Who else thinks Simon's Quest is...
*Simon's Quest was one of the first games I came back to when I was getting
back into Castlevania in the mid-to-late '90s. The experience stuck with me, and at the time, I had never beaten it. Sure, it is rough around the edges, and broken in spots, yet its sense of adventure, atmosphere, and ability to keep the classic action-platforming at the series' heart while innovating makes it a memorable entry. I am always tempted to put it high on my list of favorite Castlevanias, and it has definitely earned a well-deserved honorable mention, if nothing else. I'm certainly in the "like" camp.
Aside from the rather obscure Vampire Killer, Simon's Quest was the first entry in the series to add RPG/questing/backtracking/open-world elements, expanding greatly on the former's efforts in that area. So, it's a proto-SotN by default, even if IGA doesn't acknowledge it as such (and I can see why hairs might be split on this topic). Still, there's no denying that it's Metroid-like, if you play both games on the NES. Speaking of splitting hairs, curiously, IGA himself states that Zelda, not Metroid, was the main design influence for SotN, as far as I've heard. However, I believe it was mentioned off-hand during the Twitch stream (during either the Shantae or Gunvolt section) that IGA does actually like Simon's Quest; and as an aside, SotN's rebound gem sub-weapon seems very much a reference to Simon's Quest's crystal sub-weapon by someone on the team, and collecting Dracula's Relics is the endgame in both entries.
So, there's two sides to every story. But none of this is really very relevant; it's up to the design team to decide what they want to be in Bloodstained. All I ask is that the game design isn't flat, and honors platforming. (IGA said in the tech-demo video that he doesn't want unseen instant kill pits or pinpoint jumps, I believe, but there has to be a middle ground; and if not, I'm counting on Classic Mode to scratch that itch. It is ironic, though, that Rondo of Blood, hailed for its more non-linear nature, has pits and blind drops that will likely kill you just as much as take you to a hidden passage; Stage 4's dungeon stage with the elevator comes to mind. Anyway, in this day and age, so long as it's clear to the player of the consequences, I have no problem with consequential and strategic platforming; I expect to see it in
some capacity in the main mode of Bloodstained, and I expect to see it featured in the Classic Mode of Bloodstained. Based on Inti Creates' past works, I think they can pull off something fresh while still honoring SotN.)
*By the way, do we really know who came up with the SotN-type design? I thought IGA took over and completed the project after the basic design was set up by Toru Hagihara and/or other members of the team. This has always been confusing to me.
*I did wonder how in-the-loop everyone was being kept with the language barriers during the Twitch stream, yes. But on the other hand, it was pretty informal, so maybe no one cared.
*I am curious how Bloodstained will do at retail after having such a success on KS. Will there be enough consumers left? And will that matter at this point?