was not so lucky with him upon subsequent playthroughs). I am referring to none other than Laurence, the first Vicar, the only optional boss in the DLC.
Laurence is obviously an incredibly important figure in Bloodborne’s lore, essentially the creator of the scourge that plagues Yharnam. His importance makes it imperative that he’s actually present in the game, and his boss fight certainly reflects his role. After scrounging up a few key items, you’ll return to the mirrored version of the cathedral where you fought Vicar Amelia in Hunter’s Nightmare. You’ll see Laurence resting upon his throne, a wild beast after imbibing the blood of the great ones and a reflection of his folly. If you’re a determined completionist like I am or batshit crazy, you’ll wake him up. You may notice that Laurence looks like a flaming version of the Cleric Beast, the first boss in the game. If you think that this fight is going to be a cakewalk because the Cleric Beast was an easy foe, your naivety will be your downfall. Laurence is incredibly unpredictable. The frames to attack him are wider than Ludwigs, but failing to properly time them will punish you more severely. Laurence has about fifteen different ways to strike at you with his hulking stature. All these are aided by his fire AOE damage that will stagger you if they hit. Keep in mind this also if don’t kill you in one hit, even at full health. Laurence also likes to combo his moves, so if the first one doesn’t kill you, the immediate second or third swipe will. He’s also a giant damage sponge. The middling damage I do to him matched with the rare opportunities I have to hit him without being punished for it severely grated on my patience. Once you think you’ve finally got a hold of him, his second phase throws you for another violent loop. Laurence loses the lower half of his body and crawls around the arena with his giant arms. His backside is no longer a vulnerable spot because it’s constantly gushing molten lava at every waking moment, so the windows to hit him are even more narrow during this phase. The lava that falls out of his backside becomes a stage hazard, and it will always be present during this phase, so you’ll have to work around it instead of directly avoiding it. Laurence will also vomit lava at some points as if the constant expulsion of lava from his ass wasn’t enough. His arms are as long as redwood trees, and will use them to chase you down the entire perimeter of the arena. If that fails, he’ll slam his arm down on you that, you guessed it, it's hard to avoid and will kill you at full health. Like Ludwig, you can summon an NPC hunter to help you, but it won’t do any good. The first phase is slightly easier, but the NPC is guaranteed to die soon after the second phase starts because he doesn’t have the sense to avoid the lava. This leaves you by yourself with a more durable Laurence for about half of the fight, giving you a total disadvantage to fighting him on your own. After failing against Laurence several times, I went back and grinded to level up in the base game. I felt like Rocky in Rocky IV, training for his rematch with Ivan Drago. Eventually, once I beat Laurence, I still did it by the skin of my teeth. Bloodborne is all about nightmares, right? Well, Laurence, the First Vicar is my fucking nightmare.
Upon defeating Maria, a new location is revealed behind the opened clock tower arms. This rainy, dilapidated place is the Fishing Hamlet, a location inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft story, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. Mutated fish creatures of all sizes make up this fishing hamlet, and just like the ones from Lovecraft’s story, they worship a deity that lies at the shore of this area. This is the notorious Orphan of Kos who is the dark secret kept in the Fishing Hamlet. Apparently, the hunter’s killed the Orphan’s mother, who then cursed them, marked by the dark moon that lights every corner of the DLC. I’d feel more sorry for the Orphan if he wasn’t such a bitch. This boss is said to be not only the hardest boss in Bloodborne but the hardest boss across the entire Soulsborne franchise. He’s another unpredictable boss with a large array of moves, but as I mentioned previously, I beat him on my third attempt when I first played this DLC. Once I played this DLC again, he kept kicking my ass. I’m unsure how to explain this, but becoming better at Bloodborne made me worse at this boss. Playing passively worked wonders when fighting Orphan of Kos on my first playthrough when it didn’t work so well with other bosses. The Orphan of Kos punished me for being more aggressive, and that aggression made other bosses more manageable. Fortunately, the Orphan gives you plenty of opportunities to attack, and he can be easily staggered. He also gives you plenty of opportunities to repost. His second phase is a lot more chaotic, but I managed to find clear windows to attack him. Once you beat him, the DLC is complete, and you have a gorgeous shore view to look upon as you marvel at your achievement.
The Old Hunters DLC follows the same direction of descending deeper into the nightmare just like in the base game. This time, your journey uncovers the horrifying truths kept secret by the essential figures of Bloodborne as you venture onward. It’s a bit of a linear excursion, but I didn’t mind in this case because the progression is excellent. I felt as if I was diving deeper into the rabbit hole, resulting in a satisfying dead end at the shore. Everything in this DLC made me feel like I was being pummeled by four mack trucks coming at me from all sides, but I appreciate it for presenting such a stark challenge (except for Laurence. Fuck that boss). For some reason, I think The Old Hunters DLC is the most substantial part of the whole Bloodborne experience. While the levels and bosses in the base game are consistently enjoyable, there’s something special about what’s presented in The Old Hunters. I don’t know if it’s the level design, progression, or bosses that make this so, but it’s something that is definitely felt after overcoming the excruciating odds. Artorias of the Abyss feels removed from the base game of Dark Souls and supplementary to the whole experience, while The Old Hunters feels like getting to the core of Bloodborne. Experiencing The Old Hunters DLC feels mandatory. When the DLC almost eclipses the base game, you know it’s worth every cent.
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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com
A misleading mistake some players make when trying to tackle the DLC is based on how early you can access it in the base game. The DLC can be accessed as early as defeating Vicar Amelia in the first half of the game. When I purchased the DLC, I was eager to experience more from this game and was relieved that I didn’t have to play through most of it to access the DLC. Little did I know, I’d have to level up enough in the base game not to get annihilated at every point in the DLC. Prepare for the DLC like you would prepare for a final boss. Immediately, the bizarro Cathedral Ward area known as The Hunter’s Nightmare proves to be a substantial endeavor. The place is crawling with saif hunters, hunters in the DLC that look like Gehrman and fight like him too. These enemies are similar to the hunters if they were built like club bouncers and had their tenacity. You will encounter one at every step of the way in The Hunter’s Nightmare, making getting past each one the biggest obstacle in this first level. Reposting is practically mandatory for these enemies. The Hunter’s Nightmare is also home to some of the most ruthless standard hunters in the game and the area as you trek through this without encountering a new lantern for quite a while. I stuck my proverbial toe in the water that is the Old Hunters DLC and got stung by a proverbial jellyfish. I learned that the DLC content was not to be treated as a lark and prepared immensely afterward. I didn’t get to the next lantern in The Hunter’s Nightmare until beating The One Reborn in the base game.
Once you overcome the odds and discover the Nightmare Church for relief, you are in good standing to fight the first boss, Ludwig. Along with Gehrman, Ludwig was one of the first hunters. He’s obviously seen better days as he’s transformed into an abominable horse creature the size of a house. To give you a scale of what the Old Hunters have to offer, Ludwig is not the hardest boss in the DLC. He is, however, harder than any of the bosses in the base game. His movement is incredibly erratic, and he is the hardest boss to find a window to attack. He caught on to my backstab strategy implemented on most giant bosses in Soulsborne games and launched me across the room with his hooves. His landing move is difficult to time because he plummets so quickly, and he’ll even emulate a train to run you down and deplete most if not all of your health bar if you get caught in it. The saving grace of this fight is it’s much easier if you summon an NPC hunter to help you given that Ludwig will be distracted half of the time. His second phase is triggered by a cutscene in which Ludwig gets on his hind legs and brandishes a lurid green greatsword. This phase is much easier because Ludwig’s backside is finally vulnerable, but his sword slam attack will kill you even at full health if you get caught in it. If you thought Ludwig was a hectic fight that tested your full abilities, he’s merely a sampler for what is to come.
After scouring a long, dark prison hall and riding the heaviest elevator known to man, you will arrive in the Research Hall. It’s an architecturally interesting area with a winding spiral staircase towering in the center of the building. There are about three or four levels in this place with many rooms on opposite sides of the staircase. The Research Hall is the living quarters of Iosefka’s patients, forlorn abominations created due to failure. They look like humans in hospital gowns but with a gigantic, hideous growth like a blotchy scrotum protruding from their heads. Some of them are even reduced to being sentient blobs. They constantly throw tantrums like toddlers to defend themselves because they have little control over their senses and faculties. You’ll find many of them in the side rooms of the Research Hall crying out in anguish, resting on sodden beds in total darkness. Some are even restrained in chairs. It’s a genuinely disturbing site. What’s even more disturbing is that they cry out for help from Iosefka, the person who put them here in the first place. The large door in the hall's center takes you to the Lumenwood Garden, where you’ll fight the Living Failures, more cases of Iosefka’s medical catastrophes. Their fight is like a bulkier version of the Celestial Emissary, except that the Living Failures have a collective health bar and magic attacks.
The next boss is at the center of a clock tower right next to the garden. You approach a woman sitting in a chair in the center of the room when she grabs you unexpectedly. This is Lady Maria, another hunter in the league with Ludwig and Gherman. The doll in The Hunter’s Dream is also modeled in her image. She fights in the same fashion as the other hunters, swiftly dodging your attacks and waiting for a chance to strike while dual-wielding cutlasses. After a certain point, she adds blood and fire as collateral to her sword swipes. Lady Maria is my favorite fight in the DLC, and it’s not because she’s much easier than the other bosses (except for maybe the Living Failures). The ease in this fight is a testament to your proficiency with reposting. If you don’t repost or you suck at it, Lady Maria is a formidable foe. If you have practiced the art of reposting up until this point, Lady Maria will be at your mercy. I experienced a fair amount of difficulty when I couldn’t repost but was proud of myself during my last playthrough when I eviscerated Lady Maria with countless visceral attacks.
The next boss in The Old Hunter’s is the bane of my existence. I do not lose hope and give up easily on a boss in any video game, including Dark Souls. However, the countless failures at the hands of this boss matched with the cyclical monotony of running back and forth between the lantern and this boss time after every defeat was starting to drive me insane. The numerous failures made me fall to my knees, and I felt like I couldn’t beat him. He was relinquishing my confidence as a gamer. He is my Achilles heel, my kryptonite, my dark star. To this day, I still feel a sense of dread and intimidation with this boss, like confronting an abusive stepfather.
...No, I’m not talking about the Orphan of Kos. I beat that ugly shrimp on my third attempt (although I was not so lucky with him upon subsequent playthroughs). I am referring to none other than Laurence, the first Vicar, the only optional boss in the DLC.
Laurence is obviously an incredibly important figure in Bloodborne’s lore, essentially the creator of the scourge that plagues Yharnam. His importance makes it imperative that he’s actually present in the game, and his boss fight certainly reflects his role. After scrounging up a few key items, you’ll return to the mirrored version of the cathedral where you fought Vicar Amelia in Hunter’s Nightmare. You’ll see Laurence resting upon his throne, a wild beast after imbibing the blood of the great ones and a reflection of his folly. If you’re a determined completionist like I am or batshit crazy, you’ll wake him up. You may notice that Laurence looks like a flaming version of the Cleric Beast, the first boss in the game. If you think that this fight is going to be a cakewalk because the Cleric Beast was an easy foe, your naivety will be your downfall. Laurence is incredibly unpredictable. The frames to attack him are wider than Ludwigs, but failing to properly time them will punish you more severely. Laurence has about fifteen different ways to strike at you with his hulking stature. All these are aided by his fire AOE damage that will stagger you if they hit. Keep in mind this also if don’t kill you in one hit, even at full health. Laurence also likes to combo his moves, so if the first one doesn’t kill you, the immediate second or third swipe will. He’s also a giant damage sponge. The middling damage I do to him matched with the rare opportunities I have to hit him without being punished for it severely grated on my patience. Once you think you’ve finally got a hold of him, his second phase throws you for another violent loop. Laurence loses the lower half of his body and crawls around the arena with his giant arms. His backside is no longer a vulnerable spot because it’s constantly gushing molten lava at every waking moment, so the windows to hit him are even more narrow during this phase. The lava that falls out of his backside becomes a stage hazard, and it will always be present during this phase, so you’ll have to work around it instead of directly avoiding it. Laurence will also vomit lava at some points as if the constant expulsion of lava from his ass wasn’t enough. His arms are as long as redwood trees, and will use them to chase you down the entire perimeter of the arena. If that fails, he’ll slam his arm down on you that, you guessed it, it's hard to avoid and will kill you at full health. Like Ludwig, you can summon an NPC hunter to help you, but it won’t do any good. The first phase is slightly easier, but the NPC is guaranteed to die soon after the second phase starts because he doesn’t have the sense to avoid the lava. This leaves you by yourself with a more durable Laurence for about half of the fight, giving you a total disadvantage to fighting him on your own. After failing against Laurence several times, I went back and grinded to level up in the base game. I felt like Rocky in Rocky IV, training for his rematch with Ivan Drago. Eventually, once I beat Laurence, I still did it by the skin of my teeth. Bloodborne is all about nightmares, right? Well, Laurence, the First Vicar is my fucking nightmare.
Upon defeating Maria, a new location is revealed behind the opened clock tower arms. This rainy, dilapidated place is the Fishing Hamlet, a location inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft story, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth”. Mutated fish creatures of all sizes make up this fishing hamlet, and just like the ones from Lovecraft’s story, they worship a deity that lies at the shore of this area. This is the notorious Orphan of Kos who is the dark secret kept in the Fishing Hamlet. Apparently, the hunter’s killed the Orphan’s mother, who then cursed them, marked by the dark moon that lights every corner of the DLC. I’d feel more sorry for the Orphan if he wasn’t such a bitch. This boss is said to be not only the hardest boss in Bloodborne but the hardest boss across the entire Soulsborne franchise. He’s another unpredictable boss with a large array of moves, but as I mentioned previously, I beat him on my third attempt when I first played this DLC. Once I played this DLC again, he kept kicking my ass. I’m unsure how to explain this, but becoming better at Bloodborne made me worse at this boss. Playing passively worked wonders when fighting Orphan of Kos on my first playthrough when it didn’t work so well with other bosses. The Orphan of Kos punished me for being more aggressive, and that aggression made other bosses more manageable. Fortunately, the Orphan gives you plenty of opportunities to attack, and he can be easily staggered. He also gives you plenty of opportunities to repost. His second phase is a lot more chaotic, but I managed to find clear windows to attack him. Once you beat him, the DLC is complete, and you have a gorgeous shore view to look upon as you marvel at your achievement.
The Old Hunters DLC follows the same direction of descending deeper into the nightmare just like in the base game. This time, your journey uncovers the horrifying truths kept secret by the essential figures of Bloodborne as you venture onward. It’s a bit of a linear excursion, but I didn’t mind in this case because the progression is excellent. I felt as if I was diving deeper into the rabbit hole, resulting in a satisfying dead end at the shore. Everything in this DLC made me feel like I was being pummeled by four mack trucks coming at me from all sides, but I appreciate it for presenting such a stark challenge (except for Laurence. Fuck that boss). For some reason, I think The Old Hunters DLC is the most substantial part of the whole Bloodborne experience. While the levels and bosses in the base game are consistently enjoyable, there’s something special about what’s presented in The Old Hunters. I don’t know if it’s the level design, progression, or bosses that make this so, but it’s something that is definitely felt after overcoming the excruciating odds. Artorias of the Abyss feels removed from the base game of Dark Souls and supplementary to the whole experience, while The Old Hunters feels like getting to the core of Bloodborne. Experiencing The Old Hunters DLC feels mandatory. When the DLC almost eclipses the base game, you know it’s worth every cent.
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Attribution: https://erockreviews.blogspot.com