KickStarter Bloodstained - Koji Igarashi's new metroidvania game

[Urthor]

Is this probably the best RPG of 2019? I'm thinking back and it's kind of this and Sekiro as my absolute you must play this, this is so great titles.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

>sees spike corridor
>farms ingredients for crafting spike armor
>still take damage

My SotN muscle memory has failed me for once.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Is this probably the best RPG of 2019? I'm thinking back and it's kind of this and Sekiro as my absolute you must play this, this is so great titles.

In Current Year, Bloodstained is only an RPG if it self-identifies as one.

 

[Damned Registrations]

I got the OP laser of doom pretty early on so I've just kinda been facerolling through the game. Nearly done now, had to look up the gimmick to get to the last area. Game is good overall, but definitely has some design flaws. Looking forward to updates. Was initially planning to do a higher difficulty run but honestly it seems like it'd just make the weapons even more useless compared to the spells.

 

[Biscotti]

I hope we start seeing some unlockable characters appear soon. I remember having a ton of fun with the Old Axe Armor mode in Portrait of Ruin.

 

[Damned Registrations]

If you go for a magic build, those light and dark beams are pretty op. Good damage, infinite range, instant activation, free aiming and wide AoE once upgraded. It's like you just point your finger towards the enemy and they die instantly, if your damage is high enough.

Bunnygirl form is also really strong. It scales off int instead of attack (weapon is irrelevant, you can even use safe ring without losing damage) and the kick damage applies to your stomp attacks too.

Prior to that the dullahan head flail was my goto move, high blunt damage in a huge area for only 25 mp. Made the weapon arts seem really overpriced. Their costs make more sense in the end game, but a lot of them are just really crap due to short range or huge windup (that twirly axe move jesus christ) for relatively little damage. The rapier one is arguably worse to have once you learn it vs just spamming normals.

Definitely a shame the balance on the spells and skills was so sloppy, given a test dummy it'd only take a few hours to go through everything and bring it more in line.

What cool weapons have people found? I noticed the pink rapier has bugged damage equivalent to it's end game form, spiral sword has a cool multi hit swing, and most elemental weapons seem to have some weird damage split thing going on with their elemental effect. Knife boots actually have a separate hitbox for the knives which is kinda cool. The Rhava seemed cool albeit not nearly as OP since damage buffs seem to be percentage based instead of flat numbers like in SotN on the ol' Crissy. A bunch of stuff again seems weirdly underpowered. Found the 'Fragrach' near the end of the game and it's damage is piss poor but it didn't seem to have any special property, and although I didn't farm enough to make it, the 'Ridil' also has laughably low damage for a weapon that takes like 6 gold to make.

 

[Hyperion]

some weird damage split thing going on with their elemental effect

They do an additional 25% damage of their corresponding element.

the 'Ridil'

Hits 3x per swing, not unlike the Spiral Sword (which can hit up to 5). Unlike the Spiral Sword though, its effect works with abilities like Power Slash, so you get 50% more damage per hit with it.

The Rhava seemed cool albeit not nearly as OP since damage buffs seem to be percentage based instead of flat numbers like in SotN on the ol' Crissy

With all the attack speed you can get via Optimizer, and Books, I think you get so much attack speed you overlap swings for the upgraded Rhava that it still outperforms everything. It also no windup, which probably makes it better than Eternal Blue or the Deathbringer even with their 25% more elemental damage. Greatswords have nice coverage and can hit enemies that are actually above / behind you for defensive purposes. The greatswords that can 'charge' are pretty much entirely trash since they take longer to charge than Trucidating Gyre, and do less bonus damage than it gives. TG also gives hyperarmor, and a critical modifier, so it's a no brainer.

I didn't use it, but Grand Izayoi gets stronger the more you use Bloodsteal. Gave up on Katanas for the raw strength of Greatswords, but I guess it technically has the highest damage potential in the game if you go insane farming for it.

 

[Hyperion]

Alright bros, I reloaded the game and somehow didn't get 100% map completion. Googlefu told me the final boss room counts as 0.2%. I went from 99.8, to 99.9% after unlocking it. I looked at a guy with 100% map completion, and I actually have *more* rooms than him. He has 100%, and is missing the room hidden on the bottom-right of the Waterfall room with the chair mimic. It's driving me fucking insane, since I unleashed my full autism on getting this far without a guide.

Spoiler

 

[Damned Registrations]

Someone on steam boards said that apparently the final bos room might only partially add itself. Try doing it again and getting into all the corners maybe?

 

[Damned Registrations]

The portraits are mostly really tasteful, but the big give aways it's a backer reward are 1: The glasses. Should have been stylized for more period glasses from the 1700s. 2: The guys doing stupid poses. Unfortunately one of these is the second you encounter.

I didn't mind the portraits too much, but to be honest, this would have been so much better: https://www.nexusmods.com/bloodstainedritualofthenight/mods/10

 

[Jinn]

I didn't mind the portraits too much, but to be honest, this would have been so much better: https://www.nexusmods.com/bloodstainedritualofthenight/mods/10

I didn't mind them all that much when I saw them in the first hall, but goddamn they are all over. Seeing a bunch of stupid nerds all over the castle is pretty annoying and tends to take me out of the game.

Thank you for posting this mod!

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Ah bloody fucking hell! My shit hole laptops (only comps I have) can't run this thing.

Spoiler

Jesus H. Christ I'm stuck with fucking Mosesvania instead...

 

[Reinhardt]

Got bad end. Only 50% of the map explored so i have long way to go.

 

[Hyperion]

Someone on steam boards said that apparently the final bos room might only partially add itself. Try doing it again and getting into all the corners maybe?

Did it, inverted the room, jumped up and down into every crevice. Didn't work

This is killing me.

 

[Reinhardt]

Ok, i hate underwater area.

 

[Tigranes]

Just got this, playing on Normal. I am Very, Very Not Git Gud. I die. All the time. I can never do combos properly in games like these, half the time I can't even do a basic dagger throw right.

 

[Grauken]

You don't need any combos at all, I beat the game without using any of them

Just find weapons you like the handling of, then strive to find similiar ones with higher DPS. The game is pretty easy to cheese, but with lots of variety how to, which is half the fun

 

[Damned Registrations]

I found the best tip for doing combos is to exaggerate them. So if you're trying to do a fireball (236) do something like (12369) instead. But yeah, they're really just for fun. It's the directional magic that is OP as fuck in this game.

 

[Tacgnol]

Just got this, playing on Normal. I am Very, Very Not Git Gud. I die. All the time. I can never do combos properly in games like these, half the time I can't even do a basic dagger throw right.

I completed on normal without doing combos, didn't seem too bad.

What weapons are you using?

 

[Tigranes]

I've always been awful at these kinds of games. It's still early on, I managed to craft a whip with 8-bit coin & also get a 22 attack katana. Slower weapons punish you more for being crappy at timing, so I've been experimenting with medium speed-ish ones.

The shards seem OP, and I'm trying not to spam them so much, I feel like the game is more fun by focusing on weapon fighting. I just beat Zangetsu after like a dozen tries (yes I know), and I'm still just bone tossing every now and then.

(Also, I had preordered this on Switch because I'm traveling so much for work right now - and despite all the reports of shitty port, my experience has been OK so far. I believe they did put out a patch. But that means the basic dagger throw combo for example uses the analogue stick.)

 

[Reinhardt]

Just farm knight with grinder sword until you get his sword and shard and you are set for half of the game.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Just run around and kill shit till you get something randomly that's really good. There's plenty of OP stuff.

 

[Frank Capicoli]

Just 100% this, easily game of the year. Almost regret not kickstarting this definitely will if there's ever a potential sequel.

 

[Tigranes]

I'm now about 40% map in, and immensely enjoying it. Turns out my initial struggles were the very beginning of the game, and then it starts throwing so many different tools at you that I can mask my total lack of action skills. There's enough things 'hidden' around the levels to keep things interesting, and the bosses feel really cool to stumble on, even if a couple of them are a bit weak.

 

[Dodo1610]

Well after over 30h I think I am finished for now.

Going for 100% would probably take another 5h with the item farming. Bloodstained is definitely the most fun game I have played this year and luckily there DLC and free updates are already announced. BTW more games need a Bunny Demon form

Spoiler