Playing as Zangetsu is a hollow experience

That's a little rude, Mr. Welldone , I don't care for 'devil's advocate' discussion myself, but since Purify didn't take it so hard and saw where anon was coming from, I don't think there's any reason for being snippy. It's not a major thing, that's why I'm just leaving a note here, but don't be too confrontational if its not really necessary.

With all that said, I would have preferred more substantive content for Zangetsu mode too, but I don't think there were many bad moves in regards to Mr. Hayter. First, keep in mind that contracts are important--I think it's likely he signed on to do just the main game, if he knew he was going to voice Zangetsu for another mode as well, his price would have been higher. Secondly, Hayter's been in the business for a while and he knows how troublesome game development can be. I don't think he would have been overly surprised to hear that the extra character modes ended up being a little slim, that just happens when you have deadlines and budgets and stuff. Let's hope CotM2 makes enough of a splash that IGA has money and enthusiasm for Bloodstained 2--then maybe Hayter can come back as Zangetsu and really show off!

There were people who really liked Dominique and where really put-off by the fact that
I was kinda bummed myself, even though I like Zangetsu quite a bit.

I'm still holding out for in one of the sequels, with the character design from CotM2.

As far as what happened with the Zangetsu reveal trailer, I don't think it was meant to in anyway mislead about the content of the game. That said, one has to realize that we're no longer in an age where this sort of bare-bones implementation flies, especially if it's even remotely hyped and you end up waiting almost a year for it (regardless of the reasons for the delay).  It doesn't have to have gear and gated progression like with Miriam, but even a superficial story line and some form of rudimentary quest system (for unlocking skills, defeating the bosses in a certain order and such) would have gone a long way.

The thing is that games are about presenting the player with a challenge and offering rewards for overcoming those challenges. If you don't set anything like this up and just say "here's the castle, you can go anywhere, go beat some bosses", players will go "uhm, OK?" and only the hardcore will bother with it.

Again, I'm not saying 505 or ArtPlay did anything wrong - just that players expect more nowadays. I mean, when a game tells you that there are several playable characters, you assume  that you can enjoy an equally satisfying experience with all of them, right? I know this has not been the way IGA's games worked in the past, but gaming's come a long way in the last 25 years, and I can't blame people for assuming the game would meet the standards of today in this regard.

I hate to say it but you're right, back in the day we would considered this one of the better aspects of Bloodstained, but now in a day and age where even simpler games have some crazy presentation, this kind of "Richter style"  implementation wouldn't fly for some people.

For my two cents, I feel part of the issue could be that he plays kind of awkwardly, for goodness sake, the better slash attack is assigned to a shoulder button, and the normal slash and the grapple chain's accuracy feels kind of off.

They could have shown off his voice acting in a cut scene without the character getting his own trailer
Just show him talking as part of the normal story trailer

The swine still haven't learned their lesson, have they?

Time to assemble in front of 505 Games headquarters and shout "No Justice, No Piece" until they prostrate themselves and repent for their sins!

jboogieg It's (obviously) just a joke. I personally have no beef with 505's marketing and think it's actually one of their strengths. Now if only their quality control was as good as their marketing they'd be one hell of a company.