Topic: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

The first Zangetsu fight was the first point in the game where I died and had to re-evaluate my strategy. It's very much a "progress check" boss fight.

Oh her demands get even more outlandish @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy. 😂 The lady who wants revenge on behalf of everyone and everything has a hilarious voice.

@Ralizah After several failed attempts battling Zangetsu, being slow and methodical worked. Before him the bosses and enemies are easy enough that you can just power through them.

Once you learn the bosses attack patterns they were are all pretty straightforward so far for me. The combat is too simplistic for them to be otherwise.

"KILL THEM MURDERERS DEAD!!"... Yeah her voice actress is certainly enjoying her role @mookysam! 😂

That old lady wants some naffing fries now! I only managed to get a pizza thanks to the lady who wants the items for burial just handed me three

I heard that lovely tune the "Gears of Fortune" actually played in game that you showed before @Ralizah. Still a lovely track and my favourite so far but the whole soundtrack has been good

I've got myself to the library yesterday and found myself at the next boss.

Only tried once. Unsurprisingly got my butt handed to me on a silver platter the first time.

Each area I'm only just managing to make it through by the skin of my teeth to the next sa e point as I'm trying not to use any overpowered shards (Like my grinder, I've actually sold a few copies off so it's not too tough) or even heal with potions (feels a bit cheap doing that for some reason)

I got the bunnywoman shard as well which I guess I should be surprised at but... I'm not. Wtf is shovel knight doing here though?! He's been pimped out enough hasn't he?! 😅

I've stuck with the mace as a weapon since halfway through the entryway.

The extra skills you can use for certain weapons are a bit annoying though with some of them having Street Fighter/Tekken like button combos you need to pull off.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy That means you've gotten to the Tower of Twin Dragons now, right?

The game's music is pretty uniformly excellent, I agree. It's the biggest thing that really makes Bloodstained feel like a latter-day Castlevania title.

I never bothered with the complex attack commands, personally. You can fly through the game with basic running, jumping, and normal attacks (and shard skills, of course).

She reminded me of Jean Slater from EastEnders @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy.

By the end of the game it's a good idea to level up the stat shards because you then get permanent upgrades to your stats and can then double up by also keeping the shards equipped. Making all the recipes is also a great way to increase stats.

Indeed it does Ralizah... That was an interesting area. The clockworky-gears are a staple of dracula's castle in Castlevania aren't they?

I probably won't use them either. It's totally not because I can't input most of them 😅 ... Nice they're there though I guess!

I'm not particularly well versed in my soaps but I do know who you're talking about there and I can see where you're coming from @mookysam 😂

And will do about the stat shards, cheers mooky!

Weeeeeeell. I found out why the Tower Of Twin Dragons is called that lol.

Boss fight took a few tries (Still not trying to cheese anything or heal (I dunno why but it feels like cheating)) but I eventually got past it.

The train fight was much easier in comparison.

But I... triggered something when using the train to go back and ending up dying 😂

-EDIT-

Also there's a giant 7GB patch for the game which fixes some localisation errors, shards being adjusted and bugs

The only things I've encountered so far bug wise are the missing words in text... Seems ridiculously large for something so minor.

Though apparently the patch was supposed to be out sometime last month... maybe even october?

Perhaps a staggered release would've been better for this then on all platforms at once?

With it being a kickstarter project I can see why they didn't as it would've took the mick for backers whom already had to wait pretty long but it would've helped them in the long run I think for development.

Yeah I noticed the patch too. There was also a patch for season 2 of TT's Batman on the same day which I thought was weird.

Think you are where I was in the game when i last played it, @Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy. I got to the train, but had almost no health and had not saved for ages so went back.

I don't think healing is cheating when facing bosses, but I see what you mean with cheesing. I used to try and save my food and stuff for bosses, and use the save shrine things in normal gameplay.

Was a bit suprised at the very quick succession of bosses there with the Tower Of Twin Dragons boss, the train boss and then the speedster demon boss. Even if I'd already faced the Tower Boss and the Train boss last time I played.

It feels a little rushed out there if I'm honest and could've had a bit more level/platforming there between those in my opinion to pace it a little better.

The second library boss The... Shadow Drake? was actually quite easy compared to all the others I've faced so far. Went down with barely a scratch on me which is a first for sure.

The next boss is going to be interesting. Only faced her once (and lost) but can't wait to try again.

(Quite big spoilers in the spoiler tags ahead!)

The fact that I can face Gebel caught me completely off guard. Wasn't expecting that just yet. Especially as I have quite a bit left to go in the game! Thank goodness I saved!

Also gonna out this theory out now that Dominique is evil

Had this thought for a while now to be honest.

FINAAAAAAAALLLLLLY! What a pain in the butt that was! 😂

Actually ended up cheesing her with the Inferno Breath Directional shard by the tenth try. I have a save there still though to try and beat her more honestly.

Probably shouldn't sell my shards anymore for cash but went on a teensy bit of a cooking spree. Not that I got much. Never seems as if I have anything and have to keep buying stuff so my gold is ridiculously low.

I'm also a bit suprised if I'm honest that the manipulative healing shard is soooooooo rubbish yet you can easily just cheese through a boss by stuffing Miriam's face with all the food and potions (The game at the moment keeps throwing sponge cakes at me from every chest!)

Hence why healing feels like a cheat in this to me whereas it worked in Hollow Knight because it was baked into the mana/soul mechanics and was the only way to heal at the expense of not using soul for a magical attack.

Overall I'd say Bloodstained is sitting at a 7 maybe a 7.5 out of ten for me. I think it could do with better balancing in particular as it seems a bit over the place to me in the game's design.

Still enjoying it though and liking the gothic asthetic (we need more goth games!)

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Most of my money went on healing items, not that it got me that much though. Always felt i should be be cooking more stuff, but never had the right ingredients and always thought i would get them from enemies or chests.

Whenever I went to sell my shards I always chickened out just in case I needed it for different enemy or boss.

Would you class Devil May Cry as a goth game? Not sure if you've played it but the fifth game is quite cheap in the sale. Apologies in advance if you have already mentioned it!

The train is quite good for farming gold @JohnnyShoulder thanks to all the lamp posts that whiz by on top of the carriages. Got like 5000 gold on the one run 😂

Luck seems(?) to increase item drops (I have 45 or so luck now thanks to a few pieces of equipment and the library book) and going back to a few places I'd already been to I found a ring in a previously unreachable chest that apparently increases item drop rates even further.

Getting plenty of materials now and higher end metal like damascus sells for 500+ gold so I've got a decent way of getting money for the time being and made a good portion of the food now

No apology necessary. I'd say DMC is pretty gothic. I was thinking about maybe getting it (Or the quadruple ack of DMC 1, 2, 3 & 4 special edition bundle) but I've got plenty to tide me over for a good long while.

Next year is pretty crazy too on the releases. Plus I've seen V cheaper physically anyway so... Hopefully it'll still be that price when I do get round to it 😁

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy It's WAY too easy to buy food/potions and just gorge your way to victory in difficult boss encounters. In addition, the level design is somewhat bland, as is usual for these RPG Castlevanias that emphasize backtracking. And the addition of leveling and stats adds nothing for me.

And don't get me started on the lame sidequests and that annoying lady who keeps asking you to kill particular enemies.

"KILL THOSE MURDERERS DEAD!"
Every. Single. Time.

And those stupid fighting game moves that I never used.

And the weird story that never really clicked with me.

For a modern Castlevania title, though, it's solid enough. I'd love a big budget Classicvania at some point, personally. Curse of the Moon was great, but the NES aesthetic... has its limits. Especially in terms of the setpieces.

I personally think the level design gets the job done decently enough with castle, garden, cathedral, clockwork areas and so on @Ralizah but I can see why you could call it bland. Considering the lower budget I feel I can give it a bit of leeway in that.

I find the map asthetics more annoying if I'm honest because the areas aren't shown properly (Like what's part of the Waterway or the Cathedral etc.) Just the rooms as endless blocks is rather disappointing

You can group select her missions using square (or whatever the applicable button is you're playing it on) so she only says that line once per time you visit her... I can see why it might be annoying (I actually don't mind).

Though I agree on the sidequest variety lacking. Not that Hollow Knight had much more on offer then it either!

I STILL haven't used any either. At least not on purpose. 😂

Well I just got to the fight against the Alchemist Alfred. Tbh there hasn't been a whole lot of story so far... Not that I mind but it hasn't had any nice lore either to find.

You sound a bit ticked off in that whole post if I'm honest (Maybe I'm just reading to much into it though) compared to when we've talked about it before! Trying not to dissaude others when you talking about it before or something? 😊

Not much sense in mentioning flaws in a discussion with someone who has never played a game unless I feel like they ruin the experience, which, in this case, I don't. It's a good enough game, and one I'm glad exists.

With that said, the series has seen better entries in the past, and I don't want to give something a pass on its flaws just because I'm a fan of the property it's based on.

That battle is a proper rite of passage. I thought the game was totally chill until I got to that fight and then he flattened me for about two hours. Had to relearn how to play the game because I'd been sleepwalking it.