The titular Curse of the Moon is a scheme by Gremory in response to Zangetsu's lone demon-slaying crusade.
- The scheme is basically this: using said curse, she draws Zangetsu to her on a path of his choosing in hopes of two outcomes: finally slaying the demon slayer or corrupting him into a powerful demon, sensing his potential. She tries to set up the latter by capturing 3 others that tried to fight the demons, that also are said to be associated with them. She figures that Zangetsu, in his grudge, would cut them down, drawing some power from the acts but pushing him closer to their side. However, due to the player controlling him, this causes a number of other alterations.
- Recruiting all 3 allies: While seemingly a failure at first, Gremory realizes that said allies could still be used. This ultimately amounts to her doing a last-ditch move, which Zangetsu takes for his allies, corrupting him largely, but not completely. This allows the others to leave and try to reverse things, leading to Nightmare mode, where they're afflicted with said curse, causing them to lose what Hearts/Jars/etc they had, but not separating them. This leads into Zangetsu's split sides having a favored outcome; his remaining good side hopes they can stop him, and his evil side hopes to slay them and finish the corruption. This means that to some extent, he's Fighting from the Inside during his final fight, with its bad end showing the fully corrupted state.
- Killing all 3: Perfect outcome, as Zangetsu becomes fully corrupted, taking the remaining darkness into himself. Ultimate mode could be explained canonically that as he is being corrupted, Zangetsu invokes the curse to go back in time and manages to do so with the ill-gotten soul arts/a new charge attack, allowing him to redo things correctly.
- Ignoring all 3: This is an unforeseen outcome where said trio proves to be the spanner to this plan, not only fully bringing the curse-induced loops to a close, but also causing Zangetsu's heart to soften, distancing him from the point of corruption. This is why it doesn't unlock anything.
- Any other outcome: Clearly not as planned, but Gremory just uses the time to prepare another loop which would allow for a more favorable result.
Zangetsu will appear in the next Gunvolt game.
- The Sumeragi building is visible in the otherwise incomprehensible Stinger. The Stinger is not meant to make sense within the context of the game, but to be Production Foreshadowing for Inti Creates' plans.
In 2, Dominique will betray Zangetsu and become a boss in some capacity
She is the Big Bad of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, and her status as such was not as clear in the beginning of Ritual, displaying herself as a helpful ally, and as revealed later, Gebel was not evil from the start in Ritual. In some capacity, Curse of the Moon 2 will retain that while making it clear that it still took place in another universe. Likewise, it won't be the first time that in Curse continuity, a playable character went rogue (it happened to Zangetsu).Another hints include the initial biographies:
- Robert's: He somehow hates the Church despite hating demons as well. Dominique is part of the Church, there's a chance that even if she won't become as personally monstrous as she was in Ritual, she could still be a bad guy in the way of being a fanatic of a Corrupt Church.
- Dominique's: She's looking for a certain demon. What's to say that she's looking for it for a selfish and/or destructive goal?
- Final result: Jossed. She's a Sheep in Sheep's Clothing.
Alt!Zangetsu is from the futuristic city.
After all, Alt!Zangetsu's sprite color is blue. And the futuristic city as shown in The Stinger's main color scheme? Blue. Zangetsu took the lessons of the first game to heart
In the following game, he's quick to make peace between his allies (mainly Robert's objections) and doesn't object to working with Dominique and Hachi. It's a far cry from how he was upon meeting the potential allies in the first game. Guesses for Robert's voice actor should he appear in a Ritual of the Night sequel (and the bosses fought)
Sariel is Gremory’s true master.
Gremory is shown to follow her own agenda and in Curse 2, Sariel is introduced, who is essentially a stronger version of Gremory. It’s safe to say this deity is her superior. Dominique in the second game is actually a Literal Split Personality
Of all the playable characters who appear in both Curse of the Moon and Ritual of the Night, Dominique displays the greatest discrepancy, even considering that Curse and Ritual are alternate continuities. Let's compare:- Zangetsu starts off a distrustful loner who eventually warms up to others. This characteristic is consistent in both games.
- Miriam is an All-Loving Hero. While she doesn't start playable in the first Curse game, she's the leader in that game's Nightmare mode, so this characteristic is consistent in both games.
- Alfred is an ally in Curse but an enemy in Ritual... at first. Turns out he has always been a heroic character in Ritual as well, merely getting off at the wrong foot with Miriam and co, so technically, he's an ally in both games.
- Gebel is an ally in Curse but an enemy in Ritual... because Gremory mind-controls him; he has always been on the side of good, so technically he's an ally in both games.
Speculation: Something happened (related to the demonic invasion, or one of Sariel's antics or something) that caused Dominique to become split into a good half and an evil half. In Ritual, we never get to see the good half, while in Curse, instead we never get to see her evil half.
- Or it could be a case of for-want-of-a-nail: What is shared between Ritual and Curse is that the demon invasion happened because the Alchemists are at it again, but depending on the continuity, what they summoned differed: In Ritual, it was Bael, but in Curse, it's Sariel, and this in turn has a different effect on Dominique, the Church Militant. Bael was summoned so close to England, if not right in the middle of England altogethernote , giving everyone except the Alchemist Guild no time to prepare for such a devastating demonic invasion, thereby inducing a Faith–Heel Turn on Dominique because she thought God didn't care to save humanity from such a sudden danger. But Sariel was summoned on the moon, meaning the bulk of his invasion didn't come as suddenly, so while Dominique still lost family members, her faith to a good God remained unshaken (or was shaken not as severely that she could afford opening up to other people and forming friendships for real and healing the wound, instead of developing sociopathic mindset that viewed other people as pawns, not possible friends), so she remains a good guy through and through.
Curse of the Moon True End will be revisited in another game
Maybe under another title that has nothing to do with the Moon. But it picks off after Zangetsu was thrown off to the futuristic city. Not the first time Inti Creates created a 'sequel' that picks off from an original game's story branch that wasn't used for the main sequel's used story branch.
