I beat RotN on stream. Then I beat Zangetsu mode. Then I beat Boss Revenge. I'm not going to mess with Randomizer at this time, but another day, perhaps.
Zangetsu mode is pretty good. I question the decision to require defeating all bosses before advancing to the final areas—whereas in similar modes in Castlevania games, making a bee-line for the end of the game or poking around and beefing up for safety is the player's choice to make. But I get the desire to ensure it's a decently substantial experience for everyone—and it's actually a good thing I poked around as much as I did, because the consecutive fights against [spoilers] and Bael are completely out of balance with everything up to that point.
Out of a nearly four-hour stream, I took two hours getting to those two and the rest of it throwing attempts at just them. Then I looked up some advice and found a method for beating [spoilers] centered on using Zangetsu's quarter-circle forward attack repeatedly. But I found you can't just mash out the input, or he'll just loop the start-up animation and never get around to the actual attack. That's...manageable, but I can't think of another game where a motion input attack works this way. Worse was that I just couldn't get the attack to come out consistently at all. And I play fighting games; I know my QCFs. After a long time, I discerned that the game just doesn't parse the motion at the speed I was moving the stick. It only works if you slow it way down.
Bael was just a matter of knowing that you only win the fight when you kill the head [spoilers] is currently riding. Other than the fact that [spoilers] is there, there's no indication that this is how it works; all the heads flash, display damage numbers, and make juicy, affirming noises regardless. And the name of the enemy is just "Bael," so I only ever thought to focus on Bael, not that other punk. There's never any need to know this when playing as Miriam, since she's a god by the end of the game and has access to as many healing items as you care to bring; but it's effectively required knowledge if you don't want your Level 25 Zangetsu to lose a battle of attrition. There is some pretty neat Zangetsu-only content if you get past all that, though.
Safe to say I feel more good vibes toward Boss Revenge. Since it's not obvious what it comprises before you jump in: You select one of four of the game's smaller, more humanoid bosses and fight through a sort of reverse boss rush consisting of Zangetsu, [spoilers], and finally Miriam. Each playable boss features a full set of moves varying in power, utility, and MP consumption, as well as a single move dedicated to recovering MP. And despite being small and humanoid, the way some of them play is totally alien from Miriam, Zangetsu, or what you'd expect from any player character. Bathin's walk speed is slow as to be useless, and he can't jump at all, forcing you to rely on Reflector Reflection Ray (and occasional backdash-canceling) as your basic means of movement. Gremory flies freely in all directions but has a great big hitbox and can't move very quickly, necessitating use of her Dimension Shift ability to dodge many attacks. I completely understand why these characters didn't get full runs of the castle (just accommodating Zangetsu was awkward enough at times), and it's still fulfilling just to get the hang of their unique limitations and abilities enough to survive this gauntlet of three opponents.
Next up is Curse of the Moon 2, which I will be playing for the first time. Looking forward to it.
