505 Games Unleashes New Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night E3 2017 Trailer

What exactly is "sparse looking" about the screenshots?

@Ralizah I was literally wondering this exact same thing before scrolling down to the comment section lol

Cant wait for this but dang that running animation is awful

@Equinox Yeah the animation specifically are real bad if you ask me.

@Equinox I was going to say it looks very generic.

How long has this game been in development? It did not look too interesting...I understand that there is a famed person who pitch idea. Hopefully more gameplay can flush it out some more because it looks as exciting as Might No 9.

Is this a physical release or just an eshop game?

whoop whoop can't wait. SOTN is one of the most outstanding games I ever played. I hope they take as much time as needed to make sure it's perfect.

Doesn't look that hot, to be honest.

That's my only complaint, though. The looks. Everything else is spot-on.

Looks brilliant and the guys behind it clearly know what they are doing. I just find it funny how there is such a market for the likes of Castlevania, Metroid, F-Zero, Mega Man etc that indies are doing it for themselves when the people who own the IPs should actually be doing it themselves!

It looks like gameplay and combat look solid, but what strikes me is that the level design looks like it could easily have been a 3DS game. A great 3DS game, but a 3DS game.

Wait... I thought the game took place in a generic steampunk-ish setting to evoke the feeling of 18th century England while having all the crazier stuff not break the suspension of disbelief?

Anyways, to quote a mod from Neogaf:
"Summary of this thread: I clamored for years for a new Igavania, and now that one is coming I realized I don't want that anymore".

Castlevania games never had flashy or detailed backgrounds and let the gameplay do the talking (and gameplay impressions from the demos have been pretty positive).

@EternalDragonX The animations are straight out of Castlevania games from Symphony of the Night onward..
Floaty jumps, a stilted-looking jog animation instead of a walking one...

@NewAdvent People love the gameplay from the demos and the backgrounds/animations are inline with the Castlevania series SotN onward.

@NEStalgia I don't think I follow. Good level design is good level design, no? Or are you referring more to the overall graphical design of the levels? (Not necessarily the layout, etc...)

Personally, I link the overall style and art direction and think this is shaping up nicely. There's still quite a while before the release, so I'm sure it will get more polish by then as well.

@NEStalgia It's proceduraly generated, if that explains things.

Gameplay looks solid, but graphically it's a bit underwhelming. Then again, they still have time to improve assets, animations and lighting.

For whatever reason this game reminds me of old games from the mid 90s, like:

Hunter Hunted:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFgbxzmMtUY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY3-V9SqDzc

Bermuda Syndrome:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUkaVtUggPM

And similar, there is a never "indie" game - Age Of Barbarian - that has somehow similar graphics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XyFa-ZNkfwM

@CrazedCavalier Wait, what? I'm guessing the order of the rooms is, but not the rooms themselves, right?

@MarcelRguez Actually, I was mistaken.
The castle itself has 1600 rooms normally, and there's a different game mode where it's proceduraly generated.

@CrazedCavalier You had me worried for a second. That would make no sense at all.

Looks like it still needs more polishing, it'll be out 2018 anyways so they still had more times. Hopefully the final product could surprise us.

I have a feeling this will be to Castlevania what Mighty No. 9 was to Mega Man. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but it looks pretty rough currently at least. Hopefully Konami does more than discuss Castlevania for Switch.

I don't think those shots are representative of full screens from the game? more like zoomed in clip-shots. Maybe that's why it appears "sparse". They're only focusing on one or two subjects, probably to show off character design.

The comments in here are very harsh. The game looks good, the art-style is very unique, the atmosphere is really reminiscent of Castlevania. I mean probably Konami spends more than 5m per Castlevania game so of course the animation will be better in there. But this game as a spiritual successor is looking really good and now that they show one of the bosses I can't wait for this to get release.

Igarashi promise backers a gothic style game a la Castlevania and if you click in the images that looks very gothic to me and the video looks very Castlevania so he is delivering.

The lighting makes it look an '80s sitcom or daytime soap shot on tape instead of film.

Now that I think about, maybe that's kind of cool.

This is going to be like Yooka-Laylee: another example of nostalgia goggles needing to come off. These levels look no more sparse than SOTN, Dracula X Chronicles, or almost any other classic Castlevania game. You're just noticing environmental details more now that this is in a sharp, HD artstyle. The animations aren't terribly detailed (what do you expect from a crowd-funded game with a shoestring budget?), but they're a pretty dead ringer for what we got in previous Castlevania games.

After having watched the video, this game looks great aside from a couple of close-up frames of certain textures. You naysayers are out of your gourds.

@roadrunner343 The art style looks nice, but the level design is very very simple. Rooms with a flat floor, or a few ledges, all symmetrical and identical in length, etc. 3DS used that kind of design in part because of system power, but mostly because of the low res screen, and small screen size requiring relatively basic objects with clearly defined edges for the player to see it all clearly, so there's a certain design to 3DS 2D games that is common. This seems to follow the same design, except it's a game designed for home consoles and large screens which seems to be out of place (Vita port notwithstanding.)

There's something about the art style that I'm not crazy about.

Damn this new CASTLEVANIA game looks amazing. There, i said it. CASTLEVANIA

It's still very early, but the jumping seems very floaty. I hope that is tightened up before release in 2018.

But I think the graphics look good.

@Cheski Eh, I would have more faith in this being a better "Castlevania" game than anything Konami puts out with their name on it, especially considering Iga is involved with this one.

@Ralizah I don't think they need to "come off" per se, but people should definitely understand what they're getting into. In my opinion, Yooka Laylee was actually a good game. Not great, but it delivered what it promised (Again, in my opinion) and hit the right mix of nostalgia and modern updates. The problem with Yooka Laylee is it was hyped beyond belief and made out to be some massive game changer, when that was never Yooka Laylee's goal - it aimed to be a revival of the 3D platformer, and I think it succeeded there, despite having some of the same flaws that existed back in the 90s.

@NEStalgia Ah, I understand what you mean now. I will agree the level design seems relatively simple, but I'm wondering if they are going with a simplified design because it will still be played on a small screen (Vita/Switch) but also to help it feel more like the old Castlevania games.

Though, to be fair, I can't really think of a platformer game that uses much more than basic shapes. I'm not saying they don't exist, but for the most part, they are pretty simplistic. Definitely interested to see how this one shapes up, and I am sure it will get a few more layers of polish, but I think it is coming along quite well.

@roadrunner343 Possibly. I think it would be Vita more than anything else though with its sub-HD screen. Switch is HD and can accommodate more sophisticated designs easy enough. You don't want to go TOO tiny and complex on things, but it can make use of more detail than Vita.

In a way it's the excessively sharp edges on things, which can be good for gameplay but it makes it stand out by not blending into the environment. That's partly intentional, but maybe a bit overbaked. The usable elements look almost superimposed like they were made with the 3DS's 3D slider in mind. I can't help but watch this and think it would look awesome in 3D.

It does look good, but the walking/running animation annoys me, and in the scenes with the character stabbing herself with a crystal I had a flashback of Shanoa (from Order of Ecclessia) stealing abilities.

I agree with above comments, the movement looks a little sluggish somehow.

Seems to look better than the last time I saw footage for it. Movement and flow seems to be pretty similar to the DS Castlevanias, just with polygons instead of sprites (it seems like polygons always move slower than sprites, don't know if it's a processing thing or what). Still too early to tell how the final product will come out, but at least the talent that's involved in this is not messing around like Inafune did with Mighty no 9.

Looking forward to this one, must admit.

I know the 3DS Castlevania had varying reviews, but it's one of my favourite games on the system. I thought they got the game play and difficulty curve spot on, I used to get frustrated with the bosses but it had that "just one more go" appeal.

I like what my ears listen to in this trailer. Not the same can be told about what I see. Unfortunately!
But it is still a work in progress. Maybe there is still way too much work to shape up a fine game. And a fine metroidvania is always a worthy game to play!
Just have my wishes on these Kickstarter trailers, pre release and during production, were a little more engaging - like a trailer should be to convince us - and way more visually appealing - like inducing the gamer to buy it because it is something really pretty.

@CrazedCavalier @MarcelRguez
The news story about procedural generation regarding this game had to do with them using it to create environmental detail, such as adding dirt to walls and such in backgrounds so they wouldn't have to do each and every minute detail by hand and unique from room to room. That's how I remember it being explained.

I have to admit, I was a bit worried when I first saw some comments, but before I saw the video. I liked what I saw quite a bit. The art style was put up to some kind of vote. I didn't vote as a backer, but I wanted something along the lines of what was picked. Back in 2015 when the campaign was live, Guilty Gear Xrd was the thing everybody loved, visually. Naturally, not everyone will love it. I also like the graphics in the environments. Everything looks like it should as far as I'm concerned. I was worried they would overdo it and try to make everything look too realistic and detailed. Looks how I'd expect and want a 3D-only Symphony of the Night to look. A nice benefit to me is that it might just run on something I have, as I only have laptop-class hardware at the moment.

It looks nice! While Miriam's jump is a bit floaty, her running animation is spot on for Alucard's on Symphony of the Night. There is a reason speed runs use Alucard's backdash on that game - he was slow!

Maybe it was because I was burned by Mighty No. 9, but I think I'm going to hold off on this one. The entire development process behind this has me feeling the same way No. 9 made me feel.

It's too bright! Into, stop with the bright environments when you're doing a horror game! Hopefully, the lighting isn't finalized because that's not dark at all! There needs to be more contrast, in both the lighting and what needs to be lit on each plane and what doesn't. And the cutaway structures like walls separating rooms and even the floor does not need to be showing all those bricks or wooden struts. If it can't be avoided, don't light those innards up like it's an object in the scende. I can excuse placeholder textures, sparse environments, animation still in the middle of being tweaked, but you can't mess up the lighting. Good lighting can even hide some of the rough stuff. Heck, when I messed around with the brightness and contrast on my Elgato Game Capture by making things darker, I was able to make a game like Mighty No.9 look three times better! So here's hoping environment lighting gets better later.

Oh, and I like the blood boss. It doesn't look too difficult, but I like the attack patterns.

The lighting, a few textures, and the way objects in the background move are the few graphical things that bother me. The game has a kind of "early PS3 game look" (albeit a bit better) to put it simply. I'm not all that concerned about the gameplay. From everything I've heard, Iga is a good developer. My only concern is that "20% complete" figure he offered. His budget isn't going to last forever and once it's about out, the game is either going to suffer from cut content and potentially rushed content.

@Luna_110 the game is not finish so it should be very polished up before its release date.

@CrazedCavalier ...are you being serious? You cant take animations from 2d games and say they are the same as 3d...that's not how things work bud :/

@Dakt That was concept art, and they made it quickly apparent they were going for 2.5D from the start.

@EternalDragonX Compare Alucard's SotN animations to Miriam's.
They're purposefully meant to be reminiscent.

Damn this game looks like crap.

Please stop mentioning Mighty No.9. 😵Lol
Looks alright especially if it's as early as some here say! Fingers crossed.

This game is honestly looking pretty bad. I am a Kickstarter backer, a huge fan of Castlevania, and was fine with the delay. What we are seeing is mostly footage from last year and the animations, along with the environments lack "texture". It's not so much that they are sparse, but that the characters, backgrounds, and effects all seem to be completely disconnected.
There is no visual sense that they even take up the same "physical" space, let alone make up a living, breathing world. It's unfair to compare this to Mighty Number 9, but the similarities in production are striking. Here's hoping improvements are made before release.

Yet another Mighty no. 9. Lazy dev wasting funds on a mediocre game.

There's a lot wrong with what we're looking at. It's so sterile. Maybe the characters are too small on the screen. The whole thing just feels off. There was a DSiWare Castlevania ripoff that was more fun than this looks.

@Hikingguy Exactly. It looked like the bell was made out of clay, not bronze or metal.

It looks very generic. Also, the attack with the umbrella (that shots like a stream of blood), was awful. Didn't know whether it was blood, a ray beam or excrement to be honest.

Gonna be utter tripe

@Filth_Element You are kidding right? This looks dreadful. Early in development? Erm, no.

Shut up and take ny money already

Looks so 'plasticky'... definitely it hasn't the charisma of Castlevania SotN.

@StuOhQ That's exactly what I was thinking. The characters don't look like they move through the environments, but rather like they're pasted onto them.

I'm very impressed so far with how this is looking. Here's hoping for a physical Switch version.

For a series that's been excellent looking on the pixel animation part, this looks kinda lackluster in comparison. Looks pretty stiff. But im still hugely excited for this.

@EternalDragonX agreed, its all too floaty.