SOTN has the artistic chops to sell you on possible stories that could or might have happened in them. Zig Zagging though it all you see which areas are fresher and cleaner opposed the areas falling apart or painted with horrors and set dressing to make things feel alive or unlived in. Bloodstained feels a little to clean all the way through but that’s probably because of all the 3D foreground and backdrops. SOTN castle also creates an illusion of a real place like how the alchemy lab also feels like the pipework center of the castle or the tower stairwell connects to 3 or so different zones and even an attic room. Bloodstained isn’t completely terrible at this but just has a enough off kilter areas like the asian castle, a library that is also full of heavy machinery that would ruin books and two flavors of ice cave to stand out. I get its a castle from hell but it needs a little lip service or set dressing to sell that these zones can fit in like PoRs painting dimensions.
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