Thread 717590596

There's something about this game that really bothers me, maybe the fact that it's a 3D platformer, it makes me feel sick and makes me want to vomit, it's ugly. Simply unplayable

2d platformers can look good in 3d, bloodstained is sadly unapologeticly ugly

It's just a very average game that look like shit.
The retards that grew up playing unreal engine slop won't be bothered by it but I can't stand it

>>717590596 (OP)
its the best modern castlevania including sotn and the ds titels in terms of pure gameplay and this is all that matters.

>>717590596 (OP)
It's really just Aria but uglier

>>717590798
I don't think so. There's a 3D remake of Megaman X that causes me the same discomfort, of course, it's not as ugly as Shitstained but it's still uncomfortable.

>>717590596 (OP)
I know exactly what you mean. I've played through it two times and something felt odd. The 2D games are definitely better.

>>717591070
I believe. I even wanted to like it, I've tried about 3 times, but the aesthetics don't let me like it.

>>717591489
I understand that aesthetics argument I really do. Some people are more prone to that kind of thing and i respect that. Underneath its a very crisp game in terms of content.

It's the ugly artstyle that flattens the experience

>>717590596 (OP)
I enjoyed it a lot back in 2019 on my ps4, but recently I decided to replay it and holy shit, its TOO ugly I actually cant bear it. Idk whats happened.

3D + sidescrolling = dog shit
There are no exceptions.

>>717591751
yes. sidescrolling is the word I was looking for

>>717590798
>bloodstained is sadly unapologeticly ugly
Which is crazy given it looked even WORSE before Wayforward tried to salvage the art style. My only beef with the game is the character models look fucking garbage for the close-up shots, since it's using the same fidelity assets meant for being viewed from afar during gameplay. Should have just stuck with 2d portraits.

I wonder if next Bloodstained will look as ugly as this one. Im already on the verge of not playing it because of two twinks on MC slots.

>>717592087
based on the trailer it will literally look the same since its the same engine.

>>717592087
Just need them to take a note from Vanillaware and just layer a lot of 2d elements. No 3d allowed.

>>717592087
same engine

https://youtu.be/m7t4joBMDQo

>>717590596 (OP)
best Igavania ever

better than Symphony and Dawn of Sorrow

shits all over Order of Ecclesia, thats the worst Igavania

>>717592218
why they cant go for the same artstyle as Hollow Knight? I dont like fucking bugs but if speaking without any bias, it looks amazing

>>717592459
Isn't Hollow Knight just that? Layered 2d elements? Not played it here. Even Ori and the Blind Forest used a similar approach to Vanillaware's stuff, although they did use 3d models for the characters.

It's just soooo ugly

>>717591567
Yeah I get that, and I can't fault anyone who enjoys the gameplay. Movement's tight, the shard system scratches that RPG itch - it's *technically* all there. But man, it's like wrapping filet mignon in a used Walmart bag. Aesthetics *do* matter, especially in something so rooted in gothic flair like a Castlevania spiritual successor. Style was half the soul, and Bloodstained looks like a mobile game asset swamp sometimes.

>>717592459
>it looks amazing

it really doesnt, people fellate that game too hard

Bloodstained looks fine, if you want a GREAT looking Metroidvania, theres Prince of Persia Lost Crown

the best looking metroidvania ive ever seen is Owlboy, but that game is trash, the best looking 2D Metroidvania that was actually enjoyable is Iconoclasts and Symphony of the Night

>>717592459
bugs are cool

Yes, the game is ugly. The plots and characters are dead boring, I couldn't read even two lines of dialogue without yawning. However, in terms of gameplay, this is the best Metroidvania I've played since SoTN.

>>717590596 (OP)
It's so very ugly.

>>717592953
The gameplay is dogshit garbage. Play Hollow Knight instead.

>>717593007
I don't need a sleep aid

>>717593007
>Play Hollow Knight
Reddit is on the other side of the internet, buddy.

>>717592705
>it really doesnt, people fellate that game too hard
it really does and I dont even like that game, dropped like after 10h or so because abyssmal delay on platforming
Prince of Persia looks like sidegrade of Bloodstained ROTN with a litttle bit better graphics, no real artstyle involved

>>717592705
Lost Crown's visuals are very cohesive, but it's not anything spectacular. Really clean textures though.

I actually should get around to checking out the DLC at some point, I picked it up awhile back but never got around to it.

This relates to Curse of the Moon 2, but does anyone recall if using Resurrection Anthem kills Dominique? It's been a while, but for some reason I recall her having an ability to revive at least one ally in exchange for herself, yet looking up info about it, I can't find anything about such an ability.

It's one the ugliest "real" games ever released. The only other "real" game uglier than this one is probably Kenshi.

>>717590596 (OP)
this was a ywnbaw game before it became mainstream

This is better, reminds me of Tales of Destiny 2

>>717590596 (OP)
>Beat the game
>Know I was absolute shit at it because I never mastered any combo weapons
I kept using the spam-attack blade I got in the early game, didn't know it was considered one of the more powerful weapons in the game.

>>717593828
Also this. Better art, better aesthetic, good music etc. but I generally hate fantasy elements in media

>>717590596 (OP)
it's a video game, bro, relax, go outside

>>717593267
>it really does and I dont even like that game

i have only played it for a little bit, but im really not liking the monochrome style

>no real artstyle involved

you are joking right? the game is very stylish, particularly when it comes to the finishing moves

>>717593421
>but it's not anything spectacular

by itself, no, but for a metroidvania, its on the upper echelons and if you narrow it down to 2.5D metroidvanias, its porbably the best looking

Bloodstained did implement its 2.5D better with that great establishing shot of the castle and the twin dragon and Alfred boss fights

i wish more 2.5D made use of that extra dimension

>>717595425
oh and the character customization in Bloodstained is great, its nice to know that is being expanded in the sequel

see you all niggas might criticize Miriam's game 2.5D approach, but its clear the devs took advantage of that

>>717590596 (OP)
It is indeed really ugly and full of IGA's seethe towards Konami. But it's great.

>>717595425
Most I'll give Lost Crown, visuals aside, is that it's in my top-3 of Metroidvanias, primarily because the combat is fucking tight, and the game feels perfect on Hard difficulty.

>>717590596 (OP)
I get a similar feeling with most games now but to a lesser extent. There is something about modern textures or lighting that makes solid objects look fake and hollow. I don't get this from older 3D textures (~2015 era and earlier).
I think the last big game where this never happened was Cyberpunk for some reason.

>>717595773
This game's been on my to-play list and I swear I'll get to it eventually, but between that stupid account linking (not buying it) and Denuvo (not pirating it), it's not happening any time soon.

>>717590596 (OP)
It's an ok game, mechanically, but yeah it's really ugly.
I wish they'd used quality sprite work instead.
I beat it regardless but yeah, UGLY.

>>717590798
I was going to disagree but then I thought about it.
Smash bros is a 2d platformer technically and it looks great.

>>717590960
I wish UE would disappear.
Rivals of aether 2 is another victim of it.
Huge hardware requirement increase from rivals 1 but looks like smeary slop that'd look like shit on the PS2.

>>717590596 (OP)
>AAAAAIIIIEEEEEE MY EYES ARE LITERALLY BLEEDING ITS THE UGLIEST GAME OF ALL TIME AAAA NIGGER MAN SAVE ME
Getting real sick and tired of this forced meme. RotN's graphics are nowhere near that bad to get this level of spergout.

>>717592087
>>717592183
It looks noticeably better though, are you blind?

>>717596660
What games do you find ugly?

>>717596163
I just grabbed it on PS4 both to have a physical copy and to skip the Uplay shit, but also because Ubisoft fire-sale'd it on there long before the other versions for some reason.

>>717590596 (OP)
never understood the love for this game, gameplay is mid and it is ugly as fucking hell

>>717590596 (OP)
I liked this game, but still prefer the DS Castlevanias.

This game was okay. I'm still mad about the switch performance, its unacceptable. I pirated the PC version due to it. It's not as good as the Castlevania games, but its the next best thing.

>>717592087
>two twinks on MC slots
waifufags are not gonna take that well, I'll bet you 50% of the first games playerbase came because of the hot fem protag

>>717590596 (OP)
Game was dogshit. I hope the sequel dies an ignominious death. Iga is a talentless hack.

>>717590596 (OP)
I recently tried to replay it after plaything through the Castlevania GBA and DS collections and found it to be pretty much unplayable. It's janky. But not janky in the way where you just get used to it after a while and have a blast regardless. I didn't get used to the jank in this no matter how much I played and never really hit a spot where I was actually enjoying to play it.

>>717597785
Game barely holds 60fps on a PS4. Not sure how they fucked up the performance profiling so bad when the game isn't doing anything technically demanding.

>>717598357
Its quite telling that the new one isnt even on the Switch 2, its PS5 or Series X. They b just can't optimize for shit.

Scarlet Engagement looked so different from Ritual of the Night first game that I genuinely didn't guess that it was Bloodstained at first.
I guessed Bloodstained pretty quickly after I saw the and heard what they did with the martial arts kicks and the art for the curry and such. But I almost can't believe that I genuinely guessed that it was a literal Castlevania revival before guessing Bloodstained.

Can't wait to see more of the game.

>>717598517
Switch 2 dev kits were probably too early at the time to commit to it. Unless they vastly improve the visuals, there's zero excuse why a Switch 2 couldn't handle it as a late port though.
Unless it's UE5 slop and abusing Lumen.

>>717600280
>Unless they vastly improve the visuals, there's zero excuse why a Switch 2 couldn't handle it
I'd like to say the same thing. But at the same time, the same could be said for Ritual of the Night in relation to Switch 1. And well. Yeah.
I guess time will tell.

>>717601109
I more look at is as, if they have to support Series S already, then Switch 2 isn't that much farther behind. If anything, Switch 2 having a proper hardware upscaler (in this modern god forsaken world where devs mandate it) and 2gb more RAM may make it an easier task.

>>717592459
I hate how hollow knight looks
cartoon network designs + monochromatic environments. I have no idea how people have been hypnotized into pretending to like it.

>>717595773
oh yeah its definitively great, personally i still prefer Bloodstained and some of the Castlevanias, but i really enjoy it for the combat and the platforming challenges, even tough the optional challenges are just sadistic, shit looks like a precision platformer, and by default you control the main character with the left stick, so its not ideal

>>717596163
oh shit, it does have denuvo, i was going to recommend pirating it because the ubisoft launcher really is a hassle

>>717597473
nta, but this is the best ugly game ive played, 20XX

bad graphics, simple animations, no style, no grace

Bloodstained at the very least has some great character designs and PEOPLE KEEP IGNORING THEY USE THE 2.5D WELL

directional shards, dynamic camera angles and bosses, CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION

you cant do that shit with sprites in any reasonable amount of time

>>717601750
>monochromatic environments
Huh?

>>717603019
>20XX
Man, I could just not get into the levels it would generate. A lot of it was just "series of platforms/moving platforms in a void".

>>717598585
im so sad the game takes place so many years in the past, theres no way my man Robert will make an appearance, too bad, i really liked him in Curse of the Moon 2

>>717603097
i did have a lot of fun, but its EXACTLY what you just described

still if you like Megaman, theres no harm in giving it a shot

>>717603063
>see its not black and white, its ALSO green and white

for the sequel, im sure the coop will be fun, but im not sure the two character gimmick will be the best thing ever in solo play

im playing Portrait of Ruin right now, the game is great, but the 2 player mechanic never stops feeling a little bit clunky, thankfully the AI is good enough to prevent it from feeling frustrating, but still, is not as elegant and well implemented as the tactical soul system, which is what Bloodstained 1 copied

If they want to make me excited for the sequel, they'd just rip off this game for its co-op mode.

>>717604002
The sequel's got me by the balls because a "job system" a la FF in one of these games is such an out there concept that I have to see what it looks like. Are there different flavors of progression locked behind each (i.e. Ninja or equivalent has Wall Jump, Thief or something has Double Jump, etc.)? Are they solely for combat moves? There's a lot of ways to take it, and I can't wait to see which way it's taken.

>>717605931
They'll probably just tie the job to the weapon system so it isn't a mess of menus.

>>717592000
Pre-release look.

>>717606616
Released product.

>>717590798
Its a weird kind of ugly because I can't point out WHY its ugly. All I can say is that it "looks indie".

>>717592370
>best Igavania ever
yes
>Order of Ecclesia, thats the worst Igavania
no
>>717603063
>just a bunch of green
you do know what monochromatic means right?

>>717596660
I don't get it either. When it was first announced, I expected it to look something like Dracula X Chronicles. The way it ended up looking was a pleasant surprise.

>>717590596 (OP)
Canon futa.

>>717590798
I agree, the graphics are the only thing i don't like about the game. Otherwise it's really fucking good

>>717603063
The blurry foreground shadows are SO KINO and I'm glad Jon Blow is using a similar level-framing thing in his next game

>>717597473
bayonetta 3

I love my wife Bloodless

>>717598585
This apparently looks horrible and literally no different from RotN, according to actual retards.

>>717597473
hot take: there's very few games that look so ugly you'd reuse to play them for that alone and no, Bloodstained is not of of those few

>>717598103
What's janky about it exactly?

>>717611626
he probably played it on switch

>>717606783
It looks disgusting for two major reasons:
>it's made out of stock pieces thrown together without making them fit each other
Look at the floor in your pic, look how it ends just near the bottom of the screen as if this is some huge open area at the side of a castle.
Look at the stairs Miriam's standing in. They come in straight from the left but the floor piece was curving left, the pillar at the top of the stairs is even clipping at the bottom.
The golden pillars have no reason to be there, the top of the room is an arch so why have pillars at that one end of the room? Why are they golden?
>lighting is fucked
There's nothing illuminating Miriam directly, but she's in the light anyway. The golden platforms on the pillars look like they're being illuminated from the top, but you don't see any light source above them and the pillars themselves aren't being illuminated the same way, they aren't illuminated at all even same for some very faint purple reflections.
The monster in the pic is the ultimate example of fucked up lighting. Everything about him look weird and ugly, he isn't even in the same art style.

>>717596660
It does look awful.
>>717611532
I gave up on Bloodstained because of the graphics. There's lots of 90s games that look better than this.

>>717590596 (OP)
>it's a 3D platformer
It is not a 3D platformer.

>>717606783
>>717590798
It's because of the cell-shaded look of the characters that don't mesh with the environments at all. It's like there was no artistic cohesion there, one team made the environments, and a separate one added these random shitty 'cartoony' shaders to the characters.

Allowing the backers to vote whether or not the characters should be cell-shaded was the worst decision they could've made. Sacrificed artistic cohesion for appeasing uneducated backers who think 'oh, old castlevanias were 2D, so it should look like a cartoon!'. Fuck whoever voted for that.

>>717590596 (OP)
Well that's your opinion.

>>717612418
Should've made the environments cel shaded too then.

>>717607829
>>Order of Ecclesia, thats the worst Igavania
>no

sorry homie, i just cannot stand these fucking maps, and the combat aint so hot either

that being said, still a very nice game, the worst Igavania is still better than 80% of metroidvanias, id rather play the worst Igavania than the best Shantae game

>>717611626
i love bloodstained, and while gameplaywise its not particularly janky in my opinion, many ragdolls are weird, specially those bug enemies in the hell section of the castle

>>717611626
It's just so clunky and ugly...

>>717613803
>that pic
reminds me of the long ass hallway from SotN

EEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>717614106
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

>really like Bloodstained's artstyle
>everybody else think it's hideous

>>717613803
>>717613957
Now try level 1 hard mode and bitch about that level again, I dare you, motherfucker.

>>717614427
I know that feel, brother.
I like Team Asano's HD2D games which are pretty maligned as well. Hold tight to your opinions or you'll lose them with the wind, that is my only advice.

I've tried multiple times to get into this title and I just can't for some reason. Iunno, recently replayed SOTN and it was a blast so I don't know what the problem is.

>>717614427
you and I are the same brother

>>717590596 (OP)
Fantastic game. One of the only games (besides Ori) I ever bothered to 100%.
10/10 for those of us with IQs above 120

>>717591751
>klonoa
>Tomba
>Viewtiful Joe
Just to name few

>>717614490
how is hard mode going to fix bad level design?

honestly the difficulty is hardly a plus given the combat feels worse than PoR or AoS/DoS

if you like it, great, but i still think it dropped the ball with the stuff i like the most about Igavanias, level design, combat, customization

>>717615061
did you like Dawn of Sorrow/Aria of Sorrow?

Bloodstained is half SOTH half Sorrow games, maybe you didnt like that part of the formula

>>717605378
This game is so awesome. Many amazing memories playimg this for hours and hours. I actually maxed out my main Jonathan. Took forever.

>>717616314
Enemies are part of level design, which does get changed on hard mode. Trust me, try it and see for yourself.

>>717590596 (OP)
I agree the castle and designs are absolutely SHIT. I got bored and force myself to play it. Where do I go after killing the twin dragons?? This castle sucks I'm bored going over it countless times only to end up in a dead end.

>>717617035
ill consider it playing it on hard after i finish it

but no other game in the franchise REQUIRES me to play it on hard to enjoy the level design

not even the (in my opinion) underrated Harmony of Dissonance, and that game gets piss easy by the end, doing another playthrough of that one on hard

>>717590596 (OP)
It's one of the worst looking games i've ever seen in modern times. The art direction is atrocious, to the point where you can barely tell what on earth is a platform you can jump on, and what's just some random piece of junk in the background.

Don't even get me started on all the other problems....

>>717592370
Iga had nothing to do with it.
Here's a list of who made each game in the entire series. Iga did NONE of them.
This information takes 10 seconds to look up online. Learn who makes your games for god's sake. This is getting embarrassing.

Castlevania - Hitoshi Akamatsu
Castlevania II - Hitoshi Akamatsu
Castlevania: The Adventure - Masato Maegawa
Castlevania III - Hitoshi Akamatsu
Castlevania II (GB) - Toru Hagihara
Castlevania IV - Masahiro Ueno
Rondo of Blood - Toru Hagihara
Dracula X - Kouki Yamashita
Bloodlines - Toshiki Yamamura
Symphony of the Night - Toru Hagihara
Legends - Kouki Yamashita
Castlevania (N64) - Yuji Shibata
Legacy of Darkness - Yuji Shibata
Circle of the Moon - Koji Horie
Harmony of Dissonance - Takashi Takeda
Aria of Sorrow - Junichi Murakami
Lament of Innocence - Takashi Takeda
Dawn of Sorrow - Satoshi Kushibuchi
Curse of Darkness - Takashi Takeda
Portrait of Ruin - Satoshi Kushibuchi
Order of Ecclesia - Akihiro Minakata
Bloodstained - Shutaro Iida

>>717617109
You're retarded, the only slightly obtuse thing in the game is finding the spike breaker.

>>717620702
he was the producer for most of the titles since Symphony of the Night, calm your tits, its just an useful term to describe the games made with him as the producer, this was always a team effort

also, not all Castlevanias are Igavanias, and not all Igavanias are Castlevanias, it overlaps, got it?

Woah, didn't expect the thread to still be around. Bumpo

>>717620702
Its probably the same case as with Infune and Mega Man. He was not involved with all of them but was during the last few that were made.

>>717590596 (OP)
it's because it looks like a fake game from some shady mobile ads

>>717593267
>no real artstyle involved
That's not fair at all imo, you can 100% feel the hand of Rayman Legends' art director in parts like the ice tower where the Simurgh's in the background

>>717590596 (OP)
This, but also the writing and voice acting is fucking megacringe inducing.

>>717593828
looks like dragon's crown at home