Bloodstained

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night finally launched on Switch last month, and despite the technical issues and post-launch frustrations, there's definitely a decent amount of fun to be had. Part of that fun comes from the game's boss fights which, as it turns out, must have been quite the adventure for Bloodstained's developers.

In an interview with Gamasutra, the game's creator Koji Igarashi has shared several details about the development process. Among those details is a particularly interesting note about how the game's bosses were created, and specifically how designers would have to beat their own designs without taking a single hit. Why? To make sure all bosses are as fair as possible.

"I wouldn't call it a design guideline but Bloodstained does follow a strict rule that I always make the team [adhere] to. That is...the developer who creates the boss must beat their own boss without taking a hit and only using a dagger! (We almost didn't make it...)"

"We make sure that it's possible to beat a boss without taking a hit regardless of the difficulty and by doing so, we reduce the number of unfair enemy attacks. Removing the 'unfairness' allows players to think about what they could have done to avoid a Game Over. It makes them want to challenge the boss again using a different method. It's a golden rule we follow in our games. (Honestly, don’t ask us to complete this challenge more than once though...)"

We thought the boss fights were challenging enough already - now we don't think we'll ever look at them in quite the same way again. Incidentally, if you are struggling to beat the game's bosses, you might want to check out our full game walkthrough for some helpful tips and guidance.

Have you been playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on Switch? How have you been getting on so far? Let us know in the comments.

[source gamasutra.com, via pcgamer.com]