Update #80 - March 2019 Kickstarter Update is Now Live!

The shortcut feature is a nice addition, however, I do believe it can be improved by allowing the player to SET two swappable palettes from that very same menu which then the player can hot-swap on the fly IN-GAME, rather than breaking their gameplay experience and requiring to use a pausing menu. I would suggest using Y/X-buttons to determine the Primary and Secondary palettes for hot-swapping to be used in-game from that menu.

I personally find a dial system (in-game) for hot swapping a bit unbearing to be precise about the selection you want, unless maybe it was 4 of the 8 which were selectable at up, down, left, right positions.

While we didn't actually get to see it in action, I noticed the "Craftwork" blue shard in the first video.

They're called Manipulative Shards now, I see.

to swap potions, weapons, Shards or even cosmetics I can see the shortcut feature being very useful, it does sound like in the course of what has been estimated to be a 10 hour game I doubt many will make much use of the feature but it helps add replay value for those that want to keep playing and challenge themselves to master the game or even 100% the game as that's a feature I was wanting just from crafting all the available weapons in the beta

Yeah, the 10 refers to completing the main game straight through without pausing to do anything extra. Almost everyone I imagine will do at least some side quests or explore non-essential parts of the castle, trying to get/find more things than required, etc as that's what Iga's games are all about.

A big thing also is all the game that the videos show...more new graphical touches in areas/Miriam, weapons, items, shards, etc. Craftwork...

Awesome! The quick-equip feature is much more comprehensive than ever! I also really dig the new look of the environments shown in the videos. The improved Zangetsu room looks much more polished and atmospheric than it did in the demo. The ability to set up quick consumable sets is also much appreciated! Good job!

BalancedHydra Heck, just call this quest "Bug Fixing". That's a little on-the-nose, but hey...

I'm going to add myself to the chorus that there could be an ever faster way to swap loadouts with shortcuts on a controller.

I would do it not that different from the one this update talks about but with a slght but important change: do the holding LT but maybe a smaller version of that wheel appears by itself on top of Miriam's head, you'd highlight which choice you want wth the stick or Dpad, and then let go LT to confirm.

Much faster and the game doesnt even have to be paused during this swap. Or if you must the gameplay could freeze when you hold LT, I'm fine eitherway really.

Thanks for the always timely updates!

Wow, greaty, meaty, updaty (hah, i made a pun). TONS OF THINGS to comment, so, let's get to them.

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First of all, i assume this is Garden of Silence, considering how it looks. Man, it does look much better than 2018 Demo. It looks like a special room with a bookshelf (that doesn't really fit the whole scenery, but hey, Igavanias does have their oddities) with a plataform to go down and a corridor on the left, with a good lightwork on that torch. The background astonishes me. You can see some kind of "cliff" between two areas, the one you are standing in and the background, nicely detailed with columns and leaves. It almost looks like you can walk on the other side, at that other passage.

NEW SHARD TYPE NAMES AND NEW SHARD! DAGGER EXPERTISE

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Shards were revamped, with new names. We knew one of them, but most is new:
CONJURE SHARD (we already knew this one, the renamed Trigger Shard)
MANIPULATIVE SHARD (known before as Effective Shard)
PASSIVE SHARD (known before as Enchant Shard)
Also...Here comes a new Shard! Dagger Expertise, that increases dagger and rapier damage. That makes me think that we will have one Passive Shard for each weapon type to increase their power, thus, letting the player use any weapon type combined with these "Expertise" shards to maximize their potential. I'm SURE the old "Sword Mastery" Passive Shard was renamed as "Sword Expertise" for the sake of consistency.

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The new Shortcut System is based on a Skill Shard. So, Miriam's ability to switch equipments and Shards quickly is actually a demonic power. I wonder if such ability is taken from a "Shard Candlestick" (something showed just once at 2017 Demo, where you break an object to get a Shard) or it will come from a special enemy or boss. The Shortcut System was made as a request from players that wanted to quickly switch gears on the fly and i really liked it. By holding LEFT TRIGGER (L2 for PS4) and pressing L ANALOG you can choose sets. Great addition. I knew from the start that the game was going to have something like this.

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To create a set, you go inside "Shortcut" menu and choose whatever you want for that set, give it a name and that's it. It's quite easy to do it and the idea to give a name to it gives you a HUGE customization on gameplay. You can create sets or "classes" for Miriam. I can imagine myself creating a set called "Warrior" for a Big Sword and heavy gear with sword and attack-focused enhancing shards, and another called "Mage" for a Miriam with a magic weapon and INT-focused gear and multi-hit magic-fueled shards and so on...
This system as such a huge potential for varied gameplay that the possibilities are endless. I understand when people say it should be simpler, maybe less slots and easier to switch, but i REALLY LOVED that it has EIGHT UNLOCKABLE SLOTS. Something more to unlock in the game and ask me if i want 8 different Sets for Miriam that i'm going to keep upgrading with new gear and shards every 30 minutes? YOU CAN BET!

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We can see some New Gear here. I assume the first three ( Sunglasses, Dance Mask, Hyperventilator) are just common stat-bonuses equip with maybe some resistance against some element. Rusted Ring and Unicorn Ring probably has some specific effects we can't guess easily and i think Plunderer's Ring probably has some bonus on Luck to increase drop rate or money.

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Some people may not remember, but all the gear above was revealed before, just cat ears is new. Miriam with cat ears? ADORABLE!

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Kung-Fu Vest is the new one here. It's stats are good but not impressive. Seems like a early-mid game gear.

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We are still kinda low on Scarves, but this one looks funny because it is actually a poor man's version of a scarf. It's stats are really low and the scarf itself looks poor and cheap, something kinda cool in a weird way.

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Here, we can see some new shards and/or some renames of old shards, Conjure Shards now. What I THINK we are seeing here, is this, but i may be wrong:
Thrashing Tentacle: New name for Swing Tentacle, from Vepar.
Gale Crawler: New name for Raging Gale, from Aello.
Va Ischa: completely new Shard. From it's description, looks like that basic Icicle attack you see in many games.


Here it is folks. The first Manipulative Shard ever revealed in Bloodstained since 2016 when we had the first demo and this type of Shard (in the past, known as Effective Shard) was revealed. We can't see it in action, but we know Manipulative Shards are used by pressing RB. Considering it's description and it's Rank ("Attack capability") it seems you can move or maybe push some objects and leveling up maybe let you attack enemies with said objects? Really hard to tell since we never had a single Shard of this type before. But it must be said that we finally have, at least, the name of one! Craftwork.

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Again, new Shards and/or renames. My speculation is:
Bone Toss: new name for Bone Thrower.
True Arrow: new name for Straight Arrow.
Petra Ray: completely new Shard. A beam that petrifies enemies. It sounds like a certain ability from Aria of Sorrow, but you can actually control it's aim (in Aria, it was a downwards beam with was kinda stupid). 

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Augument INT, as the name implies, increases your INT, being a Passive Shard. Weirdly, it's rank reads "Faster Casting" although Passive Shards aren't cast. Maybe a bug. Anyways, "Augument" is probably the common term for all basic stats-increase Passive Shards of the game now. We can give goodbye to the old (and enemyless, for now) CON BOOST Shard that was probably renamed as "Augument CON" or something.

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To be fair, i just put this picture here because, i don't know, to me, Miriam looks prettier and sexier. I may be seeing things but it looks like she has a more determined look on her face and her breasts looks a bit bigger or maybe more easily seen now.
As  said, the place is Garden of Silence (look at the menu), the player has around 20% of map completion, almost 3 hours of gameplay and it is on LV 18.

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The very first image of this video is the Teleport Room. I really liked it. It probably has a default look like the save rooms. Several columns in the background with some kind of sky/stars/mystic look and a stained glass with a bard playing a flute. These statuses has a weird resemblance to Shanoa of Order of Ecclesia. Also, the room is painted green on the map to differentiate from the red save rooms.

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We can see Reflector Ray Shard being used here. The effect is pretty and it looks like the whole time is frozen for a second when Miriam uses it, as if she is so damn fast she gets to the other side before time. That remembers me that Bathin, Curse of the Moon Boss not only had a very similar power, but it's description said he could be so fast he could hit himself with his future self...

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It is barely 2 seconds, but we can see a gear room here, with moving gears that i'm sure give a ton of damage. This place looks more "self-contained".

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Please, can we stop a bit to look at this scenery? how ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL the Entrance looks now? It's basically the same as before, but with darker colors and MORE colors, a red carpet, golden-lit statues, much more detailed background and foreground...wow, just wow.

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I really don't know if i get this right but, so, you can use a set to equip a potion at the "Item" slot. So, when you change to that set, not only Miriam will equip the set itself, but will use an item? So, if you want to use another one, you can just switch and re-switch to the same set that has the potion? Or the potion vanishes and you need to equip it again? (that would defeat the whole purpose) 

Although the idea looks nice, i don't see it as very useful, since you can go to the menu and use as many itens as you want. Even if you can do the same with the shortcut, you are limited to one type of item per shortcut, and in the menu you can use several types at the same time...The Item feature looks kinda useless.

CLOSING COMMENTS

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Lots of things to comment, lots of things to speculate, meaty update again. I loved it!

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That's all folks!

Oh, I can definitely agree that the game looks even better than before.