Here’s a fun story coming out of an interview with Gamasutra! Koji Igarashi, creator of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, shared that during the development process for the game, the game designers were required to be able to beat the bosses they created without taking a single hit:
“I wouldn’t call it a design guideline but Bloodstained does follow a strict rule that I always make the team [adhere] to. That is…the developer who creates the boss must beat their own boss without taking a hit and only using a dagger! (We almost didn’t make it…)”
“We make sure that it’s possible to beat a boss without taking a hit regardless of the difficulty and by doing so, we reduce the number of unfair enemy attacks. Removing the ‘unfairness’ allows players to think about what they could have done to avoid a Game Over. It makes them want to challenge the boss again using a different method. It’s a golden rule we follow in our games. (Honestly, don’t ask us to complete this challenge more than once though…)”
The point was to make sure all the bosses were as fair as possible, which is an intriguing piece of information considering the Bloodstained bosses have become known—in the short time since game release—for being notoriously challenging.
Will this make you approach playing the game differently? If you’re struggling, just remember—it is possible to beat them with just a dagger and zero health damage to yourself. It can be and has been done!
