Bloodborne

This is quite possibly the hardest PlayStation Platinum trophy I have yet to achieve.

Bloodborne is a game of aggressive persistence. Where Elden Ring offers a wide variety of play styles, paths and tactics to achieve an objective and progress, Bloodborne forces you to keep smashing your head against the wall until you break through it.

Like I did with Elden Ring, I bounced off of this game multiple times. I could not get into the rhythm or flow of the combat, which relies heavily on parry mechanics – something I definitively suck at. But I came back again, starting just before Halloween, and I persisted.

First, I battled my way through the core game. Then I have battled my way through the Chalice Dungeons, and then finally to the remaining two endings via New Game+. Whilst I generally dislike having to replay games just for the sake of additional trophies; at least in FromSoft games you get a truly different experience each time.

The hardest part of the whole game was definitely the Chalice Dungeons. Even with a massively over-levelled character in New Game+ the “Cursed and Defiled Chalice” dungeon – which reduces your accumulated health by 50%, resulting in consistent one- or two-hit deaths if you make a mistake – was gruelling and torturous. Also there were way too many spiders without the ability to turn them off or switch them out for something less spider-y¹.

What makes this game gripping though is the setting. I’m usually drawn to science-fiction worlds more than historical and period settings; but Bloodborne kind of mashes the two. It’s a Victorian-era themed, cosmic-horror narrative. So much goes unexplained in the story, but nonetheless what little I gleaned had me rivetted.

Is the nightmare real? How did I get there? Are the other people in this shared reality figments of the world or other people caught in a shared nightmare? What are the Amygdalas? Why are people turning into beasts? So… many… questions…

This may have been the hardest of my Platinums, but I also think it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played.