Miriam and Shanoa Similarities.

Miriam and Shanoa alike are both beautiful and strong female characters.

Miriam was a natural blonde, though (from concept-art of her "Pure" costume). Presumably, the magi-crystal curse she's now afflicted with also changed her hair color.

Click picture for interview source.

Yep, and there's actually a good reason for her exposed back.

With certain Rings, even when she's below Level 70, she can easily exceed 1,400 damage with the Nitesco/Sword Glyph Union.

...If that's what you meant.

If we're to have an OP Miriam, there has to be OP bosses as well. So... a crystal-cursed Galamoth... nobody wants? Anyone?

Mushihimesama?
*Becomes Crystal-Cursed Galamoth*  "YES! THE POWER!!!" (*Fires super-charged   glasses in every direction*)


(ADDENDUM):  In all seriousness, I'm sure there's a chance of Miriam becoming quite OP near the end of the main game, after acquiring as many of the special "Relics" as possible and Leveling-Up so much.

Thats toehoe silly. Not mushi. I Prefer yukari's spell for signature danmaku screenshot though. Cant link cuz im on phone though.

Anyway I can see why people say shanoa and miriam are similar but I think they kinda arent after you really take more than an initial impression.

First off the runes and glyph things are more of a similarity of the setting than the individual characters. Miriam's runes arent really unique to her as subject of the alchemists, and iirc shanoa's only unique glyph was the one on her back. Been awhile sk i could be wrong though.

Dark hair... As mentioned miriams wasnt dark to begin with, and not only that it STILL isnt dark all the way down (And its not even that long). And because castlevania and bloodstained arent anime styled games, blue, green, pink, etc hair isnt a possibility (no comment on that green hair lady in that onr game boy game). So dark hair is... Well its not exactly that coincidental imo, especially given miriam's is not completely dark.

No expression face. I disagree. Shanoa has a cold grim expression... Miriam is not cold or grim... More like a cute kuudere imo. Even if you dont agree about that I doubt people think she looks cold and grim.

Thank you for the confirmation.  So...that game is "Toe-hoe", and not Touhou? lol :3

In any case I'm confident that, while they may not all be entirely unique to Miriam, she is sure to still be able to come up with some unique Magi-Crystal combinations (as the Alchemy crafting system would seem to allow for that).

As for Shanoa, the vast majority of Glyphs that she can make use of are obtained from fallen enemies, or stolen from them before they can cast their magic (many more still are either offered to her in the story, or absorbed from specific spots/locations instead of from enemies).
^
While some Glyphs may not be unique to Shanoa alone, she certainly becomes potentially the most powerful Glyph-user of them all (She was trained to be able to perfectly handle these Glyphs, after all).

The specific points of their stories are pretty close too. Although I guess that's just how video game tropes work.

Shanoa was an orphan whose parents were unknown. Miram also doesn't know who her parents are, just that they're dead too. Both Shanoa and Miram were raised by an occult organization from a young age. This organization was supposed to be fighting demons, but secretly conspired to summon them instead. And actually, both Shanoa and Miriam were supposed to be sacrificed to summon a demon, right?

Both Shanoa and Miriam have one friend in the whole world - a guy from the organization who quit because he wouldn't do as he was told. (And who prioritizes Shanoa/Miriam above the organization, too.)

But I don't think IGA thoughtlessly cloned Shanoa, either. All the similarities are probably because both characters were designed to be vessels for the gameplay, and the gameplay is the same, so yeah. Iga always designs couples: Soma/Mina, Charlotte/Johnathan, and Shanoa/Albus. The magic runes trope is a good enough excuse for the magic powers we need to explore the castle and fight the monsters. The mysterious past thing is either because it doesn't matter and you shouldn't pay attention to it, or to leave room for expansion later, or both.