The problem I have with that is, would the game actually change at all if you just went back up to 20 vials every time you rested? For the player who’s progressing at a constant rate and doesn’t die too frequently, you pretty much already experience that. It’s not like vials are exceptionally rare throughout the game, and FromSoft was good about adding them to difficult areas. The only people the vial system is really bad for are players who are already slightly struggling, and I think those players would enjoy the game a lot more if the vials just refreshed.
Friction is only good if it’s making you interact with the game in an interesting way. The vials don’t offer friction so much as a binary of “Who cares, I have plenty” and “I never have vials and have to farm 30 min for each 5 boss attempts.” Both of those aren’t really interesting gamestates.
I didn’t find myself running out of them very often, and trust me, it’s not because I’m super good at video games. I think what it provides is a prompt to stop and think. If you find yourself without any (and I’d really only say it matters at bosses) then you probably either need to rethink your strategy, maybe go level a bit first (there’s almost always another branching path you can take, or even a chalice), or just buckle down and get serious. The game also gave you a core mechanic to restore health without using blood vials. I dunno that it’s a perfect system but I didn’t have any issue with it. Estus flasks that encourage you to back off to safety while you recover were much more suited to the style of play in the Souls games. If you could heal that fast with a reusable thing, I don’t think you would engage as much with the health recovery system, which was really what the game wanted you to do.
I’ll also mention that I did not find that it took long at all to farm them when I needed to. There were several early areas where you could restock quite quickly.
![[BB] I'm just playing, Bloodborne - you know I love you 💜](https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/c555cb8d-e11b-4902-ba88-a7e6650c5b89.webp){kind=link}
The problem I have with that is, would the game actually change at all if you just went back up to 20 vials every time you rested? For the player who’s progressing at a constant rate and doesn’t die too frequently, you pretty much already experience that. It’s not like vials are exceptionally rare throughout the game, and FromSoft was good about adding them to difficult areas. The only people the vial system is really bad for are players who are already slightly struggling, and I think those players would enjoy the game a lot more if the vials just refreshed.
Friction is only good if it’s making you interact with the game in an interesting way. The vials don’t offer friction so much as a binary of “Who cares, I have plenty” and “I never have vials and have to farm 30 min for each 5 boss attempts.” Both of those aren’t really interesting gamestates.
I didn’t find myself running out of them very often, and trust me, it’s not because I’m super good at video games. I think what it provides is a prompt to stop and think. If you find yourself without any (and I’d really only say it matters at bosses) then you probably either need to rethink your strategy, maybe go level a bit first (there’s almost always another branching path you can take, or even a chalice), or just buckle down and get serious. The game also gave you a core mechanic to restore health without using blood vials. I dunno that it’s a perfect system but I didn’t have any issue with it. Estus flasks that encourage you to back off to safety while you recover were much more suited to the style of play in the Souls games. If you could heal that fast with a reusable thing, I don’t think you would engage as much with the health recovery system, which was really what the game wanted you to do.
I’ll also mention that I did not find that it took long at all to farm them when I needed to. There were several early areas where you could restock quite quickly.