Your favorite IGAvania RPG elements!

1) I really liked the mechanic in Portrait of Ruin where your sub-weapons could level up. The more you used them, the stronger they became. Also, as the sub-weps leveled up, the physical appearance changed as well.

This is vaguely similar to how sub-weapon levels worked in Castlevania: Legacy of Darkness. In LoD, the level 1 axe was just an axe that is thrown. Level 2 adds a lightning strike wherever the axe lands. And Level 3 increases the size of the lightning strike.  (The physical appearance changing is kind of a Castlevania staple.  Think back to old-school CV.  Starting in CV1, your whip goes from a leather whip to a morning star to a longer morning star.  CV2 had similar upgrades to the physical appearance of the whip.  LoD also has the whip go from leather whip to morning star to light whip.)

2) I would like to see a crafting mechanic where you could add materials you found and reforge existing weapons to make them more powerful. I don't just want to gather materials and forge them into a new weapon. It would be cool to me to have weapon upgrade trees. If you have the right materials, you could take a standard longsword down the fire path until you end up with the Marsil. The same weapon could go down an ice path instead and become the Icebrand and then further to become the Ice Sword of Mim.

(Weapon trees are a huge RPG element in games like Monster Hunter.)

3) I really like IGAvania style discovery of traversal mechanics.  I know you just find these as part of the game progression, but it is cool to obtain the ability to double-jump and then re-think of all the places where you could have used it.  The same with the slide.  I'm not sure if this is really RPG related, but it is definitely a staple of this type of game (genre).

Basically, for me the RPG elements need to include upgrades to:
-player stats (STR, INT, MND, LCK, CON, etc)
-player abilities (double-jump, slide, super jump, etc)
-main weapons (via crafting--see above)
-sub weapons (speed, power, heart/crystal consumption)

I liked the sense of discovery as well. Smacking random walls became rewarding when the reward was more than just wall chicken. I especially loved seeing the weapons get progressively more mythical in design which added to the sense of discovery.

Another thing I liked is how the difficulty is dynamic because it's as easy or as hard as your level and gear set up. The player can choose to grind to make things easier or drop their armor to make the enemies more dangerous.

TOMES!!!!  You said the magic word!!!

I'd love it if such a possible weapon type in Bloodstained was purely linked to the Intelligence and Mind stats.

Oh yeah, that reference.  Love it.

You mean a similar idea to the Walk/Scout Armor in the Castlevania series?

That's mine. It gives you a great incentive to defeat enemies, rather than avoid them. And of course it makes combat itself more interesting, knowing you'll have so many choices in weapons throughout the game. I feel this is exactly what many of these "Metroidvania" games are missing. They either have absolutely no extra weapons, or just a few that you're given when you get to certain parts of the story. It'll be nice to go weapon hunting again.

My favorite rpg element is definitely the leveling up aspect. I love the feeling that any challenge can be mitigated by sheer grinding. Reason why Order of ecclesia is my favorite just because they added the ridiculous lvl 255 mode.

Second would be bonus/optional content, with good rewards.  Valmanway in aria, heal spell in portrait, queen of hearts in order of ecclesia. Joke weapons aside the broken equipment obtained in these optional content gives me about the same satisfaction as reaching max level.

Finally the grindy equipment that change x stat when you do x number of times. Muramasa in symphony, the miser ring in ortrait, and the rings of power in order of ecclesia. 


Yeah I really love the grinding aspect of Iga's games. Sure they are not the most practical but I LOVE that he gives us the option to. Really hope it comes back in full force for bloodstained. 

PS I wish the game is balanced around the practical side of the game like order of ecclesia. Game could be turned into a joke at level 255 but a normal playthrough, without grinding, required you to think and read enemy tells. 

I'm having flashbacks to the hours of grinding for souls in Aria and Dawn of Sorrow. Especially getting all the +luck souls in Dawn just to make soul farming easier.

Regarding the raising luck comment. Another great feeling is when you find that one tactic that makes grinding for a specific item/soul easier.



I think if memory serves me the imp soul switches the MP and HP of monsters temporarily in Dawn so farming the pesky Great Ax Armour for 9 souls was made super easy as long as you can find one near a scene transition.



Also if any of the devs are reading this, fit in a "rarity" rating of drops in the bestiary and have it actively affected with luck or other items. Order of ecclesia showed 5 star ratings drop to 2 whenever you equipped your full item hunting gear etc.





Glad to know I am not the only grind type personality on here.

I agree with just about everyone here... but one of my favorite things in SotN was finding those certain weapons that leveled up with use... and leveling up familiars. Mind you I would not want EVER weapon to level up but a few would be awesome XD