Bloodstained launching on Summer 2019: QUESTIONS!

12) One of the videos revealed who is the "Mysterious Man" that is man that looks like a dark being. What do you think he is? (A Shardbinder, a vampire, a demon?) and what do you think his role will be at the game?

It's Alucard, with just enough changes to avoid copyright infringement. I just wish the color scheme were not as... primary...   


14) Miriam's customization was revealed. Miriam's hair type and color, her clothes colors and skin color can be changed, alongside boots and head gear that shows up on her body and different scarves. Did you like these options? Did you expected more?

More or less what I expected. I'm really happy with it, if for no other reason than if NotOfficiallyAlucard is playable I can change his colors to something less wince inducing. Seriously.


16) Anything else you would like to share?

I may have come off as negative in this post, but I'm actually really hyped for the game.

4) There is a Laser Shard shown at a video that Miriam needs to aim it at reflectors to create a trajectory and them teleport using the laser itself. Some mentioned that this power resembles a certain Boss of Curse of the Moon that has the same maneuver (Bathin). Do you believe that is a Shard dropped by that Boss? Maybe by another creature?

Likely just a shard from Bathin, I just hope that shard has some good puzzles to use it on instead of it just being a progression gate

5) At the videos, we can see several new regions. A white marble-like area, a lava-filled cavern, something that looks like a Clock Tower, a Golden area with stairs...but absolutely no sign of a water area. Do you think Bloodstained will have a water area? (Where Miriam needs to swim or find an ability to go underwater) or maybe Bloodstained will not have a water area?

no interest in water levels, they're never done right. at most I would like a Swamp as I think Swamps fit the Gothic theme well and don't require much if any swimming

6) Some videos show backer portraits moving and acting as if they are enemies to be beaten. What do you think of that idea? Did you like it or you think it is too weird and break the immersion?

saw it coming ever sense Curse of the Moon had portrait enemies, not my favorite enemy but it fits the theme and not immersion breaking

7) Double Jump was shown. When Miriam uses it, she grews some kind of colored fairy wings / crystals on her back. Did you like that effect or would you expect something else?

was hoping she would step on a piece of stained glass but the fairy wings are a lot better than nothing and don't look bad

8) Valefor, Valac and Andrealphus are bosses from Curse of the Moon that showed up on the videos. What do you think of the design of each one in Bloodstained? Did you like it? (If you don't know them at their Curse of the Moon looks, see it HERE)

I like what they did Valac a lot, all the dragons in those video's look great (especially in the Japanese direct)
Valefor is decent but he doesn't have the same feel of a Scrooge mcduck money bank that I got from the Curse of the Moons version
Andrealphus I'm no fan of his looks in either game but gameplay wise was one of my favorite fights in Curse of the Moon so I hope he at least keeps that going for him

9) At the first video, we can see the large white head of a dog and a black cat that looks blind from one eye (and looks like a cat from a backer portrait in 2018 Demo). Do you think these are just bigger demns or bosses, or they are animals from backers, from the campaign that promised to turn backer pets into monsters in-game? What do you think of them?

they look like regular enemies and backer animals to me, I really like how they turned out

10) Gremory was redesigned a bit and gained a purpleish color at her upper part. Did you like it?

looks good to me

11) What are your thoughts about "Invert!" Shard / Ability, that lets Miriam invert the whole castle anywhere? (aside from areas that doesn't have a celling, as already stated).

If they didn't do something with inverting the Castle I just know some people would complain about it, so as not to be a copy paste type of deal I think what they did turned out great

12) One of the videos revealed who is the "Mysterious Man" that is man that looks like a dark being. What do you think he is? (A Shardbinder, a vampire, a demon?) and what do you think his role will be at the game?

Hybrid mixture between them with vague connections to each

13) It was revealed that the game will have techniques, such as combos, and they can be mastered. What do you think of that feature?

I'm assuming they work like the ones in the Beta and I really liked what few of those there were, I hope they made at least one or two for every weapon type as I think it gives some uniqueness to each weapon type as without them a lot of weapons blend together too much not caring which I use.
being able to master and level up those skills explains a lot of how weak Non Katana skills were as most weren't worth using in actually combat, that mastery should help make them be worth using

14) Miriam's customization was revealed. Miriam's hair type and color, her clothes colors and skin color can be changed, alongside boots and head gear that shows up on her body and different scarves. Did you like these options? Did you expected more?

didn't expect to be able to change her skin color green but for some reason I think it fits her well

1) We can see a Teleport Room at the first video. Do you expect them to work exactly like other Igavanias? Would you like to see some kind of new feature to the teleports? Do you think Bloodstained needs Tickets / cards, that existed in Castlevanias, where you could directly teleport back to shop / last save you used, things like that?

Oh yes, I very much so expect teleports to at the very least function as they have in the prior Igavanias. I think this will be a surefire given. I think the "library card" method of traversal will not be a hard requirement but will be fun to have at disposal during casual play. Speedrunners will go nuts with them and will thank Iga for including "travel cards" in the game I bet. The more the better. Despite the possible impression that this may make the game less about exploration, I think us players can exercise some restraint and see that we can only level up our protag by defeating monsters through some heavy foot travel and as a result rely less on any method of teleport in the process.

2) There is some kind of carriage, with a man riding it. What do you think that is? Some kind of helper (like Ferryman from Symphony of the Night)? Maybe a weird Shard that let you summon him at some specific places? An enemy that must be beaten and can be used somehow?

Every time I watch the trailers I see the carriage as something like a helper, as you call it, like the ferryman in SotN. I don't get the gut feeling that it is from a shard, though if I am proven wrong that's totally fine. I may be completely surprised if out of nowhere in some future trailer the carriage helper shown again collides with an enemy and damages it. But all in all and in general, I see the carriage with the rider as nothing but a helper.  Another possibility is that it is indeed actually an enemy but with the property of being able to help Miriam if she manages to "skillfully hitch a ride on that open seat without it noticing".

3) At the first video, we can see Miriam using a blue shining sword with a beautiful and long special effect. A Sword of Light that resembles Vajra (SOTN). At the other video, there is a Green Fast Sword being used, that looks like Crissaegrim. Do you think they ARE these swords, or "similar substitutes"?

I will be pleasantly surprised if these weapons' names carry over from the Igavanias. My feeling is that they are functionally exactly the same weapons. Since we can universally agree that these weapons have been really, really fun to use in our playthroughs of Igavanias, it makes so much sense to include such weapons here in Bloodstained. I'll just get this out of the way and say that one of my goals in Bloodstained is to acquire the Crissaegrim as early as possible!

4) There is a Laser Shard shown at a video that Miriam needs to aim it at reflectors to create a trajectory and them teleport using the laser itself. Some mentioned that this power resembles a certain Boss of Curse of the Moon that has the same maneuver (Bathin). Do you believe that is a Shard dropped by that Boss? Maybe by another creature?

Logically it makes too much sense for it to be dropped by a Bloodstained version of Bathin.  Like way too much sense.  I'm almost 100% sure this is how it will actually be in the game. A major plot progression mode of transportation gated by a formidable boss/mid-boss  has been at least for the most part in every single Igavania. If not by Bathin, then this ability would come from some other boss enemy.

I don't see this shard ability coming from lesser foes as it's too significant and just looks too cool to come from, say, a not-nova skeleton.

5) At the videos, we can see several new regions. A white marble-like area, a lava-filled cavern, something that looks like a Clock Tower, a Golden area with stairs...but absolutely no sign of a water area. Do you think Bloodstained will have a water area? (Where Miriam needs to swim or find an ability to go underwater) or maybe Bloodstained will not have a water area?

I very much believe there will be a "water area". The game will benefit having literally everything and the kitchen sink in it, especially given that this is a game for those who want that SotN-like experience in 2019. And for sure SotN does indeed have a water area. I will healthily expect to see and experience controlling Miriam underwater, traversing slowly forward to her destination while fighting the opposing current, only to find that she will need to defeat a water-dwelling monster in order to proceed towards getting back to some form of dry land to continue the main quest.

6) Some videos show backer portraits moving and acting as if they are enemies to be beaten. What do you think of that idea? Did you like it or you think it is too weird and break the immersion?

I think they can be better implemented if they had some kind of "old worldly" look applied to them to match the rest of the scenery. As they are, they look like as through someone traveled forward to the future, took pictures of a couple of individuals, then traveled back to Bloodstained's present time and made portraits of them.

7) Double Jump was shown. When Miriam uses it, she grews some kind of colored fairy wings / crystals on her back. Did you like that effect or would you expect something else?

I very much so liked it! I think the "colored fairy wings / crystals" look can be made better by emphasizing the "crystal / shard" look about them in some clever way.

8) Valefor, Valac and Andrealphus are bosses from Curse of the Moon that showed up on the videos. What do you think of the design of each one in Bloodstained? Did you like it?

I'll admit that I grew really fond of the low-bit representations of them, given that I played through CotM multiple times. Until I play through Bloodstained once and fought them as many times as I did in their 8-bit representations, I feel I cannot be able to answer this fairly.  I apologize!

9) At the first video, we can see the large white head of a dog and a black cat that looks blind from one eye (and looks like a cat from a backer portrait in 2018 Demo). Do you think these are just bigger demns or bosses, or they are animals from backers, from the campaign that promised to turn backer pets into monsters in-game? What do you think of them?

The dog looks too much like a "pet-into-monster" enemy and having the same issue as the portrait enemies in that it doesn't have enough of an old-world, rough, scruffy look to match the rest of the game's overall feel. 

10) Gremory was redesigned a bit and gained a purpleish color at her upper part. Did you like it?

Yes. I think the purplish color adds a feeling of mystery to his presence and the feeling of containing a level of evil that cannot be imagined, further enhancing the intrinsic "bad guy" presence/aura.

11) What are your thoughts about "Invert!" Shard / Ability, that lets Miriam invert the whole castle anywhere? (aside from areas that doesn't have a celling, as already stated).

I think it's totally freakin' cool!
It's like SotN but on a higher level! Personally I can't wait to use it on every screen! And I can just imagine if Iga decided to make all of the protag's areas of traversal Invert!-ible, the protag will insta-die while outdoors and may make players angry.

12) One of the videos revealed who is the "Mysterious Man" that is man that looks like a dark being. What do you think he is? (A Shardbinder, a vampire, a demon?) and what do you think his role will be at the game?

I think he will be truly revealed in some part of the game towards the end, but will in the meantime function as "that mysterious guy that somehow has the resources I need at the time I really need them" kind of guy.

13) It was revealed that the game will have techniques, such as combos, and they can be mastered. What do you think of that feature?

Really cool. Not only will combos be available once obtained, but there may may a "mastery" version of the combos that adds incentive to going through the motions to master every technique and cater to the inner completionist in all of us.

14) Miriam's customization was revealed. Miriam's hair type and color, her clothes colors and skin color can be changed, alongside boots and head gear that shows up on her body and different scarves. Did you like these options? Did you expected more?

I see this as normal and how much I'd expect from a title at launch. In addition I will expect to see more customization possibilities available as something like DLC or through an amiibo for the Switch version.

15) We can see a Pink Fairy Familiar at a certain video. In a distant past, the dev team said that, from the fan voting on Familiars on kickstarter, the Armor Familiar won and would be put in the game, and the others would have "substitutes". There was the option for a fairy at that time. Do you think this Pink Fairy is the substitute to that fairy? You think all other familiars will have substitutes? Including Goofball? Or maybe Goofball will show up simply because it became a huge thing for fans and backers alike?

Honestly I think all of the familiars will be in the game, regardless of how that vote went during the Kickstarter campaign. Goofball must be there!


16) Anything else you would like to share?
The trailers are always fun to watch!  They make me want to play the released version already!