Topic: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Gameplay, Story & Spoilers

[X]

Picked up the game and despite the flaws I am enjoying it quite a bit.

The whip weapons are a bit of a let-down unfortunately. Not in terms of power but in terms of functionality. I guess they were trying to differentiate the whip combat from CV's as much as possible, but I think they took it a bit too far from where I would have liked to have see it. There are other games that I played in the past that had the use of whips which worked out much better and still stood out from Castlevania's.

The voice acting I don't find to be all that bad. It seems to work out okay. But the cut scene where Miriam and Zangestu board the train was a bit much and not necessary. The train was right beside them on the platform (stationary) and they could've just climbed on board. Why make it unnecessarily complicated? The scene was also badly animated to begin with.

Guns are really imbalanced because they're sorta useless early game, but with Diamond Bullets + Recycle hat it becomes the most broken thing ever (even stronger than sub-200 HP Red Remembrance + great sword)
Doesn't helps that the game outside Nightmare is really easy because exp is flat and stat stacking is op.

I gotta keep this in mind. I actually like the long range combat via the gun since the whip functions are a bit useless for me.

[KaZudra]

Guns are really imbalanced because they're sorta useless early game, but with Diamond Bullets + Recycle hat it becomes the most broken thing ever (even stronger than sub-200 HP Red Remembrance + great sword)

I agree. I think I'm going to plan a guns-only run... I started with a LUCK build and did alot of unintentional farming (aka I got a little lost, this is good), and found out just how absolutely broken the crafting system is once you Alchemist's Bounty.

I think the biggest downside would have to be boss-rush, you can finish both runs on normal and Hard under 6 minutes total.

[Sul_Yong]

So I actually loved the heck out of this game. Even after I had to restart my game cuz of the 1.02 patch. I didn't even know about our Dungeon Clan weapon, so I'm preparing myself for a third run.

I ended up beating the game using only whips, and I freaking enjoyed it cuz it was a new way to play these games even if it wasn't optimal compared to Juste or Nathan.

I'm just glad another one of these got made, man. These last several years, all my friends recommending me all these "Metroidvanias" when I've never fully enjoyed Metroid and they've never played a single Castlevania. Other metroidvanias don't scratch my Castlevania itch in any way. RotN is a damn dream come true for me, even with all its flaws.

[aensland]

The whip weapons are a bit of a let-down unfortunately. Not in terms of power but in terms of functionality.

Yes, they don't feel that "rewarding" compared to other weapons, you just use them for the crit spam skill and that isn't that fun when everything is jumping around.
But it can't be an Igarashi game without half of the inventory being not used at all (maces/staffs are just swords with another skin and doesn't gives another playstyle or uniqueness)

I think the biggest downside would have to be boss-rush, you can finish both runs on normal and Hard under 6 minutes total.

My best time is 48 seconds, but not sure if it's just me, but it only gives 16/32 bit coins the first time you beat them.
The rest of the times I just got ethers and random materials

[X]

I honestly didn't know this till just a few minutes ago. I had them in my inventory since the earliest playthroughs of Bloodstained but I never put them on until tonight. That of course is the Shovel weapon and the Ex-Shovel armour. I became Shovel Knight, lol! I was soaking damage like those sponge enemies and killing baddies like Shovel Knight did in his game. But man! Moving around in that armour is loud. It was a nice throwback to SotN where Alucard can become the Axe knight if he has the armour set. I wonder how killing a boss would be as Shovel knight. I should try it when I get the chance.

[The Puritan]

Finished it just now. What a ride. What they did with

(click to show/hide)

Dominique is something I wish IGA did with Mathias back in LOI. He should've played a much bigger role in Leon's quest so that his betrayal would've been a surprise.

[KaZudra]

Finished it just now. What a ride. What they did with

(click to show/hide)

Dominique is something I wish IGA did with Mathias back in LOI. He should've played a much bigger role in Leon's quest so that his betrayal would've been a surprise.

(click to show/hide)

Kinda wished IGA didn't go so heavy handed with the foreshadowing, I put 2+2 together when seeing the portrait in the cutter's room and seeing her in the secret lab, however the Alfred twist did catch me a little off-guard.

[NagoriyukiSlayer]

OK, I just beat the game, and I have a lot to ramble about. Some of it being praises, observations, criticisms, and everything in between. I wouldn't say it's a review as much as it is a retrospective on a game that I think a lot of us on this forum wanted and were hoping would be a slam dunk. But is it the slam dunk of Castlevania we were always wanting?

To start off with, I'm just grateful that we got a true Metroidvania game to begin with. Yes, other indie games have taken elements from both Metroid and Castlevania alike, but unlike some people who will be going into this game, I haven't played everyone of them, or if I have, I've barely ever even started them. Unfortunately, a lot can change in 10 years, including what one is doing with a lot of their time. I use 10 years as a reference since that's about how long it's been since we got Order of Ecclesia, the last IGAvania game coming from the man himself.

That being said, when I saw that the game was going to be 2.5D, even back then, I figured it wouldn't live up to my imagination of what 2.5D could be in 2019. There's games like Dragon's Crown and the like that still prove that 2D can become like a moving art piece in video game form, but since then, we've seen games that do this with 2D:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0zqh9spQ7g

Yes, there's some non-gameplay footage spliced in-between the gameplay shots, but c'mon: Arc System Works made what was a fledgling property into a comeback that even this diehard fan gave up on until he saw the footage of the game online and lamented, at the time, before it and its revisions got released on Steam, having to buy a PS4 to experience, which, in 2019, with the Yakuza series coming to PC more often in various ways (be it RPCS3 or Steam), it makes PC the superior platform, but that's besides the point: 2D has come a long ways such that, while ROTN graphics aren't as bad as the pizza explosions and other BS from Mighty No. Where's the 3DS and Vita versions of the Game Making those Backers Cry Like Anime Fans on Prom Night?, it still feels weird going back to levels that look like we're in an early PS3/Xbox 360 game "remastered" for the current gen, except using an engine wiith better documentation and support than UE3, which makes the problems with the Switch version, which was the console that I picked for the tier I personally backed, all the more upsetting, though I thankfully experienced the game post-1.02 patch via GOG like Jorge did. (As much as I love Steam, if GOG had a similar library of games to the former, GOG would be my preferred choice. No, I wasn't paid to say that. Still, fuck the Epic Store)

Still, if the graphics for the gameplay are OK, maybe the dialogue might be a little better, right? Eh, here's where it resembles Mighty No. 9: static character models with no expressions. And it's not just for dialogue textboxes. When you cook food with Johannes, Miriam does an animation, and if you're not trying to make another JJBA reference, you might expect her to make a cute expression to be all like, "I did it!" in conjuction with her jumping up in excitement. Nope. Just the same facial animation. This is not the only problem: sometimes, when you're killing enemies in the Realm of Red Laziness Ripping Off Giant Land from SMB3, there will be black polygons protruding from the floor that are untextured. Thankfully, it didn't cause the game to crash (I only experienced that in the Not-Clock-Tower which has one of the more memorable themes of the game, more on that in a a bit), but both this graphical glitch as well as an untextured wall in the same area in the last parentheses points to a bigger problem I have with the game: it just feels rushed all around.

Now, when I say that the game is rushed, that's not to say that it doesn't feel like a genuine attempt at making a bigger budget Castlevania game with everything that comes with it, but the problem is in the execution, I personally find. In pretty much every Castlevania game other than SOTN, the 3DVanias, and the DS games, you only have two face buttons and maybe use one or two of the shoulder buttons. For most of the systems the games appeared on, this was adequate and the game was designed around it. I'm sure that this game was designed around those same limitations when those limitations, for all of the systems this game was seeing a release on, shouldn't have even been a problem. Like, look at Super Castlevania 4: not only are the subweapons mapped to a different button (which this game does, but the execution on the subweapon or not-Soul idea taken from AoS is subpar, to say the least), but you can do your regular attack in all eight directions of a d-pad. Considering you don't push Up+Attack to use a the Not-Bullet Soul anymore, this really feels like a missed opportunity. I know, this is nitpicking, but it's a minor issue that's on top of another hill of minor issues that feel like it could've used some polish: speed.

Yes, you can backdash and slide (and not hurt yourself most of the time when attacking an enemy, a much appreciated improvement!), but not to the same extent as SOTN, and yeah, I know that speed wasn't intended for that game, especially when you mix backdashing and a shield together, but Circle of the Moon had you being able to dash with two button presses in the direction you wanted to go. Can you imagine how much faster Miriam would be if she didn't have to equip an accessory to move faster and could run at will? We had the Black Panther soul in AoS, and while I didn't get every shard in the game, I couldn't find anything similar to it in my playthrough which included getting 98% map completion. It's another missed opportunity to fix something that could have elevated this game above the portable ones. But how about those shards?

I mean...they're just Souls from AoS/DoS and maybe kind of like Glyphs in OOE? I never finished that one. By the time I got around to being interested in it, my apathy towards Castlevania at the time and all of the years of not owning a means to play it (my portable gaming years that didn't involve a Switch ended with the GBA, tbh), made it so that the only one I ever felt like finishing was DoS since that was the one that was universally praised whereas the latter two were kind of Made-For-Castlevania-Fan games. Except that these Shards don't do much interesting. Oh, I got this Bat shard? Maybe I can turn into a bat and fly around...oh, she shoots a bunch of bats from her hand and hits an enemy for multiple hits at once. A spinning axe that acts as a large cross? Yep, sounds about right. The only thing that'd new is projectile shards that you can aim with the right analog stick, which is a neat idea but it feels a little weird to control. Not to mention, there's some items that are required for progress locked behind these particular shards that I don't know that you can part with at the shop, but if that's what you can do, then that's another misstep that should have been taken into consideration. About the only cool thing about the Passive shards is that, if you feel like farming for 9 of them and can farm for more stuff to craft upgrades to the Shards, you get permanent buffs that can stack as permanent abilities. Really, though, this ranking system should have ONLY been for the passives and not everything else, as the need to upgrade things for the other options make it hard to change what your abilities can do other than, "provides more coverage/distance, hits harder/faster, or uses less MP, etc.) Needless, to say, I only collected passive shards and grinded while doing so as a natural consequence of killing so many enemies for item drops in a process I didn't think Igarashi would take as a tactic from Circle of the Moon, yet here we are.

Still, to get to the heart of Bloodstained's problem, you have to find out what it lacks, and what it lacks...is blood to fill its Castlevania heart.

The plot of the game is that, ten years ago, aristocrats essentially said alchemy is dead, science 4TW, and alchemists were all about using this special book to summon demons from another realm that led to a war that saw the humans winning at the end of it all. The war was the result of them performing a ritual on Alucard-With-Relius-Clover's-Mask (you'll understand this reference if you played Blazblue) or something, and Miriam got amnesia from going into a slumber after being spared as a sacrifice or something because of Johannes and Not-Gandalf saving her life. The setup is OK, and is executed about as nonchalantly as you could imagine it, complete with it following the same notes, almost beat for beat, as SOTN's in more ways than one. These are just demons. Not monsters like Flea Men, Frankenstein, The Mummy, Legion, Dracula, etc.. All public domain, yet for some reason, Igarashi couldn't use them. I'm no lawyer, and I absolutely understand if he just couldn't do it lest Konami go full 2015-Kojima on Igarashi and disown the man, but this game just doesn't have anything that gave Castlevania the edge it needed. The enemies bleed, but none of them die the way the Vampire Soldier did in SOTN, or the Zombies in DoS, or explode in spectacular, testosterone-pleasing glory like pretty much every enemy in SOTN. Some of the enemies have the same creepy vibes, but it's all generic; Anytime an enemy is refrerred to as a Morte, it usually means that it's an enemy that IGA would be at risk of lawsuit over if he wasn't playing his cards carefully. Anytime you see a Shovel Knight armor replace an Axe Armor...OK, I'm kidding, that was pretty clever, actually. If only the Shovel Knight could actually bounce off the ground with his shovel.

Still, the lack of inspiration or originality doesn't end with the setup. The character designs and their roles feel ripped from various Castlevania games, be it Zangetsu looking so similar to Gabriel Belmont of LoS fame that, if this were some whack alternate timeline to the LoSVerse I'd believe you. Miriam looks like a more kawaii Shanoa, (not that I'm necessarily complaining, mind you. ) and I already said what Dracu-I'm sorry, I mean, Gebel looks like outside of the cameo voiced by Robert Belgrade himself. It is nice seeing Konami game voice actors being contacted for this game and to hear their voices, even if, hearing David Hayter now, he sounds like a B-movie character!

All of this is to say that Bloodstained isn't without heart: in terms of gameplay, everything functions and feels just right. It's just that it feels like more blood needed to be pumped into that heart in order for this game to blow yours truly's socks off in terms of everything including the OST which isn't bad by any means, but compared to the other games, it just doesn't sound like what I'd think of when I think "Castlevania made with an actual budget." Compare any of these tracks to The Tragic Prince, the arrangements of Vampire Killer/Bloody Tears, Beginning/any other catchy tune in the older Castlevania games. Like, the style is there, but the feeling of finally hearing a new Castlevania game with high quality music seemed to be fulfilled audio-wise more so in Castlevania Harmony of Despair.

Wow, this post has gone on like the Energizer Bunny. I'll see myself out!

[X]

Wow, this post has gone on like the Energizer Bunny. I'll see myself out!

LOL! Good read and I get where you're coming from. The game is rough in many areas and not just bug-wise either. I'm enjoying it but at times it feels like a chore to get this or that done. This game really needs a proper bestiary. Sure it has one but it only tells you about the shards. I need something to tell me who drops what and that's not in the game at all. I also find the crafting system to be somewhat tedious. This is the same problem I had with DoS. I'd much rather find/collect dropped items, weapons, armours, etc. from enemies and hidden rooms then put together a weapon that I might need more of in order to craft an even better one, but requires me to use up lots of resources for a convoluted recipe that I need to collect from enemies that aren't listed in the bestiary in order to find them! Honestly it's a waste of my time. Cooking is also high on the tedium list as well. I've only gotten as far as to make the old woman some corn chowder. But again the ingredients to make said dishes are leading me on an un-merry goose chase. I don't know about anyone else but CoD's crafting system felt much better (minus the stealing bit).

[The Puritan]

How come I can't equip a sword AND kung-fu shoes at the same so I can do Green Ranger moves while counting in French and fighting with a sword?

They really should've keyed the Circle/B button to a second weapon slot. You can't call this game the SOTN Killer if you can't even dual-wield.

[Dark Nemesis]

So we backers on ps4, how do we activate IGA secret boss quest? He's the only one missing for shards completion.

[KaZudra]

So we backers on ps4, how do we activate IGA secret boss quest? He's the only one missing for shards completion.

That's not good, you should have a code for IGA's Back Pack, Then the quest should have been available at the very start of the game.
If you have "Avenge the death of Julius", Just go back to the Gebel room and fight him.

[Gaawa-chan]

Considering you don't push Up+Attack to use a the Not-Bullet Soul anymore, this really feels like a missed opportunity.

I agree that they could have made it so you could equip more souls this way.  Bit of a missed opportunity, but the shortcut system can be used to replicate such a thing.

We had the Black Panther soul in AoS, and while I didn't get every shard in the game, I couldn't find anything similar to it in my playthrough which included getting 98% map completion.

It's called Accelerator and it is in the Den of Behemoths.  Race the ninja.  You can use Reflector Ray to gain ground on him as he'll freeze while it's fired off.

I'd argue that the real problem isn't that there aren't enough movement speed boosts in the game; it's that you get them far too late into the game.  It should be noted that all movement speed items/books/etc stack on each other which means that by end-game you're very fast.  But in NG+ you lose the books, which is pretty lame... but honestly that was the case in several of the Castlevanias as well so I'm not surprised.  Accelerator can be carried over to NG+ which makes replaying the game very fast.  You can do 100% runs of the castle in less than two hours with it easily.

[Aridale]

Ok Ive beat the game but clearly I missed a few things... Whats this dungeon weapon that was mentioned? Also how do you ng+? I can still play my cleared game but I havent seen any ng+ option

[Aceearly1993]

NG+ option can only be seen after you beat the true ending

(click to show/hide)

defeat Bael at the deepest lair of Glacial Tomb

; the save file should have "Clear" mark following the staff credit's end, then back to the save slots screen, press the LT button on the Xbox controller to active NG+ option - other versions on different platforms has respective specific button responsible for such function, e.g.: "Page up" key for default value in PC (Steam) version.