The Blood-Starved Beast from Bloodborne is a perfect example of FromSoftware revisiting a concept from an earlier title and improving on the design with each new iteration. This is on top of the way that the boss also acts as the final barrier to one of Bloodborne's best souls farms along with more branching paths into the deeper sections of the game.
It might not appear that the Blood-Starved Beast relates to many other FromSoftware bosses outside the enemy's basic combat that sends it lunging across the arena in bursts of action that can quickly destroy a player's health bar. However, fans of Demon's Souls and the Flamelurker boss might recognize the ways that Bloodborne improves on the signature mechanic of the later phases of the encounter.
How the Blood-Starved Beast Upgrades Flamelurker's Ambient Damage
If there is one aspect of the Flamelurker encounter in Demon's Souls that players might remember most from either the original or the remake, it's what happens during the second and third phase of the fight. While the boss doesn't change its attack patterns much from phase to phase, it instead starts to add flaming explosions to some ground slams and creates an aura that burns the player when in melee range. It can make for a frustrating encounter in Demon's Souls, but when integrated into Bloodborne, the result is a much more fair fight that still balances risk and reward when getting close enough to attack.
This new balance for the Blood-Starved Beast takes the form of an ambient poison cloud that spreads around the boss during the later two phases of the fight. Coupled with an attack that sprays even more poison a quick status infliction, getting close suddenly risks draining the player's health, and that's even after stepping out of attack range. However, the ability to quickly heal through the damage with Bloodborne's blood vials or remove the poison entirely with antidotes means that preparation can mitigate this risk in a way the Flamelurker doesn't allow.
The constantly building poison can still be frustrating for players, but it is much more manageable than the earlier iteration of this passive damage. It's the warning that comes before the passive damage starts to slowly take effect that makes this concept a fairer version of the same mechanic in Demon's Souls. Couple this with the way that FromSoftware's status effects can linger and stack, and the less frustrating poison can still become a deadly obstacle for the unprepared.
Blood-Starved Beast as a Gate to Bloodborne's Best Locales
Apart from the specific combat mechanics of the Blood-Starved Beast, this boss also acts as the gate that leads to several of Bloodborne's best locations. Not only does defeating this boss open a door that leads to Upper Cathedral Ward, but it also guards the key to entering the first Chalice Dungeons. While these dungeons themselves aren't what most players would consider the best part of the game, many of Bloodborne's best material and blood echo farming spots are located behind the chalices.
The new locations that killing the Blood-Starved Beast opens up are actually a sprawling web of interconnected maps with items to collect and bosses to fight. This includes everything from access to Vicar Amelia without spending twenty-thousand blood echoes, to releasing the Evil Santa-styled Snatchers who unlock Darkbeast Paarl's boss fight early. Altogether, the one door that defeating Blood-Starved Beast unlocks leads to the most open-ended section of Bloodborne, with countless new areas now made open to explore. It's the moment where FromSoftware really unleashes the player out to the plethora of possibilities that the developer has laid out for them to die to enough times before they finally overcome the laundry list of new obstacles.
Bloodborne is available now for PS4.
