Overall Enjoyment - Bloodstained: RotN vs Castlevania: SotN

So I do feel like sharing some thoughts in response to some points. Not everything, I havent beaten the game on hard nor have I hit a perfect 100% completion in either game.

1) In regards to size, the only thing I want to note is that while I absolutely agree the Den of Behemoths feels pretty lazy, I greatly prefer haviing one single castle with a wider variety of levels than SOTN'sinverted castle. yes it was a great trick 20 years ago and yes it was a clever way to reuse assets, I would much rather have rotn's type of design where instead we get an oriental lab and a spooky garden. As much as it was a stretch goal, the size of the castle is not as important to me as having a wider variety of locales, and I'm gonna give it to Ritual here thanks to having areas outside the castle and within the castle itself to shake the visuals up more. (To note, Order of Ecclesia, Portrait of Ruin and Curse of Darkness also rank high with me due in large part to the variety of environments.)

2) Music is really a personal preference here. I understand why people love Symphony's music. Its dark, its ambient, its atmspheric. And thats why, outside a handful of tracks like Dracula's Castle, Tragic Prince, Lost Painting and Wandering Ghosts, SOTN has one of my least favorite ost's of the IGA games. I massively prefer the catchier, more melodic soundracks from games like Curse, Lament, Eccleisa and Portrait. This likely stems from the fact I also LOVE the pre-Yamane music from games like rondo, Bloodlines, SCIV and the NES era.I prefer the catchy beats with gothic elements to the grim mood music of SOTN in most cases (but yeah SOTN has some freaking great music, Im not trying to say it doesnt. I do own the ost.)

3) Tying into the above, SOTN feels like an outlier to me not just for IGA's games, but the entire franchise for being so dark and moody. Baring little things like the infamous holy snorkle, or Dracula's castle having a collection of food to span the breadth of time, SOTN takes itself too seriously for my taste, in a franchise that has skeleton bikers, demon maids, bunnygirl ninjas and lest we forget, Hector destroying the minions of evil with an electric guitar, and to be honest, I was s happy when I saw Bloodstained going for the sillier stuff instead of trying to be so dark.

4) The protagonist. I dont even know how to say this gently but, Alucard bores me. He has a great design, some cool weapons and powers, but his personality? What personality? He's brooding and somber an just...ugh. I'm likely going to get keelhauled for this but actually greatly prefer Mercurysteam's interpretation excellently voiced by Richard Madden, whom I felt also worked the tragic brooding guy angle but also had moments of humor and sass at just the right times; and I'll take the upbeat, plucky teasing Miriam over either of them. As much as Ecclesia is my favorite Castlevania game, and i love Shanoa's gameplay and visual design, ripping out her emotions was such a bad decision, it always is. I was terrified when Miriam's initial description described her as slightly amnesiac and being a woman of few words that we were getting Shanoa again, I'm so glad we didn't, I find Miriam to be quite endearing.

5) I dont want to get into the fanservice argument to much, but honestly, all of IGA's games have fanservice in them, even SOTN had to be censored because the sexy corseted succubus was topless at one point, and you dont have to look far to find comments about how much people drool over sotn's design of an older Maria Renard. Sure I noticed when Miriam got noticeably bustier as time went on but at the risk of sounding a bit iffy, I just expect this stuff from Japanese games. As long as it doesnt go full on EROTIC VIOLENCE it just doesn't bug me anymore.

At the end of all this, I enjoy Ritual of the Night more than Symphony of the night, but thats because i prefer what this game is doing and I dislike the more unique elements of Symphony that other people love. I prefer the more energetic protagonist, the catchier music, the brighter art style, the cheese.

(Also worth noting I'm pretty sure SOTN employs a level scaling system to where eventually every enemy only gives you 1 exp, so hitting 99 in that is so much more of a chore than anything in ROTN unless Im SERIOUSLY mistaken but even now my file is sitting in like the mid 40's because nothing gives me exp anymore.)

No third option!

Best music? For me, Sotn! More enjoyable to play? For me, Rotn (those shards, really hit the spot)!

Still, though, Sotn was left in something like an incomplete state (Saturn edition tried to "solve" that) and Rotn, well, it still has a VERY LONG way to go, as far as content and updates are concerned. Can't decide, sorry! Maybe, after Rotn receives all updates there are to be implemented, i can decide.

it's a tough call.
SOTN has a legacy to inherit from. A noble devil owning a castle is more convincing for me. Signature enemies like Death and Medusa make things deeper easily. And a half vampire cursing his own blood.....it's just too cool. Overall character design is much better(bats, skeltons, toad, the ROTN versions are just ugly) I miss the weather effects too.

As a action game ROTN is much improved over SOTN. Actually all igavania games after SOTN are getting better and better. But talking about action game control Order of Ecclesia comes to mind, I love the trail hall. The control of SOTN does feels old when you play it again.

I will always prefer the world of Castlevania so I'm obvously biased and will pick SotN. Bloodstained is still an amazing game and easily better than plenty of Iga Metroidvanias.

Overall, right now I enjoy RotN much more, if I really really had to pick. I think there's more depth to the game play. I do agree with most people's complaint about the Den of Behemoths. That's easily the worst stage.

I could give a better answer months down the road. Many people on this forum have complimented SotN based on how it's stood through the test of time. RotN just hasn't been given that chance because it's too early. If we're still playing this game years from now, we really got something special here.

I think its unfair to say people are picking Miriam because she's sexy, especially since I think I was the only one who even mentioned the sex appeal was me specifically to note I dont care. Especially since well, lets be honest, focusing on the "cool" factor is about as shallow as the "sexy" factor, I feel. I specifically noted I prefer her personality. And even a cool design with cool powers needs a personality to seal the deal.

I mean lets look at Dante, everyone's favorite half demon, half human monster hunter. He looks cool with that red coat and white hair, he pulls off all kinds of crazy stunts with his powers, but what do people REALLY like abut Dante? The sass, the swagger, the spider-man esque taunting of his enemies. His character is the most endearing part about him, not the fact that he's half human/half demon or the fact he regenerates so fast he makes wolverine jealous. He's going to style all over you and tell you how lame you are while he does it.

Very well said.

You guys will eventually have to move on, if you haven't yet. It's something I had to do myself. Good Konami CV has no signs of existing again, and definitely not a SotN 2.0, and it's not fair to the person to let that hold them back from enjoying something new.

Symphony of the Night is a timeless classic masterpiece, well elaborated and crafted. It had glitches but none stood in the way of completing the game. The game had more atmosphere and detail to it than ROTN and it feels more complete.

Ritual of the Night feels like things where planned to extend it ,but the team felt short of time and you get the sensation that things where missing from the game. Also things where shortened out, for example the ship after you arrive at the location when you return to the ship the storm re-appears even thought the ship is anchored. They din't have the time to make another layer of the same stage that changes after the event to the same ship but with a clear sky and a bit drier wood.

It's not like on Symphony of the night where the area outside the castle could either be clear, have rain or have a fog.