For five weeks out of the year in five locations throughout the world, the art of fashion is honored. In New York, Milan, London, Paris, and the United Arab Emirates, models will walk down aisles, designers will show off their latest style, and the media will gobble up every texture, picture, shape, and color they possibly can. Whether it's an instant classic or something more avant-garde, consumers and producers alike gather together to admire the craft.
Bloodborne weapons would do well to have a similar affair. Every weapon in this game is unique in both looks and gameplay. Every single armament deserves a showcase to show off how fun and cool they are when used in combat correctly. Unfortunately, the look and feel do not always translate to usefulness. The steel and the explosions sometimes disguise sub-par numbers and futility. It's perfectly alright to enjoy something bad. But it's still worth recognizing "bad" when it makes itself present.
10 Bare Hands
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One way to become a hit is to attempt a fists-only run in Bloodborne. The game is not meant to be beaten or even attempted without a weapon. It's a self-imposed challenge, to be sure, but perhaps a rewarding one in terms of showing off.
9 Tonitrus
Carrying an electrified blunt object around that adds lighting to Bloodborne's many beautiful areas is a gratifying experience. And this weapon excels at doing extra damage to Kin enemies with a satisfying thud.
And then the weapon breaks. And then the player has to fight non-Kin enemies. And then buff wears off. And then enemies resist bolt damage. The Tonitrus has a single strength and way too many weaknesses.
8 Kos Parasite
Becoming a disfigured mutant is not necessarily a weakness. In Fallout 76, mutations can actually be quite powerful. And there is a rare bit of delight when the player gets to fight monsters that are not nearly as monstrous as the gamer's own avatar.
But the Kos Parasite makes the player ugly with very little upside. Without a rune, the weapon is essentially useless. And while other weapons use runes to get better, this one requires a rune to even exist as a (barely) viable option.
7 Boom Hammer
Great medieval games have made use of the massive two-handed hammer for a while now and with how cool they look, there is no plan on stopping. Bloodborne even adds some fire for spice and welds on some bumps to the surface for a nice "meat tenderizer" effect.
Sadly, the looks do not match up to this weapon's effect. The fire goes out after only one hit. It is useful against beasts, but when fighting anything else, it's lackluster and slow. The item is a favorite among new players who value the visual treat over results.
6 Reiterpallasch
Jin Sakai from Ghost of Tsushima has access to a ton of cool-looking swords but never anything quite as cool as a gun sword. These types of weapons actually have some limited historical basis, mostly in the form of pistols and elongated bayonets.
One would hope that the fantasy version of this weapon would have more utility, but it does not. While using a gun in an offhand, the gamer can essentially dual wield pistols, but the damage is very low, and enemies that get up close have little to fear from the sword portion of this weapon.
5 Stake Driver
Somebody on the design team was sitting around, watching one of the many awesome trailers for Assassin's Creed, and they got to thinking, "What if instead of the hidden retracting blade, we used the most visible retracting blade ever?"
Their imagination can't be faulted as it looks over-the-top hilarious when attached to the character's arm. And it comes with a cool-looking explosion to boot! Tragically, the explosion does negligible damage and the charge time on the long attack takes forever.
4 Beast Claw
Joining the ranks of great animal protagonists has never been easier than with the Beast Claw. The weapon looks a bit like a crab pincer, but the rest of the body also transforms a bit after equipping it to reflect the bestial nature and feel of the combat style.
Combining it with Beast's Embrace and the Beasthood makes it very fun to use in combat, with loads of quick attacks and tons of movement. Like many other weapons on this list, though, the damage just is not there to justify the awesome looks and mobility.
3 Kirkhammer
Inherently, gamers tend to gravitate toward the notion of bigger being better. They want bigger maps. Bigger character models. Bigger PC file sizes. Bigger stories. And, yes, bigger weapons.
Enter the Kirkhammer, a gigantic stone mallet with the hilt of a sword. There is no disagreement that the weapon is a good workout. But it feels as clunky as it looks. It is an unsurprisingly slow weapon and enemies have absolutely no problem unloading tons of damage in between player swings. The player must decide if the downside is worth it for the muscle gain.
2 Rifle Spear
"Jack of all trades and master of none" seems like a decent philosophy in a video game as diverse as Bloodborne, where enemies possess loads of variety. So using a melee weapon that doubles as a ranged weapon might sound like it would quite fit the bill, but it isn't so.
The Rifle Spear is not actually a jack of all trades, unfortunately. The rifle range is extremely short and the spear requires a bit of distance to be really effective. So it's a purely medium-range weapon with no real highlights to speak of. It's more boring in practice than it is on screen. And with enemies uniquely tailored to kill the player, it's best to use a weapon uniquely tailored to kill them.
1 Amygdalan Arm
The Grim Reaper's scythe is a piece of iconic imagery that spans across nations and countries. The reaping tool turns into a terrifying weapon in the hands of a hooded skeleton. The designers in Bloodborne added an element to this timeless narrative by having the weapon be made of bone and sinew instead of steel.
The slow sweeps from the weapon don't strike the terror in the character's enemies the same way it has worked in real life, however. The range and damage aren't the worst, but there's no special ability that makes this weapon exciting or even great.