The Tone of Bloodstained

CastleDan, I got you, I just wanted to mention that point. Ever since cecil-kain's candle thread, it's occurred to me I should speak up as often as necessary for the preservation of 'vania game feel things like that.

HE DID IT. CROCODILE AV TOO GOOD

These are all good points. At the end of the day, this isn't a movie or a book but a videogame. This also reminds me that SOTN was a game where there was a health item called "Peanuts" that was almost impossible to use and barely restored any HP. Why was it in the game? For the lulz obviously



There something to be said for not hand-holding the player or over-explaining the World but you don't want to go too far in the opposite direction. SOTN was a game where you could use spells from the beginning of the game but there is now way to know that without an FAQ on your first play through. It's impossible to discern naturally. You could buy the spell scrolls but considering the origin of said powers (you're Dracula's powers that you have because you are Dracula's son) that always felt weird to me. Plus, could you even buy the Sword Brothers skill? I legit can't remember. Anyway, there were a lot of things n SOTN that were "just because" or "this is now a thing, deal with it" that would have benefited from some context or justification. There's a difference between establishing a sense of mystery and just dropping things out of nowhere in the game. Like it was never a deal breaker or anything but I don't think some of those aspects of SOTN where "features", they were more akin to "rough edges". Game design akin to the original Metroid (no map, no guidance, etc.) is not something that would be praised nowadays.

As for narrative, the issues with the curse encroaching on her humanity and the curse being the source of her powers is not something that is mutually exclusive nor are principles that would be combative with each other. Breath of Fire V (I'm sure there are other games but that was the first example I could think of) is a game that deals with the source of you power also being something that could end your life and made interesting narrative and gameplay decisions with it. I don't expect Bloodstained to copy that but rather I bring that up to demonstrate that said principles can easily work together. I think at the end of the day, good writing will save the day and alleviate all concerns

It seems like there was a big push back in the earlier days of the DS to get games to use touchscreen gimmicks. So many of them were named D____ S____, too. Dawn of Sorrow, Dawn of Souls, Dust Strikers, Dark Secret, Deadly Silence, Devil Survivor, probably others I'm forgetting. It just made it feel extra corny, lol. Anyway, I don't thnk we have to worry about gameplay gimmicks being shoehorned in to Bloodstained; it's quite a multiplatform endeavor, and primarily a console one. The Vita/Wii U versions might have some extra non-obtrusive things, I imagine.

You know, one of the most memorable lines from MGS1 for me is the Colonel telling you "SNAKE, press the Action Button next to a ladder when you want to climb a ladder!" (he calls you just to say this), or Ocelot's whole interrogation sequence where he pointedly tells you controller instructions, and sternly warns you not to use auto-fire. lol. That...really didn't bother me, for some reason, I might even say I hold an appreciation for how they did that. I thought it was great

I think this sort of thing can be done without it marring the game experience, but it is indeed tough and probably best avoided or kept to a minimum? I think part of the puzzle is how the actual element the info-dumping represents is perceived: the MGS torture sequence is an important and memorable turning point of the story, vs. drawing symbols on your DS correctly or the boss revives is a comparable pain in the butt. A neat idea, certainly, but also occasionally problematic.

Really, outside of Dawn, there hasn't been a point in Castlevania where such a thing could be taken as too much, to me anyway. I think we haven't much to worry about there.

Now, as to the discovery of things...I really enjoy that, myself, being a big fan of the Souls games for example. They're essentially modern 3D Zelda 1s. There are "you just have to know" things and cryptic info everywhere. This is great when it's executed right. It works for SotN in most every area. I like it for attacks, spells, even progression, but the slightest slip up can be a bit of a problem. Mistranslated Gold/Silver rings, I'm sure you guys remember. I think that the relative importance/necessity of it for clearing the game should play in to how obvious/not obvious it is. Many things could be obscure in SotN because you could easily beat all of the game ignoring spells and familiars entirely.

Suspension of Disbelief isn't something that's a concrete object for us to weigh in upon scientifically.

Putting it bluntly, the beloved Campyness of StoN would not pass through the first-viewers eyes of a 30s gamer as they would say, ourselves back when we were kids. The same goes for several games from their perspective eras.

Without so much as a spoken declaration, we've raised the bar on that standards, using such phrases as immersion and put a nasty predisposition against games with a less-serious appeal.

But that predisposition couldn't be more flawed, in my view. There are some great games, old and recent, that flat out break the forth wall, and we still feel immersed, or get even more engaged for it. We try to declare exception to these but that does not disqualify Bloodstained from being an exception as well. Again, that all boils down to us checking our predisposition, and the game executing well on its atmospheric feel, regardless of what approach it takes.

So I for one won't be making any expectations on tone of the game. If anything, I hope it has enough sense to BREAK tone intelligently to allow for the player to process a range of emotions and remain engaged and processing.

Eh.

The fact is Bloodstained has no predecessors so thoughts on tone or character are pure speculation and wishes. It may choose to play with conciets such as self-awareness, but that isn't objectively a good or bad thing. Or even a commendable thing. It's not self-awareness that breaks immersion, it's an abrupt and un-earned shift in presentation. And breaking immersion is certainly a bad thing. Anything from Conker's Bad Fur Day to Deadpool can toy with the mechanics of their medium and delivery of information to the audience, and they don't break immersion because it is well-thought and deliberate. Taking Castlevania as an example, Wall Meat is a beyond farcical method of regain HP, but it's one that immediately communicates its function without drawing attention to itself or even a word of text. Function over form, in that case, which is fine as it keeps the focus on gameplay rather than spotlighting a silly joke, something that would certainly break immersion and be a bad thing.

I have no real idea what this was about considering everyone is just spitballing due to lack of info, but if humor is something the devs want to make significant use of I hope they can do so subtly (Wall Meat) and without clashing with the other aspects of the game's character. (Weird pseudo-religious societies infecting people with demonic viruses that are apparently a terminal affliction - not exactly a chuckle fest.)