Been ages since doing everything in SotN and it has lotsa pockets but in the end I’d say this is much wilder overall. Once you consider all the crafting, ingredients/meals and shard variation I feel like on paper it’s the most varied I can think of. At least in the specific Igavania format.
It absolutely is more wild and somehow feels less wild.
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Hm
I think the fact that most of the things in SotN don’t do anything actually lends to this bizarre feeling of sprawling immensity. There are 100 food items or whatever in SotN but none of them do anything but heal you, so why have them at all? Because it’s funny, that’s why. Also you can throw peanuts in the air.
Whereas in Bloodstained I find myself seeking ingredients to make food to up my stats or complete a quest. By bringing it into the game mechanically, it now feels like part of the game vs. part of the world? If that makes sense?
BUT I am also playing this game with the expectation that it’s going to have 100 billion weird things so none of it truly surprises me, I guess.
The weird part is that I played SotN after playing every GBA and DSvania so I knew what I was getting into. Maybe I was just able to put myself in the mindset of, uh, whatever year it was released.
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I also think this observation could apply to the Shards thing (or souls in Aria/Dawn of Sorrow): by giving each monster a mechanical usefulness to the player character, they are somehow less special.
On the other hand, in Aria/Dawn of Sorrow AND Bloodstained, grinding for monster shards actually makes me feel more familiar with the monsters and like…friendlier? Like, I’ll always remember grinding for maid souls in DoS to get the upgraded vacuum (because it was extremely overpowered).
Anyway continue below to read my fanfic about how alucard is friends with all of the monsters and also trans and gay oh wait no someone else already wrote that, shit where is it, gotta look through my bookmark’s
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The animation isn’t quite there but I am so incredibly interested in this game set in this very extremely specific historical place and time
That makes a lot of sense. There’s tons of fluff in this but even if weak attack or stat/moveset wise most if still has applicable use on screen. Plus nothing like my final moments in Symphony, running around the entire castle with the Duplicator and Meal Ticket equipped dropping endless food items on the ground.
On the other hand you have a Demon Barber and more custom coloring, shoes that squeak when you run, holding up to pose and longer for a second pose, the 8 bit area. Lots and they really went extra miles cramming candy in.
He’s probably familiar with all the creatures and a living loreman, androgy trans all on the table but my personal read would be he has zero interest in people sexually (no fun dhampir)
just learned you can fight OD, upset you haven’t returned your books after getting 99% completion
can you flex on him and return the books after
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yes!
Just did this earlier along with finally 100% on the map. In a way I was pleased with how much tougher the last couple areas and bosses are after the very easy middle stretch. Taking a lot of damage is one thing but how long it takes to whittle down your opponents was surprising. Seems like, unless you found a very specific loadout or secret move/combo, there’s no way to flatten them with something like a broken Alucard Shield + Shield Rod combo. At least short of grinding more for levels or something, cuz I think I got pretty much everything.
Love that final library tome.
Might stop here before devolving into tedious hours of farming for material and shard drops…no temptation…!
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Vivid anime modeling can’t produce eerie mood quite like
Used to be a bit shook from 1:08 springing to mind on a quickly drawn curtain.
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closest i found was the crissaegrim clone you can craft
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Finding the interestingly named, lite version of the Criss had me super stoked early on. I saw that in the list, if I go back am definitely crafting it.
The rapid damage and burst button pressing, while you glide around nonstuck in a weapon swing, is one of my favorites in any game, if not for the lite’s low output in Bloodstained I might’ve used it forever.
the crissaegrim is so broken in sotn though, I could never willingly use it again in another game, even if it is balanced.
Oh yes. That near effortless slice and dice, in front of Alucard’s strut hair and cape flow. Beautifully broken, definitely for joyrides.
Would be somewhat balanced as a moderate heart/mp cost. The Yasutsuna was fun too but ultimately not as efficient/stylin’.
actually having tons ofnfun cheesing the game with the darkness whip you cna get from an 8 bit coin, and upgrade witha 16 bit coin. ifcyou charge it it changes to light element damage effectively meaning you basocally always jave a weapon something is weak tp
i like that sword that hits 4 times you get from those grinder knights
Before they patched it and toned it down, that sword was the preferred way to get through the early part of the game, since the recovery time from landing from a jump swing and going into a standing swing was negligible.
I feel like using the highest power sword I’ve got (a great sword you can craft from three other super strong great swords) on the final boss, but goddd those things are so slow. Great damage if you don’t get eaten alive trying to swing it around.
The, uh, Circular Ripper shard is really good right until upgrading it causes the chain it’s on to extend. I’ve had trouble figuring out where to place myself when using it so I don’t overshoot enemies.
I love that you can explore part of the underwater section with a certain soul acquirable from a random enemy, but you need to get the boss-locked soul to get to the rest of it. It’s very satisfying to feel like I’m breaking the game even though I know I’m not.
I am currently stuck though, got all the movement options that I’m aware of and still locked out of certain areas. Filling out the random corners in hopes of a breakthrough is maybe my favorite part of igavania games right up until the point that it’s awful - we’ll see if I figure this out before that point.
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I ended up committing to g swords for like the entire back two thirds of the game, having never been able to stand the way these things handled in previous igavanias. they were always comically slow in a way that wasn’t at all compensated for when weighed against all the cancel options you had with other weapons. bloodstained has so many under the hood mechanics by comparison! by lategame, after having mastered so many passive skill shards + library books + cool rare equipment + first time food bonuses + etc my g sword attack cycle was faster than where most one handed swords start out. it feels really good to have that much coverage + damage at that speed! it’s entirely busted! I accidentally killed the last boss in like two seconds! oops!
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