Update 57: 12 questions regarding it's content

1) Do you think that fashion items will take up common equipment slots or they will just be cosmetic options at separate equipping slots (and possibly not offering any bonuses whatsoever)?

You can probably customize Miriam's hair as a separate thing, but I think that everything else will be proper equipment.

2) For now, we can assume the fashion items and common equipment are two different things (but maybe they aren't). Considering common equipment, that shows up at her graphic, such as headpieces and boots (as weapons) and also scarves, what are your thoughts regarding that, maybe, the game can have visual things that wouldn't be good looking for you, but would offer such great bonuses that you would feel forced to use it?

Well sometimes it's a shame that a piece of equipment that you really really from an aesthetic viewpoint like becomes useless further in the game. In IGAvanias' case, though, equipment has minimal gameplay importance because the game is not so unforgiving that it requires you to have the best gear to overcome the situation. In the Souls series and Blooborne too, equipment aside from weapons is of little relevance, that's why you generally pick your favorite in terms of appearance. Fashion souls! In this case, Fashionvania can totally be a thing, you will almost certainly be able to pick the items you cosmetically prefer.

3) Would you like fashion items as DLC? (Paid Downlodeable Content)

Absolutely not. The only good DLC is a meaty expansion pack with new areas, content and items as far as I'm concerned. So as a part of that cosmetics would work, but not stand-alone.

4) Some fashion items, like the bunny set or the maid headpiece, may be considered "too cute" for some, for a game that proposes itself to be gothic horror in nature. Do you think fashion items like that doesn't fit Bloodstained's overall atmosphere?

I wouldn't use cosmetic items that are too cute for my taste. I was never a fan of the more lighthearted/goofy aspects of IGAvanias because I prefer a serious gothic experience but those elements can be fun sometimes and as long as it's not a mandatory thing or parts of scenarios that totally undermine the serious tones of the game, it's fine if they are present. For example, Curse of Darkness was a pretty grim game in its storytelling and atmosphere, and bizarre special weapons or Innocent Devils (or even the Chair Room) didn't break that atmosphere because they were optional and not in your face all the time. That is fine.

5) What are your considerations about sexy costumes (such as swimsuits, bikinis, revealing clothes)?

As long as they are within decency's extremes and they're not shoved in your face as a key elements (like some certain series) they can be a fun little addition. No different from the overly cute costumes in my book. Like I said before, they just need not to ruin the atmosphere and not to be overly abundant.

6) The Rapier shown at the video has flowers at it's handle. Flowers, crystals and stained glasses are a common theme at the game and that also can be seen at it's weapons form earlier concept arts. Of course, that also makes these weapons really unrealistic. What are your thoughts regarding this? Style over realism, or realism over style?

This game has no pretense for realism, so I am perfectly fine with style being the predominant characteristic. Then again, in the Souls games, albeit more "realistic" looking, I always loved oversized, massive and totally unrealistic weapons like Smough's hammer. I hope for lots of stylish and awesome weapons.

7) Knives and daggers, such as the one showed at the video, in most Igavanias, normally disappear after a while. You may find some good ones early-to-mid game and then, they just vanish. Do you think that all weapon types should have weapons during most of the game (like, all weapon types at early game, mid-game and end-game) to give the players the ability to use their favorite types through the whole game? Take in consideration that doing that requires resoucers, that could be used at making some weapons more unique and interesting than a myriad of less-detailed weapons in order to meet "all weapon types at all times" request.

I can't stress it enough: every weapon class should be useful everywhere in the game. A late game knife, spear, pistol and hammer is just as important as a late game katana or sword. Reward all playstyles by allowing players to stick to their preferred weapon class anywhere in the game! This doesn't mean that the ultimate knife should be exactly the same as the ultimate katana, but just that it should be practical and efficient even in late game.

8) Bloodstained has, officially confirmed, 5 basic damage elements: Fire , Ice , Light ,Dark , and Thunder/Lightning . It's expected that, besides the Fire Sword shown at the demon, Bloodstained will probably have at least one weapon for each element. Considering the game's massive size (being IGA's biggest castle) it's very possible that Bloodstained will have tons of weapons. Would you like if all weapon types had at least one weapon for each damage element? Like, one dagger for each element, one sword for each element, one whip for each element and such? Again, like question #2, this requires resources and has a huge chance of creating less-detailed and interesting weapons, killing some possibilities of creating more unique and interesting ones.

What I said in the previous answer only applies to raw usefulness. In these terms, I have no need for every class to have every single element. They can be spread out among the various classes according to the designers' inspiration.

9) Bloodstained seems to have 5 status effects, considering it's icons at the game's menu: curse , poison , slow , stone and stop . Igavanias of the past had few weapons with such effects, like poisoned swords or stone-turning blades. Would you like if Bloodstained had weapons with all the effects above? Maybe at most or all weapon types? Again, like question #2 or #3, always have in mind that this requires resources and the killing of potentially unique weapons.

It's cool to have weapons that inflict status ailments, so I would love them. The point is that they are useless if status ailments are useless. In previous IGAvanias they were hardly of any use at all, so I would like them to be a little more useful and effective against specific enemies, harder to take down otherwise.

10) A Katana, like the one in the video, was elected blindly at the "sword VS whip" contest to be one of the "most dangerous weapon in the game", that probably means that a Katana will be Miriam's "signature" weapon (like Alucard Sword is for Alucard and Claim Solais is for Soma Cruz), do you think that was a good idea, or would you like the dev team to have explained what the "sword VS whip" voting in the past really was, to let backers vote properly at what weapon they would like to be the game's "most dangerous weapon"? If you could choose, would you change the Katana for something else?

I'm fine with one weapon being the ultimate one, and it can be any type of weapon. But I still would like endgame definitive weapons for every class, they can be less powerful than the "ultimate katana" as long as they are still strong and fun to use.

11) Quick question about Axes and Lances / Halberds, like the Axe and Lance that was shown the video. Axes are normally slow and strong, while lances normally has a big range but are rather weak and also not very fast. Not much players seems to enjoy such weapons, because Igavania games is all about pacing and delivering the right attack at the right time. How do you think Axes and lances could be more interesting to be used?

Big and slow weapons are the best. They should have a prominent advantage in terms of raw damage though. Just as spears need their balance of range and decent power. Focusing on this specificity and fine tuning it is to me the key to make every class feel unique and appealing to different players.

12) As we all know, Morte has no Shard because it isn't a "full-fledged demon". That opens the possibility that some other enemies will also have no shard. Last update revealed a Giant Rat. Do you think the Giant Rat will have a shard? If yes, what type and what kind of shard could it be?

Maybe it will have a shard. I'd like the majority of monsters to have one, honestly. Please keep the Morte variants to a little percentage in order to make us play with many powers

Regarding your points, I would like to think that "cosmetic" items will also have mechanical benefits and so occupy the same slot as regular equipment. I would hope that the game's crafting system will be robust and flexible enough to offer the player a degree of control over both Miriam's appearance and stats (for example if you don't like the look of something but you like it's stats you'll be able to find/craft something that may slightly worse stats wise but is more pleasing to the player).

On paid DLC, I'd prefer items like this to be in the game from the start but i guess if artists think of some cool outfits for characters post-release then i would not mind paying a LOW price per costume, providing of course they dont have unbalanced stats. perhaps it would be cool if DLC outfits were added to the "crafting pool" when you purchase them so rather than possessing their own stats the player determines the stats that the outfit has through their own use of the crafting system. Funny and cute items are fine because the games gotta have a sense of humour, even if its a gothic adventure it doesnt have to take itself seriously all the time. No-one is forcing the player to use comedy items. So-called "sexy" costumes are fine too as long as they stick to the low priced DLC rule - it's not something i would personally want but it's a question of player choice, again no-one is forced to use them.

Bloodstained will be a stylish game, we've seen that from the stages and the bosses so there's nothing wrong with slightly over-designed weapons - if anything i feel that this approach fits better into bloodstained's world than aiming for something realistic. On the question of Daggers & Knives, i think that if a player likes the style of a particular weapon they should be allowed to keep using that weapon type without feeling held back, although perhaps the onus should be on the player to make their current knife better (through crafting) if they want to keep using it. It's usual for a sword to do more damage than a knife but some kind of Magical Daggers with horrible effects would fit quite well into the world so it wouldn't be out of the question to find a high tier weapon of this type or maybe even several variations.

Elemental Weapon types could be found throughout the castle but it should be rare i think, maybe rarity would depend on the strength of the elemental damage. What i think would be really quite interesting is if you find an uncommon elemental weapon you could break it up and craft its properties into the weapons you already use. This would solve the issue of having to have an variant of each weapon type for each element. It would also be nice if elemental weapons had effects other than just doing damage of that type so i would expect fire to burn and maybe have a chance to set enemy alight, ice could slow and lightening could paralyze. I think it would be very interesting to have status effects imbued to weapons (maybe using alchemy?) but regarding the argument that this would maybe lead to other weapons being less interesting doesn't hold up in my view. All you have to do is give the player the framework to do so and it becomes THEM who make the interesting weapons variants not the developer. Having said this maybe status effects and elemental attacks should be present in shard abilities too not just weapons.

The"Sword vs Whip" question was i think really more to decide Miriam's character rather than to reflect anything mechanical regarding the strength of the weapons, and the question was asked when it was to give the artists a clue as to what direction to go in in terms of her character design/feel, that and it was a bit of fun for the backers. It's good that she's proficient with blades it makes her different from let's say anyone called Belmont.

On heavy weapons (Lances/Great Ax etc.) It would be interesting to see Miriam struggle with a Heavy Lance or something struggling to lift and then bringing it down heavily for big attack, i'd like to see this because her frame is quite slight and heavy weapons should prove difficult to use for her but with damage levels that compensate for this, when she's not swinging a heavy weapon it should be very defensive (big enough for her to hide behind, block even heavy attacks). Its fun to have variation in weapon swing, it's one aspect that makes different play-styles possible. Maybe the swing speed of heavy weapon could be tied to her STR stat instead of that governing the weapons damage or perhaps theres a Shard that can be gained (Oni Strength?) that could make using heavy weapons easier for her. Maybe it would be fun for her to have similar difficulties with gun recoil.

You can see the Rat's Shard is jutting from it's skull so it has one, would be quite interesting as a low level familiar maybe it can go around the screen biting things not doing any real damage but having a small % chance to poison enemies, unless they are immune.

1) Do you think that fashion items will take up common equipment slots or they will just be cosmetic options at separate equipping slots (and possibly not offering any bonuses whatsoever)?

I suggest to have an "illusionist" to apply the fashion on the equipment


2) For now, we can assume the fashion items and common equipment are two different things (but maybe they aren't). Considering common equipment, that shows up at her graphic, such as headpieces and boots (as weapons) and also scarves, what are your thoughts regarding that, maybe, the game can have visual things that wouldn't be good looking for you, but would offer such great bonuses that you would feel forced to use it?

An option to apply illusion can solve this problem

3) Would you like fashion items as DLC? (Paid Downloadable Content)

A Big No. DRM and along with this kind of DLC is the toxic of the gaming community. I would say that I would feel betrayed if they added DLC to the game and I would not have backed the game if I know it will implement this kind of DLC. I know they need profit, but milking the player base is not the business model I can agree with and I certainly do not like to see Iga going to the dark side.

4) Some fashion items, like the bunny set or the maid headpiece, may be considered "too cute" for some, for a game that proposes itself to be gothic horror in nature. Do you think fashion items like that doesn't fit Bloodstained's overall atmosphere?

An option to apply illusion can solve this problem

5) What are your considerations about sexy costumes (such as swimsuits, bikinis, revealing clothes)?

Sexy costumes are fine. It is nothing wrong to provide some fan service.

6) The Rapier shown at the video has flowers at it's handle. Flowers, crystals and stained glasses are a common theme at the game and that also can be seen at it's weapons form earlier concept arts. Of course, that also makes these weapons really unrealistic. What are your thoughts regarding this? Style over realism, or realism over style?



7) Knives and daggers, such as the one showed at the video, in most Igavanias, normally disappear after a while. You may find some good ones early-to-mid game and then, they just vanish. Do you think that all weapon types should have weapons during most of the game (like, all weapon types at early game, mid-game and end-game) to give the players the ability to use their favorite types through the whole game? Take in consideration that doing that requires resoucers, that could be used at making some weapons more unique and interesting than a myriad of less-detailed weapons in order to meet "all weapon types at all times" request.

I think all weapon types at all times provides better gaming experience.

8) Bloodstained has, officially confirmed, 5 basic damage elements: Fire , Ice , Light ,Dark , and Thunder/Lightning . It's expected that, besides the Fire Sword shown at the demon, Bloodstained will probably have at least one weapon for each element. Considering the game's massive size (being IGA's biggest castle) it's very possible that Bloodstained will have tons of weapons. Would you like if all weapon types had at least one weapon for each damage element? Like, one dagger for each element, one sword for each element, one whip for each element and such? Again, like question #2, this requires resources and has a huge chance of creating less-detailed and interesting weapons, killing some possibilities of creating more unique and interesting ones.

well, we only need 5 weapons for each weapon type, I think that is not unrealistic expectation. I believe Iga can make it happen.

9) Bloodstained seems to have 5 status effects, considering it's icons at the game's menu: curse , poison , slow , stone and stop . Igavanias of the past had few weapons with such effects, like poisoned swords or stone-turning blades. Would you like if Bloodstained had weapons with all the effects above? Maybe at most or all weapon types? Again, like question #2 or #3, always have in mind that this requires resources and the killing of potentially unique weapons.

I would like to have all the effects on all the weapon types. Unique weapon is meaningless. Let's say you found a poison sword at level 10, the weapon will be outdated when you hit level 50. If we don't have other weapon with poison status effect, it means we throw the mechanism out of windows since no player will use a low level weapon on high level.

10) A Katana, like the one in the video, was elected blindly at the "sword VS whip" contest to be one of the "most dangerous weapon in the game", that probably means that a Katana will be Miriam's "signature" weapon (like Alucard Sword is for Alucard and Claim Solais is for Soma Cruz), do you think that was a good idea, or would you like the dev team to have explained what the "sword VS whip" voting in the past really was, to let backers vote properly at what weapon they would like to be the game's "most dangerous weapon"? If you could choose, would you change the Katana for something else?

I like Crissaegrim in SOTN and valmanway in AOS, so the signature weapon means nothing?

11) Quick question about Axes and Lances / Halberds, like the Axe and Lance that was shown the video. Axes are normally slow and strong, while lances normally has a big range but are rather weak and also not very fast. Not much players seems to enjoy such weapons, because Igavania games is all about pacing and delivering the right attack at the right time. How do you think Axes and lances could be more interesting to be used?

maybe we should try adding slow/stun/knockback effect to these weapon types

12) As we all know, Morte has no Shard because it isn't a "full-fledged demon". That opens the possibility that some other enemies will also have no shard. Last update revealed a Giant Rat. Do you think the Giant Rat will have a shard? If yes, what type and what kind of shard could it be?

Yes. The shard gives the ability to fly

I see your point about not using items that change Miriam's outfit too much... but I really doubt there will be much "backlash" from putting a few fan-service outfits in the game... personally I'm not into that stuff but I expect it to be in there because it's a Japanese game and that's just part of their culture... though Iga-sama usually keeps it to a minimum (or keeps the fan-service with badguys like succubi and evil type character.

on her changing her outfit I hope there is a default fashion outfit that keeps Miriam wearing her default clothes... it would make it so that cosmetic items don't change her looks at all.  (take a look at my thought for topics 1 and 2). 

I'm all for, say, changing to the Emerald Scarf and it becomes a green scarf on Miriam instead of the blue one. Weapons (or shields) would pretty much have to change; although some similar weapons may look the same (i.e. two different katanas).

Although it kind of goes against what I said previously, I'm actually in favor of entire costume swaps. So, if you say equip the Pure Miriam costume or something. Or if you equip a Knight costume and she appears in full Knight armor, etc.

I totally see your point but things like the corgi hat doesn't make sense within the narrative as well, so I tend to see those things the same way. The most important thing is for them to be optional and not overly abundant. In the case of sexy costumes there is also the matter of decency. I would expect from IGA nothing else than class, even IF this kind of sexy costume is implemented. For example, I think that if he chose to do this, he would implement things like Yuja Wang's dresses for concerts. Her dresses are pretty revealing and sexy but maintaining a sense of class. I think this would be IGA's kind of sexy costumes. How would it sound like to you IF they are implemented and IF they will be like that dress I suggested you? I think it would be a neat compromise of course this is all speculation and maybe those costumes wouldn't be implemented at all. I would be fine if they are in the game or if they aren't, but I would be disappointed if I saw transparent swimsuits or micro bikinis in the game, that's for sure.

Yän freddythemonkey

I have a different opinion from you two. I fully respect your opinions on this matter, but i see no problem in sexualizing a character in a material that doesn't have that focus, if that is optional.
Let's say that one of Miriam's costume is a modern, japanese school-girl swimsuit. That clothing has absolutely nothing to do with the game whatsoever and the only reason for something like that to be added would be to attract a certain audience. So what? More people playing the game. It's optional. You don't have to equip it. You don't have to use it.

An old survival horror game, Fatal Frame 2 (Project Zero in Japan) at it's Wii edition, had alternative costumes where you could dress the girls with bikinis (see HERE). Two girls exploring a village full of hauting ghosts that can eat your soul, dressed in bikinis. Other games of the series, such as Fatal Frame 5 also had that, with lingeries and such (see HERE). Anyone can see that this has nothing to do with those games. But again, it's optional. You don't have to equip it. You don't have to use it.

What i find a bit odd is that some people doesn't want that AT ALL in the game, even if something like that is completely optional and you have full control between using it or not. Options. That's all i "preach" for. As long as nothing of the sort is mandatory, i think it can please most audiences.

Pure Miriam I don't have much to add to what Freddy said other than that I largely agree with them and that I don't want this game (and by extension me as a player and fan) to be associated with this stuff.

Some options are better left out to not water down a game's style, setting and vision and lower its standards in terms of class in my opinion. I don't want this game to appear in steam's "erotica" category and when I say to my friends "hey I like this game, check it out" I still want to be respected afterwards without having to mention that I disagree with the pandering and teenage-boy-sex-fantasy-fanservice in it.
There are plenty of H-games you can play if you're into that kind of stuff and I won't judge you for it but I hope it will stay separate from Bloodstained unless there is a good narrative reason for it (point in case: Succubus).

In addition to that, anything that brings Bloodstained closer to Konami's current vision of Castlevania as EROTIC VIOLENCE is not welcome in my eyes.

Also, obviously these things take time and resources to develop (if you want to do it "well" just changing the character model might not even be enough) so I think I have good reasons to believe that they should instead spend their time on, you know, making the game better.

If however the overwhelming majority of the community wants sexualized outfits... I'd be disappointed but outvoted.

I wish I knew more about Miriam's character. Right now, I don't know if Miriam's character has a care in the world about sexual type attire. And that's the thing...this being Miriam's debut, I don't think she should send the wrong message. This game should be all about establishing Miriam's character. I'm just not sure what her character's personality entails at this point.

Pure Miriam has a good point. Optional stuffs can have all kinds of things. If people don't like it, they can just not use it. Better to have the option there for folks who want it than to leave it out entirely. Options are a good thing. A counter-point, however, is that people could put on the "Sexy Bunny Maid" outfit and stream Bloodstained for a bunch of people who haven't seen the game before. Then they may think the wrong thing about what Bloodstained is. Ah, who knows! It may end up not mattering one bit.