There should be a trophy for doing this a thousand times. I would have unlocked it hours ago.
-
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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night |OT| We Have Paid Our Tribute, Igavania Is Resurrected
- Thread starter Dancrane212
- Start date
I believe you would have to start a NG+ and find them again. That's how I did it.
Ok I think I've gone almost as far as I can with the Xbox version until the patch hits...
100% map revealed
Every achievement but one possible to get so far (until patch)
All monsters possible (until patch)
All weapons but the ones you need ingredients for that won't drop (until patch)
Most items acquired (a few lingering)
Game completed (normal) with all endings and extra bosses
I know people are upset about the patch rebalancing weapons and crafting, but there's a shard that completely breaks the economy and allows you essentially unlimited resources and money through just using it.
All said, I enjoyed the game, found it a bit too easy on normal, and am looking forwards to a harder playthrough once the patch hits, and new characters / DLC down the line.
I may not NG+ however, as I have almost every shard at L9 and even on hard the difficulty is trivial at this point when I tried it after my finished run.
100% map revealed
Every achievement but one possible to get so far (until patch)
All monsters possible (until patch)
All weapons but the ones you need ingredients for that won't drop (until patch)
Most items acquired (a few lingering)
Game completed (normal) with all endings and extra bosses
I know people are upset about the patch rebalancing weapons and crafting, but there's a shard that completely breaks the economy and allows you essentially unlimited resources and money through just using it.
All said, I enjoyed the game, found it a bit too easy on normal, and am looking forwards to a harder playthrough once the patch hits, and new characters / DLC down the line.
I may not NG+ however, as I have almost every shard at L9 and even on hard the difficulty is trivial at this point when I tried it after my finished run.
This game is pretty damn good, glad I caved in a bought it. Wasn't planning on buying anything until Fire emblem
4 bosses down, exploring now. i quite like the game but all in all, it lacks something special somehow, can´t exactly put my finger on it. maybe not mysterious enough, i much prefer the world building of Hollow Knight in comparism.
hard mode already feels like normal now, too many overpowered skills and spells.
hard mode already feels like normal now, too many overpowered skills and spells.
Damn, that's bad. Not sure I will hold out for the Switch version now then - might just get it now instead on PS4I'm surprised by how different the Switch version looks when comparing them side by side. I expected low res and maybe some performance hitches but even the basic lighting looks pretty different. And of course missing effects. It's not ruined or anything but it definitely took a big hit.
I guess I can say that Switch is a little moodier.
My attack has suddenly reduced to 6 and I can't damage any enemies for more than 1. Is this a bug or am I missing something?
Yes.
Not that I've found, but there are some loading screen tips that explain at least a few.
Str: phys damage
Int: magic damage
Luck: item drop (and maybe crit?) chance
Mind: magic defense, I think.
Def: Unsure if it's all damage or just physical
Con: I think physical defense.
There is an archive entry on what all the damage type symbols are, if you read the bookshelf on the galleon about it.
No, and now Miriam's head is invisible! I think it might be bugged out.
OP
OP
Yeah, the more I hear about the difficulty the more I think I'll start on hard once the patches roll out on XB1.
I have no idea what the actual damage formula is but I believe it is something like..
Def is factored in all damage. Mnd in magic attacks, con in physical. And then the individual elements/physical types.
I'm still early on in the game but do you get the ability to quickly swap weapons at some point? I feel like the different weapon types are so different that I could definitely use more than one depending on the situation but going through the menu to swap them everytime is annoying.
For example I have a 2h Axe right now that reaches a lot of stuff over me and on the ground... But I also have a mace that is a lot quicker to attack but only hit at eye level in front of me.
For example I have a 2h Axe right now that reaches a lot of stuff over me and on the ground... But I also have a mace that is a lot quicker to attack but only hit at eye level in front of me.
Happened to me as well. I was only able to fix it by loading an earlier save.
How to get the true ending,
attack something else with that sword during the boss fight
Anyone encountered a bug (GoG version) where the higher cathedral areas save doesn't work? It occured after I beat
I haven't gone to another save yet
Edit: different save area worked. Also I am now sure this happened to me before in the same area, be careful people!
blood steal lady
Edit: different save area worked. Also I am now sure this happened to me before in the same area, be careful people!
Impressions!
I really haven't waffled a stream of conciousness quite like this one in a while, I'll put it under a spoiler tag but consider most of what's in there to not really spoil beyond mid-game directly, the later areas of the game I spoiler tagged within the spoiler tag just to be safe.
I really haven't waffled a stream of conciousness quite like this one in a while, I'll put it under a spoiler tag but consider most of what's in there to not really spoil beyond mid-game directly, the later areas of the game I spoiler tagged within the spoiler tag just to be safe.
Though arriving a decade late, Bloodstained picks up where Ecclesia left off, this time though due to the various circumstances that led to the end of IGAvanias, the decline of Castlevania in general and the fan demand, the end goal seems to be to take what was learned and refined over the GBA and DS Vanias and apply them to a Symphony of the Night homage.
Bloodstained finds itself as a result a bit limited by embracing the decision to stand in the shadow of SotN, at the same time though it's a perfect itch scratcher for Iga's brand of exploration and RPG elements. Like a chimera of Iga's past titles, combat revels in revisiting the Sorrow duos tactical souls system via the shards, it hides hidden techniques in its weapons like Symphony while also fully embracing that games quirks of being able to just break the systems in your favour if you so choose.
Taking combat first of all seems like a good place to start, the selection of weapon types here are the same as those in the handheld vania outings such as greatswords with overhead swings and horizontal sword slashes from straight swords/katanas for example. There's a few new additions, I think the Boots are a fun twist on the usual cestus related items, the gun returns from Dawn of Sorrow but with much more meat to it, a whole ammo system that I never actually delved into but judging by others has plenty of potential to output strong damage. In general though this is the same backstep, attack cancelling antics you'd expect, not much has changed on the basics and I do feel this was a missed opportunity to finally evolve base combat in Iga's games somewhat.
The shards on the other hand feel a lot more fun here than their spiritual predecessors, partly because I found drop rates for them were more generous. Another is that the right stick and trigger shard options open up another avenue for more versatility in your immediate arsenal and feel that little bit more dynamic being able to freely aim moves while on the move.
Maybe the odds were against me, but shards used for R1 were uncommon for me so I spent a lot of the game just with the progression related big hand, that was a bit disappointing considering the volume of options for the other categories.
Not gonna dwell to long on enemies and bosses here. I was wondering how large the catalogue of foes would be with the switch to 3D models and losing the vania sprite back-catalogue, as such its got a fair amount of palette swaps padding it out and what is here is of course a group of vania expys, unfortunately not too many exciting or surprising foes, that said the monsteriffic household pets were a wonderful WTF moment.
Boss fights are fine, in line with Dawn and Portrait I'd say but not on the level of Ecclesia which I bang the drum of having one of the best and varied boss lineups of any game. You get a few cases where the arena itself makes things feel unique (a late game one using the 2.5D jumps to mind).
Alright onto my meat and potatoes, the map and exploration.
The decision to start the game off on a microcosm of the formula with the boat is interesting, it has a few nods towards areas you can't reach and some light exploration, otherwise its very standard fare and I'd argue the game has a slow burn in getting to the exploration hook in the castle itself.
So about that castle, this is the first time since Dawn of Sorrow that Iga really got to go to town on a full castle map once more, Portrait and Ecclesia opted for isolated areas and one smaller castle in their own ways, but now we're back to what I'd say is the stronger approach.
But how does the castle stack up? well I don't think it's about to dethrone Symphony any time soon on that front.
The game map boasts Igas biggest castle as a stretch goal, it doesn't necessarily use all that space well. What I always admired about Dracula's Castle was how it used its area themes and layouts to create a sense of place, the tower of mist is a heavily vertical ascent, the marble gallery is a long connecting corridor, when you start heading down into the depths you really get a sense of escalation from the caverns to the crypt, Colosseum has this nice compact symmetry like a stadium arena would and the chapel's long staircase leading to its twin towers fits feels like it plays to the upper architecture you'd see from the castle exterior.
Do we call this Gebel's castle? I guess so, here things remind me more of how games following SotN felt like an assortment of area themes that just happen to link with basics covered (caves are low on the map, cathedral and clock towers are high), the actual block layout of the areas rarely gives the themes that extra push. There are exceptions of course, the twin towers mirroring each other, having a connected elevator and a boss that thematically ties in is the kind of stuff that really works, it's just a shame that elsewhere things are just a bit standard.
One area that really struggles in my mind is the underground, it's an overly long set of uneven corridors designed to run across the horizontal axis of the castle ala Symphony, but it's too long and lacks many re-entry points to the castle above it, you'll soon tire of toads and shovels in this area. Even one of its more visually distinct rooms is basically ripped from Symphony and lacks the gradual build to it.
While there's some rather unique themes lurking even further down, there's something just a bit lacking about them? considering where you end up I feel like the aesthetics of them should be stronger.
Whew, now let me talk about two areas I really liked.
First the mechanical library is such a cool twist on that theme, it allows clockwork mechanisms to get their foot in the door without being tied to clocktowers, it opens up some platforming scenarios with all the moving parts, background and foreground elements, gives you choice on how to progress (I think I went the opposite way round via very light sequence breaking). Notably it's one of those areas where you access the small lower portion early on and it only has teases of its mechanisms that you later discover in full force when you can explore further.
The other novel area is something of a set piece, think I'll spoiler tag this one.
The actual progression through all these areas seems fine, it's paced well enough. I think some parts will give some players trouble as to how to progress, I was fortunate to never really hit a wall myself but I considered that had I not stumbled into two particular paths of progression as soon as I did I'd be asking for help.
The village hub has an awkward warp placement, should probably just be moved down to stop the player from going up and down the small bit outside with the bats and bones. The NPCs here carry over Ecclesia's side questing, albeit without the same sense of charm as populating Wygol village and helpings the eccentric townsfolk. The repeated dialogue (oh god, the bloody hunting quests lady) and shopping list like approach is disappointing, nothing novel like taking snapshots of yetis for the local paper or heading to specific locations to sketch for an elderly lady here I'm afraid. This area is also home to where you'll likely experience some of your many hangups and loading issues....
So yeah the optimisation of this game is pretty horrid, it drags down the experience as the game may freeze for seconds as you conk an enemy, suddenly decide walking into the next screen is gonna require loading on this occasion. The whole patch issue in itself is a terrible first impression, I avoided the main game ending bug but the open chests issue did lead to me missing something I could only overcome with speed run damage boost strats. At least I got some item duplications out of it? in any case this all makes for a sloppy looking release.
I've had the game map glitch as it loses its borders in places, had Miriam's hair just vanish, item drops snagged in walls or just not obtainable, deaths where I don't actually enter a dying animation and am still playing as the screen fades out.
Safe to say there will need to be a lot of patching in this game's future and it makes me wonder how the switch port will fare.
Difficulty curve is interesting, it's tougher than Symphony but opts to allow you to break the game as easily as you could back then, I think this is actually an aspect many like about SotN so I don't really have any issues with that. Optional bosses seem to almost lean into a "fight hax with hax" approach.
Quick story stuff, it follows similar beats to the rest of Vania, it's like getting Aria of Sorrow in Symphony of the Night, characters fill similar roles to those you've seen before. Voice acting is actually pretty good in English, a few bits of "cor blimey oim british!" silliness. There's pockets of lighter/comedic tones in here as well which is nice.
Visually the game shifts between looking really quite nice and a bit rough, they generally nail the gothic architecture which is most important, any wider environment shots are rather....crap to be put bluntly, mercifully these are rare.
Music is Yamane doing Yamane things, it's good.
FINALLY TO CONCLUDE
All in all, it's a fun outing that delivers what it promised, the technical issues are pretty shocking for something they're charging £35 for but otherwise I consider it money well spent.
It ain't no mighty number 9 clusterfuck, it's a better homage to Castlevania than Yooka-Laylee was for Banjo (side note, I did like that game) and lands as a solid 8 that fits right in with the series it so heavily cribs, said cribbing holds the game back from true greatness as it struggles to find its own identity and is content with IGA's greatest hits, right down to super jump librarian abuse.
A sequel COULD be baller.
Bloodstained finds itself as a result a bit limited by embracing the decision to stand in the shadow of SotN, at the same time though it's a perfect itch scratcher for Iga's brand of exploration and RPG elements. Like a chimera of Iga's past titles, combat revels in revisiting the Sorrow duos tactical souls system via the shards, it hides hidden techniques in its weapons like Symphony while also fully embracing that games quirks of being able to just break the systems in your favour if you so choose.
Taking combat first of all seems like a good place to start, the selection of weapon types here are the same as those in the handheld vania outings such as greatswords with overhead swings and horizontal sword slashes from straight swords/katanas for example. There's a few new additions, I think the Boots are a fun twist on the usual cestus related items, the gun returns from Dawn of Sorrow but with much more meat to it, a whole ammo system that I never actually delved into but judging by others has plenty of potential to output strong damage. In general though this is the same backstep, attack cancelling antics you'd expect, not much has changed on the basics and I do feel this was a missed opportunity to finally evolve base combat in Iga's games somewhat.
The shards on the other hand feel a lot more fun here than their spiritual predecessors, partly because I found drop rates for them were more generous. Another is that the right stick and trigger shard options open up another avenue for more versatility in your immediate arsenal and feel that little bit more dynamic being able to freely aim moves while on the move.
Maybe the odds were against me, but shards used for R1 were uncommon for me so I spent a lot of the game just with the progression related big hand, that was a bit disappointing considering the volume of options for the other categories.
Not gonna dwell to long on enemies and bosses here. I was wondering how large the catalogue of foes would be with the switch to 3D models and losing the vania sprite back-catalogue, as such its got a fair amount of palette swaps padding it out and what is here is of course a group of vania expys, unfortunately not too many exciting or surprising foes, that said the monsteriffic household pets were a wonderful WTF moment.
Boss fights are fine, in line with Dawn and Portrait I'd say but not on the level of Ecclesia which I bang the drum of having one of the best and varied boss lineups of any game. You get a few cases where the arena itself makes things feel unique (a late game one using the 2.5D jumps to mind).
Alright onto my meat and potatoes, the map and exploration.
The decision to start the game off on a microcosm of the formula with the boat is interesting, it has a few nods towards areas you can't reach and some light exploration, otherwise its very standard fare and I'd argue the game has a slow burn in getting to the exploration hook in the castle itself.
So about that castle, this is the first time since Dawn of Sorrow that Iga really got to go to town on a full castle map once more, Portrait and Ecclesia opted for isolated areas and one smaller castle in their own ways, but now we're back to what I'd say is the stronger approach.
But how does the castle stack up? well I don't think it's about to dethrone Symphony any time soon on that front.
The game map boasts Igas biggest castle as a stretch goal, it doesn't necessarily use all that space well. What I always admired about Dracula's Castle was how it used its area themes and layouts to create a sense of place, the tower of mist is a heavily vertical ascent, the marble gallery is a long connecting corridor, when you start heading down into the depths you really get a sense of escalation from the caverns to the crypt, Colosseum has this nice compact symmetry like a stadium arena would and the chapel's long staircase leading to its twin towers fits feels like it plays to the upper architecture you'd see from the castle exterior.
Do we call this Gebel's castle? I guess so, here things remind me more of how games following SotN felt like an assortment of area themes that just happen to link with basics covered (caves are low on the map, cathedral and clock towers are high), the actual block layout of the areas rarely gives the themes that extra push. There are exceptions of course, the twin towers mirroring each other, having a connected elevator and a boss that thematically ties in is the kind of stuff that really works, it's just a shame that elsewhere things are just a bit standard.
One area that really struggles in my mind is the underground, it's an overly long set of uneven corridors designed to run across the horizontal axis of the castle ala Symphony, but it's too long and lacks many re-entry points to the castle above it, you'll soon tire of toads and shovels in this area. Even one of its more visually distinct rooms is basically ripped from Symphony and lacks the gradual build to it.
The waterfall, I have no doubt its supposed to intentionally evoke SotN, the actual waterfall itself seems a bit sudden seeing the lack of water on the upper half of the cavern
The castle comes up from hell effectively, so you'd think reaching an inferno down the bottom would look more interesting than just a fiery cave, the preceding desert ruins comes across as kinda random and doesn't take advantage of the theme to supply thematically appropriate enemies, this is where the palette swap issues jump in, bone dragons are best you'll get, I do like that the sandpits give the area something to work with though.
On the opposite position of the castle, the Japanese themed garden area is absolutely random as all hell, I mean I'm happy so see something new considering how the castle is otherwise standard but when your cathedral towers are flanked by rock gardens I think that maybe this area should've been moved elsewhere.
Penultimate area is basically a tedious asset flip, the weakest link of the entire game, who knew a den of behemoths could be so bland? this all leads to the grand finale in MORE CAVES, well okay then.
On the opposite position of the castle, the Japanese themed garden area is absolutely random as all hell, I mean I'm happy so see something new considering how the castle is otherwise standard but when your cathedral towers are flanked by rock gardens I think that maybe this area should've been moved elsewhere.
Penultimate area is basically a tedious asset flip, the weakest link of the entire game, who knew a den of behemoths could be so bland? this all leads to the grand finale in MORE CAVES, well okay then.
Whew, now let me talk about two areas I really liked.
First the mechanical library is such a cool twist on that theme, it allows clockwork mechanisms to get their foot in the door without being tied to clocktowers, it opens up some platforming scenarios with all the moving parts, background and foreground elements, gives you choice on how to progress (I think I went the opposite way round via very light sequence breaking). Notably it's one of those areas where you access the small lower portion early on and it only has teases of its mechanisms that you later discover in full force when you can explore further.
The other novel area is something of a set piece, think I'll spoiler tag this one.
The short but sweet train section gets to put a spin on the game with a co-op buddy and a race against the clock, it contains an incredibly memorable hidden foe to boot.
The actual progression through all these areas seems fine, it's paced well enough. I think some parts will give some players trouble as to how to progress, I was fortunate to never really hit a wall myself but I considered that had I not stumbled into two particular paths of progression as soon as I did I'd be asking for help.
These would be the train pass and the ability to move through water. As an aside on that last one, the water movement post jet spray is atrocious, no idea what they were thinking there
The village hub has an awkward warp placement, should probably just be moved down to stop the player from going up and down the small bit outside with the bats and bones. The NPCs here carry over Ecclesia's side questing, albeit without the same sense of charm as populating Wygol village and helpings the eccentric townsfolk. The repeated dialogue (oh god, the bloody hunting quests lady) and shopping list like approach is disappointing, nothing novel like taking snapshots of yetis for the local paper or heading to specific locations to sketch for an elderly lady here I'm afraid. This area is also home to where you'll likely experience some of your many hangups and loading issues....
So yeah the optimisation of this game is pretty horrid, it drags down the experience as the game may freeze for seconds as you conk an enemy, suddenly decide walking into the next screen is gonna require loading on this occasion. The whole patch issue in itself is a terrible first impression, I avoided the main game ending bug but the open chests issue did lead to me missing something I could only overcome with speed run damage boost strats. At least I got some item duplications out of it? in any case this all makes for a sloppy looking release.
I've had the game map glitch as it loses its borders in places, had Miriam's hair just vanish, item drops snagged in walls or just not obtainable, deaths where I don't actually enter a dying animation and am still playing as the screen fades out.
Safe to say there will need to be a lot of patching in this game's future and it makes me wonder how the switch port will fare.
Difficulty curve is interesting, it's tougher than Symphony but opts to allow you to break the game as easily as you could back then, I think this is actually an aspect many like about SotN so I don't really have any issues with that. Optional bosses seem to almost lean into a "fight hax with hax" approach.
Quick story stuff, it follows similar beats to the rest of Vania, it's like getting Aria of Sorrow in Symphony of the Night, characters fill similar roles to those you've seen before. Voice acting is actually pretty good in English, a few bits of "cor blimey oim british!" silliness. There's pockets of lighter/comedic tones in here as well which is nice.
Visually the game shifts between looking really quite nice and a bit rough, they generally nail the gothic architecture which is most important, any wider environment shots are rather....crap to be put bluntly, mercifully these are rare.
Music is Yamane doing Yamane things, it's good.
FINALLY TO CONCLUDE
All in all, it's a fun outing that delivers what it promised, the technical issues are pretty shocking for something they're charging £35 for but otherwise I consider it money well spent.
It ain't no mighty number 9 clusterfuck, it's a better homage to Castlevania than Yooka-Laylee was for Banjo (side note, I did like that game) and lands as a solid 8 that fits right in with the series it so heavily cribs, said cribbing holds the game back from true greatness as it struggles to find its own identity and is content with IGA's greatest hits, right down to super jump librarian abuse.
A sequel COULD be baller.
The save works for me on GoG version 1.05 (you can check in the spoiler if it's the proper one through minimap)
I use the the same as you do, even though i just finished my second playthrough. The lil' buddy heals me when i am in the need and cures me if i am sick.
The perfect assistant.
I think i'll keep it for my third nightmare run.
So, is the Heretical Grinder ability just insanely overpowered?
I take down bosses in less than a minute with this thing.
I take down bosses in less than a minute with this thing.
.
The PS4 version suffers from frame-drops during certain locations and boss-battles. Stuttering tends to happen fairly often too.
Dullhallan Heads (basically the game's medusa head) are consistent at least in bonking enemies, probably because they do nothing else while others like the tome have buffs for instance.
I somehow cannot find the backer thread, so I'll try here. My backer copy arrived today - but literally all that was in the package was the base game, nothing else. That does not necessarily constitute a problem depending on how they handle the rest, but I was under the impression there should have been a slipcase included? My backer tier was quite high, so I am unsure if I am missing something?
Also while I am at it, if I use the disc version, will I have access to the "dlc" or do I have to start over a new save file with the disc install?
Also while I am at it, if I use the disc version, will I have access to the "dlc" or do I have to start over a new save file with the disc install?
Bloodbringer has ok damage (for a familiar), but it's annoying... because of its voice xD It does a little more than 100 damage at high level for my Miriam
Oh I have one of those shards. Didn't realize it was a familiar, will try it out!
Dullahammer heads are good. On Hard difficulty you can easily max out the shards in the first area of the game.
They aren't consistent in their targeting, but you get 5 of them and they do really nice damage.
They aren't consistent in their targeting, but you get 5 of them and they do really nice damage.
So, about a OHKO move one of the later bosses has...
How the hell do you get out of Zangetsu's talisman attack that sucks you in and kills you in one hit? I've tried everything (all kinds of attacks, equipping the Ofuda Talisman, high jumping, inverting, etc.) but can't knock him out of it or escape it.
You have to unequip it as a familiar to use it as a weapon.
I think I found a bug (it's minor, not a blocker...but geez might be too good lol) in this game while crafting weapons (playing on PC/Steam, latest version, whatever it is)...
I upgraded the encrypted orchid with a 16-bit coin, ended up with two of them in my inventory...?!
I think you can exploit the bug to farm 16-bit coins if you have enough alkahest to keep dismantling it and re-crafting them x2...
I think you can exploit the bug to farm 16-bit coins if you have enough alkahest to keep dismantling it and re-crafting them x2...
Is there any consensus on what "the best" familiar might be? I'm now at 80% of the map revealed, and I've gone from the Silver Knight, to Bloodbringer, to Dantalion, and finally landed on the Dullahammer head for a while. It seems generally useful for attack and defense compared to the others. The only other one that I think is equal to it, and maybe surpasses it depending on what you're going for would be Dantalion. It's not quite as aggressive as the rest, but it does attack. The most important thing is the buff it gives you, but it might not be as valuable if you're already stacking strength anyway. Early on though, I think that buff is better than what the other familiars bring, since at lower levels they don't actually contribute all that much. Carabosse can be useful for finding secret walls, but I've been hitting everywhere anyway, and haven't found her to be much help otherwise.
I also haven't found a better directional shard than True Arrow for efficiency. There are others that might be more damaging, but they aren't as efficient aside from maybe the 8-bit fireball, but it's also slower.
I also haven't found a better directional shard than True Arrow for efficiency. There are others that might be more damaging, but they aren't as efficient aside from maybe the 8-bit fireball, but it's also slower.
For directional...
The void ray deals very very heavy damage and is highly mobile...
-- edit: but yeah, it's very late, so only plainly useful for completion and new game + ;)
-- edit: but yeah, it's very late, so only plainly useful for completion and new game + ;)
Last edited:
where does
Fiend fang drop? I meep farming the one Silver Wolfman in the Behemoth Realm but he refuses to drop it like the only steam answer says.
Thank you, took me a second to realize it was there.
