06-18-2019, 11:21 PM | #1 | |||
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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
I totally wish I had been able to kickstart this game. This is one that I believed in, but I didn't have the financial liquidity at the time.
Oh well, at least it's material. And it is lovely. Nice that these things can end well without taking the money and running, using it as a scam to attract bigger investors, or destroying goodwill by putting out an ultimately shit product. Quote:
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... and now, everyone else will see it too! AAAAHAHAHhahahahaaaa.....!!!
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06-18-2019, 11:27 PM | #2 |
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I watched some on twitch. Theres a metroidvania speed runner i follow. Really value his tastes in the genre. Movement looks good (and reportedly feels good) and the map looks expansive. Should be very good.
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06-19-2019, 12:31 AM | #3 |
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I couldn't devote the time I wanted to in it today. Too much other shit to do. It feels fluid, and the weapon types collected so far all have varying degrees of use, which looks like it will expand further when I discover enemy weaknesses. Right now, I'm mostly defaulting raw power and smashing everything with a giant fucking claymore... and even that is interesting. It was initially a slow and very delayed swing, but either by level up or, what I really suspect it is in repeated uses - like, every few swings she gets a degree "stronger" that is pretty imperceptable in real time-, Miriam now swings it with relative ease. Counter that with the dagger, which has shit range, but there is likely an enemy weak to the damage type it dishes out, so you'll run into something where it will be beneficial to switch to it instead of letting it rot in your inventory.
Speaking of inventory, really digging the simple joy of applied cosmetics from your gear (even the karate shoes weapon changes her out of her thigh high boots). My girl is now rocking a pirate hat. |
06-19-2019, 09:29 AM | #4 |
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Got started yesterday after I dealt with the insurance adjuster.
Having a blast so far. Graphics are beautiful, a touch of difficulty to it, all the hallmarks of the Castlevania games. Gotta have a stockpile of Elixirs handy since there's no spells or weapons (yet) to replenish health. I know some of the weapons got a special attack if you do a directional imput, but I was messing around when I fired up the game and no luck. |
06-20-2019, 12:14 AM | #5 |
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It's not just directional input, and it depends on the weapon. Not simply the weapon type, but the specific weapon.
Some of the assorted bookshelves have the inputs for some of those weapons, and tells you which specific weapons they are used with (for example, one of the first ones are for the Karate Shoes you start with and another one you'll apparently find/buy later, but the next, slightly stronger variant you come across, the input doesn't work.) I just got my hands on a rapier (which also has an input combo). The speed of attack and reach of a short sword is a nice, middle of the road option between guns and massive fuckoff weapons (replaced the Claymore with an axe. In another nice touch, it looks like the hit box is where the blade is as opposed to being just a simple more powerful swap for said Claymore - you can miss small targets like bats with a late swing.) I like how the "SotN Library" is frontloaded. I'll prob'ly find it mildly annoying later when I have to backtrack massively for something I want to do/buy, but it is way better than stumbling across it way later by accident while I'm lost like I did on that game (and I needed to find it to progress). I was able to do the first few quests in a fairly self-contained manner, as the rewards for one helped serve as the request for another. And I only say mildly annoying since I came across what looks like it may be a teleport room, but I'm we'll see about that later. About the only things I have legit complaints about are how certain shard spells are omnidirectional, but your basic weapons are not. It feels like it would make sense for something like a spear or a gun to at least attack in 4, 5, or 8 directions, but it is only straight ahead. I find myself relying on spells more than I really want to if an enemy is out of reach of a weapon that seems like it should be hitting... so I have to farm candles or hit a save room constantly to keep my MP up. Also, I wish there were some sort of hotswap of primary weapons, or some variation of the Alucard two-handed thing. I initially thought that's what the two slots were, but the second slot is equipped gun ammo (that stays equipped even if you aren't using a gun). What if I need to swap between a whip and a dagger? I have to pause and dig through my inventory each time. Should it be neccessary to pause, open, scroll, select, unpause, just to try a weapon, and if it isn't as effective as I would need it to be in said instance, repeat that process multiple times? That doesn't really encourage trying everything so much as finding one thing that is fairly useful for a wide range of enemies out of sheer convenience. |
06-20-2019, 11:18 PM | #6 |
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Bitched too soon about the lack of hotswapping; there's a shard for that.
Got into a boss fight, and like immediately afterwards, found one of those weapon input techniques that would have helped immensely. And another sword that would have helped. And a shard that would have also helped. Essentially, if I had been able to enter the room from the other side, I would have been way more prepared, and I feel like that was intentionally done as a dev troll move. Speaking of the inputs, looks like they have "mastery", but I don't see what that entails (yet- there might be something later like with the item swaps). The attacks don't appear to be any stronger, they don't get easier to do, and they don't use any less MP upon completion. The only thing they appear to be doing so far is collecting for an achievement/trophy. I do have a problem thus far with some of the MP cost balancing. There are spells and techniques that seem like they should consume a boatload of bar, but can be spammed to great effect... then other stuff that seems like the cost should be negligible for what it does, and it eats through your magic bar while doing very little benefit. |
06-21-2019, 12:32 PM | #7 |
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Got 3 straight shard powers that are pretty awesome, got my first familiar, and found the farmer.
NOW it's starting to come together |
06-21-2019, 04:12 PM | #8 |
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Careful with those bookshelves, fellas. Just got one that crashed me out of my game on PS4. And I guess it's common across all platforms.
Didn't lose much, just started exploring another area. |
06-23-2019, 12:57 AM | #9 |
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I found the farmer, too. I kinda lucked out, because I used the item in question when I got in a tight spot and had just purchased more. I need to make another visit to Todd soon as well since I found some more of what he wants. I am now up to 4 shortcuts as well. On those, they can be kinda janky to set up in that if you make any changes, you have to remember to save any changes you might have made before swapping out or take some actual downtime to tweak them. But, once you have them set, it is so nice to be able to swap on the fly. There's even a nice transition if you have a different familiar setup on another shortcut.
Speaking of, I now have 4 familiars- and I more or less got them back to back. And with the function of them, this is, to quote Jim Sterling, "unapologetically Symphony of the Night". Unrelated to anything, I both love and loathe the design for Tower of the Twin Dragons. It's beautiful and difficult to navigate a couple of jumps. I had to use an arial kick combo and the Convex Glasses for the zoom to not miss some of those landings. I'm hoping there's an item or shard that will toggle some sort of customizable variable zoom degrees (as opposed to the all or nothing items I've found so far). I would bitch about it, but there is prob'ly something that will satisfy my need that I haven't located yet. Toy Shoes. Feels like someone there is a fan of Kung-Pow. As for the crashing, I just started experiencing that yesterday on XBOX. Only once from a bookshelf. One was mid-play (not even a screen transition), and maybe 2-3 other times it hit me was right after I got done crafting items. Since I don't trust games since PS1 days, I spam saves, so I would just have to re-make what I did since he's right by that casting couch. |
06-23-2019, 03:26 PM | #10 |
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I have to wait to get my copy cause I choose the Switch version. I feel slightly dumb but oh well.
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06-23-2019, 07:43 PM | #11 |
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I got lost some how.
Doing more exploring after getting "x" power and knocking off a couple more bosses, I check my trophy list and I noticed that I missed a boss in the line. Must have backtracked too soon. |
06-23-2019, 10:29 PM | #12 |
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06-24-2019, 03:59 PM | #14 |
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06-24-2019, 11:34 PM | #15 | |
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Quote:
Also, I wonder how many seats are there for flavor and how many are actively used for something? SotN was "guilty" of that, too, where there were places to sit just for the hell of it. Some of them did stuff, like the confession booth, but a lot just had Alucard chillin'. This game seems to have turned that up to 11. I think I figured out what the weapon mastery does, but I haven't 100% confirmed the theory. Crash report: I seem to be hitting a snag if I do too much crafting and/or purchasing. I have to keep running to the sofa after making/buying/selling/upgrading a few items at a time so I don't forget what all I did. |
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06-25-2019, 07:05 AM | #16 | |
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SPOILER: show |
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06-25-2019, 10:07 PM | #17 |
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I had this preordered on the switch. Dropped my preorder last week after the rumblings of a bad port got too loud to ignore....looking like that was the right call. Switch port is noticeably inferior even to someone who isnt big ln graphics.
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06-25-2019, 11:55 PM | #18 | |
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Quote:
Also, I confirmed my theory on the combos: SPOILER: show There also appear to be specific weapons that have their own input. It can't be mastered and there is no progression gauge. I found a spear like that so far. I'm enjoying the "avenge" quests. Every time I find another enemy, I'm like "oh, okay... gotta come back here". Also, between her quests and the "memento" quests, the dead townsfolk sure suspiciously all seem to be named after many figures in CastleVania history. |
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06-26-2019, 12:14 AM | #19 | |
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I'm actually more worried about this supposed 1.2 update bug I kept reading about when I was trying to get some sort of update about the crashes happening across the board. Mine still seems fairly unique in that it isn't being triggered by bookshelves (except the first time, and that bookshelf hasn't done it since), but by what looks like major inventory shifts of either making/buying a bunch of shit or selling items and shards. I've had a total of three crashes outside of that- one bookshelf hit, and two random gameplay stoppages - but the rest have come right after exiting either the market or the alchemist if I just did a bunch of stuff. So, I've gotten down to a few items at a time, then run over to save. Can't say I'm entirely happy about being a bit more tedious, but it's better than selling 30 shards, buying a bunch of food, then having to try to remember what I bought after the crash or worse, thinking I made a bunch of potions because that's what I did before the game crashed, and then after I restart, I go adventuring without them. *If they release Advance Wars on Switch, it's a done deal for me. I don't care if it's "Wars World" proper, or expounding on the divergent Days of Ruin. And yes, I'm aware Wargroove exists, but that feels more like Shining Force. It's not bad, but it's not the same thing. |
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06-26-2019, 12:24 AM | #20 |
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Ive seen the side by side. Theres a definitive version and its not the switch. That said theyve claimed theyre going to improve it so I'll wait and see. I want it on the switch first and foremost so if that version is going to be brought up to par its the one i want.
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06-27-2019, 12:06 AM | #21 |
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I will say that there is one glaring omission now: a story recap.
I mean in the sense that there is a massive compendium of demons, characters, abilites, shards, items with descriptions, moves, etc., that you can look up anytime you want... but you get any clues on where to go next for actual game progression, and you only get access to those exactly once. You don't remember what was said or accidentally skipped the dialogue? Tough shit, better go find a walkthru or stumlble blindly. I may as well invest in raw strength: I found another fuckoff sword, and this one even has variable slowness with a charging swing and is full of clockwork. Kinda made me think of Cloud's "Advent Children" sword. No word on if there are other swords nesting inside, though. Even after finding a particular ability and figuring out how to reach even higher places, I still find that Dragon Shoes combo surprisingly helpful... to an extent. My problem with both of these things has less to do with the game and more to do with my levels of sucking at fighting games. Some of this is difficult for me in particular to get donefluidly since I also suck reliably pulling this stuff off in Street Fighter or what have you. It's sort of like my initial experience with Portal on PC, where I could see how to solve rooms, but they were harder than they should have been because I can't mouselook to save my life. Once I played this later on console(s), I was able to navigate through the game way more efficiently through the sheer use of gamepad instead of mouse. |
06-27-2019, 01:46 PM | #22 |
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Gonna try to take down a secret boss today then "beat" the game.
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06-27-2019, 02:34 PM | #23 |
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nb4 200% is a thing
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06-28-2019, 12:28 AM | #25 |
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I'm behind. Doing too much with working extra shifts, squeezing in yardwork between these consistent rainstorms, my other "job", and trying to have at least some kind of life, I haven't been able to focus on this like I want to. Even on just the gaming front, there was some timed shit I needed to attend to in Warframe across two accounts.
I just knocked off the dragons, got some grinding done, and made some food. Haven't had a crash again, though (knock on my head), so that's a plus. |
06-28-2019, 09:36 AM | #26 |
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Uh oh. I think I'm fucked.
Went back to Todd to change things up, and I started picking up items I clearly already got Methinks the chest bug struck... |
06-28-2019, 04:59 PM | #27 |
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Addendum: had to uninstall/reinstall then go offline to avoid updating to progress. A word of warning: if this is a neccessary evil, unequip the Dully head familiar if you have it on. I do in one of my shortcuts, and it will spam multiples until you switch away or the game crashes, which takes about 5 seconds of spawns.
I needed the chest after the Dragons, and I thought I got it with no issues. I thought wrong. Still have all the respawns pickups. Also, launch vanilla Miriam is a bit stronger and there is a noticeable increase in drop percentage of items and shards. Looks like there was a nerf after updating. |
06-29-2019, 06:20 PM | #28 |
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I guess this game had to have its share of bullshit.
The rollback to launch 1.0.0.2 not only reveals the toning down of strength (example: an enemy I can effortlessly one shot may take 3-4 in update build and also a slowing of her attack speed... super noticeable with my clockwork sword swings), and drop rate itself of both shards and items, but goddamn the alchemy is ridiculous. Poltergeists drop x5 alkhest vanilla and the recipes for breaking things down haven't exceeded 3 so far. And if I'm low, I can buy more for 50g or go grind... updated build, they cost 800g in the shop (like, basketball shoe markup), poltergeists drop 1 at a time at a reduced rate, and breakdowns use up anywhere between 6-9 per item. This is just unnecessary padding. They could have added those "features" on subsequent playthroughs. Since the game isn't huge, I have no qualms with going back to fill my pockets then updating to continue playing. I'm not a big user of cheese, but this feels justified since they could have just left well enough alone. Just have to be careful with the Dullehammer Head. Even if you turn it off to stop the endless spawn, it will still crash the game. If you are going to do a naughty exploit for longer than getting the bromide item, you can't equip that familiar AT ALL unless you update to current build or the game will hard crash. The rest seem ok. Needed to vent. Now if you excuse me, I've got food and potions to stock up and a blood bitch to exterminate. |
06-30-2019, 11:05 PM | #30 |
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Loving this so far.
Some of these accesories are amazing. Just found a certain set of armor, and I marked out pretty hard. Also, I dunno if I can bring myself to remove the voice changer. A little disappointing that this isn't connected to Curse of the Moon, despite using the same characters and storyline. Kind of odd. |
07-02-2019, 11:29 PM | #32 |
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Switch sales are more than the ps4 and xbone versions combined. Promises to fix the switch version have been made. We'll see.
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07-03-2019, 12:53 AM | #33 |
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I thought you hated Metroidvania style games?
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07-03-2019, 01:25 AM | #34 |
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I do. Well that isnt fair. I dont. I love a metroidvania that has a mechanism that circumvents wandering if the player chooses (for a price generally.) Think Monsterboy or Messenger. Despite this lacking it i loved curse if the moon so much (SO SO MUCH) that i want to contribute to the games success. If they line the input lag out on the switch ill buy it.
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07-03-2019, 01:31 AM | #35 |
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If you loved Curse of the Moon that much, you're going to be marking out while playing Ritual of Night.
As for the Switch, from what I understand, it wasn't system limitations that made it so bad. Rather it was a rush job port. |
07-03-2019, 01:37 AM | #36 |
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Taking about it has made me want to play more. Goodbye.
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07-03-2019, 01:45 AM | #37 |
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Yeah apparently there was very little focus on it during development and they dodnt want to delay it so they pushed it out in a very half assed state.
Im staying optimistic that they fix it. |
07-03-2019, 04:39 AM | #38 |
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Good fucking god, I used the three elemental great swords to craft one incredibly powerful great sword, and combined with my flame armor which also increases damage, and my level 9 great sword expertise shard, it does DISGUSTING damage. Like, almost 200.
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07-03-2019, 07:25 AM | #39 |
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Durandal was fun. Then I got the recipe to make Dies Irae. That was fun for a while.
Then I read a tip about the Rhava Velar...... |
07-10-2019, 12:22 AM | #40 | |
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Kinda did it by accident, too, since I was actually working alchemy to boost shards and kept hitting x3 multipliers on the crafting. And in doing so, I kept ending up with more than I needed to sacrifice and decided to keep making whatever recipie I could with a spare. Durandal lit up, and I jumped all over that. Also, Bloodbringer (item) showed up in my inventory randomly. I wonder if it not being there was another glitch? If so, must have gone unnoticed with the bigger, progress halting one that came into play. |
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