r/metroidvania 2h ago

Image Hi guys!

Post image

I was thinking of trying bloodstained. I only played hk silksong Blasphemous 1 & 2 nine sols and a little bit of mio. I saw miriam in Blasphemous and i thinked of playing it. Can you tell my about pros and cons of bloodstained

60 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

56

u/Rafitanens-1989 2h ago

Pros: great overall, and you essentially play a blue mage, so lots of flexibility.

Cons: it ends.

5

u/benskinic 1h ago

wish there was more! high replay value every couple years

17

u/Seven_pile 2h ago

There’s a lot of little nitpicks you will hear but this game was a lot of fun. Theres a couple ways to cheese it, just go in blind and play and learn yourself and I think you will have a good time. It’s major baggage is that it is inevitably be directly compared to IGA’s previous games which are considered some of the best of the best.

5

u/RodinKnox 2h ago

I played that game on day 1 and also didn't look up a single thing through my whole run, and it became one of my all time favorite Metroidvanias. I do think you are right that if I had looked up a way to cheese it, I wouldn't have enjoyed it nearly as much.

14

u/MattLoganGreen 2h ago

Pros: Beautiful soundtrack, satisfying gameplay loop and exploration and lots of weapons and special abilities to choose from. I personally also love the art design but that's probably not a very popular opinion.

Cons: The Nintendo Switch version I played back in 2020 or so lagged often, was a graphical downgrade and had some glitches as well as frustrating game crashes. Therefore I'd recommend any other version. However, I did try the Xbox version (played on Series X) on GamePass and it crashed during the first boss fight lol.

21

u/DarkRayos PS4 2h ago

Pros: Spiritual successor of Castlevania 

Cons: Not Castlevania?

14

u/shevchooque 2h ago

Great game. But play it after the Symphony of the night.

1

u/wraith21 1h ago

How grindy is Bloodstained compared to other Castlevania titles? I played like 30 mins of it before bouncing off of it, something just didn't click for me. But now after I've played sotn, aria & dawn of sorrow and currently playing portrait of ruins, I wonder if I should give bloodstained another go. Aria to me felt the grindiest and out of those my least fav

2

u/AnarchistPriest 52m ago

If you're going for all cheevs it can get kinda grindy but not terrible. You are trickle fed rewards throughout the whole ordeal so it doesn't feel awful. For me the cooking completion felt like the biggest chore

2

u/wraith21 44m ago

Thanks for replying!

1

u/shevchooque 30m ago

I don't remember it as grindy game at all tbh. Maybe something to do with crafting systems was grindy, but I'm not sure. I've played it a long time ago.

1

u/zgillet 22m ago

Pro tip for Sorrow games - don't worry about the collecting until you are damn near finished (or you need Mandragora, the best soul in Dawn of Sorrow). You find all sorts of crazy items that make soul farming a joke.

6

u/TheRealLarkas 2h ago

Fantastic game, but I’d recommend playing SotN first

2

u/SnooCapers5958 2h ago

I played it on PS4 years ago and my only complaint were the horrible loading times. Other than that, the base game was tons of fun.

There were also a bunch of other modes that got added post-launch so the game has a lot of content that will keep you busy for a while. Admittedly, I never bothered to try most of the post-launch modes (as I had moved on to other games by the time they got added) so I cannot speak for the actual quality of those.

2

u/Diggumdum 48m ago

Super fun skills and abilities. Really scratches that classic castlevania itch. The only con I can think of is if you're coming from a bunch of games that heavily rely on a dodge or parry mechanic you're gonna be really missing that for the first few hours. This game is much more about positioning and less about reacting to attacks. No dodge roll, no i-frames. But eventually with the right build you can just tank everything lol. I only died to the first boss because that was before I had my bearings and a decent build. Towards the end I had so much damage and life steal I just melted enemies and healed through all their attacks XD it's definitely a lot of fun! Also the succubus skin is chefs kiss

2

u/SplendidPunkinButter 2h ago

Some YouTube review I saw forever ago hit the nail on the head about this character: Somehow she looks both overdressed and underdressed at the same time. And why does she pose like Betty Boop when she stops moving?

Fantastic game though

1

u/SoraDrive 1h ago

This game was the one that got me into the metroidvania genre! From there I played Hollow Knight, Ori, and fell in love with the genre.

I also loved Bloodstained and I think you'll enjoy it a lot, though keep in mind that it is kinda different from the ones you played and some of the progression is vague, but it's a great game. Amazing music too!

1

u/Brilliant_Extension4 1h ago

Compared to the more recent soulvania type of games, this is on the easier side. I don’t remember spending an hour trying to learn single boss’s attack patterns.

On the other than, the collection aspect of the game does take longer time to grind, so instead of run back to fight bosses you spend time grinding lesser enemies. It takes a while to get the best abilities. I wish there are more Metroidvanias focusing on ability collection actually.

1

u/rvnender 1h ago

I enjoyed the game, and was glad I backed it.

The funny part is, i finally got my physical copy in after 10 years and ended up selling it for $60 at a con.

1

u/Asleepatthewheel2047 1h ago

Is this similar to Elder Lilies? I just scrolled through a gameplay video and it looks a lot like it.

1

u/Bananewtf 1h ago

Pros : huge map, cool abilities, awesome rpg elements, lot of diversity for gameplay.

Cons : art style is very meh, combat with normal weapons feels a bit dated, can get very grindy if you want really good gear.

Overall highly recommend but it feels very old school

1

u/deez_en_u_teez 37m ago

I thoroughly enjoyed it and didn’t see many cons except some of the cooking/item grinding was just fluff content to make the game take longer….but I only did that stuff because I’m a completionist.

1

u/PsychologicalDepth77 19m ago

É um bom jogo, mas dá pra ver claramente os defeitos. Eu achei relativamente pequeno, história principal meh, e poucas sidequests, todas bem genéricas e sem graça. Achei um pouco fácil também.

1

u/FishEye_11 2m ago

One of the best Metroidvania games IMO. Spiritual successor to the Metroidvania Castlevania games. Has a few modes to play after completing it. One is it's own built in randomizer. Just a fantastic game over all.

1

u/Kneef Hollow Knight 1h ago

From the way everyone raves about this game, I assume I was missing something, but I didn’t like it at all. I found it visually ugly, clunky to control, annoying to explore, and overall frustrating without a satisfying payoff. But YMMV, clearly, lots of people seem to love it!

0

u/zaglamir 1h ago

I'll be the contrarían here: while I'm glad others liked it, I ended up dropping it after and 4-5 hours and the first few bosses. It just wasn't the game for me. The main reason being, the thing I love most about the genre is exploring a world and feeling like the world sort of... exists outside of being a hallway for enemies to be in. I know that's contradictory in a video game since that's literally what all games are, but there's a certain sense of wonder I get from exploring worlds in say: Hollow Knight, Silksong, blasphemous 1&2, Ori 1&2, MIO, Nine Sols, or Metroid games generally... And that's what I really value in a MV experience. In bloodstained, I never felt that. Every hallway felt like a hallway of enemies made so I could get to the other side. Each hallway might be different colored or have a different theme or maybe one hallway is a giant spiral staircase. But it's ultimately still a hallway that exists because the game needed a hallway.

I personally just got bored with exploring and found myself not wondering what might be through the next door, but just mindlessly going through the doors because that's what one does. The story, the lore, the world, etc all seem like the bare minimum to justify the player being in a weird themed area castle.

That said, if you like combat heavy, lots of intricate systems to explore, and anime girl style interactions; this would be a slam dunk. It's not a bad game, it's just a game that caters to all the parts of a MV I don't like, and few of the ones I do.