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My experience with Fromsoftware games began with Sekiro. I loved it. It is my favorite game of all time.
Elden Ring was generally good, but it wasn't Sekiro. I think the game has big issues, but it's generally fun.
I recently cleared DSIII except Midir. This is an optional boss and after looking up guides for him I decided it wasn't worth my time since I don't intend to do NG+. However, DSIII is good. It's just not my cup of tea even though I did like it more than Elden Ring.

As far as other somewhat Souls-like games go I love Nioh 2 and cleared NG and NG+. The story is poor and the zones are weak, but the combat is great.

I've been dreaming of playing Bloodborne for quite some time. I'm guilty of overhyping the game to myself. I went into Sekiro blind and was amazed. I went into Bloodborne expecting something mind-blowing and was let down. That's on me. A game isn't life changing. It's very good, but I warn potential buyers.

1) If you don't have a Playstation you can play it on PS+ for $20 US per month. It should be playable and beatable at 500/mbps or better. Obviously it will perform better on a PS4/5. I would highly recommend playing it on PS+ before getting a PS4/5 just so you can test it out. At a minimum, the performance is good enough for that.

2) Unlike recent Fromsoft games you have to grind primary materials. In Sekiro you have to buy mats to fuel your prosthetics, but it's pretty minor. In Bloodborne you have to farm/buy bullets (provide damage and parry) and you have to farm/buy healing materials. This is the biggest frustration for most people unless you abuse a Chalice dungeon that gives you a ton of purchasing power for minimal effort.

3) The exploration is easily the worst I've experienced in a Fromsoft game. Left to my own volition I ended up in areas dramatically early because not only was the primary path not clear, it wasn't even close to clear. Part of the problem is that certain passages in the second zone open seemingly at random, there are minimal Bonfires/Graces, and lots of shortcuts.

4) Boss runbacks are awful. Thankfully, the hardest bosses have the easiest runbacks, but there are some other ones that are awful.

5) Bosses are generally not good in the base game. I can't speak to the DLC, but the base game bosses are easily inferior to Sekiro and DSIII. DSIII features a boss that has a zero windup almost 1-shot charge. This might be the most hated thing in the game. Bloodborne has the same thing and you have to somehow dodge twice or unlock and dodge in order to avoid it. I've avoided the attack, but honestly can't tell you how.
Generally speaking, Bloodborne suffers from what I call giant boss syndrome. You can blindly hump the back of the bosses legs and roll or dodge after 2-3 attacks for the win. Seriously.
It also has several gimmick bosses. One is a non-threat unless you have specific currency. No, seriously. If you spend all of a currency the boss can basically not hurt you. Another can be beaten by poisoning him from a spot you can't be hurt and this honestly the best way to handle the fight because it is awful.
To give you a better idea of how unbalanced the bosses are...I no-hit and 1-shot a boss only knowing I needed fire damage and an anti-heal. There were also bosses that took me 15-20 attempts. The difficulty was all over the place.

6) There really aren't builds. There are technically builds around specific weapon types and if you go deep Arcane you can use a lot of tools to great effect, but the gameplay doesn't significantly change. I don't have an issue with this, but I frequently see it as a criticism of Sekiro and find it strange that Bloodborne isn't criticized for the same. Every build will effectively play the same ASFAIK except for Blades of Mercy.

7) Chalice Dungeons are a special kind of cancer. Not because they're specifically hard. They might be, I don't know. They have tons of empty space and you have to run around the entire fracking thing to get the materials you need to access more difficult dungeons.

TLDR: I do think it's good game and worth playing, but it's not the magnum opus I've seen it made out to be.

My experience with Bloodborne is mostly the same as yours. I wanted to like it so much, but the issues that you mentioned made it a frustrating experience for me.

To put it into perspective, Demon's Souls, Dark Souls 1, 2, 3 and to a lesser extent Elden Ring are some of my favourite games of all time, so it drives me crazy when I hear people say that Bloodborne is the greatest of the Souls games

It's not like I'm the kind of player to hide behind a shield either, I'm usually very attacking in Souls games, so BB really should have hit the mark.

I don't really have anything else to add buddy, except to confirm that I agree with you

I've replayed the first 3-4 bosses on NG+ and NG with skill/Threaded Cane. I think the problem is that the Forbidden Woods (middle zone) is garbage, you have a few trash mobs with cancer mechanics (Snatcher can 1-shot, Winter Lanterns are the worst thing I've seen in a FS game), and the boss quality is all over. Like...if you know the mechanics for a potential final boss you can no-hit because just running around the arena protects you.

I know the tonal shift is a big sell for a lot of people, but I almost think the first few zones are the best.

It came out at a time when I had little dedicated gaming time, but I tried it out on one of my rare free nights. I spent 4 hours trying to find the second bonfire and somehow got way way too far into the game without being able to save before dying and I kind of left it there unfortunately.

 LunarSol wrote:
It came out at a time when I had little dedicated gaming time, but I tried it out on one of my rare free nights. I spent 4 hours trying to find the second bonfire and somehow got way way too far into the game without being able to save before dying and I kind of left it there unfortunately.

Yeah, the Lamps are kind of goofy. There are technically 4 in Central Yharnam, but only one is actually useful. There's an endgame zone that actually has normal Lamps, but aside from that there's really only ever 1 Lamp and you access deeper parts of the zone via unlocking shortcuts.