BCB 16 with Angel-Corlux of 505 Games

I actually stated and conceded a lot of the points you noted in my previous post, though still got the old "fun factor" mixed in with the frustrations. The only thing more I would say to temper what you noted was that I don't think MN9 was built to be the kind of game you're thinking. I think it was seen as essentially a straightforward action-platformer with strategic elements, like the early Mega Man games. I wasn't there for the Kickstarter, and have heard the horror stories on the rollout and seen the downright mystifying marketing decisions, but I don't know if it was ever promised that it would include the exploration elements. I think this had much more retro intentions. That said, there are some hidden paths in some levels with much-needed life refills/extra lives, and the effort put in the Ray DLC has a depth similar to finding upgrades in the sense that you have to manage her continually draining life bar. (Playing her mode actually made me better at Beck's mode.) For whatever reason, perhaps due to the novelty of Kickstarter and breaking away from the traditional Japanese model of game-making and using a co-team not well established in creating polygonal 2.5D platformers, the planning and execution of everything came off chaotically. Still without these growing pains, maybe Bloodstained wouldn't have been considered a viable title for Kickstarter to begin with.

I guess I just don't feel the need to see MN9 publily dragged through the mud to justify Bloodstained or serve as a warning to Bloodstained, over and over again. I hadn't placed all my hopes on MN9, though. Bloodstained, as has been said, is a completely different animal, except for the fact that it too is a Kickstarter endeavor. I'd like to see it embrace more Classicvania elements, personally, in the way you wanted MN9 to embrace later Mega Man elements, but I'll have to wait and see what the final intention is. I've come to accept to a large extent that it's a continuation of IGAvania; somehow my initial impression was that it could be a new paradigm that would better marry the strengths of the entire Castlevania series in a new IP. At this point, I've decided to be cautious and not fall into a pit of hype.