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

[Sindra]

Decided to make a dedicated thread now that the game is released, for things that don't have to deal with its development and the Kickstarter and just for playing the game itself.



I'm just over 50% through the map thus far after putting probably 8-9 hours into it already (spent close to an hour alone on Zangetsu).

(click to show/hide)

Already came across the "bad ending" too. Looks like they're sticking to the habit of needing pre-requisites met going into the Gebel fight to advance to the better endings. Currently backtracking to see if I can find anything I missed or hints towards what I'm supposed to do to advance.

[Abnormal Freak]

Ritual of the Moon—is that a special combination of the two games? 

[Sindra]

GODDAMNIT ALL TO HELL. Fixed.


I played a lot of both games in the past 4 days. They've very much blended together. (Especially with how many bosses they share)

[Jazz Paladin Productions]

Okay, so without delving into immediate spoilers...

I do find that many years ago, I often dreamed about SOTN having a much larger and more expansive map. Now that this has most certainly happened in ROTN , I find that as much as I had wanted a bigger castle to explore, this was perhaps not the best thing to ask for. I find the walks through the castle to take too long when needing to get somewhere, even with teleporting rooms available.

And well, then there are the bugs.  Every time I die, the loading screen freezes and I have to restart the application. There are others for sure, but this is by far the most annoying thing in the game.

The first few  bosses after the galleon were challenging, but after that I am agreeing with critics that simply refer to them as button-mashing-exchanging-of-blows.  For the most part. I am only 50% map complete so far, so no idea if this will hold true.

I do like how the controls and movesets are identical to SOTN. I am not liking the sheer number of shards one needs to switch between to access skills that progress you through the dungeon--I wish it was all accessible via commands similar to SOTN in this regard, even with shortcuts, it can be annoying having to switch skills to go forward in the dungeon at times. SOTN had it perfectly nailed in this regard, it really negated the need for switching items on and off by having a great set of control pad commands.

Voice Acting : David Hayter does something special for MGS, but I don't feel anything great about him in this game.

Belgrade's character, great and funny.

I also like how every weapon is even more viable of a choice now. I used to love even the simple Jeweled gloves kung fu in SOTN, and am glad it is beefed up a bit more now.

[Zuljaras]

After beating the game I think that it is a great game but cheap execution.

- Some places were very empty. By that I mean they were soulless. No attention to detail at all.
- The Oriental Lab was done by someone who does NOT care at all. It was ugly and boring.
- The same goes for the Behemoth area. Just ugly and empty.
- Many things were regurgitated. I mean I know this is the case with all metroidvanias BUT here it look very bad.
- Most bullet souls (shards) were boring. It is like "Hey you killed that enemy now you get the power to throw it!".

The game has amazing start but the finish was not OK for me.

I was hoping for more polish and variety with that budget!

If they went with pure 2D sprites style I think they would've make it one of the best games ever created.
I know that reusing assets with 2D is better but to reuse 3D assets is just atrocious!


I know I have said many bad things but still I give the game 7/10.

[Jazz Paladin Productions]

What do you mean by "execution" exactly?

I still rate SOTN higher, I normally give it a 9.7 out of 10, and round to 10.

So far I rate this about 8.7.

It sure has the feel of SOTN, but a little of the soul is missing for me.  I find the dungeon layout a bit more interesting in SOTN, and streamlined.

[Jazz Paladin Productions]

After beating the game I think that it is a great game but cheap execution.

- Some places were very empty. By that I mean they were soulless.

If they went with pure 2D sprites style I think they would've make it one of the best games ever created.
I know that reusing assets with 2D is better but to reuse 3D assets is just atrocious!


I know I have said many bad things but still I give the game 7/10.

Yeah, it is indeed an element of "soul" to the game. Even though some things copy SOTN exactly in both design and execution, it is that "simple" little thing that is missing. When all is said in done, I will, like always , still go back and replay SOTN. I will probably play through ROTN maybe twice and may not pick it up again ever after if it remains in its current state. Who knows what else the next DLC's will do to affect things?

But I don't think multilplayer will improve the gameplay experience at all, in fact I think it will make it worse. The game is already long enough IMHO without having to time things with a partner just right.

[Zuljaras]

What do you mean by "execution" exactly?

I still rate SOTN higher, I normally give it a 9.7 out of 10, and round to 10.

So far I rate this about 8.7.

It sure has the feel of SOTN, but a little of the soul is missing for me.  I find the dungeon layout a bit more interesting in SOTN, and streamlined.

I mean that they had a very good idea but rushed it and that is why the game lacks in certain departments.

Also the Castle areas feel very disconnected. Like they are there as a last resort. Like the mentioned above Oriental Lab and the Behemoth Lair.

[Sindra]

Kinda anti-climatic with that ending. Maybe I've just played enough of these that nothing is really much of a surprise.

[Abnormal Freak]

The story bits are intrusive and annoying so I've started skipping them. I hate that on PS4, the lighting in the background glitches out in certain rooms. I think IGA should've made this a 2D pixel art game because that could've helped the game look less budgety.

[Castle34hk]

I just wondering a quick thing is it really IGAS biggest castle? Beaucuse it dint feel that for mye but trust me its BIG but the biggest really for a metroidvania?

[Super Waffle]

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?

[KaZudra]

I find a couple things odd; There were maybe 3-4 Shortcuts and 3-4 Knights, Kinda wish it were replaced with more useful things once the initial was obtained.
Shortcuts were barely useful; plenty of presets, yes, but most situations call for changing 1 piece of equipment.
All traversal Shards + Armor were somewhat underutilized, It would have been cool to see more Craftwork Puzzles or a Gravity section (kinda like MMX8), reflector beam is pretty amazing once upgraded.

Guns are... okay? Really wished you could equip 2 weapons.

Very happy to see the Switch version getting some 60fps optimization, visuals be damned I've personally tried to play at 30fps lock.... It's only good before Miriam starts getting fast and once you GOTTA GO FAST that's when it becomes unplayable.

Downscaling works just fine but upscaling does nothing.

The game supports modding, so this could be some great future-proofing down the line (there's already a ultrawide mod).

[JR]

Shortcuts were barely useful; plenty of presets, yes, but most situations call for changing 1 piece of equipment.

Agreed. I only used 1 shortcut, and that was for gold farming.

[aensland]

Guns are... okay? Really wished you could equip 2 weapons.

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.

It sure has the feel of SOTN, but a little of the soul is missing for me.  I find the dungeon layout a bit more interesting in SOTN, and streamlined.

The game is a huge SotN refence, if you played it you'll never get stuck on this game.