Interesting. I’m glad that a lot of backers are pleased with it.
I’d be interesed to hear what sort of moments give you that feeling of freedom/discovery after you’ve played more of it.
I think a big part of my issue was that I found a way to break the game very early, and never had any reason to deviate from that build, so I really didn’t do much experimenting with my spells and whatnot.
Finally got to play this, I didn’t have much time to play but so far this game fuckin’ rules IMO.
I have to say I kind of like, just completely steamrolled that first boss people were saying was so much trouble. This happens to me in a lot of adventure games, my brain is wired in opposite world or something where I have zero trouble with the brick wall bosses and get hopelessly stuck on the reputedly easy ones instead. It just felt so much like 90s video game boss that it just clicked. The Zangetsu fight was more interesting to me because doing “similar abilities to you” kind of bosses is pretty tough to get right but he felt aggressive and well-rounded without feeling overpowered.
I already feel like this is going to happen despite my not being far into the game. Though SotN is a lot like that too, eventually you have a weapon type you prefer and stick with it, and there’s a bunch from before you even hit the inverted castle that can take you through the entire game before you even consider the really broken stuff.
Still, I appreciate the bigger scope and amount of secrets here and stuff because it really does feel like if they made a sequel to Symphony of the Night in like 2009 or something. I do find myself playing around with the abilities a lot more than I did in Order of Ecclesia, partially because this game so far really accomplishes SotN’s feel of there potentially being a secret thing or a hidden new piece of equipment around every corner. And I like that it has a little village area like Ecclesia too to do all of your upgrading/inventory stuff from.
I like that you can read the bookshelves to see the special moves for each weapon type too if you’re not familiar with special moves and stuff from previous games, that’s a nice touch. I like that your magic refills a lot faster in this game than most of the past ones so you can play around with everything more. The weapon special moves seem quite a bit better overall than they were in SotN and I’m glad to see them back.
Speaking of experimentation though, I kind of absolutely hate that you can only equip one weapon at a time! Did I miss something? Kind of wish you could have two equipped and tap a button to cycle between them, though I guess they figured with the magic and alchemy stuff that might make you too powerful when you already have so many things to draw on.
You can find hidden shards that let you set equipment to shortcuts on a radial wheel you can select.
This also bugged me because of how stuff like the guns are limited use donyou don’t want it equipped all the time and some key abilities take up your magic slots.
I wish you could just equip a second weapon and have itntied to the circle button (on PS4). That button is literally never used.
In SOTN you get the shield rod in like, hour 2? And if you know what you’re doing that immediately trivializes the rest of the game, so that sort of thing was always going to be in this one. I’m excited for challenge runs, and apparently NG+ lets you keep all your shards souls, including the black panther analogue, so I can’t wait.
I’m about 2 hours into the switch version at this point, and while I’m super bummed over the graphical downgrades, I’m loving the gameplay so far. It really feels like the culmination of the DS 'Vanias. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a mode that let you play as alchemist dude and nun, in order to bring in a bit of PoR.
It does get super framey, so if you’ve got another option, miss the switch port
Man…I was pretty psyched for this after hearing it described as SOTN2, and I really was enjoying it through the prologue, but once the main game hits, it feels grossly unforgiving in a lot of ways. The deaths that make you lose all your progress, etc. I quit tonight after beating on some random sword boy for like ten minutes and he was still alive. His second phase was ridiculous, with a huge AoE attack. I know some of the DS games leaned into the difficulty, but despite liking a lot of the game’s systems the strain of playing this is really turning me off. Like, if this is normal difficulty, what even is this game on Nightmare? Ugh.
Holy shit this game rules. The level design is GREAT.
If you’re talking about Zangetsu, if you pick it up again here’s some tips:
The AOE attack has a really high vertical range, but the horizontal range isn’t improved quite as much, so just always back away when the character is starting to take a swing instead of trying to jump over it like you could in the first phase.
When the character does that sort of grapple thing where they swing towards you and then slash downwards, you can just run behind them as they come down and get several free hits in.
When they’re blocking, the slide attack will break their block, it only does 1 damage but you have time to get another hit in and then back off.
One of he earliest shards you get in the game, Cerulean Splash, is very very useful here. The shards can be upgraded by your buddy in the village so that might be worth doing if you haven’t.
I forget what level I was when I beat this boss but I remember getting destroyed in a “I’m just not strong enough yet” way. I cruised around everywhere else I could explore first and did the revenge quests that were available. It was waaaay easier when I went back with some better equipment and such. For your weapon I’d consider one of the slashing swords since they’re average, the fast stuff like the knives and boots are too weak and the power weapons are too slow or this boss.
The weapon special movies are super useful against this boss too since they tend to stay at about mid range from you, you can have a much easier time avoiding their attacks or getting behind them in the second phase that way.
I think this is part of what makes the game frustrating for me, at least. I’m the person who bounced off of Borderlands because it needed too much levelling (and gave me too much random useless drops, which was just stressful), so any game where part of it is just doing repetitive stuff until you are tall enough for this ride is… not my thing, I think.
This feels much more metroidvania-ish to me than SotN. The map seems much more dense with more secrets and paths to explore. I’m not totally sold on all the items, crafting and cooking and things… but I do like the wide assortment of weapons. It’s cool to find one that works for me rather than being stuck with one weapon type. I’m still learning my way around but overall it’s enjoyable.
I hate crafting stuff honestly, like my limit for it is just finding stuff that you can then cash in to upgrade weapons or whatever but the Atelier kind of stuff where you have to find ingredients to make different individual meal items and stuff I haven’t even bothered with.
I mean I haven’t grinded at all, I’m just exploring as much as I can before going to what looks like the next area/boss door. Like SotN I’m sure probably already you’ll see people beating the game at level 1 or whatever but so far I haven’t had to actually step back and straight up grind.
Sure: Nightmare mode is Hard mode but you don’t level (and people have beaten Nightmare already).
But it still feels like one of the common responses to “I can’t beat X” in the community is that you should try levelling more… (although I guess the fact that I don’t actually enjoy the core gameplay enough to want to do it more than absolutely necessary probably suggests other issues I have with the game…)
I definitely get the frustration that comes with an elitist attitude in a community. As much I’ve loved Bloodstained I have zero interest talking about it with “hardcore” metroidvania fans. I play on normal and that’s plenty for me. Looking at your posts I wonder if you’ve considered cheat engine. I don’t know if that’s something that appeals to you but getting it to run under wine seems possible, though I admit to knowing nothing about linux.
But if you can get it up and running enabling invincibility should be easy by googling what to change. The platforming may still be an issue in some parts though any really tough jumps probably aren’t required for the critical path until you get more abilities. Just thought I’d recommend it if you still had a desire to run through the game yourself.
Something I’m excited about regarding that is one of the DLCs is supposed to be a more linear action game built from Bloodstained’s existing assets and cooler rooms and such.
Yeah I fuckin’ hate this stuff. Like, I’ve been hooked on FromSoftware games since King’s Field 1, I’ve played every Castlevania game, Metroid, whatever as they came out since the mid 80s, my wife and I met in Chinatown Fair over King of Fighters, but somehow, like, I can still sleep at night if someone says they don’t enjoy playing a game I like. I really came to despise the amount of performative “expertise” that infests every game community when that’s kind of the least interesting part of a game to me.
Especially for something like Bloodstained, which, while I find to be fantastic on basically every level that matters to me,* is absolutely a genre game. And it should be like the most common sense thing on earth that if something leans wholeheartedly into a genre, then yeah it’s just not going to appeal to some folks even after giving it a chance.
There’s always people in the “community” that just can’t handle that.
*It IS kind of janky technically in ways the previous Igarashi games aren’t. I have had it straight up crash my PS4. There’s load times even though the game’s map has loading rooms, the slow down in the towers area, just some weird stuff like that but it doesn’t matter.
Yeah FromSoft games are particularly bad for this. I’ve always enjoyed playing souls games with a guide and the amount of people(some of them irl friends) who get on my case and say I’m ruining the experience was annoying.
It’s been a bummer seeing all the optimization issues for Bloodstained on console. I played on PC and aside from 2 crashes it was super smooth. Also agree that as good as it is it’s just a genre game. It’s one of my favorites this year but when my friend asked about it I just said “eh it’s symphony of the night and i really wanted another one.”
With From games that always kind of pissed me off on principle because Demon’s Souls and on, like everything about them is explicitly designed around talking with other people about stuff you ran into and exchanging information with folks. I know there’s a bit less of that in how Bloodborne and Sekiro are built but still.
Speaking of which this is definitely one of the best games of the year for me too. Though the only 2019 games I’ve gotten are this, Sekiro and Judgement so…
I mean, exploration is interesting to me, it’s just health-sponge bosses and progression based on repetitive farming isn’t. (I also look askance at Bloodstained locking UX improvements - like quick-swap keys - behind in-game collectable, but since I am nowhere there yet, that’s moot.)
Really though, the problem here is me: I just need to stop trying to make myself enjoy a genre which I obviously don’t like most of the design assumptions of.
I’m still pretty early in, I think, but I’m far enough that I’ve got a few quick change slots already and honestly, before you get them there isn’t much of a need for them. You don’t have many shards, basically no utility items, and none of the enemies by that point have really strong resistances. It’s not like in Order of Ecclesia where if you’ve got swords on your arms skeletons will murder you dead.
As for me, I’m annoyed because I’m pretty sure I was almost at the end of a boss fight when one of my jump commands just… didn’t happen, so I walked into her and died. But I’m annoyed in a “Maybe I should re-buy this on PC so it doesn’t drop button presses” sort of way, which is good(???)
So I finally beat Zangetsu after stumbling across that lovely shard from the archer fellas and then grinding it up to something like Rank 4 Grade 7 and then just shotgunning him in the face with it.
I beat the next boss I came across (the stained glass hand thing) relatively easily and like the game better now that it’s actually starting to give me all the different types of shards. The little knight friend is especially helpful so far. And, you know, anything annoying now gets hit with roughly a thousand arrows until it goes away, which helps.
So it looks like I’m officially in! At least until I come up against another gnarly boss thingy, ha.
That archer one, you’ll be able to take it over halfway through the game and it’s great against bosses too since they’re usually big enough that you’ll never miss.
Does anyone know if you get more 8-bit coins later? I got the Shield, but now I basically never use it. Was kind of hoping to try out a different one, hoping I haven’t locked myself out of trying the rest of them for this run.
