History YMMV / BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dominique, who serves as Miriam's supplier for the majority of the game. Fans are split on [[spoiler:whether or not she's a good [[BigBad main antagonist]]. Either she's a TragicVillain with an understandable motivation for turning on God and has a more active role in the story than previous villains from Igarashi's games, or she's a generic villain whose EvilAllAlong reveal becomes increasingly easy to see coming as the game progresses[[labelnote:note 1]]It doesn't help that she's a stereotypical ChurchMilitant[[/labelnote]] and doesn't have enough of an active role for her betrayal to have an emotional impact[[labelnote:note 2]]which isn't helped by the fact that TheReveal doesn't happen until the penultimate area[[/labelnote]]]]. Complicating things further is the debate on [[spoiler:whether her being EvilAllAlong was even necessary, with some fans arguing that Gremory should have been the BigBad[[labelnote:note 3]]like she was in ''[[VideoGame/BloodstainedCurseOfTheMoon Curse of the Moon]]''[[/labelnote]] instead of TheDragon working for her]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dominique, who serves as Miriam's supplier for the majority of the game. Fans are split on [[spoiler:whether or not she's a good [[BigBad main antagonist]]. Either she's a TragicVillain with an understandable motivation for turning on God and has a more active role in the story than previous villains from Igarashi's games, or she's a generic villain whose EvilAllAlong reveal becomes increasingly easy to see coming as the game progresses[[labelnote:note 1]]It doesn't help that she's a stereotypical ChurchMilitant[[/labelnote]] and doesn't have enough of an active role for her betrayal to have an emotional impact]]. Complicating things further is the debate on [[spoiler:whether her being EvilAllAlong was even necessary, with some fans arguing that Gremory should have been the BigBad[[labelnote:note 2]]like she was in ''[[VideoGame/BloodstainedCurseOfTheMoon Curse of the Moon]]''[[/labelnote]] instead of TheDragon working for her]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dominique, who serves as Miriam's supplier for the majority of the game. Fans are split on [[spoiler:whether or not she's a good [[BigBad main antagonist]]. Either she's a TragicVillain with an understandable motivation for turning on God and has a more active role in the story than previous villains from Igarashi's games, or she's a generic villain whose EvilAllAlong reveal [[CaptainObviousReveal is easy to see coming]][[labelnote:note 1]]It doesn't help that she's a stereotypical ChurchMilitant[[/labelnote]] and doesn't have enough of an active role for her betrayal to have an emotional impact]]. Complicating things further is the debate on [[spoiler:whether her being EvilAllAlong was even necessary, with some fans arguing that Gremory should have been the BigBad[[labelnote:note 2]]like she was in ''[[VideoGame/BloodstainedCurseOfTheMoon Curse of the Moon]]''[[/labelnote]] instead of TheDragon working for her]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dominique, who serves as Miriam's supplier for the majority of the game. Fans are split on [[spoiler:whether or not she's a good [[BigBad main antagonist]]. Either she's a TragicVillain with an understandable motivation for turning on God and has a more active role in the story than previous villains from Igarashi's games, or she's a generic villain whose EvilAllAlong reveal [[CaptainObviousReveal is easy to see coming]][[note]]It doesn't help that she's a stereotypical ChurchMilitant[[/note]] and doesn't have enough of an active role for her betrayal to have an emotional impact]]. Complicating things further is the debate on [[spoiler:whether her being EvilAllAlong was even necessary, with some fans arguing that Gremory should have been the BigBad instead of TheDragon working for her]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dominique, who serves as Miriam's supplier for the majority of the game. Fans are split on [[spoiler:whether or not she's a good [[BigBad main antagonist]]. Either she's a TragicVillain with an understandable motivation for turning on God and has a more active role in the story than previous villains from Igarashi's games, or she's a generic villain whose EvilAllAlong reveal [[CaptainObviousReveal is easy to see coming]][[note]]It doesn't help that she's a stereotypical ChurchMilitant[[/note]] and doesn't have enough of an active role for her betrayal to have an emotional impact]]. Complicating things further is the debate over [[spoiler:whether her being EvilAllAlong was even necessary, with some fans arguing that Gremory should have been the BigBad instead of TheDragon working for her]].

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dominique, who serves as Miriam's supplier for the majority of the game. Fans are split on [[spoiler:whether or not she's a good [[BigBad main antagonist]]. Either she's a TragicVillain with an understandable motivation for turning on God and has a more active role in the story than previous villains from Igarashi's games, or she's a generic villain whose EvilAllAlong reveal [[CaptainObviousReveal is easy to see coming]][[note]]It doesn't help that she's a stereotypical ChurchMilitant.[[/note]] and doesn't have enough of an active role for her betrayal to have an emotional impact.]]

* DisappointingLastLevel: The Glacial Tomb. Some have found the setting of [[SlippySlideyIceWorld an ice cave]] to be rather out of place for the game's final area, while others have pointed out that it's a reference to the [[Literature/TheDivineComedy Ninth Circle of Hell]]. Aside from that, people in both camps have argued that the area looks rather generic, feels empty with barely any enemies present, all the enemies it ''does'' have are just {{Underground Monkey}}s of common enemies from much earlier in the game, and that it lacks the feeling of a VeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon. It's one of the shortest areas in the game and is reserved mainly for the game's final bosses (and one BonusBoss), and even some of those are considered a disappointment by quite a few players.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dominique, who serves as Miriam's supplier for the majority of the game. Fans are split on [[spoiler:whether or not she's a good [[BigBad main antagonist]]. Either she's a TragicVillain with an understandable motivation for turning on God and has a more active role in the story than previous villains from Igarashi's games, or she's a generic villain whose EvilAllAlong reveal [[CaptainObviousReveal is easy to see coming]][[note]]It doesn't help that people of the Church are often depicted as corrupt and evil in media as a whole, because that's how a lot of people see the Church in RealLife because of its many historical atrocities[[/note]] and doesn't have enough of an active role for her betrayal to have an emotional impact.]]

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dominique, who serves as Miriam's supplier for the majority of the game. Fans are split on [[spoiler:whether or not she's a good [[BigBad main antagonist]]. Either she's a TragicMonster with an understandable motivation for turning on God and has a more active role in the story than previous villains from Igarashi's games, or she's a generic villain whose EvilAllAlong reveal [[CaptainObviousReveal is easy to see coming]][[note]]It doesn't help that people of the Church are often depicted as corrupt and evil in media, because a lot of people see the Church in RealLife as such because of its many historical atrocities[[/note]] and doesn't have enough of an active role for her betrayal to have an emotional impact.]]

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dominique. [[spoiler:Fans are split on whether or not she's a good [[BigBad main antagonist]]. Either she's a TragicMonster with an understandable motivation for turning on God and has a more active role in the story than previous villains from Igarashi's games, or she's a generic villain whose EvilAllAlong reveal [[CaptainObviousReveal is easy to see coming]][[note]]It doesn't help that people of the Church are often depicted as corrupt and evil in media, because a lot of people see the Church in RealLife as such because of its many historical atrocities[[/note]] and doesn't have enough of an active role for her betrayal to have an emotional impact.]]

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Dominique. [[spoiler:Fans are split on whether or not she's a good [[BigBad main antagonist]]. Either she's a TragicMonster with an understandable motivation for turning on God and has a more active role in the story than previous villains from Igarashi's games, or she's a generic villain whose EvilAllAlong reveal [[CaptainObviousReveal is easy to see coming]][[note]]It doesn't help that people of the Church are often depicted as corrupt and evil in media, because a lot of people in RealLife see the Church as such because of its many historical atrocities[[/note]] and doesn't have enough of an active role for her betrayal to have an emotional impact.]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Many players were hoping that Zangetsu's campaign would shed some light on the ending of the main story, specifically [[spoiler:how he survived and escaped from Gremory's void]]. But like many ''Castlevania'' games before it, his mode doesn't have any story elements until his final boss, revealing an alternate scenario in which [[spoiler:Miriam has been [[FaceHeelTurn fully corrupted]] and has [[FallenHero embraced the darkness]]]]. Not that taking pages from the ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Sorrow]]'' games (and even ''[[VideoGame/BloodstainedCurseOfTheMoon Curse of the Moon]]'') was necessarily a bad thing, but many were hoping that his mode was connected to the main story somehow.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** A rare example of the saving throw being in response to something somebody ''outside'' of the project did. The PR disaster and the mediocre reception of ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'' shook a lot of people's faith in the upcoming wave of Kickstarter games that ''Bloodstained'' is a part of, so in response, to assure any nervous backers, they released the E3 demo to all backers the week that ''Mighty No. 9'' came out.
*** Perhaps not coincidentally, IGA worked with a lot of the same people and developers as ''Mighty No. 9'', including Ben Judd, who suggested Creator/KeijiInafune strike out on his own as well. Most likely IGA saw the writing on the wall firsthand and strove to rectify potential issues ahead of time.
** When they announced that they would stop porting the game to UsefulNotes/WiiU in favor of UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch, those who chose Wii U as their platform [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/iga/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/posts/1818045 were allowed to change platform or get a refund.]] They later made the same offer when the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation Vita}} version got canned (which was announced together with another delay for the game).
** Speaking of the Switch, when the Switch port ended up suffering from PortingDisaster, the developers made sure to inform fans that a substantial update to fix issues with it would be priority #1. They ultimately managed to push out the fix prior to the first major content update, and, while not perfect, it makes the game ''vastly'' more playable.
** In another unusual case, with the saving throw being one that was planned to begin with, the ''[[VideoGame/BloodstainedCurseOfTheMoon Curse of the Moon]]'' prequel by Creator/IntiCreates was released to much acclaim in May 2018, placating the fans that were getting concerned about [[ScheduleSlip the main project's apparent delays]].
** The release date trailer looked like a similar saving throw when compared to ''VideoGame/MightyNo9''. For reference:
*** In the case of ''Mighty No. 9'', the trailer released shortly before the release date was the Masterclass trailer by Deep Silver that contained the line "Make the bad guys cry like an anime fan on prom night" and explosions that looked like pizzas, overall making the announcer sound really boastful about the future success of the game when it instead was instantly hated and later contributed to how the game failed.
*** The ''Bloodstained'' trailer actually showcased all the complaints about the art style and texture quality of the old versions, meaning that IGA was aware of his shortcomings and showcased that in public. Then it cut to IGA himself, after taking a sip of wine, throwing the glass down in classic fashion and declaring "I'LL PROVE THEM WRONG!!", showing how truly committed he is to making a quality game; and then it showed that the graphics have been ''massively improved'' from the older versions. In other words, after learning from the disaster of ''Mighty No. 9'', IGA made sure that the release date trailer of his Kickstarter game would assure the fans of its quality.
** In the case of the PC version for those that backed for a physical copy for Steam or GOG.com, they were delayed from shipment (unlike the console versions), as they wanted to release them with every free stretch goal [=DLCs=]/updates included on the disc based on user feedback. However, rather than make physical Steam and GOG.com backers wait for a long time for said [=DLCs=] to circulate, the developers opted to give them a digital copy of the game for the platform they've chosen free of charge to make up for the delay.
** When announcements of cosmetic [=DLCs=] are planned for the future of the game, many quickly accused the developers of not bothering to fix the actual problems the game persisting in the game, especially in the console versions. However, through [[http://bloodstainedfanforums.com/thread/4398/update-upcoming-patches-platform-news?page=1&scrollTo=71257 an official update]] by the developers, they claimed that they only wanted to gauge interest on what kind of outfits they would like through a survey and reassured players that their priorities are still fixed on remedying bugs and gameplay issues on the game first and foremost.

* LauncherOfAThousandShips: Miriam has has been shipped with pretty much every male character in the game: [[BattleCouple Zangetsu]], [[BroodingBoyGentleGirl Gebel]], [[MentorShip Alfred]], [[SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan Johannes]], and of course [[VampiresAreSexGods O.D.]] [[HoYay And some of the women]] too, [[spoiler:[[DatingCatwoman especially after]] TheReveal]].

** Ehh, I'd disagree. The English song is quite a delight in its own right and there's nothing wrong with the singing.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: After the cold reception of other Kickstarter-backed SpiritualSuccessor games such as ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'' and ''VideoGame/YookaLaylee'', as well as [[SpecialEffectFailure how bland the graphics looked]] [[TaintedByThePreview in previews]], many people thought ''Bloodstained'' would be headed the same road as the aforementioned games; being a mediocre cash-grab meant to lure fans of [[Franchise/{{Castlevania}} a beloved and neglected franchise]]. The game released to stellar reviews, with many praising it for its engaging gameplay and vastly improved graphics, and it is viewed by many as a worthy successor to ''Castlevania''. [[CreatorCameo IGA]]'s FlavorText even seems to poke a little fun at the sentiment:

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: A lot of fans and interviewers like to pit IGA against Inafune, since both were behind some of the most beloved side-scrollers ever (''Castlevania'' and ''Mega Man'', respectively) and both began hugely successful SpiritualSuccessor-themed Kickstarters. When jokingly asked if he would "call Inafune to gloat" about beating his record, IGA humbly turned aside the joke and said "I'm sure his next Kickstarter will blow mine away." A few weeks later, Inafune launched a Kickstarter for ''VideoGame/RedAsh'', based on ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends'', which ended up being immensely controversial, and failed to meet its goals by a rather large margin. It's also hard to think about this act of humility when ''Mighty No. 9'' ended up being widely considered a major disappointment both shortly before and once it released.

* SpiritualSuccessor:
** This game is one for the ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'' series (particularly the [=2D=] side-scrolling "Metroidvania" style), following the heavily supported ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'' (''Franchise/MegaMan''), ''VideoGame/YookaLaylee'' (''VideoGame/BanjoKazooie''), and ''VideoGame/AHatInTime'' (3D ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' games).
** Classic Mode is a big love letter to the very first ''Castlevania'' games, with many of its mechanics, iconic scenes, and bosses recreated in ''Bloodstained''[='s=] visual style.

* UnderusedGameMechanic: Dimension Shift. You gain the ability in the last area of the game, after beating the second-to-last boss. You need to use it to progress only once, and aside from that, it's required for a few sidequests and chests that are inaccessible otherwise, but other than that, it doesn't see much use.

* UncannyValley:

** Orlok Fahrenheit Dracule, better known simply as O.D. He's ''Bloodstained''[='s=] answer to Alucard in everything but name, aided by him having Alucard's look and voice actor(s) [[note]]whereas in Japanese he's fittingly voiced by Creator/RyotaroOkiayu, who's consistently lent his voice to Alucard since [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight 1997]], the English version arguably went the extra mile by getting Robert Belgrade, Al's original English voice actor from the same game, to effectively "reprise" the role[[/note]], and the game deliberately gives him a role similar to the Master Librarian from ''[=SotN=]'' — complete with the exact same "High Jump into chair from the room below" EasterEgg (which can also be triggered with Invert). Then there's the matter of [[spoiler:his secret boss fight in the Glacial Tomb]]: hilarious for [[spoiler:its "reasoning" (he was ''[[DisproportionateRetribution not]]'' joking about how valuable the Tome of Conquest is to him)]] and utterly cool in design (as O.D. [[spoiler:employs [[AnIcePersion cyrokinesis]] and [[TimeStandsStill chronokinesis]] along with Alucard's various transformations]]).

** The intro of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFHYTci4M1M Exorschism]] sounds similar to that of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPUsaNxUCnU Machtkampf]] by Music/ArchEnemy.

** The Bloodless, a mid-game boss, garnered attention and pretty much a lot of love from lots of players, due to both her boss fight (which involves [[EvilIsSexy lots of]] {{Fanservice}} [[ClothingDamage along the way]]) and the ability to play as her on Boss Revenge Mode. It was enough for Iga to decide to [[spoiler:make her playable ''in the main game as well'' via the "BLOODLESS" code used as the player name]].

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rayc0H-5HWE Luxurious Overture]] sounds similar to [[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8MtiaIVoKfM Crucified]] by Army of Lovers.

* {{Moe}}: Miriam can be a deceptively endearing character at times. She's mainly a confident ActionGirl both in gameplay and in cutscenes, but her friendlyness to the villagers, teasing tone of voice and trust in Johannes, and the adorable pose she makes when she cooks is really quite cute.

** The Toads, as they are on the ground so it is difficult for Miriam to hit them with most weapons.

*** Surprisingly, Tamako-Death is more than just a visually epic Demon to summon — she also ''munches'' through most boss health bars. While generally not a good summon for traveling through the castle for the somewhat cumbersome arc her attack hits at, that same troublesome arc and the fact she constantly spams fireballs means that the usually large and stationary or slow bosses just get ''chunked'' when she starts jamming. It only gets better as you increase her rank and grade — she plays her theme longer, up to around ''17 seconds long.'' While some bosses [[spoiler:(namely True Zangetsu and Dominique)]] are too nimble and mobile to be hit effectively, others, like [[spoiler:the 8-Bit Overlord, Gremory, and ''especially'' Bael]], are so slow or spend so long stationary that their HP will just get shredded instantly. For added fun, against smaller enemies, combining Tamako-Death with Invert means you can cover the entire floor in gouts of fire.

* IdiotBall: Part of the backstory of ''Ritual of the Night'' involves learning how the world came to be infested with demons, and how Shardbinders were created. Journals from a member of the Alchemist's Guild show [[spoiler:that demons were summoned en masse onto the Earth as a deliberate act by the Guild to stay in business after the world began turning towards science instead of spirtualism. After finally learning how to summon ''a'' demon via crystals, that ''one'' demon almost singlehandedly ruins the guild and causes horrific loss of life before being put down. You'd expect that this would make the Guild (if not the Journal's author, who is the main person researching this process) realize that summoning ''a whole army of demons'' is a bad idea. Instead, they continue ahead with the experiment, and when they finally gain enough crystals to perform the ritual, the main crux of their plan (Miriam) is put into a coma, which robs the summoning of ''half'' its strength. Yet, this botched summoning ''still'' brought forth enough devastation that the world still hasn't recovered ten years later. To make things worse, if a SpannerInTheWorks hadn't put Miriam to sleep, even ''more'' demons would have come through and the world wouldn't have had a ''chance'' of fighting back. For the single purpose of keeping their cash flow, and "proving" that the world still needed them, the Guild condemned the whole planet to a HellOnEarth that would have been even ''worse'' than it was if the experiment had worked as intended]].