KickStarter Bloodstained - Koji Igarashi's new metroidvania game

[Bahamut]

Looks sooo floaty
Tho music seems to be nice

 

[---]

Seems just an uninspired rip-off of the Royal Chapel's theme

 

[Ash]

Seems just an uninspired rip-off of the Royal Chapel's theme

You've got to be tone deaf to not like SoTN, its music is outstanding let alone its many other merits. It has the best soundtrack in the entire series by far. It owns it so hard that it's a significant portion of the experience.

 

[Somberlain]

Michiru Yamane is great

 

[Machocruz]

Castlevania is synonymous with great music. Arguments could be made for a number of the soundtracks being the best, in terms of memorable, evocative compositions. As far as story theme (or motif?) paired with music, no better match exists in video games imo.

 

[RoSoDude]

More of the same E3 stuff, but here are IGN and Easy Allies interviews with Igarashi over gameplay:




I agree the animations are a bit floaty/sluggish, but the gameplay looks quite a bit better than it did in the Kotaku video. You see jump/backdash cancelling, some neat moves with the diagonal kick (looks like it inherits your weapon damage if you have a kick weapon equipped), and some of the magic system.

Guy's also got a cool hat.

 

[Somberlain]

The boss looks cool and music is very gud, as expected

 

[hackncrazy]

Oh God, I don't know, her movement still looks kinda floaty. I guess the only way to really know is playing, but I really don't like what I see so far.

 

[Perkel]

I think empty is right world. Game world despite detail feels empty. There isn't anything your eye can look at that differenntiates itself from background. Boss fight room was much better but that runined bridges area was like that.

 

[RoSoDude]

There's a new Kickstarter update for the game. Still no release date, but there will be another demo for backers in June.

Also there was a panel with Iga during SXSW:


Some highlights:

• They redesigned the sea boss, Vepar, from the demo to be less cartoonish and to better fit the gothic style (check the screenshots and 18:40 in the video, I think it's a marked improvement)
  
• When asked about what games he's been playing, Igarashi said he's been enjoying Horizon: Zero Dawn. But he also said Bloodstained won't be in the same category as big budget AAA games whose focus is on scale and spectacle and let gameplay fall to the wayside in favor of being cinematic. His goal is for Bloodstained to follow old school design principles focused on gameplay in a way that's missing these days
• You can now craft food items from ingredients you find from enemies and the environment in the same way you craft other items in the hub, and you will gain permanent stat bonuses the first time you cook and eat each food item (see 34:25)
  
• Other characters in the hub can also help you craft other items, buy new gear, and enhance your gear and abilities.
• Familiars return from previous Igavania games. Similar to Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, some enemies drop crystals which imbue you with the ability to summon familiars. One of the new ones is a demonic ball guy whose only method of attack is for you to kick him around, but he can ricochet off walls to encourage creative use of the game physics (his visual design is also hilarious, see 40:00)
• Iga reiterated that the 3D graphical style was chosen more for technical reasons, i.e. that it's easier for it to scale for various platforms and resolutions and that it's very hard to find sprite artists these days
• Iga regrets the hilarious English dub for Symphony of the Night, and they're making efforts to ensure that Bloodstained's localizations are of a higher quality (the update makes a big deal about the voice acting)
• Iga's philosophy on character progression hasn't changed, with the notion that if you just play the game naturally without grinding, the game will remain at an acceptable level of challenge

 

[Tehdagah]

They redesigned the sea boss, Vepar, from the demo to be less cartoonish and to better fit the gothic style (check the screenshots and 18:40 in the video, I think it's a marked improvement)

They reduced her tits

 

[RoSoDude]

They redesigned the sea boss, Vepar, from the demo to be less cartoonish and to better fit the gothic style (check the screenshots and 18:40 in the video, I think it's a marked improvement)

They reduced her tits

...definitely looks better. She was pretty hideous before, and in a way that was totally comical rather than intimidating.

Finally, specifically here with Vepar, there were a few major goals driving the rework effort, and some of them included things like making her look more menacing, more gothic/demonic (also due to fan feedback), as well as making her more attractive/seductive since her monster philosophy includes an element of functioning as a siren to lure sailors to their deaths. And making her more seductive also meant some changes to her face, it's much more detailed and realistic now if you take a good look.

Obviously "more attractive" is always going to be subjective to the eye of the beholder (or in this case game creator) and at least personally I believe that there are tons of looks, archetypes and ways to be beautiful and attractive, but that's just a little context to assuage any concerns from anyone who thinks we're ever making any decisions based on external pressures related to any kind of agenda.

 

[Tehdagah]

(also due to fan feedback)

I remember some people complaining about Miriam's breasts too, wonder if they changed it. Listening to fans is rarely a good idea.

 

[LESS T_T]

8-bit style spin-off (which was a stretch goal) Curse of the Moon is coming this month:

 

[aweigh]

Was watching the 2017 E3 playthrough and yeah, looks a bit floaty but it still looks like a good time. Graphics are decent, seems like good weapon and ability variety, and the boss fight looked easy but competent. Then again I'm hardly a connoisseur of these type of games, so my perspective is from someone who never really had any attachment or much knowledge of metroid-vanias.

 

[aweigh]

This came up after the Bloodstained video and yes, the movement is a lot tighter in SotN. Either way Bloodstained still looks fun; hardly another Mighty no.9.

 

[---]

8-bit style spin-off (which was a stretch goal) Curse of the Moon is coming this month:

Seems better than the real game, lulz.

 

[Matador]

8-bit style spin-off (which was a stretch goal) Curse of the Moon is coming this month:

Looks fantastic. If the user opinions are very good I will get it for my Vita. 10$ is a reasonable price.

 

[Somberlain]

Massive incline

 

[Ash]

Wow, an actual real old school game? Incline. Too bad I never really liked Classicvania even though I am a sidescroller fan.

 

[m_s0]

Was watching the 2017 E3 playthrough and yeah, looks a bit floaty but it still looks like a good time. Graphics are decent, seems like good weapon and ability variety, and the boss fight looked easy but competent. Then again I'm hardly a connoisseur of these type of games, so my perspective is from someone who never really had any attachment or much knowledge of metroid-vanias.

I've been under the impression people have been a bit coy about this game. To me it looks undewhelming, and not like something I'd have much fun playing, not to mention the long development cycle doesn't inspire confidence when coupled with what's been shown thus far. I'd really like to be wrong here. It's not terrible, just... off.

They need to do something about those animations - they make the game feel slow as molasses to a degree where I can't imagine the whole thing playing this way.

Also, that backer-exclusive boss is

 

[Machocruz]

Holy shit, that 8 bit one looks fucking fire . I'd even say the visuals are more appealing

 

[Talby]

The 8bit/16bit spinoffs of these kinds of games are always better than the main product. I don't know why the developers misunderstand their audience so badly and do horrible 3D graphics that looks like a 1998 shovelware title instead of cheaper pixel art which is what people actually want. It was the same story with that Mighty Gun Volt game where the SNES-inspired spinoff was way better than the main game.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

Seems better than the real game, lulz.

That's because this one is like a classic Castlevania and not like a Metroidvania

 

[---]

Well, I prefer metroidvania over classicvania.
Bloodstained seems absolutely awful not because it's a metroidvania.