[SPOILER] Demo review by At0mium - What can we learn from E3

11 minute video.


DIAGONAL SLASHING RETURNS! Wooohoooo


SPOILERS

Major spoilers. Shows basically whole demo

the buer itself animated beautiful. I saw its mouth moving a bit. Tons of detail feels like a 2d game

Thank you a lot Kaius for linking my post. Here it is the updated version!


Okey, going for a bigger discussion about the whole menu and the Magic Shard System

MENU


The first thing to note on the Menu is that it is clean and easy to use. Also, it is cute and simple, i like it.

Miriam's stats are more or less the same from Castlevania games, we can guess that they work the same way
[ATK] probably Max attack power (probably STR + Weapon)
[STR] probably raw attack power (without weapon)
[INT] probably related to magical power
[LCK] probably increases chance to find forging itens, shards, drops.
[DEF] probably raw defense power
[CON] probably max defense power (DEF + armors)
[MND] probably probably related to status resistance

There are the resist elements, that i posted before, and we can guess what they mean.

It may be something like this (updated opinion based on others)

Cut	Pierce
Blunt	Fire
Freeze	Thunder
Curse	Holy
Poison	Darkness
Petrify	Earth
Slow down	---

Ignoring the Cut, Blunt and Pierce, the first columm being stats-related, and the second one being elements-related.

About the Menu options, it is curious to note that there is nothing related to forging itens, maybe because it is a demo.

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ITENS



Here, we can see that the item menu has several tabs, each one for a specific type of item. The first one is probably a "all itens" tab. The second looks like a healing itens tab, the third is really hard to guess, but it may be shards for you to look at your collection. The fourth are key itens and the fifth are files, books, documents and things like that.  That potion healed +50 HP from her.
As a curious last note, most Castlevanias from IGA had a funny thing about colors. At most igavania games, it was like this:
HP bar was red, MP bar was blue. HP Potions was blue, MP potions was red.
Now, apparently, they FINALLY decided to match the colors. So, now:
HP bar red + HP potion red, MP bar blue + potion blue.

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EQUIPMENT




Here, we can the the equipment slots and we can guess more things about the game here.
First, did you guys noticed that the equipment tab is called "Equipment Set 1"? That means Miriam will be able to have "sets" of equipments, that you probably can change in real time, like A/B Sets from Down of Sorrow and the sets from Order of Ecclesia. The equipment slots also has some interesting things to notice:

[WEAPON]: Nothing surprising here. But, when the player changed the sword for those combat shoes, her boots also changed to shoes.
[HEAD]: She is equipped with a headband that the player got and her looks didn't changed. We know Miriam will have some special equipment that changes her looks, but i guess this is not the place for it.
[BODY]: Armors. I doubt that equipping different armors will change her dress.
[ACCESSORY I & II]: Varying accessories. Maybe some cosmetic equipment will be equipped here.
[SCARF]: That is a interesting surprise. There is a specific slot dedicated to her scarf. I think her scarf will work like Alucard's cape on Symphony of the Night. You can change her scarf and that will reflect on her visual, changing the scarf  color and looks. I bet it will be like this.

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THE SHARD SYSTEM

The "Shard system" is probably a mix between Glyph Art from Order of Ecclesia (OoE) and the Soul Dominance from Aria/Dawn of Sorrow (A/DoS). Like the Glyph Art from OoE, not all enemies have a magic to offer, and like Soul Dominance, there are different types of shards and you need to equip them to use it. That idea where you would need to mature the shard first, in order to use it later, seems to be abandoned, or maybe just few shards are like that.

Again, the Shards have the same "Equipment Set 1". I think that is an error. It is probably that you can combine and change in real time, different equip sets and Shards sets. Either way, we can see all Shards types right here, and can guess how they can be used and what they do. Also, they are color-coded, like Red and Blue Glyphs from Order of Ecclesia, and the Red / Blue / Yellow / Grey Souls from Aria and Dawn of Sorrow:

[TRIGGER]: Usable by pressing (Y). It is probably the most basic form of magical attack. The name implies that it is a instant-type magic. You pull the trigger and the magic "shots". Not only projectiles, of course, but basic magical attacks and effects.
[EFFECTIVE]: Hard to guess what that is. We can't see how it is the imput, but considering the name, it may be some kind of power summon, that you can hold a button to use it or to activate it, like barriers.
[DIRECTIONAL]: We can see that from the Fire Cannon Shard. These Shards are activated by using the RIGHT ANALOG and RT button. Aim with RIGHT ANALOG, activate it with RT. Targetting magic? Cool!
[ENCHANT]: Aria and Down of Sorrow had a enchant soul type, so it is probably the same thing, since even the color is the same. It is probably shards that give stats boosts and special effects and don't need imput. Like gear, you just equip and that's it.
[FAMILIR]: The name is probably a typo. They meant "Familiar" and we all know what that is. A shard slot dedicated to summon familiars! So you don't need to waste a Trigger or other shard to summon a familiar. I don't have any idea of what imput it will be, but it is probably one of the shoulder buttons.


FINAL WORDS SO FAR
Everything looks really promising so far. I was really curious to see how the game magic system would work and like what i see. 
I'm still puzzled by the fact that the Shard System has absolutely nothing on that idea that the shards would need to be "matured" to be usable. I think they dropped that idea. IGA said they where discussing that obtaining a power and not using it right away could be frustrating.
Also, no sign of weapon forging. But that is probably because it is the first area, and that ability will be unlocked later.

I think it will be like the Glyph Sleeve from Order of Ecclesia. On Order of Ecclesia, magic and equipment sets was linked, so, you had three sets (A, B and C) and each set was a group of equipped gear and magic. At first, i thought that the "Equipment Set 1" at Shard menu was a typo, but maybe it isn't. Maybe the equipment set is all linked to magic and gear. So you can have a Set 1, with some gear and shards, a Set 2 with other gear and shards, and you probably can change that in real time (if you can't, there is no point in having equipment sets, i think).

Yes, I like the interface a lot. Still, I think it should be placed more in the corner.
Thanks for the info Pure Miriam. About switching, it could be a tool to switch sets quickly without reequipping everything and losing a set settings but only usable out of combat. 

All I can say is, we'll find out playing the demo !