darkness35 Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 You know I normally don't go IRL tangents typically but seeing this first fucking paragraph on a review from Kotaku is pretty pathetic. Quote Joshua Rivera Genre is mostly bullshit. It’s useful for discussion and for imagining where a certain game exists on the continuum of innovation and progress. These discussions are important, and for them, we need genre. But genre doesn’t do a lot for games, especially once they start to borrow from each other, forcing us to come up with new genres to collect them under. Genre can never really keep up. Congrats, my former high school classmate. You clearly demonstrated your 10 years of writing experience as a former Kotaku intern and GQ contributer with this pretentious and edgy tone that would otherwise be acceptable on a 17 year old's Wordpress site. Instead of attempting to be the next Jason Schreier, you've instead become the next Patricia Hernandez; a complete joke. Quote Spoiler Genre is mostly bullshit. It’s useful for discussion and for imagining where a certain game exists on the continuum of innovation and progress. These discussions are important, and for them, we need genre. But genre doesn’t do a lot for games, especially once they start to borrow from each other, forcing us to come up with new genres to collect them under. Genre can never really keep up. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a genre throwback, here to bring us back to the halcyon days of 1997, when Castlevania: Symphony of the Night debuted on PlayStation. It took a series of games in one genre—the action platformer—and borrowed from another to codify something that felt new, a genre that, over time, was collected under one of the worst colloquialisms in games: “metroidvania.” Decades later Koji Igarashi, Symphony of the Night co-director and Castlevania franchise steward during the 2000s, has decided to reclaim this genre with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Bloodstained is Igarashi’s return to the style of game that made him famous. Kickstarted in 2015, Bloodstained was pitched alongside a new portmanteau: Igavania, defined by Igarashi as “a gothic, exploration-focused action platformer, designed by one of the godfathers of the genre.” For this, Igarashi received $5,545,991 from 64,867 backers eager for Symphony of the Night, but with the serial numbers filed off. To his credit, Igarashi and his collaborators have done exactly this. Bloodstained is what was promised four years ago—and that’s also where its problems lie. In Bloodstained, you play as Miriam, a woman who, through alchemical experiments, became a shardbinder—part human, part crystal, and capable of wielding the powers of demons found in the crystal shards they leave behind when slain. This power comes at the cost of her humanity. The more shards she collects, the less human she becomes. Following a disaster that precedes the events of the game, Miriam awakens from a coma to learn that she is one of two shardbinders left. The other shardbinder is her friend Gebel, who is now leading a demon invasion of Earth. To that end, he has summoned a demonic castle from which he will wage a war against humanity and challenges Miriam to enter it and stop him. After a brief prologue aboard a galleon where Bloodstained teaches players the basics and introduces the game’s small cast of characters, you’re free to roam the castle as Miriam on the hunt for Gebel. Almost immediately you notice platforms you can’t quite reach, doors you cannot yet open, and obstructions you cannot remove, shunting you back for another lap through the maze-like castle until you find the ability or key that lets you clear the obstacle you saw before—usually after a boss fight. It takes some adjusting to how resolutely Bloodstained chases the specter of Symphony of the Night. Its structure is nearly identical, putting players in a seemingly-open 2D space that they can’t fully access until they spend some time exploring. But games in this genre have evolved, with games like Hollow Knight taking heavy inspiration from Dark Souls to tell richer stories or the Rogue-inspired runs of a game like Dead Cells. Bloodstained ignores the modern conventions of these games, as well as their conveniences, like swift, speedy movement and the ability to strike in directions other than right in front of you. Their absence makes Bloodstained feel like Symphony of the Night, but also reminds you that Symphony of the Night is 24 years old. That isn’t to say that Bloodstained doesn’t take other games into consideration. They’re just other Castlevania games. Its shard system, by which new abilities are acquired from defeated enemies, is a rework of Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow’s Tactical Soul system. Like in that game, just about every foe you face in Bloodstained has a chance to drop a shard that gives Miriam either a new active or passive ability. Most abilities let you replicate the basic attacks of the enemies you get them from. Bone Toss, for example, lets you toss a damage-dealing bone, much like the Bone Morte enemies do. Some shards boost your proficiency with a weapon, or buff stats like strength or luck. Others allow you to summon a familiar that can attack foes and occasionally defend you. The wealth of shards in Bloodstained, in conjunction with the extensive amount of weapons available (many of which have their own unique special attacks that can be performed with the right button input) allows for endless experimentation, to the point where it’s almost a detriment. You can’t possibly try out every shard and weapon combo while steadily exploring. There’s just too much, and on normal difficulty—which is fairly easy, barring two required bosses and the extra-hard bonus ones—sorting through combinations introduces far too much tedium when it’s easy enough to find one build and stick with it. Experimentation feels more necessary on higher difficulties, where tougher foes make builds matter more and new strategies mean the difference between progress and frustration. There’s also a crafting system in Bloodstained, which lets you craft powerful new weapons, armor, items and food using raw materials you find throughout the castle. On the one hand, this means you often have something to show for the times you get lost or have to backtrack through the castle. On the other, it feels like obtuse bloat, with a lot of time spent in menus parsing upgrade trees. There’s just so much, and while a lot of the weapons you can make are extremely cool, tinkering until you find which you like best takes time I’d rather spend exploring. Bloodstained, like Symphony of the Night, is partly about choosing to do the harder thing. In both games, the ostensible goal—confronting the antagonist—is achievable fairly early on. You can, and likely will, stumble across the room where Gebel is waiting for you after a handful of hours in Bloodstained. You will also probably be strong enough to beat him. Doing so, however, yields an unsatisfying, abrupt ending that does nothing to resolve any of the plot threads the game hints at via characters you meet, all of whom suggest something more sinister lurks behind Gebel’s threat to humanity. To truly get to the end of Bloodstained, you have to ignore the fact that your goal is right there, waiting for you, and commit to exploring. This is easy enough to do, because the fundamental pleasure of Bloodstained, like in every game of its ilk, is in hasty cartography. Filling in a map as you explore the space it represents, surviving its dangers long enough to get to a place where you can save and make your more complete map permanent. As nonsensical as the game’s castle is, I only got lost a handful of times, forcing me to scour the map from the beginning for things I missed or didn’t try. That’s not to say it’s a smooth ride. The game’s 3D art style on a 2D plane is often incongruous and strange, particularly in the way that Miriam is given a cel-shaded, cartoony look that clashes with the environs she runs around in. All of the lush, gothic scenery’s pursuit of grandeur feels at odds with how the characters are designed. It also doesn’t help that the game sometimes struggles to perform well on the PlayStation 4 version I played. Frames would occasionally drop, and the game would briefly freeze if things got too busy. Close-up character models used in dialogue scenes all looked strangely fuzzy. All this is tolerable, but beware the Nintendo Switch version for now—my brief time with this week’s Switch release worked, but movement felt just a little thick, as if a frame was missing every second. Reports from Switch players online also note crashes and missing text from dialogue boxes. The developer says fixes are coming. These rough edges didn’t turn me off, but I still came away from Bloodstained feeling dissatisfied. I chafed against the way the game set out to recapture the feeling Symphony gave players over two decades ago without offering anything new. It has a built-in defense for this, of course: Bloodstained exists because it is what backers were pitched and what they asked for. The story that Bloodstained conjures up is not delivered with the conviction its design seems to have. As spare as it is, it’s got more than a few interesting ideas worth pursuing. It’s about a woman coming to grips with a body altered by a patriarchal clergy desperate for a weapon to ward off their fading influence, a group that uses her powers to clean up their mess even if it costs her humanity. It’s about stopping a cycle before it has the chance to become one, about self-determination and letting former titans fade away. But these ideas are done a disservice by the single-mindedness of the game they’re draped against. They’re also ideas that undermine Bloodstained’s existence—or at least, its existence as the Symphony of the Night redux it is. As designed, Bloodstained is a celebration, a declaration that this style of game—Igavania, metroidvania, whatever you call it—is immortal and undying, like the romantic nightmares of gothic horror. Bloodstained’s story, however, is about breaking cycles. It’s about change. Bloodstained is tethered to video game relevance by its influential creator’s desire to continue doing what he has done. Clearly, that’s something fans want, and it’s something Igarashi and the team at his studio, ArtPlay, do well. Bloodstained is fun to play. It’s also fun to take in, full of amusing touches like the demon that doesn’t attack you with claws or axes or swords, but by standing in a red dress and playing guitar riffs so sick flames come out to torch you. Or the haunted portraits that assault you, bearing the faces of Kickstarter backers. Those backers now have the game they wanted, the game that they were promised, and that’s great. Bloodstained is a job well done, but it’s also hermetically sealed. It’s a work that oxidizes the moment it’s exposed to the atmosphere, where the modern games inspired by its lineage have changed the genre it’s out to reclaim. Bloodstained can be read as an argument that legacy matters, but only in one direction: from Igarashi to the twisted castles he has helped bring to video games over the years—hence the word “Igavania.” But this view of legacy overlooks the conversation that’s happened since Symphony. The original game is not influential because it is perfect, but because it started a discussion between games that came before it—Metroid, Zelda, the previous Castlevania games—and those that came after, like Cave Story, Metroid Prime, and Yoku’s Island Express. Maybe that conversation has been missing the gothic stylings of the now-dormant Castlevania series, but, by bringing them back, Igarashi seems content to ignore the rest of that conversation. That’s fine, of course. Throwbacks have their pleasures. Bloodstained is, in Igarashi’s words, exactly the kind of game that he wanted to make, exactly the kind of game he’s been making for most of his career. The exceptional success of its Kickstarter suggests that Bloodstained is also what everyone wanted to see. But video games have been chasing Igarashi’s work for an entire generation, adding to it and carrying it further the way he did when Castlevania: Symphony of the Night arrived in 1997 and codified a genre. It would have been something to see him rejoin that conversation. Instead, he has chosen to haunt it. Jesus fucking christ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameDadGrant Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 @darkness35 Well, he got one thing right. The "Shard" system is *exactly* like the Soul system in Aria/Dawn of Sorrow. Honestly, Ritual of the Night has more in common with the "Sorrow" games than Symphony of the Night - which is what many consider this to be a spiritual successor to. Which is still fine, I suppose. Soma's games are often acknowledged as some of IGA's best work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nublood Posted June 29, 2019 Share Posted June 29, 2019 So after all the positive feedback I caved and bought it. I’ve put about 3hrs into it. And so far, it’s the best Castlevania game Konami never made. This is the sequel that Symphony of the Night deserves. I just wonder if Konami will have any reaction to this game’s inevitable success, or if they’ll turn their noses up to Iga like they’ve been doing. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameDadGrant Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 1 hour ago, nublood said: So after all the positive feedback I caved and bought it. I’ve put about 3hrs into it. And so far, it’s the best Castlevania game Konami never made. This is the sequel that Symphony of the Night deserves. I just wonder if Konami will have any reaction to this game’s inevitable success, or if they’ll turn their noses up to Iga like they’ve been doing. How many Castlevania games have you played? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 1 hour ago, GameDadGrant said: How many Castlevania games have you played? We've already gone down this road (not with him) in this thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkness35 Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 3 hours ago, GameDadGrant said: @darkness35 Well, he got one thing right. The "Shard" system is *exactly* like the Soul system in Aria/Dawn of Sorrow. Honestly, Ritual of the Night has more in common with the "Sorrow" games than Symphony of the Night - which is what many consider this to be a spiritual successor to. Which is still fine, I suppose. Soma's games are often acknowledged as some of IGA's best work. Minus the exception of the random art change and the forced touchscreen controls. I do agree the soul system was good in both the Aria and Dawn of Sorrow. Although, I still thought Portrait of Ruin was better of the three DS games, although I haven't really finished Ecclesia? But besides that, I sent another friend of mine the article as well, and he came a similar conclusion that he just wanted to find a reason to hate the game completely. But besides that, the article is just god awful. 1 hour ago, GameDadGrant said: How many Castlevania games have you played? I still need to beat Symphony one day. :\ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameDadGrant Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 11 hours ago, darkness35 said: I still need to beat Symphony one day. :\ No time like the present! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom631 Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 I still didn’t grab this yet and once I heard about that game-restarting bug on consoles, I figured I would wait. But i need something to hold me over until new Wolfenstein. Is it patched yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atom631 Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 12 hours ago, darkness35 said: I still need to beat Symphony one day. :\ It’s free on Xbox right now. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eventide11 Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 Must... find... Self.... Con....trol.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 1 hour ago, atom631 said: It’s free on Xbox right now. Free starting tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nublood Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 19 hours ago, GameDadGrant said: How many Castlevania games have you played? All of them. And I stand by what I posted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Vic20 Posted June 30, 2019 Share Posted June 30, 2019 I beat it. I beat every single boss, yes even the hidden ones, and my map says 99.0% complete! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eventide11 Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 1 hour ago, Mr.Vic20 said: I beat it. I beat every single boss, yes even the hidden ones, and my map says 99.0% complete! Reminds me of a similar problem with SotN Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameDadGrant Posted July 1, 2019 Share Posted July 1, 2019 4 hours ago, nublood said: All of them. And I stand by what I posted. You are a good person. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stepee Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 I’m loving this so much, it’s the SOTN 2 fused with Sorrow that I wanted, even with the subpar switch port atm (but this has to be a portable game for me) But this one part is bullshit as far as finding out what you need to do. Spoilers about 30% of the castle completion in after a big boss fight: After you beat the twin dragons after all that you get nothing obvious. You have to remember to go to the beginning area and get your picture taken and THEN randomly have to know to go to the vampire dude to get the key to move on. That is some 90’s lucasarts adventure game type shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xbob42 Posted July 6, 2019 Share Posted July 6, 2019 Really? I found that part pretty obvious. The item is told to you from the beginning of the game, has a distinct and unique name, and the dude makes it very clear you need the resulting item to move to the next area. That's probably what I struggled with least. If you want a REAL bullshit progression moment, wait until you find spiketown! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPCyric Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 So I have an extra PS4 download code because the Vita version got cancelled and all my friends already have it or don't want it... is anyone here interested in trading a PSN gift card for it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodimus Posted July 17, 2019 Share Posted July 17, 2019 I was all over this game last month and I haven't gotten back to it this month. I plan to finish it up this weekend. I got the bad ending so I know I have a little ways to go. I have been leveling up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPCyric Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 On 7/17/2019 at 8:09 AM, Rodimus said: I was all over this game last month and I haven't gotten back to it this month. I plan to finish it up this weekend. I got the bad ending so I know I have a little ways to go. I have been leveling up. Yes there is still plenty to do I got the good ending I would say you are about at the halfway mark! I REALLY hope the random dungeon mode when it comes out is great because I absolutely love this game and I want plenty of reasons to play through it several times. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodimus Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 26 minutes ago, DPCyric said: Yes there is still plenty to do I got the good ending I would say you are about at the halfway mark! I REALLY hope the random dungeon mode when it comes out is great because I absolutely love this game and I want plenty of reasons to play through it several times. I really love the game. I enjoy the music so much. I don't mind it getting stuck in my head for days. I have also got a game going on the Switch. I'm very happy with this game. I hope it leads to more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPCyric Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 Just now, Rodimus said: I really love the game. I enjoy the music so much. I don't mind it getting stuck in my head for days. I have also got a game going on the Switch. I'm very happy with this game. I hope it leads to more. Oh it will Iga has already referred to it as a franchise and now that they have assets to reuse we shouldn't have to wait so long for the next installment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodimus Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 29 minutes ago, DPCyric said: Oh it will Iga has already referred to it as a franchise and now that they have assets to reuse we shouldn't have to wait so long for the next installment. I can't wait to beat the game to see my name in the credits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodimus Posted July 22, 2019 Share Posted July 22, 2019 I played a ton of this over the weekend. I am deep in the cooking game. Only a few recipes I haven’t made. I want all those stat buffs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stepee Posted August 3, 2019 Share Posted August 3, 2019 Just beat the game with the true ending at 99.4% (wtf is the last .6?!) and yeah this is just one of my favorite games ever. Port problems on switch be damned, I got to play a SOTN 2 with Aria/Dawn thrown in on a handheld and it was glorious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaethos Posted August 3, 2019 Share Posted August 3, 2019 I just finished it up today, finished Nightmare and got all of the achievements. It was very fun and looked great at 4k. I got the unlimited ammo hat from the recipe lady on my first run, upgraded the 8-bit gun and made some diamond bullets before I even tried using a gun. After that it was basically modern military vs medieval conscripts. The last boss is stupid easy with that combo. I was actually really surprised at how fast I got him down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GameDadGrant Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 @jaethos 8-bit gun, you say? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaethos Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 I mean the weapon you craft with the 8-bit coin, then upgrade from there with the other coins. It's the best gun in the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phaseknox Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 I just got this, and it's really good. It's probably the best Metroidvania game that I've played. It offers great graphics, music, gameplay and level layouts. The RPG elements add a lot of depth to it, and it's fun to play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xbob42 Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 Just got around to finally beating this today. Was a great game, a little annoyed at how the difficulties are locked up, though. I'd like to skip straight to nightmare if I play again. Directional shard abuse was so easy in normal that it trivialized literally every single boss in the game. I killed EVERY boss, including optional ones, in a single bar of mana or less... and even if they'd have survived, I had an inventory full of ethers and shit. Might start a new game soon on hard, but for now I'm done. 100% map completion, I'll post my map so anyone in this thread doesn't have to go looking too far to see what doesn't match up with their incomplete one. There's a fun little easter egg somewhere, so if you didn't get that (and you'll know what I mean if you did, it's a bookshelf) then you might want to check it out before putting the game away for good. I mean, it's nothing big at all, but if you went through the effort of beating the game and didn't see it, seems like a waste! Completed map (no spoilers or anything, just the map): Spoiler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodimus Posted August 13, 2019 Share Posted August 13, 2019 I might platinum this game. I'm already so close. The toughest one left is every item. Man once a few things fell into place grinding money was fast and easy. I really love this game. I can't wait for the DLC. Also I watched the credits like a hawk and didn't see my name. No way I will watch the full credits anytime soon. It took like 40 mins. My eyes got tired of scanning. If you are close to getting 100% really just look at the map. There is a room you didn't find. I was at 99% for bit till I really scanned a complete map compared to mine. My New Game + is a joke. I'm level 65 I hit for like 400 and Have 388,000 Gold and many weapons to choose from. Before I play it again I will complete the item list. This is the game I wanted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodimus Posted August 22, 2019 Share Posted August 22, 2019 I got the Platinum Trophy for Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. I love this game. It is the second Platinum Trophy I have gotten. RE5 was my first. It was RE5 largely because unlock-ables in the game tied to the trophies. Thins like unlimited shotgun and such unlocked. Bloodstained was just a pure joy to play and I was looking for more content. I can't wait for more DLC. I missed a hidden trophy and had to play a new game plus to Gebal the later version of the fight and fail. At that point even on hard it was a pure steam roll. Love this game. Game of the year for me easily. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rodimus Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DPCyric Posted September 4, 2019 Share Posted September 4, 2019 3 hours ago, Rodimus said: I have a better deal I have a free PS4 code for someone (PM me)! I couldn't find anyone to trade it for a PSN gift card so I am giving it away 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSoxFan9 Posted September 18, 2019 Share Posted September 18, 2019 Have they really not fixed the switch version yet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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