The lack of story and not knowing why I was doing what I was doing was killing it for me. I will continue it but I have other games I'd rather play first.

All I can say is that I played 10-15 hours of Bloodborne and then quit. I normally love the Souls games, but Bloodborne is no Souls game. One of the big things for me is that Souls games give me the freedom to play the way I want. Bloodborne takes that freedom away.

It really killed my enthusiasm for Souls games to the point that I didn't even want to try Dark Souls 3 after that. I've just started playing Dark Souls 3 a little while ago and now I'm getting into the series again. So the Souls games really are great, but Bloodborne is crap.

And yet you can make a bloodtinge build, an arcane build, a strength build or a skill build. They all require a different play style to git gud. As for OP try different weapons and go to old Yarnham. The game really takes of from that point onward. There is also a lot of lore hidden in Bloodborne. All the notes you read will make sense in the end. As for the regular NPC''s don't care about them to much, since you don't really need them.

If you're not enjoying it, I think it's best to move onto something else that will leave you more satisfied.

You're acting like I haven't played the game.  I have.  Whatever freedom you may get in Bloodborne pales in comparison to a Souls game.

Haha... ditto for me. I bought it years ago and just... stopped. It's an awesome game but cheap as hell because it's all trial and error. When you work for an hour and a half to get to a new place you haven't been yet and then some monster jumps out of nowhere and kills you, you should not have to do all that shit all over again. If they're going to drop randomly overpowered monsters out of trees or from around corners, fine. But give us three lives and let us start at least some where near where we died, so we can practice and feel like we're not losing hours of our life.

Nioh is a very different game from the Souls series as well as Bloodborne.

Bloodborne isn't very different from the Souls series though.

Currently I am playing through Bloodborne as well since it was free and I am about 2/3s through the game. But yeah farming for blood vials is really annoying, the lantern placements are also pretty annoying and useless for the most part. Going back to base always demotivates me a bit, but that isn't too different from Dark Souls 3. Only thing is the lanterns don't allow you to do anything but return to base. The monsters in Bloodborne are a bit more frustrating than Dark Souls 3, as well as minor hit box annoyances.

So far I like Nioh> Dark Souls 3= Bloodborne.

Some things are better, some things are worse. But I think Bloodborne is definitely worth playing.

Edit: Oh and I will say if you struggled on Father Gascoigne then the game or your build might not be for you. Future bosses are a lot harder and a lot more cheap than Father Gascoigne. He is quite possibly one of the most fair bosses I fought out of them all.

I have hated every souls game I have tried. I maybe got a bit further in bloodborne then the others, but I still hated it. I wouldn’t blame you if you gave it up, I certainly did. Story matters a lot for me, and these games just don’t tell very good stories...

How can anyone hate BB? Its so well done from the combat to the lore. If you're losing interest then you might want to try different builds and weapons but to understand the lore you need good imagination because they won't spell anything out for you.

Your hangups sound similar to my own when I first tried Demon's Souls. Soulslikes can be an acquired taste but the vast majority who press on seem to be very glad they did once everything finally clicks. I'm still not the biggest Souls nut myself but after breaking myself in with Demon's, Bloodborne became my favorite of the genre.

As for your main question, the game does open up after a bit longer, allowing for more specialization, exploration, and new and interesting experiences. Give it a few more hours.