From Software Bloodborne. Discuss or die!

[Hyperion]

Who is axthulu?

Spoiler

 

[Alkarl]

After playing through a couple times now, here are some things I think turn some veteran Souls fans off of Bloodborne:

1. No defensive/shield/shielded parry options. This is probably the biggest one for those who, like myself, can SL1 Dark Souls, but got face-murdered by Papa Gascan and Bloodstarved the first time we tried this one. Enemies are far more aggressive than Souls and going on the defensive is typically a death sentence, especially after you've eaten through all your vials in just a few minutes.

2. Pacing and overrall encounter design. I get the feeling they tried to give us mostly the same levels as Souls games but in accounting for the different pace at which characters move through them (that being faster of course) forgot to compensate with interesting things to see or objectives to work towards. A LOT of Yharnam is just cold pavement, wide open streets, and mob groups with little to do or see in between. Not to mention, there is an extreme deficit of interesting items to find, most of what you will pick up are either QS bullets, blood vials, or upgrade stones. Occasionally you'll find a bit of Fashion-borne, or a new weapon, or a rune, or some other consumable. This problem is further compounded in Chalice dungeons where the best items you can find are gems with the worst and most common being chalice ingredients that only allow you to keep running chalices.

3. Disparagement of loot, and lack of useful equipment. You could argue that Bloodborne has everything it needs and, by excluding a lot of the fluff from the other Souls games, is better off. You'd be wrong, but it's a nice sentiment. Having options is never a bad thing, and I feel like the Souls games balanced the options they provided the player well via both combat and exploration rewards. In Bloodborne, most of the goods laying around consist largely of vials, bullets, stones, and the occasional gem, rune, or odd consumable, with some insultingly useless armor to boot. As hinted above, the Chalices are even worse in this regard as the loot system typically comprises an Ouroboros of ingredients that only serve to open more Chalices. After awhile you get bored of examining the glowy spots cause you already know what it's going to be.

4. Weapons, and the lack thereof. So in Souls, it's no doubt that some weapons were just better than others, and maybe those other weapons comprised a little too much of what was on offer, but there was always an option, and it could feel pretty good/rewarding to overcome a difficult enemy with a "subpar" weapon. In Bloodborne, there are no subpar weapons, you could argue that some are better than others, but this really just breaks down to movesets and scaling, otherwise they are all viable in the most casual of possible ways.

5. Vials and QS Bullets.
Ok, so, after you've "got gud" this never becomes a problem again, but until then, running out of either of these is abhorrent. They are easily farmed, but this isn't a fun way to play a game. In Dark Souls, while Estus was renewable, you knew to take your count seriously because running out meant you were going to be back at a bonfire shortly. There is no good reason the Blood Vials are a limited resource you cam run out of.
And as for QS bullets, while tying them to your spell casting is pretty dumb, limiting parries this way is super dumb. Especially when in previous games parrying was infinite, the only thing stopping you from using it successfully was your own skill. In Bloodborne, not only is parrying tied to a consumable, but it's also made more difficult by the overall enemy design. Take Pthumerian Descendant for instance, parryable, but the only way to catch half of his attacks at any safe range is to fire BEFORE he begins his attack animation.

6. PvP and Co-op. I think this horse has been beaten enough, but given the way these systems work, youay as well discount them entirely, outside of chalice dungeons and certain, late game, areas. The lie is that these are tied to a finite resource (insight) the truth is insight is even more plentiful than Humanity in Dark Souls, and I often found myself with upwards of 40 without even trying.

7. Rings > Runes.
You wanna know what makes Rings far better than runes? You dont have to play through ~ 60% of the game before you can put one on. Also, rings tend to do either the same things, or better, in most Souls games.
Edit: Rings can also be swapped out whenever the need arises, though I would classify this strictly as different and not necessarily a better or worse change.

While all or some of the above can present a barrier to entry, after you "git gud", a whole new set of problems start to crop up: Very little replayability, bland level design starts to really hit home, repetitive encounters, easy trash mobs and often easier bosses that will kill you due to flailing nonsense compounded by the immense amount of damage each of them do. The list goes on.
Game can be fun, but it aint great, and it's certainly no Dark Souls.

Edit: Some other things upon reflection:
Counter damage- If you dont know precisely when to dodge an attack and aren't sure at what point in your roll/dodge you'll be vulnerable, it's often better to eat an attack than dodge since the added counter damage can send your ass back to a lantern in one hit. This is another stupid system that punishes you for even trying to use the systems in the game.

On the topic of dodging- Giving the player different rolls depending on whether they are locked on or not is a bad system when taken into account with the above, because now you not only have every enemy/boss move set to take into account, but also how it effects two very different dodges. In Dark Souls, rolling was tied to encumberance and broken down into different tiers, sure, but regardless of whether you were locked or not, you got the same type of roll/evade.

 

[Silva]

Alkarl , with the exception of blood vials (which I concede is a crap idea), those points are pretty subjective: I never liked shield gameplay in DS (always play as thief), and what you see as negative in this regard is actually a positive for me. Same for weapons - I'd rather have half a dozen meaningful ones than a shallow dozen (and another dozen copy pastes). Central Yharnam and Cathedral Ward? Among the best stage in the series for me both from an aesthetics and level design perspective (I see them like this Dark Souls 1 miniature, full of alternate paths coiling over themselves). Regain mechanic? The reason for some memorable adrenaline filled moments I never had in Souls series. Etc etc etc.

I think how you value those aspects will determine how you judge the games. I can't tell if BB surpasses DS1 for me, probably not, but only because I prefer the later more contemplative, Zen-like tone. Nothing to do with objective gameplay aspects, really. To me they're on par in regard to reaching their design goals.

 

[Alkarl]

Alkarl , with the exception of blood vials (which I concede is a crap idea), those points are pretty subjective: I never liked shield gameplay in DS (always play as thief), and what you see as negative in this regard is actually a positive for me. Same for weapons - I'd rather have half a dozen meaningful ones than a shallow dozen (and another dozen copy pastes). Central Yharnam and Cathedral Ward? Among the best stage in the series for me both from an aesthetics and level design perspective (I see them like this Dark Souls 1 miniature, full of alternate paths coiling over themselves). Regain mechanic? The reason for some memorable adrenaline filled moments I never had in Souls series. Etc etc etc.

I think how you value those aspects will determine how you judge the games. I can't tell if BB surpasses DS1 for me, probably not (because I prefer the later more contemplative, Zen-like tone). But it's right there on top with it for me.

Ultimately, you're right. As much as I find "wrong" with BB, it's still a hell of a ride. There are plenty of things to appreciate once you've gotten in, and a lot of the systems will start to coalesce into a greater whole. On the topic of weapons, I don't really hate the reduction in comparison to Souls and when I started that list it wasn't meant as a firm criticism of the whole game, supposed to be just a take on this Souls veterans first approach. It got away from me a bit.

I think, even after a couple playthroughs, I'm still firmly in camp growing pains. Not quite adjusted, but getting there.

 

[Alkarl]

Finally went back and beat Laurence. Pretty fun fight after you know how to approach him. He actually killed me more than any other boss, but when I finally found my strategy for him, I was untouchable minus a tiny sliver of health due to his lava diarrhea in his 2nd phase. Phase 1 is basically hit and run, keep clear of them swings. Procing the fist slams sets you up to break all his shit in a few swings. In his second form, stay close and to his right, that's the side with his "strong" arm (little hand, lol). From here, he can't even hit you except for 2 easily recognizable swipes. His crawling shit has him running in circles while you wail away on him and neither of his lava attacks can touch you.

Finally platinumed the game. I'll be glad to take a break. Rushed the final ending I needed (Sunrise) through NG++ in an hour, and its a bit odd how few bosses are required:
Papa Gascan
Vicar Amelia
Shadows of Yahrnam
Rom
The One Reborn
Micolash
Mergos Wet Nurse

I didn't find any of those fights to be of terribly good quality. Gascoigne probably takes the cake due to how difficult he is for first timers.
I finally saw Vicar Amelia's healing ability. Read a bit about that after my first run and thought maybe the people bitching just had really bad luck. At about 1k per hit, it's a joke, even on ng++.
Shadows can be a pain if you're stupid and bad at crowd control. Corale them around the headstone. Take out the pure dex fag first and you've basically won. Never saw the giant snake attack they do.
Rom is just a joke. If you die to this thing you might wanna check you weren't secretly lobotomized.
The One Reborn is much the same as Rom. Kill the pthumerian bell ringers and then break all his legs. He can occasionally catch you in some impossible to see ass attack because of his size, it's hard to tell wtf he's doing, even unlocked. Barring some really rare and misfortunate luck, he's the second easiest boss in the game.

Micolash is a cunt and you should kill him quickly. Motherfucker starts one shotting on ng+ and up. Basic advice is stay close and let him attack first.
Mergos Wet Nurse is a joke. Gtfo FromSoft with your piss easy penultimate/ultimate boss fights.

But seriously, on my ng++ route, I finally got around to trying the beast blood pellets I was finding everywhere and guuuurllll, they broken! Like, holy shit, how/why did they put this in the game?!?! As if it wasn't easy enough. Bleh. Anyway, as I said, happy to be taking a break for awhile.

Thanks to everyone who went on this wild journey with me. There were a lot of feels and I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing. Overall, I'd say it wasn't the best time, but I'll certainly never forget it.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

Finally went back and beat Laurence. Pretty fun fight after you know how to approach him. He actually killed me more than any other boss, but when I finally found my strategy for him, I was untouchable minus a tiny sliver of health due to his lava diarrhea in his 2nd phase. Phase 1 is basically hit and run, keep clear of them swings. Procing the fist slams sets you up to break all his shit in a few swings. In his second form, stay close and to his right, that's the side with his "strong" arm (little hand, lol). From here, he can't even hit you except for 2 easily recognizable swipes. His crawling shit has him running in circles while you wail away on him and neither of his lava attacks can touch you.

Finally platinumed the game. I'll be glad to take a break. Rushed the final ending I needed (Sunrise) through NG++ in an hour, and its a bit odd how few bosses are required:
Papa Gascan
Vicar Amelia
Shadows of Yahrnam
Rom
The One Reborn
Micolash
Mergos Wet Nurse

I didn't find any of those fights to be of terribly good quality. Gascoigne probably takes the cake due to how difficult he is for first timers.
I finally saw Vicar Amelia's healing ability. Read a bit about that after my first run and thought maybe the people bitching just had really bad luck. At about 1k per hit, it's a joke, even on ng++.
Shadows can be a pain if you're stupid and bad at crowd control. Corale them around the headstone. Take out the pure dex fag first and you've basically won. Never saw the giant snake attack they do.
Rom is just a joke. If you die to this thing you might wanna check you weren't secretly lobotomized.
The One Reborn is much the same as Rom. Kill the pthumerian bell ringers and then break all his legs. He can occasionally catch you in some impossible to see ass attack because of his size, it's hard to tell wtf he's doing, even unlocked. Barring some really rare and misfortunate luck, he's the second easiest boss in the game.

Micolash is a cunt and you should kill him quickly. Motherfucker starts one shotting on ng+ and up. Basic advice is stay close and let him attack first.
Mergos Wet Nurse is a joke. Gtfo FromSoft with your piss easy penultimate/ultimate boss fights.

But seriously, on my ng++ route, I finally got around to trying the beast blood pellets I was finding everywhere and guuuurllll, they broken! Like, holy shit, how/why did they put this in the game?!?! As if it wasn't easy enough. Bleh. Anyway, as I said, happy to be taking a break for awhile.

Thanks to everyone who went on this wild journey with me. There were a lot of feels and I'm still not sure how I feel about the whole thing. Overall, I'd say it wasn't the best time, but I'll certainly never forget it.

But first timers don't know that if you equip the tiny music box and use it when fighting Father Gascoigne. You can actually stun him when he hears the music box and defeat him pretty easily. Great fight though

 

[Alkarl]

But first timers don't know that if you equip the tiny music box and use it when fighting Father Gascoigne. You can actually stun him when he hears the music box and defeat him pretty easily. Great fight though

This is true. I don't know how From intended players to puzzle this out their first time, but I'm sure a few people did. I didn't know about it until my ng+ cycle when I looked up spoilers. He killed me at least ten times my first go of it, which is still fewer than Bloodstarved, who is broken by circle strafing LEFT, but still killed me 40 times before it finally clicked.

At the very least, Bloodborne should be applauded for the way it probably trolled most Souls vets. Looks like Souls, feels like Souls, plays like Ninja Gaiden.

While the combat is good when you find something challenging, and the overall pace of working through levels is just invigorating, the story was a bit shit.

I mean, it's roughly equal to Souls, minus the whole inverted hero tropes. Instead of being "chosen", you're just some rando who drifts into town and murders the local populace and all the gods they've been worshipping. Back story consists of some dudes who discover Cthulhu in their basement and decide to drag her out and try injecting her blood. Except for one guy who is like, "Yo, good luck with that shit, I'm gonna hang out here and point at a fucking lake." Then werewolves happen. Then two of the guys who used to hang out with lake bro decide to take a nap for ever (or maybe they were just waiting for all these fuckers to quit shitting the carpet, that isn't how dog training works my bros) while the other one turns into a giant burning REEEEEwolf. At some point, they wake up a long dead god-thing and and he gets back to his immaculate conception racket by raping all the girls in town and impregnating them with slug babies.
Ya know, maybe this backstory IS better than Dark Souls. What disappointed me though is that there seemed to be very little care taken into item placement and etc. I'm still waiting for Vaati to explain why I find Iosefka's blood all the way up Mergo's loft, or how lake bro drops a rune on death when he supposedly wasn't even aware that Caryll discovered them. Things like that, I'm either missing info, lacking imagination, or maybe they just phoned this one in. I don't know.

 

[Somberlain]

I'm still waiting for Vaati to explain why I find Iosefka's blood all the way up Mergo's loft, or how lake bro drops a rune on death when he supposedly wasn't even aware that Caryll discovered them. Things like that, I'm either missing info, lacking imagination, or maybe they just phoned this one in. I don't know.

Good thing about making your games' stories and lore vague and up to interpretation is that you can eventually do any random stuff you want to and the community will always assume that there is an intricate and carefully though out explanation behind everything

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

But first timers don't know that if you equip the tiny music box and use it when fighting Father Gascoigne. You can actually stun him when he hears the music box and defeat him pretty easily. Great fight though

This is true. I don't know how From intended players to puzzle this out their first time, but I'm sure a few people did. I didn't know about it until my ng+ cycle when I looked up spoilers. He killed me at least ten times my first go of it, which is still fewer than Bloodstarved, who is broken by circle strafing LEFT, but still killed me 40 times before it finally clicked.

At the very least, Bloodborne should be applauded for the way it probably trolled most Souls vets. Looks like Souls, feels like Souls, plays like Ninja Gaiden.

While the combat is good when you find something challenging, and the overall pace of working through levels is just invigorating, the story was a bit shit.

I mean, it's roughly equal to Souls, minus the whole inverted hero tropes. Instead of being "chosen", you're just some rando who drifts into town and murders the local populace and all the gods they've been worshipping. Back story consists of some dudes who discover Cthulhu in their basement and decide to drag her out and try injecting her blood. Except for one guy who is like, "Yo, good luck with that shit, I'm gonna hang out here and point at a fucking lake." Then werewolves happen. Then two of the guys who used to hang out with lake bro decide to take a nap for ever (or maybe they were just waiting for all these fuckers to quit shitting the carpet, that isn't how dog training works my bros) while the other one turns into a giant burning REEEEEwolf. At some point, they wake up a long dead god-thing and and he gets back to his immaculate conception racket by raping all the girls in town and impregnating them with slug babies.
Ya know, maybe this backstory IS better than Dark Souls. What disappointed me though is that there seemed to be very little care taken into item placement and etc. I'm still waiting for Vaati to explain why I find Iosefka's blood all the way up Mergo's loft, or how lake bro drops a rune on death when he supposedly wasn't even aware that Caryll discovered them. Things like that, I'm either missing info, lacking imagination, or maybe they just phoned this one in. I don't know.

Now that I look at it the way you describe it. Your character is literally some fucker out of town that kills the local population. So technically you play the asshole

 

[Silva]

Alkarl telling stories is hillarious.

Then two of the guys who used to hang out with lake bro decide to take a nap for ever (or maybe they were just waiting for all these fuckers to quit shitting the carpet, that isn't how dog training works my bros) while the other one turns into a giant burning REEEEEwolf.

There was a piece of dialogue in release version that was cut out in later updates. It implied Lawrence and Gehrman made a contract with the moon presence, which then precipitated the Hunters Dream. My guess is something in the lines of "you help us with [something] and we provide you with [another something]". My guess for the first something is getting superhuman power (the moon scented hunters) to deal with the scourge, while the second is bringing blood echoes to feed the moon presence through the doll. But these are pure speculation, of course.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

Alkarl telling stories is hillarious.

Then two of the guys who used to hang out with lake bro decide to take a nap for ever (or maybe they were just waiting for all these fuckers to quit shitting the carpet, that isn't how dog training works my bros) while the other one turns into a giant burning REEEEEwolf.

There was a piece of dialogue in release version that was cut out in later updates. It implied Lawrence and Gehrman made a contract with the moon presence, which then precipitated the Hunters Dream. My guess is something in the lines of "you help us with [something] and we provide you with [another something]". My guess for the first something is getting superhuman power (the moon scented hunters) to deal with the scourge, while the second is bringing blood echoes to feed the moon presence through the doll. But these are pure speculation, of course.

That makes total sense though. Same with Dark Souls. Feed the bonfires humanity to keep the age of fire going.

 

[Silva]

WTF Karhu is giving Merry Christmas and Friendly to everybody. Hmm, his kid must have found his login. Hey kid, if you're reading this, do NOT click the BRAZILIAN TRANNIES button at the corner. That's.. huh... your father's day job stuff... nothing interesting there.

 

[Somberlain]

Karhu needs to post more and represent the Khanate

 

[Sòren]

Now that I look at it the way you describe it. Your character is literally some fucker out of town that kills the local population. So technically you play the asshole

that's pretty much the plot of Bloodborne. the amazing thing is the game tells you this part in in the title screen sequence, but you probably don't even realize it during the first playthrough. that's also what makes the character of Djura so interesting.




they were also ripping off much of the elements of "brotherhood of the wolves" if no one pointed that out in this thread btw

amazing game though.

 

[Talby]

My guess for the first something is getting superhuman power (the moon scented hunters) to deal with the scourge, while the second is bringing blood echoes to feed the moon presence through the doll. But these are pure speculation, of course.

Sounds cool. This is one of the reasons I liked BB more than the other Souls games. The lore was cute, but it was just background noise. For BB on the other hand I found it quite entertaining trying to make heads or tails out of the whole thing.

And since we're doing fanfic,I vaguely remember saying this before, so sorry if reposting, but my belief is that the Doll is actually the only true Great One we meet in the game and I think she's actually Oedon. All others like Rom and Ebrietas are failed half-breeds. And everything is caused by Oedon working to bring about the birth of a true Great One, failing again and again, with all the unfortunate consequences, until you get the "secret" ending which implies he either succeeds, or is on the right path.

The doll can't be Oeden because Oeden is described as being formless, existing only in voice. I think Oeden's influence is still felt, like with Arianna getting pregnant with an alien baby, but we never directly interact with Oeden.

Rom and others are still Great Ones, they're just ascended from humans or maybe other things. Rom is described as a Great One in several places, same with Ebrietas, and specifically as a "legitimate Great One" in one place. Though if you want to distinguish between ascended/halfbreed Great Ones and regular/natural ones, I think you're right and we never actually meet one in the game, at least until the Old Hunters.

 

[Hyperion]

The Doll was created by Gehrman after he went insane from loneliness and his one-sided love of Maria.

It's why she gains a bit of dialogue that implies sentience after you kill Maria in The Old Hunters.
Also of suspicious note, if you listen to the 1st video, Gehrman's cry sounds identical to The Orphan of Kos's...

 

[Shackleton]

Has anyone played this through PSNow? I sure as shit ain't buying a PS4 but getting more and more tempted to grab a month of PSNow to try this out. It's been ages since I've played a decent Souls-like but I'm thinking playing it emulated over a network might be a bit too... sub-optimal. Ping for taxalot because he's about the only Codexer I know who's got PSNow.

 

[Taxnomore]

Has anyone played this through PSNow? I sure as shit ain't buying a PS4 but getting more and more tempted to grab a month of PSNow to try this out. It's been ages since I've played a decent Souls-like but I'm thinking playing it emulated over a network might be a bit too... sub-optimal. Ping for taxalot because he's about the only Codexer I know who's got PSNow.

I haven't played Bloodborne on PSNOW, but I still play other PSNOW games.

A short summary of my experience with it though :
-I'm enjoying a discount, 10 bucks instead of 15. I have a feeling 15 would be too much.
-It is not for the gamer who wants thing to be absolute perfect : yes, over wifi, there are compression artifacts, and yes, there is a minor input lag. Your experience will vary depending on how tolerant you are to these issues. For a lot of games where reaction times is not that dramatic, it works perfect. Last of Us, for exemple, played great. I would NEVER dream to play Street Fighter 4 this way though. Since I have never played a Souls game, I really don't know how critical these issues would be.

All in all, PS NOW is a thing that works nice. It is definitely not for everyone however.

I would suggest you give it a try using a free trial to see if it's your thing. Don't skip on games you like because "lol, cloud gaming". One thing of note though : I would make sure before even trying it that you have a compatible PS4 game pad OR that Bloodborne doesn't require features like gyro or touchpad, else you will be pretty fucked. But if that tells you something, I still bought myself a cheap PS4 gamepad to enjoy PS NOW.

 

[Black Angel]

WTF Karhu is giving Merry Christmas and Friendly to everybody.

Meanwhile, nearly every single posts I make in this past week or so are getting Kitty rating from him/her/it. No, Karhu, I won't be letting you pet me just because.

 

[Silva]

Sounds cool. This is one of the reasons I liked BB more than the other Souls games. The lore was cute, but it was just background noise.

Oh come on, DS lore is badass too. DS1 and it's "end of an era" vibe, DS2 with the oblivion stuff, DS3 and the shitty consequences of the cycles, etc. I think all them hit their themes home.

For BB on the other hand I found it quite entertaining trying to make heads or tails out of the whole thing.

Yeah, BB purposefully ambiguous plot is very interesting indeed, and somehow unique. I don't remember another game that was purposefully built to let players interpretate things their own way like a rorschach.

And since we're doing fanfic,I vaguely remember saying this before, so sorry if reposting, but my belief is that the Doll is actually the only true Great One we meet in the game and I think she's actually Oedon. All others like Rom and Ebrietas are failed half-breeds. And everything is caused by Oedon working to bring about the birth of a true Great One, failing again and again, with all the unfortunate consequences, until you get the "secret" ending which implies he either succeeds, or is on the right path.

Well, I think you're right about Great Ones wanting a child is a theme of the game, but I don't know about the Doll being Oedon. First because of that rare dialogue of her ("Oh Flora...") where she prays for the moon presence to comfort the Hunter. If she was Oedon, why would she need to pray to another great one? Second because the dream is, well, a dream and she's there because whoever created the place took it's imagery from Gerhman's perverted head.

But yeah, Oedon seems to have more part in this story than appearances indicate. I would love to take a look at the original From script before Miyazaki cut out the links (like that "Contract between Laurence and MP") to make shit ambiguous.

 

[Alkarl]

I'll take a crack at this interpretation stuff:
The One Reborn is Oedon.

So, my connection is pretty loose, but he's the only Great One with a tomb, meaning they consider it dead in some way, though dead in the Cthulhu mythos typically means asleep/dreaming. He's "ressurected" by the Pthumerian Bell Ringers in the plaza before you go into the Nightmare of Mensis, where Mergo, implied to be Oedon's child he had with Queen Yharnam, resides.
It's likely the Nightmare of Mensis IS also Oedon. Or at least, it is Oedon's dream. All Great Ones long for a child, or a surrogate in that childs absence, so it is unlikely that Oedon wouldn't be near his. As these things go, it's equally likely that Oedon is Mergo also. These things tend to be capable of existing in multiple states of being. Another possibility is that Oedon officially exists outside of time and space, like so many great old ones in Cthulhu mythos and that he is only able to enter via rituals like those that spawned The One Reborn.

It's also possible the Chapel Dweller is also Oedon. He does drop an Oedon Rune on death and has the only safe place that doesn't require locked doors, etc. The "incense" is likely an excuse for Oedon exerting his influence to keep the beasts at bay.

It's also possible the player character is Oedon, or a lost offspring of his, since we are not effected by the blood the way all other hunters eventually are and we can actually become a true great one by using the umbilical cords. This is a bit of a stretch, but it's a classic trope in Lovecraftian horror to end up being the monster yourself.

Edit:spelling

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

I'll take a crack at this interpretation stuff:
The One Reborn is Oedon.

So, my connection is pretty loose, but he's the only Great One with a tomb, meaning they consider it dead in some way, though dead in the Cthulhu mythos typically means asleep/dreaming. He's "ressurected" by the Pthumerian Bell Ringers in the plaza before you go into the Nightmare of Mensis, where Mergo, implied to be Oedon's child he had with Queen Yharnam, resides.
It's likely the Nightmare of Mensis IS also Oedon. Or at least, it is Oedon's dream. All Great Ones long for a child, or a surrogate in that childs absence, so it is unlikely that Oedon wouldn't be near his. As these things go, it's equally likely that Oedon is Mergo also. These things tend to be capable of existing in multiple states of being. Another possibility is that Oedon officially exists outside of time and space, like so many great old ones in Cthulhu mythos and that he is only able to enter via rituals like those that spawned The One Reborn.

It's also possible the Chapel Dweller is also Oedon. He does drop an Oedon Rune on death and has the only safe place that doesn't require locked doors, etc. The "incense" is likely an excuse for Oedon exerting his influence to keep the beasts at bay.

It's also possible the player character is Oedon, or a lost offspring of his, since we are not effected by the blood the way all other hunters eventually are and we can actually become a true great one by using the umbilical cords. This is a bit of a stretch, but it's a classic trope in Lovecraftian horror to end up being the monster yourself.

Edit:spelling

But the Oedon Chapel dweller is benign and is no threat to anyone and actually wants to help people. So does that mean Oedon is actually friendly?

 

[Alkarl]

But the Oedon Chapel dweller is benign and is no threat to anyone and actually wants to help people. So does that mean Oedon is actually friendly?

There are many benign/seemingly benevolent Great Old Ones in Cthulhu mythos. This is typically only one face, or one side of theirs. It could be the dweller gets something out of it, or that the dweller is testing/using these people, or that he/Oedon is bored. It is impossible to truly know.
Like Nyarlathotep(sp?), an aspect/avatar of the blind idiot god, Azathoth, has been known to help and hurt people.

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

So does that mean Oedon is actually friendly?

I think the idea is that none of the Great Ones are actually malevolent.

Rom and Ebrietas basically sit around minding their own business and aren't immediately hostile to the player. The Wet Nurse is just doing its job of defending Mergo. The Moon presence attacks you only if you ate the cords and the Orphan is, basically, insane and heartbroken. Amygdala is the only one that is immediately hostile to the player, but, then again, there are several Amygdala's in the game and they don't just attack you on sight. Also, I'm not sure if the Amygdala is actually a Great One, same for the One Reborn. And in the latter's case, even if he is, it might be he is just insane as a result of being reborn which might have been a botched up resurrection job, rather than actually being evil. Kos, I believe, is implied to not being actually hostile to the fishermen either, it was Gehrman and Maria who were basically assholes and fucked everything up.

That's the thing with Bloodborne that gets me the most. Nothing is really ever fully explained. And I know that From Software likes to keep it that way to figure it out on your own. Which I do think is great but for me Bloodborne is even more cryptic that any of the DS games. I think that's why I keep going back to Bloodborne all the time. It's just a fucking great game

 

[TheImplodingVoice]

But the Oedon Chapel dweller is benign and is no threat to anyone and actually wants to help people. So does that mean Oedon is actually friendly?

It is impossible to truly know.

That's why Bloodborne has so many still playing it till this day. The lore keeps it great and the gameplay is rock solid. I remember when Bloodborne came out all the "souls vets" I knew complained because the got fucked up so bad thinking they can play it the way you play Dark Souls. When instead of playing it safe you could actually be a lot more aggressive and kind of get punished for being more defensive. Bloodborne and Demon's Souls are definitely my favourite of all the "Soulsborne" games. And while I love DS1, 2 and 3. Demons's Souls and Bloodborne still are just a lot more fun and both have better lore. And Bloodborne apparently by the looks of it has some connection to Demon's Souls. Just in a far away future after Demon's Souls