The pitch video has IGA calmly explaining his goals and plans for Bloodstained, much like a normal Kickstarter pitch video. And then there's a random part where he tortures a man for no reason. Doesn't really make much sense... until you realize it's a Visual Pun. The man IGA tortures is strapped to a rack, a torture device that stretches the victim apart. And IGA is doing this while talking about the project's stretch goals.
Before Gebel was afflicted by the magi-crystal curse, he was seen wearing glasses. But after the curse has affected him to such a degree that it practically covers him everywhere, he's not wearing them anymore. What if the crystals over his eyes double as a lens that adjust his sight to work perfectly?
Another bit of Fridge Brilliance is how well Bloodstained and Castlevania line up in terms of origins. First off, what do we know that is the reason that Leon gains the ability to use magic and has upgraded his whip into the Vampire Killer? What is the reason that the Ebony and Crimson Stones exist, the latter of which Matthias used to forsake his humanity and become a Vampire/Dracula? The answer is simple: Alchemy. It's the reason that the problems (as well as the solutions) are present in the Castlevania universe, and now it's the same thing in the Bloodstained universe! Not to mention it's the only type of magic not used by any player characters in Castlevania, whereas here it's now at the forefront.
As mentioned on the main page, the path to the Golden Ending requires actions that seem like Sequence Breaking while not being hinted at in-game. It's obtuse by modern game design standards, but it's possible to stumble onto on your own, especially if you're obsessively searching every corner of the map for secrets or a Disc-One Nuke as were so common in Iga's previous titles. In other words, getting to the true end of this Genre Throwback is a reward for knowing what to expect of an Igavania title.
Indeed, getting better endings in past games of IGA's often required a lot of inventive exploration and ability use.
There's also a story justification to why these are bad endings. The Just a Flicker ending has Gebel killed before the revelation that Dominique is Evil All Along, so she can carry out her plans while Miriam and Johannes are unaware that she's doing something far worse, while the Usurper ending presumably has the hidden Gremory eventually corrupt Miriam the same as she did Gebel.
No wonder Dominique is fought in an icy cave: it's a representation of the Ninth Circle of Hell, a frozen wasteland designated for traitors!
The language of flowers is actually pretty fitting when one considers the meaning of Roses, their colors and how they apply to the three sharded characters in game.
The combination of roses and blue hues as motifs for Miriam make sense on an individual level. But when taken together (particularly in her best sword, the Blue Rose), they become even more meaningful. Since roses do not naturally produce any variety of blue pigment, it's impossible either through chance or horticulture to produce an actual blue rose. Doing so requires experimentation and alteration of the base nature of a rose itself. Just like a blue rose, Miriam is the result of humanity's experimentation and modification to make what would otherwise be impossible. Likewise, in the language of flowers blue roses symbolize "mystery", "longing to attain the impossible", and even believing those who have blue roses "Will have their wishes granted". Miriam is trying to find out the mystery behind Gebel's Face–Heel Turn, she wants to save him, but he dies no matter what, making her attempt to let him live impossible, but she still gets her wish in that Gremory's control finally lapses and lets Gebel be himself before he dies, thus "saving" him.
Gebel's motif is obviously red roses, given how far the crystallization curse has spread throughout his body make his whole body appear as if they're covered by them. It fits in the sense of Red and Black and Evil All Over, given how he wants to wreck the world for what the Alchemist's Guild has done to him and Miriam. However, red roses also serve as symbols of love and devotion, which fit for Gebel as he also wishes to include Miriam into his plans. Symbolically, they can also mean deep regret and sorrow, which befits how Gebel dies no matter what happens.
Dominique is the last person we see having the shards bound to her body. Her color is overall the same as Gebel's, being a blood red. However, her version of red roses instead points towards the idea of them serving as revolutionary symbols, such as how Socialists and Social Democrats in the later 1800s and early 1900s have used it as a symbol for their parties. Given that Dominique wants to use the power of the crystals to essentially tear Heaven and God down, it certainly fits in the style of the red rose symbolizing politics and revolutionary ideas. It could also be seen as how she subverts the meaning of the Red Rose referring to true love, due to how she uses everyone around her. Going on a bit of a stretch, one could even say that if we take her hair color into account, she could accurately depict yellow roses. In the language of flowers, they can symbolize platonic relationships, jealousy, and are even used in farewells, which befits how Dominique befriends people in order to use them, is envious of the demons' power and wishes to use it for herself, and how she inevitably leaves to betray everyone else.
For a non-character example, the presence of lavender flowers is a perfect fit for save rooms, as they represent healing (the save room heals you to full), silence (music cuts off inside one of them) and relief (which a player is sure to feel when reaching one at low health).
In the Den of Behemoths, right before you fight Valefar, you'll more than likely have come across some blue chests that only contain money and not useful materials for alchemy. Now, this might seem odd, especially given a chest you can find right beneath his own stage where his feet is. Shouldn't he be greedily keeping this to himself...? The Fridge Brilliance kicks in in that he explicitly wants you to pick up the money laid out for you. When you face him and kill him the first time, he uses a move where he restores his health equal to how much money you have, and you'll more than likely have enough to replenish his health and then some if you have much more than what you entered the Den with! Those chests full of money are more or less literal life insurance for Valefar!
Plenty of the Demon's placements or what they affect in story in Ritual makes sense when one reads what they affect in the Ars Goetia.
Vepar is said to govern the waters and guides armored ships laden with ammunition and weapons. She's the one who makes the Galleon Minerva crash into Arantville as Gebel wants Miriam there.
Andrealphus is said to teach cunning in astronomy and teaches geometry in a perfect manner. What better place for a demon who teaches such things than the Livre Ex Machina, aka the Library?
Valac is said to appear as a poor boy with angel wings riding a two-headed dragon, and gives true answers about hidden treasures. The former befits how he's at the towers that reach up to the heavens. The latter is true because using Invert or High Jump at his boss arena is where you can find the Aegis Plate, to more easily reach the Oriental Sorcery Lab that can lead to the better ending.
Bathin is said to know the virtues of precious stones and herbs. What better place to be than at the Underground Sorcery Lab, one of the Alchemist's Guilds headquarters that requires precious things to do their work?
Orobas is said to grant true answers of things from the past, present and future of come. It's from making use of his Invert shard that you can gain access to the Oriental Sorcery Lab, which can set you onto the true ending of the game.
Valefar is said to be a good friend of thieves and a good familiar by his associates until they're "caught in the trap". He comes right after learning that Dominique is hiding secrets and more than likely betrayed you. She also got Gremory to steal the Liber Logaeth back from Alfred, befitting the "thieves" part.
Gremory is said to tell of all things past, present and future, teaches of secret treasures, and procures the love of women, young and old, but especially maidens. Very fitting that one of the main antagonists is involved with Dominique, who almost immediately procures the trust of Miriam, a maiden, for the purposes of her plans. It also makes sense because Gremory aided Dominique with procuring the Liber Logaeth, a secret treasure. And lastly, the "past, present, and future" part kicks in when Dominique is shown to have a functional camera when O.D. notes that humans haven't invented it yet. Combined with this tidbit of Gremory, it implies that she was able to get one for Dominique.
Other than the subtle shout-out to JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Orlok Dracule's name makes even more sense when you consider where the name "Orlok" came from.note Nosferatu is a silent film based on Bram Stoker's Dracula, released in 1922. While the film was originally a straight adaptation, it fell into legal trouble due to not having legal permission to use the intellectual property. As a result, the names of virtually every character in the film were changed; specifically, Dracula was renamed to "Orlok." See the TV Tropes page on the film here. Like Orlok, OD is a clearly-recognizable character from another series, whom the developers of Bloodstained didn't have permission to include; as such, they found a way to include himwithout including him.
Anne, when taking over for Dominique as the shopkeeper, mentions knowing how to dispose of shards. Dominque's interest in them was to use them to give herself power and thus was buying them to get access to easy shards, so it seems odd Anne would be able to properly do it by watching, but it would make a lot of sense if Dominique chose to dispose of them the proper way when the little girl was watching if she got an inkling that the girl was copying her and didn't want her to accidently tip off the others who might recognize the wrong disposal method if Anne talked about it or showed them.
Lindsay's quests in general. She wants you to kill a number of monsters of the types responsible for the deaths of her family and friends. It's a pretty extensive list, containing some rather horrific demons. In other words, from her hiding place, she had to watch many of the people she knew and loved die to an expanding parade of horrible monsters, one by one, in enough detail to know exactly what monsters did it.
Dominique and Gebel are arguably dark reflections of the Belmont clan in the Castlevania series. Their exorcist bloodline allows them to resist demonic power, yet rather than becoming heroes because of this, Gebel becomes a test subject for the alchemists and the possessed pawn of a demon (something he seemingly doesn't survive) and Dominique goes off the deep end after seeing her family destroyed and resolves to gain demonic power for herself, showing what could happen if a Belmont willingly turned bad and combined their strength with demonic might. Dominique even uses a whip and light element attacks to reinforce the parallel further.
When fighting against Bael, you can attack any of its heads as you wish, but doing so will only put that head out of commission for a short time before it's back up again. In order to do any real damage onto him, you need to attack the head that Dominique is perched atop of in order to truly defeat it and send it back to hell. Which begs the question: what if Dominique wasn't there? Would this not make Bael literally unstoppable, without a literal weak point and controller? If humanity was screwed over for ten years by the demon invasion, then it would've been completely turned to Hell on Earth if the Alchemist's Guild had managed to summon Bael!
Even better, that Bael can only be properly harmed by attacking the head Dominique's on suggests that you're not harming Bael so much as Dominique herself. Whether this is that you're attacking Dominique directly, or making Bael heal himself by draining Dominique's vitality, is open for interpretation. The important part, though, is that the world is saved not by beating Bael to a pulp, but by breaking Dominique's control over him. Miriam couldn't actually defeat Bael anyway. If he hadn't been controlled by Dominique, he would have effaced Miriam — and if he'd been on the other side of his seal, nothing could possibly have stopped his rampage. The cherry on top is that Bael's "death" animation may not be him dying, but him returning to Hell — and taking the grievously wounded Dominique with him.
It's possible for Bloodless to still be around after the end of the game. How? You wouldn't be wrong if you answered that she's a Skippable Boss, but there's another possibility if she's not skipped: she's a vampire just like O.D. — whom after his defeat and "death" is still right as rain in his library, and explains that he can't die due to being a vampire. While O.D. was kind enough to inform Miriam that Defeat Equals Servitude for vampires, Bloodless was not; she could've resurrected and fled the castle while Miriam was ignorant, and remain at large unless Miriam stumbles across her again. While this is nice for the playerbase since this means a fan-favorite character can easily appear in future installments, it's not so nice In-Universe for the innocent humans that now have to deal with the rampage of a blood-bending vampire woman that's been kicked out of her home.
, a torture device that stretches the victim apart. And IGA is doing this while talking about the project's stretch goals.