Jump to content
passwords have all been force reset. please recover password to reset ×
MFGamers

Bloodstained Ritual of the Night


illdog
 Share

Recommended Posts

done her missions. I don't think I did all the food missions first time through so I'll do that. 

 

I've got most of the shards, just need 2 from normal enemies plus the ones from the bosses I've not reached 2nd time through yet. The worst part is I still need the 8-bit Overlord, and that means redoing it over and over. I've done it 4 times back to back, so probably 8 times all said, and still not got it. It takes a while, even if you just run along the ceiling, largely because I'm still taking too much damage from him so I don't want to go in lower on health, so I use my heal spell which wipes my magic, so I'm sat waiting for that to charge up. Shame you can't just skip to him

 

 

edit: got it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

After Blasphemous decided I wanted another Metroidvania ASAP and luckily this is on Game Pass. 
Maybe I should have played this first... It doesn’t feel anywhere near as responsive and precise. I’m finding the Graphical style and designs a bit bland in comparison too. I also really don’t like that you dodge backwards from the direction your facing, not in the direction your pressing. So you naturally press away from the enemy which then makes your character turn and then you end up dodging backwards into the enemy. Fucking stupid. Hopefully will get used to it. 
 

Saying all this, it’s still nailing that satisfying exploration feeling and I get some weird joy to just filling in those map blocks. I really like the equipment stuff too, nice having a bit of a deeper RPG element to it where you get extra swords, attire etc. Looking forward to playing more. 
 

For the people who have played it - can you open up all of the original ship “stage” before moving on or can you come back to it later with extra abilities? I’ve just beat the first boss but don’t want to move on if I can’t return here once the game starts proper after this area. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@mfnick

Worry ye not - you need to return to the ship section with a couple of skills before you can fully explore it.

 

You did well getting it on game pass because I paid £35 for it on launch, which on reflection is well steep. Especially since imo there’s far better metroidmanias available for a fraction of the price (Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Ori and the Blind Forest just off the top of my head).

 

All in all, I did quite enjoy it for the most part (2-D metroidvanias are one of my favourite genres). It’s well overrated though imo. I’m surprised it was rated as high as it was because it has real glaring flaws (both technically and with regards to design).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After about a dozen attempts I finally got through that first Executioner boss fight. That was really annoying. I can’t tell if the inputs are just slow or intentional, and ironically when it’s a boss fight that’s all about execution it makes it difficult when you hit buttons and nothing happens. 
 

I think I’m trying to find a giant hand to move a thing out of the way for carriage.

 

Bar that boss fight I’m really enjoying this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just got past the train bit. I thought when I got the double jump I would be able to get to so many places I hadn’t been too before, and yet it still seems as if I need an air dash or something to get to places that are still just out of reach.

 

The game seems a little slow on adding abilities that help exploration and then really using those abilities in lots of places. Maybe I’ve still got shit tonnes of game to go but that’s how it feels at least. 
 

I’m still really liking it, though. My current weapon of choice is the Flying Edge which is basically like a boomerang sword and is super helpful. Also the fairy familiar is surprisingly helpful too. Not only does she point out where secret walls are but every now and then she heals Miriam as well! There’s no control over it but one time I noticed my health went to nearly full for no reason, so I kept the fairy out to see if it was that and yeah. It’s pretty random and not very frequent but it does happen sometimes which is better than no times. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have just beaten the boss in the desert area and am starting to dislike this game very much 

 

EDIT: And now this lava section has cemented my turn on this game. Fuck this shit.

 

The 8/16 bit one they made before this was a much better game than this 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, I really can’t figure out a way to organise my thoughts here so I’m just going to shotgun them all over the place. For reference I’ve uncovered 99% of the map and was trying to get to the boss fight in the ice cave but apparently now I’ve got a second boss fight in the ice cave I can’t get past because of books borrowed. 
 

So here we go. Some of this might be gameplay spoilers but none of it is story so here we go.

 

I would never have figured out what to do with the moon and the sword. I had been avoiding that boss fight because last time it ended the game so eventually I had to look up a guide for that. Stuff like that, and this game is kind of full of stuff like that, I admire the “gameyness” of it and it’s old school throwback type of connecting the dots to progress, it’s cool. But the part where I would never have got that makes me think it’s also kind of fucking shit. Like I’m all right with it being in the game, and I don’t want it to hand hold me to the answer, but give me something. 
 

Bosses. Why are they so fucking tough? With the 2nd Zangetsu fight I had, what I feel, was pretty much the best stuff available to me at the time. And still I just got blown back by that prick over and over because he is such a fucking damage sponge. And in fact, a lot of the boss fights are just damage sponges.
 

Fighting them is one thing. Sometimes their attacks are quite tricky but always learnable, the rate and randomness the attacks come out at I think is bullshit. Particularly Z who does the jump and slash attack, his direction to which he will slam is never locked in until the very last second so it’s so hard to get behind him it was way more luck than skill. But all that is doable. But then each fight takes 10 minutes because you can only chip away at them while not only are the health bars enormous the damage they dish out is insane. I tested one fight where I wore armour that had a defence rate of 60 and another that had a defence rate of 80 and the damage reduction was about 10 to 15 points, which seems fair enough, except for the part where the damage was received was near 130 points and I have a 1000 health. Like shit is ridiculous. The boss fights are so hard and I never feel like the gear is really good enough to compensate. 
 

Maybe that’s the point and  this game is supposed to be hard but I think it’s well out of balance. 
 

Shards and Gear. Why is it all garbage tier? For the amount of customisable options in the game I feel like 85% of it is entirely throw away. I have tried so many shards and most of them are rubbish. The lightening one that follows people is good, the fireball one is good, the best ones IMO are the ones I’m using now which is the portrait defence spell and the one that shoots a beam of light at enemies. Simple, direct, not quite consistent damage but you can just tap it instead of hold it and it is a bit more economical with MP, but also does pretty decent damage and is easy to use. 
 

But there are so many others which are just kind of wank. The familiars are garbage, the passive ones are garbage, the craftwork ones are garbage. Like what a waste. 
 

All the melee weapons are basically the same so just use what has better stats. 
 

Builds just come down to the two shards that I’ve found that I like (If someone recommends others shout them out please) and just constantly equipping better armour. Like it seems like there’s a lot of thought put into the gear and all it’s systems but the results are imperceptible to me. I’ve tried adding elemental damage to stuff but my best weapon is an Ice weapon that does around 60:damage to everything. Even ice enemies. So it’s like how the fuck does any of this work? I don’t know, it all seems like garbage. 
 

Speaking of garbage somehow I found all 4 hidden keys and got to all the secret rooms but either their basically pointless or I messed them up. Pretty sure the Carpenter one glitched out big time because I just wailed on him and potion’d and ate my way through the damage and after the fight he didn’t die, he just walked against the left wall while I took out the remaining demons and then after he tried to fight me again. Don’t know what the fuck. 
 

Also the millionaires room. There is an achievement for getting £500,000 is the game so I was hoping that would help but actually I got nothing out of that room except another useless shard. 
 

To bring some positivity to this Inlove the main castle area. It’s why I liked the game so much in the beginning and through most of the “main” game. But all these other areas are so laborious. They either rely on super awkward platforming in a game where the controls are really badly mapped or in very late game areas they just enemy spam. It’s like is this a bad Super Mario Maker level or what is going on? Also, them fucking diamond enemies that go through walls and floors and off screen and can just reappear and hit you whenever they want. Man, oh, man, late Friday at the office when they came up with that one, huh. 
 

I have so much more to say about this game but I’ve already forgot it all. And for the record, I actually think this game is kind of all right. Despite all this negativity I know it really doesn’t read like it but I think the game is kind of all right, it just has mountains and mountains of bad and questionable ideas but somehow survives getting buried by them, even if at times it feels really close to just being drowned by it’s own bullshit. 
 

I don’t know. Please recommend builds, advice on how to complete quests, why can’t I find tomatoes, how much stuff can only be done in NG+, etc. I don’t care about spoilers so what do I need to know to get all the points in this game? Can I do it on this single run or am I missing. A bunch of stuff? Because it feels like I’m missing a bunch of stuff 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yup, agree with a lot of that. Just be thankful you didn’t pay £35 for it like I did ?

 

Regarding bosses, I actually thought they were really dumb and easy to the point where they were quite trivial (it’s one of my big criticisms of the game). Please don’t misunderstand me as one of those “git gud” wankers though, because it was by no means skill on my part. All I did most of the time was just tank them and i’d end up killing them before they killed me. Don’t know whether I got lucky with my build or what (but yeah, Zangetsu can potentially be a twat).

 

Can’t remember what i had with regards to armour. Weapons wise I used rapiers with the dagger expertise passive shard for about 80% of the game. I used the Welcome Company summon shard, and the Dullahammer Head familar for the most part. For directional shard I used Bolide Blast (not sure whether that’s the same as the fireball one which you’re using). There’s probably far better load outs than these, but this one served me well.

 

Don’t forget to craft food dishes and eat them as the first time you eat a new dish it’ll permanently increase your stats.

 

Also, don’t forget that you can upgrade your shards using crafting materials. I mention this because I did forget until I was 80% through the game!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Down to my last 3 achievements and I don’t think I can be bothered to do them. The first one is the hardest one and that is Item Collector. Get every material, item, weapon, armour, everything in the game. Not only is it an off putting task just because of the amount of stuff to get, but according to what I looked up online to do it the amount of leg work makes it incredibly arduous. You need to find all the unique items, some of them you need to craft, some of them you can only craft if you got the right recipe books, some are only craftable if you get a specific material which is locked behind a side quest, some of the side quests are only completable if you already have a certain item, some of them items you need to complete the side quests need to be crafted, but some of the materials to craft them are difficult to farm and round and round. 
 

One of them is a missable story thing. It wouldn’t take that long to speed through on NG+ and get it but if I’m not getting all the achievements I don’t really want to waste time just unlocking one extra one. 
 

And weirdly the last one is a secret achievement which has an unlock rate of 0.00%. I’ve looked at the achievements list online and can’t work out which one it is. I think I must just not be comparing my list of unlocked to the full list properly but the fact it says 0% also makes me think it’s some weird bug. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I managed to get all the other achievements except the one for unlocking all other achievements. According to Google it’s bugged. Which makes sense because no one else has got it either 

 

EHUp96NWkAIUe5c.jpg
 

Hopefully unlocks in a later patch or something. But oh, well, game is as complete as I can do it. Running through on NG+ and tearing everyone to shreds was really fun. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...

Well, I’m not really enjoying this much, to be honest. I loved Symphony of the Night, and I’m up for a good Metroidvania game. But this isn’t doing a lot for me. The boss fights, of which I’ve done 3, are really pissing me off. One against a samurai took me multiple attempts, what with him taking forever to kill, and him dealing obscene amounts of damage. 
After a short while of playing, and getting battered, I end up going “fuck this” and wanting to play something else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Wow, last time I played this was back in October. Decided to fire up again last night after finding out the Royal Pack hadn’t downloaded properly for FFXv so needed something to play while that was happening.

 

Ended up playing it for 3 hours. Got into it a lot more on this go. Maybe it’s because there’s a bit of time since I last played one like it such as Blasphemous (or Ori on this occasion) unlike last time. I don’t think it compares favourably to them as has been said this one is just a bit slow, unresponsive and plodding in comparison to the others. But with a bit of time in between I’ve found it’s a bit easier to get into it and its own flow. 
 

Ive just got passed the train ride. Relying heavily on the flying edge recently as Maf was at this point and I noticed Vinny at GB using a rotating sword magic/summon ability which seemed OP (on the best of vids, not watched the full play through) so I equipped that and it is indeed ridiculous. Making a mockery of most enemies and bosses. 
 

I did have to use a guide there though. Unlocked double jump and like Maf again (agree with you a lot on this game up to where I am) it didn’t unlock as much as I thought it would and got stuck. Turns out if you speak to OD too early he doesn’t give you a vital piece of info regarding the train progression. I would have never thought about going back to him if I didn’t look it up as theres no point if you didn’t get particular conversation which is a bit stupid. So wasted a good 45 min just wandering around aimlessly until I gave in and looked it up. 
 

But yea, enjoying it a lot more on this occasion. Still seems hugely overrated though. 
 

Still don’t like how the dodge back works either. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Over-rated definitely sums this game up. Most of my time with it was either spent thinking “where the fuck am I meant to be going”, or getting absolutely destroyed by bosses. 
 

Certainly a huge disappointment for me. I really tried to get into it. I loved Symphony Of The Night. But this was just no fun for me at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I accidentally stumbled across the worst ending last night. Bit weird how you can so easily just walk into the end boss room and get a shit Game Over screen after winning it. Think that could be handled a bit better.

 

Anyway, went back in and progressed a bit further, although I had to check a guide a couple of times. How was I suppose to know i needed a specific shard from a specific, but regular, enemy for example? When the rest of the time, progress based shards are given to you by bosses? Some strange decisions made here. It’s like the end game was made with a guide in mind. 
 

The difficulty of bosses this point has sky rocketed too. I’ve died once or twice up to that point, but had to fight

Spoiler

Doppelganger, Zangetsu and the Carpenter (didn’t realise he was optional)

many times. I hate how they handle death, it’s criminal for a game in this day and age to make you sit through 2 loads to start up your save again. It’s really annoying how you lose your collectables and crafting stuff too. Wish they’d keep the memory that you’d collected apples and shit since it’s all RNG based. 

 

Jumped through all the hoops now though and up to last part. See how the last boss is.

 

Throughout all this whining I am still enjoying it though, despite itself. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Completed last night and was up to 98% map completion and missed a couple of demons. So decided to do those plus a few other easy cheevo’s. Fuck the grindy item and money ones though.
 

Not got much to add to what I’ve said before and a lot of my thoughts are in line with Mafs. It’s a really good game with a lot of bullshit sprinkled on top. All the RNG stuff and parts which would have been impossible for me personally to figure out without using a guide really bring it down, the difficulty is all over the place too. It goes from being laughably easy to controller breaking hard, back to easy again randomly. 
 

But I still enjoyed my time with it, the exploration was fun for the most part and I loved the castle design. I like the Shard system even though there’s a lot of useless faff in there and the RNG ruins the upgrade path of them too. Fun system otherwise though. 

I also wish it gave you some late game exploration shards earlier on. The

Spoiler

high jump and accelerator

make getting around so much more enjoyable but you don’t get them until you’re basically at the true ending and haven’t got that much use for them. Unless you’re crazy and going for 100% items, foods etc. After 15+ hours and everything else complete I was only at 53% of items and most of its random so you can imagine how much time that’d take. 

 

I’d recommend trying it if you’re a fan of it’s obvious inspiration. Especially since it’s on Game Pass. Bit of a harder sell above £15 though even considering all the content. 
 

7/10 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...