Come to scenic Not Dracula's Castle! We have a variety of places where you can take a seat and relax. No, seriously, there's so many places to sit in this game. Miriam's on her way to become The Woman Who Could Sit Anywhere.
Bloodstained is kinda weird to me. After playing all these Igavania titles, I can see a lot of elements being drawn into this title from all his other works. Quests from Order of Ecclesia, the soul system from Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, and familiars/special moves from Symphony of the Night, just to name a few. Bloodstained knows exactly what made those systems fun, enabling me to spend countless hours getting lost in the depths of the castle. It also contains a bunch of extraneous systems on top of those, and while it's great to have options, some of this stuff feels totally superfluous. Item transmutation/disassembling? Character hair/costume color customization? Cooking meals that permanently upgrade stats (okay this one is cool in my book)? At some point, it feels like overcompensation.
Using an engine like Unreal has been a real double-edged sword for this game. On one hand, we've got an Igavania that takes place in glorious 2.5D, featuring all the scale and spectacle enabled by such a trait. 3D models for characters, enemies, and environments give the game a distinct style. On the other hand, that style could potentially be labelled as "asset flip". While I think they made it work in the end, Bloodstained has a lot of weird general issues stemming from using this proprietary engine. I saw a handful of graphical glitches (insect enemy models get real fucked when you kill them) and found the occasional gameplay oddity, like familiars flying into the foreground and/or constantly respawning, or enemy/weapon hitboxes being inconsistent at times. The lighting in some areas is really overpowering, and the menus, while functional, have almost no personality. Then again, I should probably put my foot in my mouth, because this game absolutely looked much worse before its release.
I have to applaud Iga's team on creating a game that makes it feel like Igavania never left. The man knows exactly how he wants his game to feel, and if you've played any Igavania before, you'll slide right into it no problem. That may be a bane or a boon depending on who you are, but I feel like Bloodstained does enough to stand on its own feet while borrowing from past.
oh yeah they brought back the voice of Alucard from Symphony of the Night as an NPC and he is one of my favorite parts of the whole game
Bloodstained is kinda weird to me. After playing all these Igavania titles, I can see a lot of elements being drawn into this title from all his other works. Quests from Order of Ecclesia, the soul system from Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, and familiars/special moves from Symphony of the Night, just to name a few. Bloodstained knows exactly what made those systems fun, enabling me to spend countless hours getting lost in the depths of the castle. It also contains a bunch of extraneous systems on top of those, and while it's great to have options, some of this stuff feels totally superfluous. Item transmutation/disassembling? Character hair/costume color customization? Cooking meals that permanently upgrade stats (okay this one is cool in my book)? At some point, it feels like overcompensation.
Using an engine like Unreal has been a real double-edged sword for this game. On one hand, we've got an Igavania that takes place in glorious 2.5D, featuring all the scale and spectacle enabled by such a trait. 3D models for characters, enemies, and environments give the game a distinct style. On the other hand, that style could potentially be labelled as "asset flip". While I think they made it work in the end, Bloodstained has a lot of weird general issues stemming from using this proprietary engine. I saw a handful of graphical glitches (insect enemy models get real fucked when you kill them) and found the occasional gameplay oddity, like familiars flying into the foreground and/or constantly respawning, or enemy/weapon hitboxes being inconsistent at times. The lighting in some areas is really overpowering, and the menus, while functional, have almost no personality. Then again, I should probably put my foot in my mouth, because this game absolutely looked much worse before its release.
I have to applaud Iga's team on creating a game that makes it feel like Igavania never left. The man knows exactly how he wants his game to feel, and if you've played any Igavania before, you'll slide right into it no problem. That may be a bane or a boon depending on who you are, but I feel like Bloodstained does enough to stand on its own feet while borrowing from past.
oh yeah they brought back the voice of Alucard from Symphony of the Night as an NPC and he is one of my favorite parts of the whole game