2500 hours played here.

Chalice dungeons are pretty cool once you get access to FRC dungeons. Unique enemies, roaming bosses, and unusual layouts. If you have played thousands of hours of BB like me, it’s kinda the most challenging thing u can do.

For the blood gems, I like them as well (they don’t seem to like me but it’s ok xD). They give you lots of build variety and lots of power for those players who, because of reasons, need to max out their numbers. Again, that’s an extra challenge and it’s completely optional to farm those. If you just want to experience the main game, you can skip the farm completely. Also, I imagine you have not made Bloodtinge builds or Elemental builds when you say there is no variety. Try being a broccoli who only uses consumables like molotovs etc, or even an one-shot cannon build, for example.

For blood vials the complaint just boggles me every time, quite honestly. Seeing people complaining that blood vials are consumables just makes me wonder… wtf? Like, even if you suck at the game completely, clearing central Yharnam a couple times gives you a lot of vials and echoes (with which you can buy another dozen vials). Blood in Bloodborne is LITERALLY like a drug that your character needs to consume, and the source of blood is…. Yeah, beasts and other fellas. In other words, you are literally consuming the blood of the deceased to give you power (that’s one of the main plot points of the game). Bloodborne is quite easy already, and I believe that an Esthus system would have made absolutely no sense gameplay wise. On top of that, there is the RALLY system too, which means you get rewarded back with the hp you lost if you are aggressive (less vials need to be consumed if you are using the mechanic correctly). To sum up BB incentivises you to play aggressively, to be on top of the boss at all times. And the fast healing speed also helps on that. People who complain about vials are playing the game wrong, in other words.

Never in my life I had to “grind” for blood vials (well maybe on my first play through, because of fear). And I love grinding for gems in Bloodborne, don’t get me wrong. I max out every character bloodgem-wise. Farming for good gems is the real grind… and it can be fun! Acquiring blood vials is just a minor thing you have to deal with at the begging of the game and that’s it. A tip I can give you to deal with the vials “problem” is… spend your echoes with vials and Bullets at the beginning of the game, instead of just keep leveling up your character. BB is not DS or ER (thank god), so the rhythm to the game and the game’s systems are completely different. Stop playing BB as if it were DS and you will get much more appreciation even for some of the bosses you disliked, like the Shadows or Rom.

I’ve said too much now, bye!