In a recent interview with
Gamasutra,
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night creator Koji Igarashi revealed some very interesting details regarding the development of his
Castlevania spiritual successor; more in particular about the development of boss battles.
According to Igarashi, the developers that worked on
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night needed to be able to defeat the game's bosses without taking a single hit; what's even worse, however, is the fact that this had to be done exclusively using the dagger.
"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...)," explained Igarashi.
"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...)"
To be fair, the developers themselves should be able to beat their own games in all of its difficulties difficulties, so adding a bit of an extra challenge like using the weakest weapon is part of the "good game design" process; keeping in mind that this helps them program these boss fights better.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was released last month to some very positive reviews, and it has proven to be a worthy spiritual successor of the acclaimed Castlevania series, and players can currently purchase it for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Steam.
Play as Miriam, an orphan scarred by an alchemist's curse that slowly crystallizes her body. Battle through a demon-infested castle and defeat its master to save yourself, and all of humanity.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is currently available for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Steam.
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