>>712929823
>I knew who Ludwig was when I met him. I knew who Laurence was. Orphan was related to Kosm. These are all characters that you know of without going through item descriptions. They are all mentioned in dialogue and cutscenes.
Nonsense, this is all the same shit. For newcomers, precognition of Bloodborne's characters and story, especially in the DLC, is entirely determined by one's willingness to delve through a tangled web of item descriptions made even more obscure by the game's mysterious eldritch nature.
Kosm isn't even a character at that point. It's Micolash's hallucinatory rambling. A deliberately cryptic remark intended to bewilder you.
>>712926732
Nah, Leyndell is pretty based overall. It's wide and pretty open as opposed to the typical corridor-maze of shortcuts and alternating routes that defines what is classically considered From's best levels (like Stormveil Castle, Central Yharnam, and Sen's Fortress to name a few), but there's a remarkable amount of shit to do and explore even if the player can skip it all pretty effortlessly. It's reminiscent of Eleum Loyce.
Leyndell's biggest issue, up until it becomes the Burning Capital, is the pacing of the bosses and their later reusage.
Thematically, Leyndell's almost a microcosm of Dark Souls 1. The formidable Golden City reared high above the rest of the land. Home of the gods that wrestled with the Ancient Dragons. The squalid depths of despair, inequity, and depravity lurking beneath it. The font of burning chaos lying yet deeper. And finally the enigmatic ancient golden roots seemingly buried beneath the rest of the world, and the ruined black city host to the prince of death.
Obviously there are clear differences between these locations and their Dark Souls analogues, but it's impressive how Leyndell manages to fit all its thematic content into a game that's already teeming with impressive levels and landscapes.
