Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon QUESTIONS!

1) Gremory seems to be a very important enemy in the game, if not the final boss. It shows up in the trailer and at the moon. There has been several speculations of Gremory being the villain's sidekick on the main game, maybe the equivalent of Castlevania's Death. Considering it seems to be the main enemy on Curse of the Moon, do you think that possibility is even higher?

I personally doubt that they would have shown the final boss in the trailer I hope they didn't, but Gremory may even have her own agenda that has nothing to do with others for all we know, either way I don't think they gave us any solid idea of her motivations beyond her being a boss to overcome.


2) The 8-bit mini-game was promised to be a prequel, whose plot would be 10 years before the main game (when Miriam was sleeping and Zangetsu was probably already battling the first wave of demons). IGA made an executive decision and changed "prequel" to "spin-off". That means that Curse of the Moon doesn't have any connection to the main canon of Ritual of the Night. Did you liked or disliked such decision?

Was it Iga that made the decision? I thought it was Inti myself. I mentioned this in another post that "spin-off" can mean so many different things to people in particular when your talking about people from different countries, so I've given up on assuming till May 24th. I personally hope that it fits somehow into the overall story but it could still be a kick-ass game even if it doesn't.


3) The playable characters are Zangetsu, Miriam, Alfred and Gebel. Would you had prefered other characters as playable? Who would you substitute / choose?

I really wouldn't want to "dismiss" any of the current roster they all look cool but if I could add anyone it would be Dominique and Bloodless and Johannes. Maybe Johannes could attack with books like Charolette did in Portrait of Ruin or set up traps for the enemies fighting with his brains not brawn, and if indeed the game is not Canon why not have a scenario of Bloodless going "rogue" as it were, Dominique would be a great weaker but faster and more agile version of Alfred.


4) It has been stated that the game has no special upgrades or things like that and it is mostly focused on hard stages that must be beaten and you can find shortcuts by using specific characters. What are your thoughts over this? It surely makes the game more "classic" but it may be a downside for today's gaming standards.

I don't think that it's been stated that there are NO special upgrades at all, but assuming that that's the case, I really don't see this as being a negative. Nostalgia is the number one selling point of the game, that and retro has a niche audience in the younger generation anyways and for them this will be a fairly new type of challenge, combing the beautiful design and relation to Bloodstained and gothic horror with the cheap price of $10 I really think alot of people will give it a try as long as it's advertised enough that they know about it. Finding all the upgrades and earning them and exploring the game to find the best route through it are both challenges just in different ways, they both in a sense challenge the player to "break" the game and find the weak points about it so that you can easily make your way through it.


5) Would you change anything on how each character was presented? Considering their skills and abilities revealed for the game?

I agree that having Gebel change into something other then a bat would have been nice, it's not bad that he does it's just abit on the nose particularly with his nature as the presumed antagonist and shooting out bats instead of fireballs, I hope that there will be a few detailed pixel portraits of the characters that are large and show the details of their face and outfits in cutscenes, similar to Shovel Knight so we can really see the details of the costumes, I hope the the characters will have small details like idle poses and things like that. Miriam's tri-blade attack and Gebels bat attack seem to be identical but that may or may not be a bad thing, have to wait till I play the game.


6) Although it was revealed that Curse of the Moon is a spin-off, do you still expect it to have SOME connection to the main game's plot? Such as multiple universes / realities or something?

I already stated that I hope it will be canacal but assuming it's not I hope they fully exploit that fact. Not worry about justifying the things that cannot be and give us a story that no one expects and realizes that they didn't even realize that this is what they wanted all along by the end.

1) Yes, seeing Gremory at the moon on the art makes me think she is either the final boss in CotM or/and has a role as CV`s Death.

2) I am fine with this being a spin-off. It might be that in this story all characters join to fight Gremory or some other threat. For me, it is not important to have a narrative canon where everything fits nicely. This can be a sides story and it is cool!

3) I like the playable characters, and I love seeing Zangetsu as the main character. I prefer him over Miriam. 

4) I like the classic presentation of this game, without upgrades, but focusing on various characters playing together and using shortcuts to get to the end in many possible ways.

5) I would not change anything, maybe just the characters sprites which looked a bit too colorful. I like Gebel turning into a bat. I wish there were vampires here, and Dracula.

6) Yes, some connection sure, but not all tightly explained and narrated. Just a side story to explore with the 4 characters together.

1) Yeah, it definitely feels like a bit of a mirror of the way Death was presented in the PS2 and DS-era games.

2) I'm ambivalent, but tying in to #3, I think it works better this way so there's an excuse to have Miriam be playable. The series is just starting and she's the face of it, it's preferable for her to be out there.

3) No real feelings on this either, we haven't played the games yet and so there are huge gaps in our understanding of the characters' motives, outcomes, lore, coolness, etc. We're going in too blind at the moment still for me to have very strong opinions to this end.

4) This is the perfect way to have done a game in this style. Maybe you take Dude A and you skip a really nasty part of the level, maybe you take Dude B and you can find extra powerups to make the boss easier.

5) Presentation-wise they're fine, but this is really going to come down more to playing the game than anything else to see how the attacks feel and flow. Does something with decent area denial on paper take so many hits that monsters can tank through anyway? Does a super-strong attack have such low speed or range that it's extremely situational? Gotta try them first-hand to know. As a bit of an example, I see Mega Man 9 as a gold standard in ability use. Every boss weapon is well-balanced in number of shots, multiple enemies and stage hazards that are fully exploited by each weapons' properties, and they're all still very useful in generic non-tailored situations.

6) Yeah, more or less.

7. Just what happened to its GOG release?

The only thing I wish would be different, and maybe it will (but I kinda doubt it)...

I hope you start out as one character and have to unlock or "free" the others to be able to play as them.

Yep, but after you free them they don't shoot birds and double jump. Sorry

"Oopsies!" ^_^

Huzzah! Another question thread by Pure Miriam and also another excuse for glorious green text^TM!!!

Now, let's get to answering these delicious questions..

1) Gremory seems to be a very important enemy in the game, if not the final boss. It shows up in the trailer and at the moon. There has been several speculations of Gremory being the villain's sidekick on the main game, maybe the equivalent of Castlevania's Death. Considering it seems to be the main enemy on Curse of the Moon, do you think that possibility is even higher?

I think it a great possibility that Gremory is the top demon in the hierarchy of wherever these demons reside (other than the Castle that Gebel summons in the main story).


2) The 8-bit mini-game was promised to be a prequel, whose plot would be 10 years before the main game (when Miriam was sleeping and Zangetsu was probably already battling the first wave of demons). IGA made an executive decision and changed "prequel" to "spin-off". That means that Curse of the Moon doesn't have any connection to the main canon of Ritual of the Night. Did you liked or disliked such decision?

It is stated that this spin-off is still part of canon, just in a "different part".  Not necessarily a prequel, but it has its place.

This game will also apparently have multiple endings; so even IF I disliked the decision to change the story of this game (which I don't; I'm fine with it), I'm satisfied with there being more than one ending in its place.  That at least increases replay value.
^
A classic-style game like the spin-off isn't played for the story by most people.  The gameplay is the main draw.


3) The playable characters are Zangetsu, Miriam, Alfred and Gebel. Would you had prefered other characters as playable? Who would you substitute / choose?

Nope.  The four characters chosen look perfect for this game.


4) It has been stated that the game has no special upgrades or things like that and it is mostly focused on hard stages that must be beaten and you can find shortcuts by using specific characters. What are your thoughts over this? It surely makes the game more "classic" but it may be a downside for today's gaming standards.

I like to call it trial-and-error gameplay, for those who are new to the "classic" Castlevania games.  It's a throwback to the "Nintendo Hard" NES days.

Honestly, this game looks to be a bit easier than CV3 was, and it's good that there's a more forgiving "Casual" Mode for new players.



5) Would you change anything on how each character was presented? Considering their skills and abilities revealed for the game?

Nope.  I like everything I see so far.  I think each character is purposely severely-limited in abilities just to make each of them viable for progression (don't just rely on one character only).



6) Although it was revealed that Curse of the Moon is a spin-off, do you still expect it to have SOME connection to the main game's plot? Such as multiple universes / realities or something?

Yes, of course.  As I mentioned in my answer to your Question #2, it was mentioned that this game is still part of canon.  It may have some connection after all.


That's all for the green text, folks!

1. No clue
2.I'm fine with it
3. Not really, I'm fine with the current roster
4. I'm fine with it
5. nope
6.I think it'll have a loose connection (outside of the characters, setting, & some boss characters/enemies) to the main game
7. From what (little) I understand it's apparently as dead as the Wii U version of Bloodstained ........

Now I'd like to add a question
8. Will the soundtrack for Curse of the Moon also be included with both the digital & physical versions of the Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night soundtrack that backers (depending on tier) are suppose to be receiving with their game or will it be getting it's own separate release?