Iga's Biggest Castle stretch goal: You want a second Castle?

I'll prefer a deteriorate castle in the hell than a inverted castle...

I don't mind one way or another. An inverted castle is just an upside-down castle, right? It might be something that is easily done but I think it is really the developers call on if its included or not. I, myself, am completely satisfied with the 1,600+ rooms and the Rouge-like Dungeons

This bears repeating. Sticking with 1600 (well, <1800) rooms for the game proper would technically be failing a Kickstarter goal. Meanwhile, most fans will probably be expecting pretty much this kind of inverted-castle non-ending, so if people get to the end of the game and discover that's really that, there will be much disappointment.

I think the best case scenario would be to make the inverted component (or equivalent) only accessible from a hard difficulty and/or New Game+. Second best case would be to have the inverted component be staggered content, though that would compromise any chance that it is integral to the game's plot and hypothetical best ending.

I'm guessing the 10h thing is if you're a casual player who doesn't give two f*cks about completionist items, or shards or alchemy or anything like that. Someone who goes through the game without attempting to find hidden walls or optional bosses.

You know, someone who's never played an IGAvania before. :p

If you look at the other games, 10h is a bit more than the average completion time for each...assuming any sort of accuracy. Not exactly the most scientific of measurements, here...

But anyway, with Bloodstained, since the castle will be assumedly so much larger than Dawn's, even if the player isn't trying to extend their playthrough with collection, that is going to happen regardless and lengthen the game. This is due even more so because there's a new system in place on top of the existing Soul system equivalent (shards) and standard drops/map filling, which is the new alchemy and crafting systems we will be playing with. These, with IGA's largest castle ever, will make for an adventure that's suitably lengthy, I think...and then we have more playable characters and 10 extra modes coming down the line. I wouldn't be worried!

IGA probably referenced the 10h a while back as an average estimate of his previous games. That may have even been before this particular stretch goal was met, perhaps? Can't recall the source of the quote. Regardless, we should be looking at quite a bit of game. I wouldn't want to extend it much more, rather instead keep a potential series going.

I haven't seen any talk at all concerning that part of the game. I'm definitely hoping there will be more gear than usual though. Even if the story really does end up taking only ten hours, hopefully the platinum trophy (aka all achievements) is something that will take a lot longer.

the Amy also drops an item it is ether I believe... That is my worry too, but I don't think Iga will leave us hanging like that... especially since he intends  to have a alchemy based crafting system 

With the stretch goals being a prequel and Bloodstained taking the Shovel Knight approach in adding content to the game after release (I forgot where I have read that at), I wonder how long the prequel will be and if they add more content to the game, how many more rooms we will be getting.

One thing I hope would be implemented are the quests from Order of Ecclesia. While these areas felt more like mini areas of a castle due to the design of them, I loved these sections because it reminded me of the old school Castlevania games with the ceilingless open areas. That said, I loved the demo pirate ship stage since it felt like a Rondo of Blood stage - being on a ship helps with the Rondo reference. I hope in the final game, it is a separate section rather than being a part of the castle. My feeling is that is could an intro level like how one of the n64 games starts off on a raft. Seeing how the castle is surrounded by water, perhaps Miriam was ambushed by monsters while taking a ship to get to the castle.

If so, I hope the final game or the prequel starts off on Miriam's travel to the castle to make the game feel longer. As a child, I loved how Super Castlevania 4 started off at the Castro's gate, which was very far from the castle. By the time I felt that the game was near the end, I entered the castle, which was halfway through the game. Inside of an inverted, I would like a long journey to the castle with a more linear feel like the classic Castlevania stages or the demo pirate ship. Having quest stages like in Order of Ecclesia where you would replay the sections for different quests would be a great way to add replay value to the game.

Years ago, when IGA left Konami and was talking about how to develop a game at a conference, he said that he estimate the overall dificulty of bosses by making the play test fight against a boss at a overral "normal" condition at that time of the game. The boss is considered good enough if the professional play tester can beat the boss without taking damage. I think when he said that 10h time frame, he is basing that on play testers. People capable of beating bosses without taking a single hit and that can beat the game fast and with a skilled gamplay. You can sure multiply that timeframe but 3 if you are talking about a "normal first time" player.

IGA said on a interview that this game will be less equipment-dependant than Symphony of the Night. But even so, i think the number of equips will be higher, due to my answer below.

IGA has said in a interview that his current idea is that there will be five different kinds of drops, corresponding to different parts of an enemy, the heads, arms, and so on, and that even single monsters will have multiple drops.
So, each monster would have at max five drops (probably head, arms, legs, body and shard), but not all of then will have all five. 

He never explained that idea very well, so, we don't know if each slot will have a drop corresponding to that (like arms dropping weapons), it is probably not. Some people (like me) assume he was talking about a general terms for drops.

For instance, Amy is nothing more than a Head, so, it is probably that it only drops one thing (Head slot) and a shard. 
Dullahammer has arms, legs, body, shard, but has no Head. So, he maybe drops four itens.

IGA also said that the general drop chance will be higher than most of his other games, because drop materials to forge and shards are a essential part of the gamplay and, as such, they can't be that hard to get.

IGA also said that they wanted shards to be usable only after "maturing then", evolving then on some sort with alchemy. But we didn't see that on the demo, so maybe they gave up on that idea (He Said that the team wasn't happy with this, because it would be frustrating to get a power and not able to use it at the same time) or maybe they are re-working it.