WMG / Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Pre-release

The Castle is Castlevania.

So Gebel summons a "demon castle from hell." Well, YEAH. Since this world isn't Earth, it's not trapped in the lunar eclipse.

• This world isn't Earth? There are clear references to real world places, as well as religions, in the game.

Gebel is not the true Big Bad or True Final Boss.

The entire game is a complex gambit by one of the evil alchemists to use the curse to gain ultimate power, which is...

The Philosopher's Stone.

How can you make a story about alchemy and not have it appear in some way? Hell, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence had the Crimson Stone stand in!

Dracula will be the true final boss

This is most likely for one very simple reason: Dracula is a Public Domain Character. Konami has absolutely no rights to him or any of the other "creatures of the night" (from the public domain) that have appeared in the Castlevania games. Alternately, he and Gebel will in fact be one and the same. Furthermore...

Other public domain characters will appear

This will include — but by no means be limited to — The Grim Reaper, who is often portrayed as Dracula's Dragon.

• Confirmed on the "public domain" part — demons from the Ars Goetia will be included. Still no word on The Grim Reaper.
• Iga has mentioned in an interview that he won't have Dracula make a direct appearance (Expys are obviously still fair game), so if The Grim Reaper does make an appearance, he likely won't be called Death, but maybe Reaper, Harvester, or even Azrael (Angel of Death).

If Gebel is not the Final Boss/True Final Boss, Gremory will be

Based on the 2018 E3 demo version, it appears that Gremory will serve as Gebel's right-hand demon. Now, given that Gremory is the Big Bad of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, it seems logical that Gremory will play a major part in the game, up to backstabbing Gebel when the moment arises.

• Yep.

At the end of the game, the curse is broken and Gebel is redeemed.

IGA has said that he prefers happy endings generally. Also, the only "bad" thing I recall Gebel doing prior to the story's beginning is summoning demons to kill the Alchemists. The same Alchemists who subjected innocent people to an awful curse to terrorize humanity out of sheer power-lust. Yeah.

• Jossed, at least sort of: in at least the true ending, Gremory's domination over Gebel with her powers is disrupted, but she also played a role in him not succumbing to the curse of crystallization. That said, though, once freed from Gremory's control, Gebel does at least face his fate as himself, expressing gratitude to Miriam for the role she played in the event.

There will be at least three endings.

It's a common IGA trope. There'll be one bad ending, one bittersweet ending, and one golden ending.

• Semi-confirmed. There are three endings, but they fall into the categories of bad, bad, and bittersweet. The first bad ending is Miriam being implied to be later controlled by Gremora due to her high amount of shards collected. In the second bad ending Miriam defeats Gebel and he dies, but she never learns that Dominique had plans to destroy the world and thus leaves her to deal with the demon castle. In the closest thing to a golden ending it’s still bittersweet as both Gebel and Alfred die.

Possible Ending Scenarios

Added to the above, possible ending types could be affected from an exploration and/or morality system:

(Bad)

• Miriam completely succumbs to the curse and becomes like Gebel even when he's defeated.
  • Assuming she even gets to Gebel — if this is anything like the bad endings of past IGA-produced titles, like, say, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, or Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, screwing up this badly could end the story on a sour note well before the final confrontation with the Big Bad.
  • Alternatively, considering the dialogues so far seen in the demo, the ending where Miriam becomes a demon lord just like Gebel may instead be achieved by getting 100% completion.

(Bittersweet)

• Miriam is forced to Mercy Kill Gebel because he becomes a Reluctant Psycho in the end.
• Miriam has to seal Gebel since he was too far gone to save, but she doesn't want to kill him.
• Miriam will start her own Heroic Lineage like the Belmonts. It could be her own children if her curse doesn't affect her ability to have kids and she ages like a normal person. Or alternatively, she adopts children whom she teaches to fight the demons that will threaten the Earth if Gebel turns out to be a recurring antagonist like Dracula was or a way to seal Gebel.

(Neutral)

• See Bittersweet above.

(Golden)

• A way to dispel the curse is found in the castle or somehow developed by Johannes so Miriam and Gebel could live their lives normally.
  • Semi-confirmed. Miriam isn't cured, but Johannes tells her he may have found a way to permanently free her from the risk of being fully consumed by the Shards. Exactly how remains unknown...

Those who become fully crystalized turn into Demons.

The Alchemists did use the curse as a way to make demons start appearing on earth. However, perhaps as a way to ensure there'd be more demons, they made it so that when someone becomes fully crystalized, they would become a demon themselves. For example, Gebel is practically covered from head to toe in the stuff, and he's presumably become a lot more powerful (and deranged) for it.

Given the factor that the Alchemists put the curse on pure orphans, it would also mean they've basically crossed the Moral Event Horizon by making them into demons as well.

There will be a LOT of human-sized bosses, maybe like 5 or 6

Based on the previously-mentioned WMG about orphans turning into demons, the fact that Gebel originally summoned the demon castle to give Miriam a home, the fact that the game will have a 'Boss Revenge' mode where we'll play as bosses instead of Miriam or her allies, and finally the demo boss Bloodless, it seems that a great majority of bosses in the game may actually be these orphans who have been so corrupted by the curse that they have become demons themselves while retaining their humanoid forms. Some justifications for this are:

• From a gameplay standpoint, how are you going to play as Vepar? It's much easier to imagine how the human-sized Bloodless will play in the game compared to the big Vepar.
• From a flavor standpoint, notice that Gebel summoned the castle to give Miriam a home? What if he also actually intended to have said castle be some sort of orphanage for these cursed orphans? That does lead to a Fridge Horror and Fridge Sadness; Miriam will be fighting many formerly innocent orphans who have been cursed, delivering a Mercy Kill on each of them on her way to Gebel.

Voltaic Chain will be available as a usable item or an equipment-specific ability as opposed to an obtainable skill.

This assumption is mostly based on the fact that, despite Voltaic Chain being available for use by Miriam, even in this game it's still referred to as a Septima and not demonic power. That likely means that unlike most attacks Miriam can obtain later, this is not obtained as a demon shard, and there's no hint that Miriam would be an innate Adept either (which would be blatantly weird anyway). So how would she be able to use Voltaic Chain? Two possibilities:

• It's contained as a one-use item (similar to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night's Power Of Sire Smart Bomb).
• It's a special ability that can only be used if Miriam equips a specific item (for example, a Glaive pendant).

Miriam will become corrupted and then saved from that fate by Zangetsu

This is to mirror Curse of the Moon where it was Zangetsu who was corrupted and then saved by those versions of Miriam, Alfred and Gebel. If we consider the possibility that Ritual!Zangetsu is actually a purified Curse!Zangetsu who managed to get around the afterlife issues and learn about the Alternate Universe between Ritual and Curse, then perhaps Zangetsu would consider it a debt he owed to Miriam.

Post-release

Gremory is aware of the events in Curse of the Moon and that's why she's avoiding Zangetsu desperately

As in the main "routes" of the other game, she is the final boss he faces and it's possible to win regardless of allies or power ups. Thus she knows if they were to fight, he would defeat her. She doesn't hold Miriam in much regard, as she's never fought in that game's Nightmare mode, where Miriam is more or less the main character.

Dominique tried ten years ago to become a shardbinder and failed

Her cutscene and dialogue before her final battle don't outright state it, but it's mostly implied. In her past, Dominique tried to replicate the process of becoming a shardbinder and was rewarded with her body robbed of its original skin and replaced with a texture similar to that of clothing. When her body starts to crystalize, notice her tights and her left eye are affected. By looking at her hands and legs, it appears that she was wearing her universe appropiate nun habit, universe appropiate nun attire, gold jewelry, a garter, and shoes from the very beginning of the game. A disturbing note, if the tights were skin from the start, then it's clear that she has been Going Commando the whole time.

Dominique will return as the "Dracula" of Bloodstained

Her motivation is similar to that of Mathias Cromqvist (Dracula) from Castlevania: Lament Of Innocence, blaming and denouncing God for the destruction of her loved ones and seeking unholy power in the name of revenge. Given her somewhat ambiguous defeat at the end of the game and the multitudes of Castlevania nods in this game, a return as the recurring antagonist may not be out-of-the-question.

Zangetsu was sent to the same "Future" City he went to at the end of Curse of the Moon.

It's likely Dis.

A later Bloodstained game will include an Expy of the alchemical lion

As the "beast that devours the sun", the lion will be a natural counterpart of Gremory (whether or not it's a Good Counterpart is up for grabs). Cue inevitable comparisons to Solgaleo and Lunala and Zero III.

The Setting is an Alternate Timeline where Lisa Tepes was not killed.

In the Bloodstained universe, her influence on Dracula led him to abandoning his war on humanity. Lisa also spread knowledge of medicine to a degree unheard of. However, Dracula was still a vampire well-versed in the dark arts. There were disciplines that humanity would be better off not knowing, so their son Adrian Fahrenheit Tepes helped organize what books and knowledge should be disseminated or not. Nevertheless, an edited form of Alchemy flourished in the world.

Raised without opposing his father, Adrian eventually became a full vampire (and took the name Orlok Dracule instead of Alucard) sometime after his mother died a peaceful death of old age. He became a librarian for spirits and denizens of other planes.

• It took the Alchemy Guild 300-400 years to corrupt Lisa’s teachings, but they managed it. Nevertheless, by this time in the original timeline, Dracula had attacked several times already, so it is a net positive.
• The Belmonts are powered by Dracula's existence as the Heir of Chaos. Without him being a threat, the Vampire Killer whip depowered and they moved on.

Alternatively, Bloodstained is related to Castlevania (2017)

Note that like in Bloodstained, the forces of darkness in Castlevania (2017), or at least those under Dracula, is aware of advanced technology, from simple things like lightbulbs going upwards. Also, Alucard is left by himself inhabiting Dracula's Castle and Belmont's Hold by the end of Season 2, both buildings holding a massive collection of knowledge that he may very well decide to safeguard himself, eventually turning him into Orlok Dracule.

Bloodstained takes place in the same world as Bayonetta

A lot of the cosmology lines up: God being absent at best, an asshole at worst; demons being ready to flood the world, and so on. But the clincher is the "dragged to hell" animation that greater demons like Gremory are associated with. It's very similar to what happens to Umbra Witches when they die or their pact-partner comes to collect debts (i.e. Game Over screens, Jeanne at the start of Bayonetta 2). As for why such relevant factions don't appear in the game and lore, the Umbra Witches and Lumen Sages could have been instrumental in repelling the incursion ten years ago, but prefer to kept their involvement quiet. And for the current crisis, either the characters from the game simply reacted quicker (Alfred timed everything out deliberately, after all) or this takes place concurrent with the Lumen vs. Umbra war that forms part of Bayonetta’s backstory.

Anne, the shopkeeper little girl, will be a playable character in a future Bloodstained game

This is based on a few things that happen near the end-game, namely, Dominique leaving the shop for good. Normally, Dominique as an exorcist has the means to handle shards Miriam sell to her, but even with her gone, Anne has learned enough about the shards, which normally is too dangerous for mere humans to handle, which allows her to continue buying shards from Miriam.

This means either Anne eventually learns the full scope of what happens in Ritual and vows to follow in Miriam's footsteps, or she may actually be another exorcist (perhaps raised by exorcist parents, like Dominique) who thus may play an important role in the future.

Susie was once a mighty warrior

Unlike the other quest-givers, who give you a rather random selection of items, Susie mostly give you an impressive set of weapons. Why would an old woman have the spear of a famous Chinese general? Because she used those weapons to fight evil. She might have even helped vanquish demons during the initial summoning ten years ago. Sadly, we'll never know, as Susie herself no longer remembers.

Zangetsu comes from a clan of demon hunters

Specifically, the clan in question is this game’s version of the Belmont clan. The head of the clan inherits the Zangetsuto and takes on the name of “Zangetsu”.

The Zangetsu DLC will focus on how he got out of Hell.

The area itself will be something akin to the Reverse Castle in Symphony of the Night. Without Zangetsuto, he will have to rely on a multitude of weapons much like Miriam. But instead of human allies, he's forced to rely on demons.

• Jossed. Zangetsu Mode is basically a mixture of the two Julius Modes from the Sorrow duology: a hypothetical scenario where Miriam succumbed to the corruptive influence of Shardbinding, and Zangetsu is the only character with the ability to put an end to her before she can do too much damage to the world.

Miriam is unknowingly a descendant of the Belmonts

Going by the theory that Bloodstained is an alternate timeline of Castlevania, Miriam is one of the last people with Belmont blood in existence, which would explain why she's so skilled at killing demons. Furthermore, her (former) natural blonde hair and blue eyes are found in Belmonts like Simon and Leon. There's also the fact that the whip is considered her signature weapon in Curse of the Moon.

Bloodless is still alive, but should she come back in a later installment, she will be an ally.

O.D. is immortal due to being a vampire, and Bloodless very possibly has the same traits, however like O.D., she is now in servitude of Miriam, the difference being that she is too prideful to admit as much, and choose to perform her servitude by avoiding behavior her new mistress would disapprove, forcing her into a similar Token Heroic Orc role as O.D..

The protagonists for future 3D Bloodstained games will follow a different pattern than Castlevania

Most of Castlevania's protagonists are from the Belmont clan. Future installments for 3D Bloodstained games will instead have most of the protagonists be unrelated to each other, but will all have one thing in common: they have the ability to absorb demonic power. Whether this is by being a Shardbinder or something else will vary from game to game.