Bloodborne

Overview
Bloodborne is an action-adventure RPG in which the player controls a Hunter who ventures through the abandoned, beast-filled, gothic city of Yharnam, learning more about the origins of the horrible bloodborne plague turning humans into monsters while battling an assortment of the aforementioned monsters, other Hunters, and even something much greater than themself...

It is a third-person game in which the player can use melee weapons and firearms to fend off enemies while exploring areas, often with a strong boss at the end they must face to progress.

Its lore is inspired by the works of H.P Lovecraft.

It has also had one DLC released for it, The Old Hunters, which adds several new areas, weapons, and bosses.

Gameplay
The player explores several areas, doing combat with enemies, and grabbing items that are helpful for progression. The game is non-linear at points, where several areas can be explored at once, whereas at some points there is really only one way to go to progress. Some areas are required for game completion, and some are not.

Enemies can drop a currency called Blood Echoes. At lanterns, which are this game’s save points and are dotted throughout the map, the player can return to the Hunter’s Dream, the game’s hub area.

In the Hunter’s Dream, there are several NPCs the player can talk to for several purposes.

The Plain Doll allows the player to level up six stats in exchange for Blood Echoes. Leveling up one stat will increase the Hunter’s level by one, and the higher the level, the more expensive Leveling up becomes. The stats are as follows:

- Vitality (which increases max life)

- Endurance (which increases max stamina, used to attack, roll, and run)

- Arcane (which increases damage with weapons using elemental Blood Gems and Hunter Tools, which are special magic abilities that can be found)

- Skill (which increases damage with some melee weapons)

- Strength (which increases damage with some melee weapons)

- and Bloodtinge (which increases damage with firearms and certain melee weapons).

Certain amounts of the four offensive stats, being Strength, Skill, Bloodtinge, and Arcane, are needed to use weapons, but every weapon will not require the player to have an amount of all of them.

They can also speak to the Bath Messangers to buy items (with Blood Echoes) such as Blood Vials (can be used to heal), Quicksilver Bullets (used with firearms), assorted weapons, etc.

There is also a second currency, Insight, which is gained by doing certain things like encountering/defeating new bosses, consuming Madman’s Knowledge/Great One’s Wisdom found throughout the world, and other things. 1 insight is needed to use the Plain Doll, and it can also be spent with the second Bath Messangers to buy weapon upgrade materials and other things.

Speaking of weapon upgrades, in the workshop at the Hunter’s Dream, the player can upgrade their weapons using Blood Stone Shards, Twin Blood Stone Shards, Blood Stone Chunks, and the Blood Rock, which are found by exploring. The player can also insert Blood Gems into their weapon, which can increase the weapon’s damage, give it elemental properties, and other things. The player can teleport to any accessed lantern from the Hunter’s Dream.

When exploring the areas of Yharnam, the player uses their melee weapons and firearms to fight beasts and other Hunters. Their melee weapon can transform between two modes, for example the Hunter’s Axe being able to switch between being a small one-handed axe and a two-handed halberd-like weapon. When using their melee weapon in a one-handed mode, they can also shoot a firearm to deal damage to enemies from a distance, or parry them as they are about to attack, allowing for a powerful visceral attack. They are also highly mobile, and can roll, run, and quickstep to avoid enemies, which is usually especially imperative in boss fights.

The player can also access Chalices, and place them at Chalice Altars in the Hunter’s Dream, in order to access Chalice Dungeons. They will also need materials from previous Chalice Dungeons or the world. Each Chalice has several layers, with a boss at the end. There is a set of pre-made Dungeons, as well as random procedurally generated ones accessed from Root Chalices that drop from the middle-bosses of their respective regular Chalices. The player can also enter Glyphs into Root Chalices to access procedurally-generated labyrinths other people have played before.