Matthewmatosis Bloodborne Changes

BLOODBORNE SPOILERS

Since some of you are interested in my thoughts on the game, here's some things I'd change in Bloodborne if it were up to me. I've mostly focused on things which I think could be relatively easily edited, in other words no changes to the layout of the world, behaviour of NPCs, etc. I suppose this is a list of things I would change if the game was still in development but there was only a little more time to make adjustments. Keep in mind it's only been a couple of weeks since release at this point. I could change my mind about some things and I'm not expecting everyone to agree with the changes I propose but they might spark some discussion and it was fun to do. Some of my reasoning is placed at the end.

General:
- Max blood vials reduced from 20 to 10, players can still boost the maximum number of vials using runes.

- Blood vials heal significantly more health.

- Using a blood vial increases the frenzy meter by 40% so that using three blood vials in quick succession will cause frenzy. Higher frenzy resistance can lower this gauge more quickly.

- Frenzy cannot bring the player below 1 HP.

- Players can choose a rune at the start of the game, separate from their starting class. This rune cannot be swapped out until the player unlocks the rune workshop tool as normal. The runes are:

Blood Rapture (V. Attacks restore 100HP)
Oedon Writhe (V. Attacks restore 1QS bullet)
Communion (Blood Vial maximum+3)
Clockwise Metamorphosis (Max HP+10%)
Anti-Clockwise Metamorphosis (Max Stam+10%)

- Max number of quicksilver bullets is decided by Bloodtinge+Arcane stats. This now works like attunement in Dark Souls, higher Bloodtinge or Arcane means more quicksilver bullets. in practice this means all characters start with less than 20 shots but can end up with over 20 later on if they boost either of those stats.

- A message no longer appears when the player picks something up at max inventory, instead this is represented by an icon similar to the one which indicates an item has gone to storage.

- In boss arenas once the player locks on to something the lock on is not broken by distance. Lock on can also be initiated from a larger distance in these areas.

- Lanterns can now be used to warp directly from one location to another. (Hunter's Dream is still used for levelling up/repairing/etc. since there would be little reason for the player to visit it otherwise.)

Oedon Chapel:
- The closed door leading to the Healing Church Workshop is now opened by a key. There are two copies of the key. One is dropped by the ball and chain giant nearby. The other is given by Gherman after his dialogue about the Healing Church Workshop. The description on the key explains where to use it.

Hemwick:
- The witches that spawn in night time Hemick are now coloured differently to the ones that are summoned during the boss fight. They have a little more health, are more aggressive and harder to stagger. The ones that spawn during the boss fight are unaffected by these changes.
- Each witch has a non-random low-mid rank bloodgem that can be collected once per playthrough.
- Fighting The Witch of Hemwick at night time results in both witches being active from the start.
- Completing the more difficult Witch of Hemwick fight grants the player more echoes and awards a Clear Deep Sea rune. (This rune can still be found in its usual location, allowing the player to have two.)
- Killing The Witch of Hemwick triggers night time if it is not already night time.

Old Yharnam:
- At night time enemies do more damage.
- Giant wolves appear in more locations at night time, one near the start of the stage, one in the middle and one outside the boss door.
- Each of these new giant wolves has a non-random low-mid rank bloodgem that can be collected once per playthrough.
- Fighting Bloodstarved Beast at night time allows it to regenerate some health when it hits the player.
- Completing the more difficult Bloodstarved Beast fight grants the player more echoes and awards a new rune which increases the number of emergency quicksilver bullets granted to 7. (Another version of this rune can be found later, allowing the player to have two.)
- Killing Bloodstarved Beast triggers night time if it is not already night time.

Forbidden Woods:
- The password for the door to the woods can also be found on a note in the Abandoned Old Workshop, this allows the player to enter the woods when it's still day time.
- During day time the snake enemies are less quick to anger but the snake villagers act the same as usual.
- During night time some ranged blue headed enemies appear on the cliffs near the hogs.
- Each of those extra enemies has a non-random low-mid rank bloodgem that can be collected once per playthrough.
- Fighting the Shadows of Yharnam during day time delays their entry into snake mode until after one of them has died.
- Completing the easier Shadows of Yharnam fight does not grant the Blood Rapture rune.
- Shadows of Yharnam are now fought inside a large cave so the player can't see the skybox, killing them triggers night time if it is not already night time.

Hypogean Gaol:
- The route from the gaol to Darkbeast Paarl is no longer one-way, a small pile of rubble allows the player to walk back into the goal from the boss arena.
- The Tonitrus which can be found on a corpse at the end of the street is replaced by a Spark Hunter's Badge.
- Killing Darkbeast Paarl grants Beast Claws instead of Spark Hunter's Badge.

Cainhurst Castle:
- The loot outside the window where the player opens the bookshelf shortcut has another two gargoyles placed behind the player which activate when the player grabs the loot. A single gargoyle isn't enough punishment for players who don't check their surroundings.

Insight:
- 20 Insight will spawn additional "crystal lizards" in various locations which drop bloodgems.
- 25 Insight will spawn sinister bell women in various locations, opening the player up to invasion.
- From 30-99 Insight the higher the Insight value the more likely that player is to be invaded. Having max Insight roughly doubles your chance of being invaded compared to a player with only 30.
- From 30-99 Insight the higher the Insight value the shorter the cooldown between invasions, similar to above.
- Higher Insight values boost Item Discovery.

Bloodgems:
- Gems can no longer have conflicting values, for example Stamina Cost +2.8% and Stamina Cost -1.4%. If the generator generates conflicting values the end result is the one which is used, in this case Stamina Cost +1.4%.
- Gems can be turned into Arcane Haze.

Enemies:
- Sinister bell women now respawn after the player returns to Hunter's Dream.
- Ghosts in Cainhurst Castle will close their distance to the player, they still walk slowly when close however they will move more quickly when far away.
- Enemy NPC hunters are limited to one blood vial per encounter however they can now rally to regain health same as the player.

Bosses:
- Father Gascoigne can rally to regain his health, similar to the player. He cannot rally while in beast form.
- The last humanoid boss can rally.

Online:
- Ringing the beckoning bell does not consume Insight until a partner is summoned.
- Invaders take some insight after a successful kill.
- Invaders cannot use silencing blank when the beckoner is nearby.
- The parry window on the blood vial animation is larger.
- If two users have the same password there is no wait time between summons.

Chalice Dungeons:
- Players are healed when another player completes a boss in a dungeon they have shared.
- When playing co-op the co-operators can also find chalice materials. This does not subtract from the amount of materials the host gets.
- Two summoner enemies cannot be placed too close to each other to avoid deluges of enemies.
- Chests can no longer block doorways. Similarly two chests can no longer be placed in front of each other.
- A player using a short ritual root chalice can be summoned to later areas of a chalice as long as they have completed the non-root version of that chalice.

Options:
- A new option under Player Name Display: None. Removes text over the heads of other players.


My proposed changes to blood vials are extreme but I feel as though Bloodborne isn't punishing enough at the moment. Dark Souls with its limited Estus did a much better job of making me play well than Bloodborne does. In Bloodborne I often play sloppily because I know I can get away with it, I imagine many other players are the same. The "punishing but fair" nature of Demon's Souls is perhaps the largest reason why this series got popular in the first place and I would hate to see that vanish.

The level design in Bloodborne is fantastic and helps to distract from the fact that the progression through the game itself is quite linear. The way I see it there's no easy way to fix this in the second half because of the story progression but the first half of the game could be altered to provide different routes. Currently you can do Old Yharnam/Hemwick after Amelia but you have very little incentive to and these areas are easy if you're competent enough for that boss. My goal with the changes were to encourage experienced players to kill Amelia early then decide what order they wanted to do Old Yharnam/Hemwick/Forbidden Woods. Killing Amelia early shows that the player is at least somewhat skilled so the challenge in Old Yharnam/Hemwick can be safely increased. With this extra challenge comes extra rewards, the visuals of the area change too which could make different playthroughs feel very distinct from each other. These changes were also inspired by Demon's Souls which allowed the player to go to various areas early on.

Insight is a really interesting system but I feel it could be even better if tied to invasions, item drops and gems. It has the potential to be like Humanity and World Tendency combined. There's an option to play offline on the main menu so invasions should be expected if you decide to play online.

Overall I'm very impressed with the game but I feel - just like Dark Souls - it could have used a couple more months of development. Whatever the team produces next I hope they are given time to polish it to a mirror shine, it's really what this series deserves.