Interestingly, it doesn't seem like the updates went out The changes they detailed once I saw them didn't seem all that bad, so I could live with them to get the fixes. But no updates on GoG or PS4. Don't know about the Switch.

Any idea if the update fixes the achievements?

Maybe. The notes were vague at best. The balance changes were listed, map fixes, and that's about it. Could be one of those things that falls under "Various" bug fixes.

Or, given the radio silence, they may be walking back a lot of planned changes. Hard to tell, which is kind of frustrating.

No, not the achievements. But you can avoid saving your game and go after each achievement, one by one. Checking to see if they registered; if not, just load your game and try again. I had like 5 achievements that i earned, only the 2nd time i tried.

The certain fixes are the one from reading books and game crashes after and a handful of other, lesser ones... That i myself never encountered. This is actually a NERFPATCH. Little else, honestly. The serious issues, like the certain crash at oriental sorcery lab, sliding panel room... Or the one Miriam becomes headless, game freezes... Haven't been touched at all, not even discussed/noticed by the devs. Ediots whining at Steam forums, spamming for nerfs, while they actually haven't bothered beating the very first, easiest mode yet, somehow made the company realize this is their top priority, right now.

And don't expect any news, on second playable character, or any other additional content pieces, anytime soon. Or a definitive Switch fix, for that matter.

A nerf only patch? Is Mr. Igarashi just looking to make his game look worse to potential buyers while simulateneously upseting current customers?

I have lost a lot of respect for this guy, he is ruining these kinds of games for players. Sure he talked a good game but it seems like Mr. Igarashi is a lot more mouth and a bit less deliver.

The game is not bad, but it is not as good as the others... especially not SOTN, I think Mr. Igarashi was just a flash in the pan now and he is out running around in shoes too big for him to fill.

Over a dozen games in two decades is hardly what I would call a, "flash in the pan." Also, these "nerfs" were miniscule and I can't tell the difference while playing. Granted I'm on a NG+ run, but I don't think these are huge issues to get upset about; I just don't see what the proglem is.

More than just Igarashi worked on those games, which means something was there to temper what his game ideas where and improve upon what he thought was a good game. That seems to be missing here. I will grant you that it may be premature to call him a flash in the pan, but I have complaints about two of his post Konami life releases and I have doubts he will be able to deliver us another SOTN or any of the others, though I hope I am wrong.

It is good that you are enjoying the game, there is nothing wrong with that, I am just saying that I like a little more Metriod in my metriodvanias and for me, I feel more original castlevania is in this game than the newer more recent castlevanias. I have usually had more fun with Metroidvanias that are more metroid than castlevania. I like the setting, lore, and storyline of Castlevania types while enjoying the control, gameplay, character progression, and exploration elements of Metroid.

Arguing for a similar experience to SoTN is a hard point. On one hand I would say you can't innovate and grow when you're rehashing the same game. On the other hand, metroidvanias don't seem to have a lot of room to do something different than their origins. I won't say that's a fact as I don't play lots of them. I'm definitely in agreement with you that I loved some of the older lore in the Castlevania games (however corny it was, I loved it), and I definitely enjoy the Metroid side of the game.

I'm kinda in a toss-up with your first point. A lot of developers that moved to Kickstarters to manage their own product have fallen on their faces or got lost in feature creep (Looking at you Star Citizen). I would say Iga succeded in the sense that: 1) game was finished and released; 2) recieved good reviews; 3) made profit. Now for being fun, that's purely in the eyes of the beholder.

I would not say that they would not be great limited in inovation by rehashing the same game. Some of my specific gripes would be... player controls where the movement felt more stiff than fluid like SOTN. Special moves being locked down to only specific weapons themselves. For example a weapon might be a dagger type but you still cannot perform the same special move another dagger type can. Crafting system... it would say it is more of an "upgrade system". Weapons are all rigid and stuck on practically a single move and felt even more limiting than SOTN even though SOTN has this with it's weapons just not a rigidly so because no matter what weapon you equiped you still had your special moves. I think this could be greatly improved in both SOTN and ROTN without upsetting anyone. This is why I say that ROTN is closer to original castlevania games than even SOTN was. I have played nearly every Castlevania game and Metroid game. Backdashing was also intentionally nerfed in ROTN as well which made me think... hmm... too much control over the player experience is being exerted.

Another complaint would be the running through areas with no enemies... just a long boring run to get from point A to B. Secrets were pretty bland and seemed to be not really all that awesome to discover. Locked Doors that require story progession to unlock... this is definitely not considered a Metroidvania theme. Sequence Breaking is a big Metroidvania theme and there does not seem to be any room for that in ROTN, though I admit that once I have beaten the first part of the game I have lost the interest to finish the last bit so maby Sequence Breaking is possible in SOTN but I don't see how yet.

Yea, I totally agree with you on Star Citizen. Yes, I was a supporter, it is my first and my last crowdfunded game. I learned everything I needed to know about crowdfunding from that game. I will agree that Iga did well on that front and even released a game that was not even asked for COTM. My only complaint with COTM is that controller support is lacking and terrible. Otherwise it was a short but fun game.

But I think that Iga is more Castlevania than Metriodvania, and that is my 2nd biggest complaint... only after the terrible controller support.

As a fan of the game, I think this post has a lot of GREAT criticisms of it. You really nail down the weak points of the game and I can't even argue them there. At this point it's now: 1) Accept the short comings and play it; 2) Acknowledge the short comings and don't. I do enjoy the game still, but I really got to acknowledge these were some great points of criticism.

I fuckin' hate nerfing post game launch months out, sure you can nerf pre-game launch all you want but if your players are knee deep into the game, you only end up screwing the established gamers that already got used to adjusting their play-style to the original game... I suppose I'm fortunate as I got the game post-nerf...

What can you do? People were nagging about this weapon being OP or that shard being too good for you... They ranted and ranted in places like Steam forums: "X weapon ruined my experience with the game, i am going to stop playing", "Y shard make the game pointlessly easy", "Z familiar renders Hardest difficulty a walk in the park", etc.

Those ediots, stopped playing the game, or didn't even beat Normal and thankfully at that, too! Or else, they would have nagged for REALLY good things to get dumbened down... Void Ray? Chisel Barrage? Wolfman shield? There are tons of other gameplay options, that are REALLY broken, so much that makes using weapons entirely needless, to begin with!

If they nerf NOTHING else and no further the already existing changes, it is bearable, by real players of the game.

P.S. You can always reroll back to a previous version, though, through Galaxy, without those stupid nerfs!

Small indies always listen to the nerf nazis, they want to fuck it up for everyone and not just stay within the hard difficulty settings.

Isn't this called balancing? Nerfing and buffing is just words and only means "something change" toward casual and general players while the hardcore fans arguing about it. If a weapon is strong enough to merely rely on its properties is the no skills involved case and I guess one of the main reason everyone start looking for different tools to play with to keep their playing interesting. Balancing is required to make every option feel like an option and not just a shenanigan. There are things in the game that is dedicated to be a shenanigan anyway.