Would you like any castlevania references?

@ Galamoth

It is a good idea. Kudos.

What about some loose garments based on the Belmont heroes? Either in background, foreground or obtainable for the playable characters? They cannot be exact but it could inspire additional costumes.

Or have that secret boss be Dracula. If it is not the same then that could work.

Or have lore clues to bios of Castlevania bosses. Like Legion/Baloon, Galamoth, etc. Like the world knows about them, but the characters don't directly see them.

A character should toss a wine glass.

And it should bounce harmlessly away without breaking

"that usually works"

Bonus points if it's IGA's in game character doing it.

^ I think we have a winner.

That is a nice idea. Mixing iconic even with iconic fellow. With a little comic flair. +1.

That could be cool too. Use dual audio to suggest that something bitter-sweet just transpired. Perhaps even make the game flicker and [do the Hideo black screen] slowly show 'game over', or have the background illuminate or 'carve' out the saying in SotN when you die "Let us go out this evening for pleasure". or something.

I think a secret room that holds the Alucard sword would be cool. Maybe something happens when you take it, either bad or good. Like a special power that you obtain when equipped, or a battle between you and Alucard's ghost. Same thing with each of the Belmont's whips.

A mirror that you jump into that warps you to the Symphony of the Night castle and be able to run through that would be super awesome. But that probably couldn't be done because of copyright. Damn you Konami! I hope this game makes a zillion dollars to show the Konami idiots what 2D (or 2.5D) is all about

Firstly, having a castle and most (if not all) action occur inside a castle can be arguably considered a huge CV reference. I'm fine with just this.

More clever approaches will be really amazing. Such as maybe having a large mechanical transportation device that Miriam must use to progress the story which happens to move in a sine wave pattern a la medusa heads...
Or a boss whose main attack patterns consist of freezing the gameplay and drawing some star pattern (like what players do in Dawn of Sorrow) which then unfreezes the game and unleashes some magic attack on Miriam.

Don't want to see statues across a hallway who, at a distance, look like protagonists from past CV games but have different names. I'll find this a tad bit too distasteful.

But for sure I think we should definitely not be surprised if there will not be a KonamiMan reference at all.