A recent interview with Bloodstained Ritual of Night creator Koji Igarashi brought to light some interesting developer guidelines when it came to creating bosses for the title.

Bloodstained Developers Followed Strict No Hits Taken Requirement for Their Bosses

The igavania Bloodstained Ritual of the Night released last month with positive reviews. The mind behind the title Koji Igarashi definitely had some interesting ideas for this latest title which included a particular rule for developers to follow. According to the interview by gamasutra (highlighted by Nibel) developers were required to design bosses they could defeat themselves without taking a hit or defeat only by using a dagger.

According to Igarashi this requirement although not exactly a guideline, was put in place to make sure that bosses would have a reduced “number of unfair enemy attacks” making it fairer to play. This isn’t just for the easiest level of difficulty, this requirement had to be met all on difficulty levels.

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…)

From this it sounds like being able to beat the bosses once with these restrictions was more than enough, and created quite the challenge for the developers at ArtPlay. This is an interesting way to test bosses to see if they have too many overpowered moves, and it’s kind of satisfying to know that the developers were also put through their paces with their very own creations.

If you wanted to know what we thought of Bloodstained Ritual of the Night be sure to check out our review. If you’re currently making your way through the castle be sure to use our Bloodstained Ritual of the Night wiki.

For more Bloodstained content be sure to read next Bloodstained Ritual Of The Night Gets Development Update For Switch And More. You can use our Trophy Guide to unlock platinum or 100% the game.