Newest Build Footage Shown at EGX London

Here's my take: regardless of all the warranted and non-warranted criticisms this game has received, whomever is able to get their copy on released date will be in awe.

Quite the discrepancy in engagement (and links I've seen) for the negative articles vs the positive ones lol. sigh, how unfortunate that's how it goes.

I wasn't referring to your post, rather how they come up in more casual circles/Facebook and newer users in the discord. Typically something like:

*cherry picks a negative article*
person: So should I be worried this is another Mn9. Discuss

ENGAGEMENT BEGIN

That video from Gamespot is quite long and since it is mostly focused on a single scenario, i don't know if i should analyze it on my style, it would take a lot of time to do that. But, anyways, i really liked what i've seen, and i wanted to talk a bit about the criticism made on some of these articles and some quick impressions i had.

Miriam feels too slow: I gave up on trying to say otherwise. People feel what they feel and that cannot be changed. Some people say Miriam is slow since the 2016 demo and kept saying that to this day. The animations changed, graphics changed, perception changed, new gear and speed-up shards were added, and people still feel Miriam is slow. There is nothing that can change these people's minds anymore. Maybe she is just too slow for today's standards.

The collision detection: The Destructoid article seems to have been written by someone who just isn't skilled at this type of game. His criticisms sounds more like frustration for being killed by Valac two times and being damaged a lot of times from other enemies, than anything else. There is a saying in my country "Those who can't dance, always put the blame on the floor". That seems to be the case. Watching the Gamespot video, i couldn't see almost any hiccup on collision detection. 

The game is too retro: That...what we can say about that? Bloodstained is a game that pays homage to a certain retro style of gaming, promised to deliver exactly that and this is exactly what is giving to the fans. So, that criticism is...weird, to say the last.

Now, i wanted to talk quickly about some impressions i had. If i have the time, i do it in a more deeper way.

1) The scenarios seems huge. The game looks like it will have more large rooms than other Igavanias. Maybe that was made to reach the "IGA's biggest castle" stretch goal easily, but also, since it is 3d, bigger and larger environments give a better sense of space and depth.
2) Dullahammer Head Familiar seems much more useful than it's first interaction, back in 2017. Now he follows enemies around and you can see him attacking to the point of killing enemies a lot of times during the demo. That was satisfying.
3) We can safely say now that Manipulative Shards are focused, mostly, on changing / manipulating stuff, protection and support, apparently.
4) Valac is either a really hard boss or you need to use more tools at your disposal to kill him in a faster and easier way.

If the game is released, as it is, this is more than enough for me. I'm really excited. 

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That's all folks!

can someone please explain this to me? Who’s Disruptive Games and what’s their involvement? I don’t remember them being announced as a new dev like DICO or WayForward.

Well, here's my take on the new video, shown at Gamespot:

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This scenario name is "Tower of Twin Dragons", that can be seen at the menu. It's obviously inspired on the classic Clock Tower from the old Igavania games, with moving gears and pestering enemies trying to make you fall (Dullahammer Heads, our Medusa Heads Expy). I like it how it looks. Rusty gears, plataforms that open up when you step on them, chains and bricks, with a view of the outside.
Dullahammer Head familiar seems to be much more useful now, attacking most of the time, and even killing enemies.
This "LEVEL UP" message, though, is a bit weird to me. I am confused if this is Miriam's level up (which i doubt it, because it showed up at other times, not even close to her). For some reason, i think this is the familiar leveling up. I get a feeling that maybe familiars can level up and that's their message. Or maybe something else is leveling up (such as a technique or weapon or smething). It is too way different from how it was to be Miriam's...but, we will see.

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These blue chests seems to contain forging material, although i have a feeling that Emerald, Sapphire and Silver could be more useful to make money by selling, but who knows. Also, this tower looks awesome, it's spinning effect looks great and actually makes it much bigger than it seems to be, with the added chances of you falling down thanks to the pestering Dullahammer Heads and Toads.

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This enemy, called Wolfman, seens to be though. He can guard several attacks, has quite a lot of health and deals high damage. It seems the best strategy is to fight from a distance, using projectile shards. The player uses a new, Dog or Beast head shard there that is too "melee" to actually be useful against him.

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From Wolfman, comes Beast Guardian, the second confirmed revealed Manipulative Shard. With this one, we can safely say that Manipulative Shards are focused on defense, support and protection somewhat.
Also, we can see down there at the bottom of the screen "Demons Slain: 1/3". Probably a quest of some sort.

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I admit i laughed a bit when i saw this one. We've seen this enemy before but it was really hard to tell what it actually was and it is an armor that throws BUERS! Can't say it isn't creative.

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Poison Toad, that seems to be nothing but a toad that can poison you (and that alone is frustrating enough!) but also a new shard, Resist Poison, that increases your resistance to poison. I always think these types of shards are a bit useless, but i know, i know, it is really hard to come up with ideas to give powers to almost all enemies in the game, so...

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And now, we close greek mythology harpies with the new Celaeno enemy, one of the three harpies from said mythology. Seems to be a elaborate pallete swap of Aelo, and when it was about to use some kind of electric attack, the player killed it. I'm kinda curious for it's shard.
As a side note, take a look at that huge clock on the background, on top of Miriam. Looks totally awesome.

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Poltergeist seems to be the backer's portraits, now turned enemies. That may be a bit weird, but they deserve it! Also, they look awesome in their own weird way.
Shield Outsider seems to be based on Shield Armors from other Igavanias. That seems to be a pattern, since we also have Axe Outsider on Bloodstained. This specific piece of scenario looks specially great to me, i really liked the windows on the background, the light comming in, it gives a eerie feeling to the whole place.

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Another detailed corridor, with several layers in the background. I wonder what Special Ammunition/R even means or what the hell that is!

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This is straight from Symphony of the Night. A fast speed elevator coming up and down, with locked doors at it's sides.

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Valac looks really menacing. Everything fits here. The fact that you fight it outside, going down the tower you just tried to go up. Valac seems powerful and a really hard boss (or the player wasn't good enough?) and it seems to have A TON of health. It's Shard, Inferno Breath, is a Directional Shard and it is obviously his fire breath attack.

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New itens:  Emerald, Sapphire and Silver, Stonethaw, Fey Leak, Plume Pork, Ectoplasm, Hemp, Cotton, Special Ammunition/R.
New Shards and Enemies: Wolfman [Beast Guardian], Buer Armor, Poison Toad [Resist Poison], Celaeno, Poltergeist, Shield Outsider, Valac (Boss)[Inferno Breath].

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That's all folks!

I don't know what came over me today, but as soon as I saw "Level Up" in that Gamespot video, I initially read it as "LOL".

I wonder if the speed thing really is just about the fact that all Castlevania player characters are on the slower side? The Belmont Strut is pretty well-known and has more or less stuck through the years. The folks there all claimed to play older Castlevanias but maybe part of their rosy glasses is that they remember the games after all the abilites are unlocked and levels are memorized, so the player can speed through the games like crazy.

Or if they are more used to the Metroid side of things. Samus has always moved at a bit more brisk pace and Super Metroid has a dedicated sprint button that evolves into the Speed Booster. Plenty of modern MetroidVania's include both faster movement and plenty of movement tech. Since there hasn't been any IGAVanias for quite a while, maybe they have forgotten the strut and have come to expect fast to crazy fast speeds from the very start.

Overall I'm not worried though and the "too retro" argument actually makes me kinda hopeful. Retro ideas and inspiration with modern game design advances is more or less exactly what I hope from Bloodstained (and other Kickstarter projects like this) and so far all the complaints I hear are of the sort that I can ignore.


You can't tell me what to do!

Aztec Looking at their homepage, they seem to be an online-focused game studio. So my guess is that they're the guys helping with the online game modes.