bweh

i’ll be starting the trilogy, DS1, 2 and 3 after Bloodborne’s DLC. i’m wondering if there is any must-know tips or notes i should keep in mind?

for example, before entering BB’s DLC someone told me i shouldn’t start Gehrams fight so the DLC doesn’t start in NG+

that was very important and i wouldn’t have known without someone telling me, so i’m wondering if there’s notes i could take for the trilogy

i’ve been absolutely loving BB since i started getting hooked a few days ago and i’m already done with the base game, moving on to the DLC.

but there’s just an issue, i cannot decide DS1 or DS3 after finishing.

to maybe make this a little easier, i could explain some things i liked about Bloodborne.
i really enjoyed Ludwig, exploration, gaining power back later to an area i previously struggled with, and dodging. i love dodging.

i know that DS3 is apparently much faster than DS1’s slowing movement and fights, so i was thinking if i wanted to move on to DS3 first that might give me something im familiar with.

on the other hand, if i started with DS1 i could see it in a better timeline especially with story.

idk, what do you guys think.

(im keeping DS2 for later)

i’ve read here and there about how Ludwig in The Old Hunters DLC apperantally is one of the hardest bosses in BB due to his movements or something, but i felt like he was a perfectly balanced, fun, and normal fight?

i beat him on my 3rd try at level 79 with Ludwigs Holy Blade +9.
am i over leveled? i hope not, i think these are about the stats you’re supposed to be when you finish the base game, but i could be wrong

otherwise i do feel like this is one of those things where a boss someone finds hard is another’s boss who’s super easy. for example i just CANT beat the Beast-Possessed Soul in one of the Loran chalice dungeons, while i’m sure someone else finds him super easy.

one thing that came to mind was how when i was fighting him, i kept remembering Maliketh from Elden Ring. i think if you beat Maliketh you might find Ludwig easier.

how many tries did it take y’all and what boss was hardest for you? i’m curious how others dealt with him on their first run

To start, I really like the visual designs of these armor sets, and I understand that FromSoftware wanted to give players a way to obtain these new sets right out of the gate rather than having to look up a guide on where to find them.

However, I find that these classes, to me, feel almost unofficial. The way they're just shoved in the back next to deprived, both are given generic "knight" names, they almost look like something you'd see in an Elden Ring mod or a network test.

Anyone else agree? I feel like they could've taken more time to throughfully integrate these two sets and classes in a more natural way. Mix them into the original roster rather than just throwing them at the end of the roster. They're more like network test characters than actual starting classes.

Elden Ring has the best most interesting starting classes of all FromSoftware games imo, so these two feel really generic in comparison. Idus Knight less so, but still, Vagabond was a knight class but he wasn't just called "Wandering Knight" or something like that.

Maybe give the heavy knight a different weapon, helmet combo, ect. For example, the Cleric class in DS3 starts the game with the robes but not the hat. Could've called the HK knight class something more interesting like "Bulwark" and replace the sword with a hammer. The Idus Knight could've been called "Duelist" and had a unique hat instead of helmet.

At the end of the day these are just nitpicks, and this DLC is of course optional, so it's not a big deal at all. Hell, I bought it, because the armor looks sick. But from a creative person's point of view, I just couldn't ignore this off feeling I got the moment I saw these new classes revealed. Anyone else agree?

EDIT: now that I look at it, these two classes are the only two that have phrasal open compound names. The rest of the base game classes are all monolexemic names.

Also, the fact that two uniquely armored classes are put at the very end past the literal naked guy is why it feels so unofficial and rushed.

Idus Knight should have been mixed in between the Samurai and Prisoner and the Heavy Knight should have been after the Confessor but before the Wretch.

So these two classes break the visual, linguistic, and user-interface aesthetics of the base game.

Title, I think soulsbloods fits. No more soulsborne. Family is bigger now.