Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Catch-All

Just watched the E3 gameplay videos.

The menu screen looks great as do the character models and enemies. I also like the enemy move sets and general gameplay on display.

But man, the overall art direction of this game just looks really bad. After Mighty No. 9 and this, maybe Inti Creates just isn't very good at 3D game development? The characters having a cell shaded look and the backgrounds having a more realistic look clash. Some objects are very detailed like the bell but then wooden planks are just brown? (hopefully because it's WiP).

And the lighting, holy moly it's so bad. I'd say the visuals looking poor is 90% the lighting. I thought maybe Inti Creates gave Mighty No. 9 horrible lighting because of the limitations of eventually porting it to 3DS but it's on display here as well. It's like the video game version of a soap opera or an office building only lit by flourscent tubes. Everything looks flat and there is no sense of atmosphere or even artistic intent.

I backed this and Mighty No. 9 and I hope they drastically improve the visuals because it's a big let down. Maybe I'm being harsh but these guys have been developing games for a long time and I expected more from them.

All of the games below are from indie devs with small teams and budgets.

And they make this game look like an amateurs attempt at making an Igavania. I know most of them are 2D (Inti Creates recent 2D games look fantastic) but having a cohesive art direction and good lighting isn't exempt in 3D games. Man, I've wanted a new Igavania for so long and it seems whiny to complain about visuals but I can't help it. Really hope the awful lighting is just a work in progress thing.

In terms of the game's visuals, keep in mind that the actual look was voted on by Kickstarter backers. I myself preferred a more obviously cel-shaded look but my preference didn't win out. Alas.

Ooooh. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night now on the want list.
Also, BNice's post reminds me, has there been any movement on Heart Forth, Alicia ? That was looking really good as of late last year (project coming out of KS).

BNice wrote:

But man, the overall art direction of this game just looks really bad. After Mighty No. 9 and this, maybe Inti Creates just isn't very good at 3D game development? The characters having a cell shaded look and the backgrounds having a more realistic look clash. Some objects are very detailed like the bell but then wooden planks are just brown? (hopefully because it's WiP).

And the lighting, holy moly it's so bad. I'd say the visuals looking poor is 90% the lighting. I thought maybe Inti Creates gave Mighty No. 9 horrible lighting because of the limitations of eventually porting it to 3DS but it's on display here as well. It's like the video game version of a soap opera or an office building only lit by flourscent tubes. Everything looks flat and there is no sense of atmosphere or even artistic intent.

I backed this and Mighty No. 9 and I hope they drastically improve the visuals because it's a big let down. Maybe I'm being harsh but these guys have been developing games for a long time and I expected more from them.

Could be the lack of 3D experience, or it could just be the fact that they're still relatively early in development (IGA was saying 20% complete around the recent 5th of Bitsummit expo). I think texture and lighting passes come much later usually since in most 3D games you're trying to lock down the level design/architecture first before actually prettying it up.

Give it time, but I'm definitely not expecting this game in 2018 right now.

New KS update out today, nothing really new announced but they sent out a small gameplay preview video:

Looks good to me!

Look great! Are they adding more Diablo loot stuff to this game? I'm getting a Diablo vibe.

At the very least I'm down for the soundtrack.

garion333 wrote:

Look great! Are they adding more Diablo loot stuff to this game? I'm getting a Diablo vibe.

I haven't seen anything about that in the KS updates. But I thought SotN and later games had plenty of drops, just nothing randomized like a rogue-like.

shoptroll wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Look great! Are they adding more Diablo loot stuff to this game? I'm getting a Diablo vibe.

I haven't seen anything about that in the KS updates. But I thought SotN and later games had plenty of drops, just nothing randomized like a rogue-like.

Yeah, I'd expect a very SotN style enemies having common / uncommon / (rare?) drops, with a luck stat possibly playing with drop-rate.

Game is looking (and sounding) great, though I wish they'd hurry up and get it to us!

Did everyone like Castlevania 3? Well, here's more!

Delayed to 2019 and the Vita version is canceled

“This decision is largely due to Sony’s plans to discontinue the Vita console, ending production of physical copies and stopping certain online store support features,” Igarashi said. “It is extremely unfortunate, but as a result, we won’t be releasing the game on Vita. For the backers who have ordered the PS Vita version of the game, you will be able to choose another platform or request a refund.”

Dang, I was such a person. I was hoping to get a rare vita game.

Bought and sunk about four hours into this last night. Could have easily put more hours into it, but I had to get to sleep. Looking forward to playing it more tonight!
It's got some bugs. Sometimes there are voiced lines that are missing words in the dialogue boxes. And once, after dying and going back to a save, I opened the equipment menu to find Miriam was missing her head and the game hung trying to load something (her head, probably). And for a game series/genre that I thought was supposed to be very open ended (never played a Castlevania game before), it's remarkably linear right now (three bosses in).
But none of that changes the fact that Bloodstained is a very solid game with beautiful graphics and great voice acting.
Plus, having David Hayter as the grizzled samurai is great. Like seeing an alternate reality version of Solid Snake.

Taharka wrote:

And for a game series/genre that I thought was supposed to be very open ended (never played a Castlevania game before), it's remarkably linear right now (three bosses in).

Given how easily I felt lost and directionless in my attempt to play Symphony of the Night, this is actually some of the best news I could have heard.

They don't mention anything about PC owners, which is good, because I'd hate to restart.
Also, now I'm getting into the non-linearity the series is known for.

How difficult is is this? I used to love platformers, back in the day (Manic Miner, Ghosts'n goblins H.E.R.O., which is one of the few games I ever completed and those kinds) - But the few I've tried today had tons of insta-fail areas, like Unepic.

Anyone who can tell how difficult this one is?

Razgon wrote:

How difficult is is this? I used to love platformers, back in the day (Manic Miner, Ghosts'n goblins H.E.R.O., which is one of the few games I ever completed and those kinds) - But the few I've tried today had tons of insta-fail areas, like Unepic.

Anyone who can tell how difficult this one is?

So, it's not insanely terrible or challenging so far. I've not died yet.

It also has the added bonus of being able to grind for levels and gear. So, even if you run into roadblocks, you can probably outlevel content as needed!

I've died a few times at some of the boss fights (I'm currently 3 or 4 bosses deep?) which caused me to rethink and/or optimize my strategy, but otherwise the trash mobs are pretty straightforward to deal with. Plus at a fairly early point you'll get the ability to craft healing/restorative items, which I think can probably trivialize basically any boss fight, given enough of them.

Very enjoyable game so far. I've played many Castlevanias over the years, but I think the only one I've ever actually finished is Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest.

Thanks guys. Just bought this on Xbox for convenience.

Goddamit! That means I cant play this at all, until next week? Argh!

Thanks for the heads up though!

I didn't back this or anything, but I really, really wanna play it. Just trying to decide if I get it on PC now or Switch next week. Love all the feedback here!

Got through three more bosses last night, but I kinda sped through the areas, so I have to go back and really explore, especially since the non-linearity means the world has opened up a lot more. There's at least two areas I stepped inside and immediately left because I didn't want to tackle a new area. This game really has its hooks in me.

Didn't encounter any bugs last night, but I do feel the game could use some balancing. Some weapons and spells are ridiculous. A sword that attacks as fast as you can mash the button and frequently doesn't animate the attack (still get the damage) means I'm taking apart even bosses with ease. Spells that create high damage AOE, lingering fires also rip apart pretty much anything.

So with that in mind, if I had one recommendation for those of you about to start your journey, especially if you're familiar with this type of game, go ahead and start on hard. Normal just feels easy. I've died once the whole game (so far) and have beaten every boss save the first one the first time I encounter them.

Demiurge wrote:

I didn't back this or anything, but I really, really wanna play it. Just trying to decide if I get it on PC now or Switch next week. Love all the feedback here!

I'm waiting to hear how the Switch version performs. Since it's an Unreal Engine game, I have confidence that it'll run well. I've had good luck with those. If it had been Unity, I would have bought it on Xbox or PS4 already.

Mission accomplished:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/tzAhGb2.png)

The game's still great. I got stuck for like a day; thought I had explored everywhere, but there was a single path forward that I had forgotten about, and now I've got tons of stuff to do.

Finished the game last night with 100% demon list and 100% shards.

Once you finish the last boss, your save file gets marked as "clear" and you can go back into the game to finish up anything you want. Surprisingly, even after finishing the last boss, I'm only at 99.6% map completion, so there must be some secret rooms I'm missing.

Definitely a fun game, will almost certainly end up high in my top 10 list for the year, and I foresee myself getting whatever DLC they release, because I got to the end of my 31 hour playthrough (on Normal) wanting more content.

One thing I noticed, and maybe this is typical for a Castlevania game, is that by the time I got to the last bosses, I was so stupidly overpowered that I didn't even need to be careful. Even for the optional bosses. I could fill the screen with AOE, lingering fireballs and had a gun with infinite homing ammo that ripped apart the last two story bosses without me needing to heal or learn their attacks. My only frame of reference for this kind of game is Hollow Knight, as I've never played a Castlevania game before (and technically still haven't, I guess), and in HK, even with all the upgrades, the end game was still brutally difficult. Bloodstained, by comparison, felt at its hardest in the early to mid game, which is where the majority of my deaths were.

But maybe comparing to HK isn't really fair. HK feels like an actual platformer with Vania elements thrown in, whereas Bloodstained has little platforming needed. One or two areas, that's it. And if you get a particular piece of armor, you just ignore trap damage altogether, removing the platforming challenge entirely.

But all in all, I really enjoyed Bloodstained, and I'm going to try for 100% completion with the achievements, which will involve a lot of grinding, I fear. At $35-$40, Bloodstained definitely feels like I got my money's worth and I highly recommend it.

Couple of tips I noticed and will put in a spoiler section, if you want to figure the game out yourself.

Spoiler:

-Some of the best equipment in the game comes from the three quest lines, with a few pieces only coming from those quests. The food quest is difficult, with a lot of grinding or buying ingredients, but it's worthwhile, especially if you want to run a gun build.
-All of the passive shards you collect become skills shards at Rank 9. What this means is you get their particular buff even when the shard isn't equipped. You won't be able to get to rank 9 in every shard until late to end game, though.
-Speaking of shards, your shard rank is dictated by how many times you level it up with the alchemist character and will modify how the shard acts, such as adding projectiles to the attack. Shard grade is dictated by how many copies of the shard you're carrying. Both cap at 9 (and once you hit grade 9, you can't/won't pick up additional copies, even if the enemies drop them), and both add damage/effect strength to the shard. So for a shard to have the best effect, you want it to be rank 9/grade 9.
-Keep returning to the librarian when you find him. New books unlock as you progress.
-Last shard tip. When you get the summon chair shard... get it to rank & grade 9. You'll thank me.
-You can add markers to your map, and you definitely want to. When you get to an area that's obvious you need a new skill to get through, or when you get to a door you need a key for, throw a marker on the map. You may not be able to name the markers, but it'll still be useful to know which areas you haven't explored because you're missing something vs. which areas you haven't explored simply because you didn't progress that direction.

I am really enjoying this game. Trying not to make use of the internet when I get stuck which has resulted in a lot of backtracking to see if new abilities will let me get passed areas I couldn't pass earlier. Needing to get the shard from the

Spoiler:

underwater squid guys so I could start going underwater

probably kept me from progressing for a couple of hours, and I think that particular ability probably should have been in a room or boss locked instead of just a random drop from a trash monster that is only in like two rooms you can access at the time. All the backtracking has resulted in my power levels probably being a bit higher than they might be otherwise, but I still run into new enemies that can do surprising amounts of damage until I figure out the best counter for them.

Been using the Aqua Stream directional shard a lot since getting it. It does less damage per hit than my weapons (about 50% right now) but it hits like 4 or 5 times faster than a sword (and maybe 9 to 10 times faster than a great sword) and has good range. It is also a pretty common drop from the monsters who drop it so it is easy to get the grade up quickly. I hadn't used directional shards much in battle before this because they are kind of awkward to use.

I finished this up a few nights ago. Was a very good game. Not as difficult as SotN can be at times.

Was thinking about trying to 100% the Achievements, but it looks like one of them may be bugged as I have beat that boss, but the Achievement didn't unlock. Xbox.com currently says it is unlocked by 0.00% of gamers.

So yesterday I played it handheld at my friend Steve's and, okay, yeah, I get what people say about handheld performance. It seemed that any area would stabilize after a while, but every new screen was met with a bunch of slow down. So sticking to docked for this one, at least for the time being.

EDIT: A Switch patch has been submitted to Nintendo for approval. As I'm only an hour and forty-five minutes in I may just restart the game post-patch since I believe otherwise it deletes your data, right? I think Switch was stuck at 1.01. I guess I'll find out.

Why would a patch delete your data?

From the article:

The issue occurs when a new game is started before downloading the 1.02 update. After the update, treasure chests will appear in the incorrect open/closed state.

Without the items from these chests, progress is blocked.