Iga's Biggest Castle stretch goal: You want a second Castle?

Truthfully, no, I don't want a second castle. I think this team has enough on its plate already with all of these goals. I'd rather they make one castle, make it fantastic, make the rooms detailed and well-designed, and if they have some extra time (doubtful), polish up some neat "little touches" like destructibles, innovative consumables, vanity items (extra outfits, hairstyles, etc.)

The current-gen of videogames always seem to place entirely too much emphasis on making everything BIG. Well, that's all well and good, but a big, crappy space doesn't do much for me. I'd rather have a focused, masterfully-executed playground. Now if you can accomplish both, of course I'll take it, but that's almost never the case.

Here is the castle entrance



And I also read up on the whole journey from X to the Castle. Spoilers from what the data I have gathered below. Spoiler Warning!

• Spoilers above are about NPC roles and the actual route we will take in a grand scale.
• The information above is also speculation, since I have these past weeks, read up on the updates, puzzled some pieces together.
• Another spoiler about the second playable character, read below. Spoiler warning!

Get ready for some images (no spoilers below, just using spoiler tabs to hide bloated images).

ALL IMAGES ARE MOCK-UP BY ME!

Castle Design 1 - Big Castle

Here we have one big castle, every place has its own feel and estetics attached to it. Hidden rooms and corridors.


Castle Design 2 - Mirrored Castle

My favorite and what I am hoping for personally. Mirror it, have the ends connected to eachother if we can unlock it somehow.



Castle Design 3 - Portal To Hell

New areas, but not actual castle. Almost like a Chaos Realm, except we enter Hell, and fight the monsters in their original turf. This "realm" could be anything really, not just dedicated to a "hell", but a fraction of a reality, or a dream maybe.



Castle Design 4 - Inverted Castle

Like Symphony of the Night, but since we already have gotten this, it feels old and not original anymore. Matter of taste really.



Castle Design 4 - Inverted Mirrored Castle

A twist to the Design 3 concept, just mirror it once again after the turn, making it extra confusing.

I did not count, but each of them could be uhm.. 4 rooms No but the whole picture was what I were thinking about, hehe.

Just doing the "big castle" I thought to myself.. "I probably should stop now so I can make the rest before I get too tired."

lol  So the 2nd Castle would appear knocked over 90 degrees on its side.

I talked about this before, but refined a bit my opinion about a second castle, so, i'm going to talk again in a better way.

I believe it would be really cool if Bloodstained had a second castle, but i think we need something different then what all other Igavanias did. For the record, what Igavanias had as a second castle was:
Symphony of the Night: second castle is a copy of the first castle, upside down.
Harmony of Dissonance: second castle is a pallete swap of the first castle. Same castle, same position, different colors.
Aria of Sorrow: second castle is a fusion of rooms from the first castle without any logic, to represent a chaotic realm, overall smaller than the first castle.

It need to take note that Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia doesn't have a "second castle" themselves, but some of their scenarios  (realms inside portraits for Portrait of Ruin and outside areas before Dracula's castle for Order of Ecclesia) have repeated scenarios  in a mirrored / pallete swapped way with some differences later on.

So, considering all that, i do believe Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night should have a Second Castle AND they even tease that at the kickstarter:


I really don't believe they would say that at the FAQ for no reason. Now, WHAT the second castle would be? I have some main ideas, and i want to know anyone's else opinions on them:

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That other construction that we can see in the water at the bottom right would be a second castle and it is separated from the first one. They are linked, but they aren't completely related. After beating the first castle, for some reason, Miriam needs to go to the second one, where Gebel / the villian is hidding. There would be a passage between both castles and the second one would have areas that are mirrored / palleted swapped / layout changed versions of the first castle and part of it would be underwater.

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Take a look at the background. We have corridors, windows, light and we can even spot some threes and a wall. This idea is based on a personal desire that i have when i play good 2d games, that is playing at the background scenario as foreground. So, after beating the first castle, there would be a passage to walk at the back. The second castle is actually the same castle, but you are playing at whole different areas because you are actually playing at the background, that is now the foreground (with the foreground you played before now being the background).

Those are my ideas at the moment.

I googled grid, big ones. Couldn't find. Took small ones, (images) imported them in GIMP, side by side, took the paint bucket.. And filled in. Right out of just random choice. Later on copied, and made whatever you see on the images.

I say also caramel maps. I have no actual input in how they are designed.

On other note..

Been playing Circle of the Moon for two straight hours each two nights before bed on my GBA, I have notice the areas are NOT as interesting as Igavanias, the other games on the GBA. And I hope these boring copy+phase levels are NOT in Bloodstained.

Right, and will replay those pretty soon. But Circle of the Moon are.. Well, many areas are copy + phase upon copy + phase. And they even implemented a way to double tap so you can run forward. If that feature was a thing AFTER the map-making, why not.. Oh I wont bother. As said, it is not an IGA production. Worth mentioning. Dislike the feel, even though I wanna finish it again. I am borrowing the game from a friend, so I hope to finish it before he needs it back.

Thinking about the castle, thanks for including my idea. I was a bit triggered to make more images. But I believe leaving the details be, so people could included their own thoughts into the aspect. But having two official dimensions would be nice