Bloodstained part 4: Liquid assets
1This segment starts with a bloodbath, then continues into easily hands-down the worst "progression" in the game before we get to rinse ourselves off, immediately before drowning in sand.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to _require_ obtaining a random-chance drop in order to progress in the game should not be allowed within a 50-mile radius of a level design job ever again. Fortunately, since I've played the game before, I knew about this going in, but it took roughly a dozen kills (which would be 4 more than the quest for the same enemy requires) before one dropped the shard required for underwater movement. The shard does have a higher-than-usual drop rate, but I guess it was too much to ask to code a guaranteed drop on the first kill instead, which would make this far less problematic - albeit still problematic, as no other progression relies on a non-boss enemy drop. I have to wonder if any other metroidvania in history has ever committed such a conveyance crime...
Our quest continues through 2 of the most dangerous areas of the game: the Hidden Desert, full of tricky terrain accompanied by poisonous frogs and other powerful enemies that can easily decimate your health, and the Inferno Cave, which compounds poor save point placement (none between the previous area's boss door and immediately before its own) with plenty of strong enemies, lava hazards, and the true final boss: the inability to see anything that's attacking you because enemies are the same color as the backdrop (which is also constantly searing your eyeballs to begin with). Did QA just skip this section, or did their literal vision take a backseat to some designer's figurative one?
With these sections survived and Orobas defeated, we've made considerable progress, and the game world will be wide open for us to explore next time.
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