This is some really helpful advice. It never occurred to me to dodge forward, because I don't want to rely on i-frames to stay alive. I also didn't realize that Bloodborne was so generous with those i-frames relative to Dark Souls.

What you said about resetting to a neutral position really gets me thinking. In Dark Souls, I liked to hover in front of the boss and react to their attacks, but it sounds like Bloodborne asks you to be much more active and less reactionary during those fights.

So you'd recommend the blunderbuss over the pistol for a riposte-heavy build? Again, it seems like I was going in trying to use Dark Souls parry timing, but it sounds like Bloodborne wants you to do the riposte earlier in the attack (the startup as opposed to the active phase).

One more: do you have any streamers or particularly good runs that you might be able to recommend to me? What got Dark Souls to click for me was watching hbomberguy's video comparing it to Bloodborne (kind of ironic), so maybe that approach will help. I'm out of town for one more day, but I think I'm gonna give it another spin when I get back - I'm inspired!

Thanks a lot, man. I enjoy talking about these games almost as much as actually playing them.