Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Oct. 5th, 2021 11:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkI've been so busy playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night that I didn't find time to write about it, and of course the more I played the more I wanted to write about. But today is the evening, because I have a band-aid on two fingers which would make playing frustrating. Typing is a little better.
I found the game because I signed up for Humble Choice for the first time in August, originally for Carto, but then I thought Bloodstained looked interesting and gave it a try. By now I've played ~47 hours, which is more than twice as much as my third-most played game (Ori and the Will of the Wisps, ~22 hours.)[Edit: actually, it is Ori and the Blind Forest, at 35.4 hours, I forgot I played it twice.] A comparison with Hades, at ~365 hours, would be unfair.
It's a lot of fun. I like the art and the design, and I enjoy the gameplay and combat, especially once I found some more weapons to play around with and more shards too. The difficulty on Normal was just right for me, decently challenging but not too hard, and I appreciated that I could always go back and grind for level/more weapons/etc. and try a boss fight again later when I was stronger. (I hardly used any online guides either, just for very few specific things.)
It also has just enough story early enough to get me invested, and I really liked the main character Miriam and all the tragedy with her and Gebel and Johannes. I nominated them for Yuletide, promo post here.
I managed to find both bad endings: the one where Miriam never fights Zangetsu a second time, kills Gebel who tells her she did the right thing, and then she and Johannes talk about how Dominique and the church will handle the rest. And the one where Miriam fights Gebel after acquiring Zangetsuto, still kills him, and is then possessed by Gremory. (I managed to avoid almost all spoilers about the ending, which I was glad about, but I did look up how to actually hit Gremory, which is good because otherwise I would probably have continued selling shards because of the assumption that Miriam could only be taken over if bonded to too many shards.)
The way to the "good"/true ending involves Gebel being taken over by his own crystal moments after his mind was freed, and Johannes and Miriam finding out that Alfred was on their side the entire time just in time to watch him die, so still a fair bit of tragedy, but it only feels fitting.
My fight against Gremory I just tanked with Zangetsuto, many potions, and a lot of food, basically, and won. My first fight against Bael I lost, so I decided to upgrade: I crafted the Coronation Gown, got and crafted several new weapons (Bandit Blade, Valkyrie Sword, Oracle Blade, Blue Rose, Rhava Velar – I liked all of them but ended up going with the Rhava Velar, also because it is very convenient while farming in combination with Pickpocket so I got used to it), upgraded a bunch of passive shards to skill shards, made more and new food, and during all that I reached level 50. On my second attempt I didn't even need to heal during my fight with Dominique, and only a few times while fighting Bael, so that was quite successful.
Since then I managed to complete all the quests from villagers, discover 100% of the map, and acquire 100% of shards. I also crafted several more very cool weapons, like Gungnir and the Eternal Blue. And I fought OD: the first time I lost, and I'm glad because otherwise I would have missed the close-up of OD biting Miriam's neck and draining her blood, but the second time I won easily using Teps Oceus, a Thunder Ring, and Gungnir briefly stunning him with lightning each time.
I really like Teps Oceus, not having to aim is very convenient. Before that I mostly used Riga Dohin. Conjuration, I started using mostly Summon Bat, then Welcome Company, and I still use that while farming mostly but against bosses I love using Upbeat Heat. Summoning a demon bard for a hell of a lot of damage, hell yeah.
Right now I'm planning to craft a few more cool weapons, and then play as Zangetsu, and then the not-quite-prequel Curse of the Moon. I won't have that much time because classes started again this week, I'm glad I managed to finish the main story of RotN before that.
I also made the great tactical decision to gift a copy of the game to LB on condition of him keeping me updated as he plays, I'm enjoying that too. It's his birthday soon and I thought of gifting him games I talked about that he expressed an interest in, but realistically I would have gifted them to him anyway because I look forward to him playing then and then talking about them, so that would feel like cheating.
I found the game because I signed up for Humble Choice for the first time in August, originally for Carto, but then I thought Bloodstained looked interesting and gave it a try. By now I've played ~47 hours, which is more than twice as much as my third-most played game (Ori and the Will of the Wisps, ~22 hours.)[Edit: actually, it is Ori and the Blind Forest, at 35.4 hours, I forgot I played it twice.] A comparison with Hades, at ~365 hours, would be unfair.
It's a lot of fun. I like the art and the design, and I enjoy the gameplay and combat, especially once I found some more weapons to play around with and more shards too. The difficulty on Normal was just right for me, decently challenging but not too hard, and I appreciated that I could always go back and grind for level/more weapons/etc. and try a boss fight again later when I was stronger. (I hardly used any online guides either, just for very few specific things.)
It also has just enough story early enough to get me invested, and I really liked the main character Miriam and all the tragedy with her and Gebel and Johannes. I nominated them for Yuletide, promo post here.
I managed to find both bad endings: the one where Miriam never fights Zangetsu a second time, kills Gebel who tells her she did the right thing, and then she and Johannes talk about how Dominique and the church will handle the rest. And the one where Miriam fights Gebel after acquiring Zangetsuto, still kills him, and is then possessed by Gremory. (I managed to avoid almost all spoilers about the ending, which I was glad about, but I did look up how to actually hit Gremory, which is good because otherwise I would probably have continued selling shards because of the assumption that Miriam could only be taken over if bonded to too many shards.)
The way to the "good"/true ending involves Gebel being taken over by his own crystal moments after his mind was freed, and Johannes and Miriam finding out that Alfred was on their side the entire time just in time to watch him die, so still a fair bit of tragedy, but it only feels fitting.
My fight against Gremory I just tanked with Zangetsuto, many potions, and a lot of food, basically, and won. My first fight against Bael I lost, so I decided to upgrade: I crafted the Coronation Gown, got and crafted several new weapons (Bandit Blade, Valkyrie Sword, Oracle Blade, Blue Rose, Rhava Velar – I liked all of them but ended up going with the Rhava Velar, also because it is very convenient while farming in combination with Pickpocket so I got used to it), upgraded a bunch of passive shards to skill shards, made more and new food, and during all that I reached level 50. On my second attempt I didn't even need to heal during my fight with Dominique, and only a few times while fighting Bael, so that was quite successful.
Since then I managed to complete all the quests from villagers, discover 100% of the map, and acquire 100% of shards. I also crafted several more very cool weapons, like Gungnir and the Eternal Blue. And I fought OD: the first time I lost, and I'm glad because otherwise I would have missed the close-up of OD biting Miriam's neck and draining her blood, but the second time I won easily using Teps Oceus, a Thunder Ring, and Gungnir briefly stunning him with lightning each time.
I really like Teps Oceus, not having to aim is very convenient. Before that I mostly used Riga Dohin. Conjuration, I started using mostly Summon Bat, then Welcome Company, and I still use that while farming mostly but against bosses I love using Upbeat Heat. Summoning a demon bard for a hell of a lot of damage, hell yeah.
Right now I'm planning to craft a few more cool weapons, and then play as Zangetsu, and then the not-quite-prequel Curse of the Moon. I won't have that much time because classes started again this week, I'm glad I managed to finish the main story of RotN before that.
I also made the great tactical decision to gift a copy of the game to LB on condition of him keeping me updated as he plays, I'm enjoying that too. It's his birthday soon and I thought of gifting him games I talked about that he expressed an interest in, but realistically I would have gifted them to him anyway because I look forward to him playing then and then talking about them, so that would feel like cheating.
no subject
Date: 2021-10-11 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-11 08:42 pm (UTC)I got 100% of Steam achievements this weekend so now I'm thinking about whether to try NG+, randomizer mode, hard mode... (I briefly tried playing as Zangetsu but I much prefer Miriam.)
no subject
Date: 2021-10-13 08:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-13 09:19 pm (UTC)Smart choice, it could indeed be distracting ;)