Just an Update, Scaling back ideas and keeping things simple (hahaha).
Whip Parts system; Akin to HoD's weapon select but with a twist, You can customize all aspects of your whip. You can make the Leather whip viable by backing the lack of power with speed, yet you can also switch to chain to add some wind-up but balanced out with more damage, Tips and hilts are customizable, but I'll think of something for those.
(Currently Whip parts are in the CV2 remake with upgradable parts via crafting)
Whip-Sword-Dagger; Whip is customizable, Sword is your default secondary (any pick-up can be), and Daggers are infinite, Damage is 3-2-1 respectively, Basically it's to give Daggers a bit more balance and usability against more hard to reach foes at a cost of doing little damage, likewise the sword is quite fast and best suited for really close encounters, Whip is still the old-trusted weapon, but balanced a bit more, allowing only diagonals when grounded or midair (Upper Diagonals grounded, Lower Diagonals mid-air).
Sub-Weapon Mods; You can pick-up weapon uprade crests and exchange them to unlock a subweapon mod; this changes how subweapons work similar to HoD's book system but a little more mechanical than magical - Daggers can have a Triple shot, Charging, or SoTN Spamming, mods also modify Heart usage with beefier ones consuming more and the utility ones requiring a little less.
Borrowing from Sonic; I like the idea of Theming levels with thier own exclusive gimmicks and enemies, as well as having more natural levels having sloped and angled terrain as man-made ones have a more flat and uniform feel.
Borrowing From Megaman; Playing the classics again showed me how to make good enemy and stage design without doing much, You can teach players mechanics and gimmicks quite easily in a safer environment and as long as enemies properly telegraph their actions they can be managed, as well as balancing weapons to where there isn't anything super-overpowered or anything pathetically useless. Given how enemies like to make a return on the wily stages, I'd like to do the same to challange the player on what they've learned on their journey.
Checkpoints; The goal is to make a difficult game that is both fair and forgiving, so you'll see checkpoints as well as save rooms. Save rooms act as they always do but checkpoints act as a soft quicksave with a visual indicator, essentially they will act as "lives" and if you die without those lives you will have to start from the save room, Save rooms will also have more significance and will have unique textures of indication so there will not pass them on accident, also checkpoints do reset to 3 lives as you pass through another checkpoint or save point.
Movement; The movement is akin to Bloodlines where you do move a little faster than normal, you can tippy-toe like the megaman games and have full air control, you'll also have a dash of sorts but I'm still working on it mechanically, Taking Damage will be a little unforgiving as you'll have the knockback mechanics of Dracula X, so crouching to tank a hit is viable.
"But Kazudra, You've been working on this CV2 remake for fucking years, and we've gotten absolutely nothing but pretty screenshots from photoshop"
I started this project in college and now with a job, time is a bitch.