History VideoGame / BloodstainedCurseOfTheMoon

** The Soul Eraser's enhanced sword attacks basically give Zangetsu a [[VideoGame/MegaManZero Z-Saber]].

* PowerUpLetdown: In Episode 2, you can try to gather three different colored sword to get the Zanmatou, and you're given quite the fanfare for unlocking it. However, doing that means you just {{Nerf}}ed Zangetsu into his vanilla form, no more 3 hit combo, no more vertical jumping slash, no more superpowered subweapons. [[spoiler: It's what you need to unlock the good ending, as it's description is a weapon created to destroy evil without hurting what's good. Perfect for saving someone from the grip off a demon.]]

** Alfred is a SquishyWizard with pathetic range that even Zangetsu can potentially outrange to some extent, and his gameplay is entirely based on his spells he can use as Subweapons. That said, if you're good with him, he can blas through stages easily, leaving a mountain of corpses in his wake.

* DifficultButAwesome: Miriam's [[AnAxeToGrind Axe]] sub-weapon. It costs six WEAPON points for a slow, yet powerful swing; it has a very short range, a second-long delay before striking, and can be interrupted. However, it is the most damaging sub-weapon; in fact, it's so strong that it can OneHitKill most non-boss enemies. With enough practice, it can defeat most bosses in a few hits.

* CuttingOffTheBranches: Subverted, as all three original allies are alive and have fought alongside Zangetsu previously, which cannot happen in any route in the original game where Zangetsu survives. Specific details of any event that happened in the first ''Curse'' are also omitted entirely, with the opening scroll neglecting to mention the fates of either Zangetsu or his allies in their last adventure.

* CuttingOffTheBranches: Miriam, Alfred, and Gebel are all alive and friends with Zangetsu, suggesting that none of the paths in the first game involving killing '''OR''' ignoring them are canon for this game, although ''Curse 2'' also [[AbortedArc ignores]] the ending of Nightmare Mode by having Zangetsu alive and well in the games' relative present day, and yet it's shown that all three fought beside Zangetsu, which would have lead to Nightmare Mode in the first game.

** An unstated effect of certain attacks is "crushing" damage, which is able to pierce enemies with very high defenses that would otherwise repel other attacks and break steel blocks. The only attacks in the game that deal crushing damage are Miriam's Axe Subweapon and the aforementioned ChargedAttack that Zangetsu gets from killing Gebel (or from playing Ultimate).

* WeirdMoon: Pay close attention to the Moon as you progress through each Episode, especially if you unlocked Episode EX before playing the Final Episode. [[spoiler:You'll notice it progressively become ''bigger'' compared to previous Episodes.]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Where have we seen that before?]]

* WeirdMoon: Pay close attention to the Moon as you progress through each Episode, especially if you unlocked Episode EX before playing the Final Episode. [[spoiler:You'll it progressively become ''bigger'' compared to previous Episodes.]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Where have we seen that before?]]

* OneUp: ''[=CotM 2=]'' does away with the score counter from the original game and instead displays a score meter that fills up, granting you an extra life when completely full.

* CuttingOffTheBranches: Miriam, Alfred, and Gebel are all alive and friends with Zangetsu, suggesting that none of the paths in the first game involving killing '''OR''' ignoring them are canon for this game, although ''Curse 2'' also [[AbortedArc ignores]] the ending of Nightmare Mode by having Zangetsu alive and well in the games' relative present dat, and yet it's shown that all three fought beside Zangetsu, which would have lead to Nightmare Mode in the first game.

* DownerEnding: The normal ending of Episode 2 ends with [[spoiler:Zangetsu wounding, but not killing the FinalBoss, as he feared the Soul Eraser would take Dominique's life as well. This results in the boss using its LastDitchMove, and while Zangetsu, Robert, and Hachi escape alive, Robert and Hachi are too injured to keep going, forcing Zangetsu to continue alone.]]

* GainaxEnding: The secret ending when you finish Ultimate Mode without recruiting anyone. [[spoiler:With the help of his friends, Zangetsu cleaved Sariel just like he did to Gremory in ''1''. By doing that, he cleaved the whole moon, the place where they're fighting. And that's it, cue credit roll, no need to worry about how the rest of the group are gonna survive getting cleaved with the moon or how long Zangetsu is going to stay in space without air.]]

* InfinityMinusOneSword: The Zanmatō, which {{Nerf}}s Zangetsu back down to just one sword slice and normal sub-weapons, yet can kill Mephisto without harming Dominique. See also SwordOfPlotAdvancement below.
* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Daizangetsutō, which you only obtain if you depart for the Final Stage with no allies. It basically gives you back what the Zanmatō took away and unlocks a secret variation of the TrueFinalBoss and a secret ending to go with it.

** Dominique [[spoiler:vowed to destroy Mephisto for the sake of her parents, and jumped at the opportunity when the Church caught wind of his appearance. However, Mephisto requires DemonicPossession to take form, and TakingTheBullet was part of her plan to give Mephisto form so Zangetsu could kill both of them. However, her experience with the group made her realize that she didn't want to die, and she expresses her gratitude to Zangetsu for saving her]].
** Robert [[spoiler:was not quite the sour prude he's known for now when he was younger, but arriving home only to be met by a demon killing and eating his wife spurred sheer hatred within him, and he sought out Zangetsu as someone who shared the same hate and loathing that he did]].
** Hachi [[spoiler:has apparently followed Zangetsu ever since a fateful night's favor. Zangetsu also reveals that it was Robert who gave him the name "Hachi"; Zangetsu originally wanted to call him "Zangetsumaru"]].

* MythologyGag: The FinalBoss of Episode 2 and Episode EX is quite literally [[spoiler:the save room from ''Ritual of the Night''.]]

* WeirdMoon: Pay close attention to the overworld moon during the campfire scene before the final stage. [[spoiler:As you progress from [[https://youtu.be/b7AEQ5lDz-o?t=47 Episode 1]], [[https://youtu.be/b7AEQ5lDz-o?t=101 Episode 2]] and [[https://youtu.be/b7AEQ5lDz-o?t=155 EX Episode]], the moon progressively become ''bigger'']].
* WeirdWeather: The first stage's background features a sea of clouds blowing past rather quickly. WordOfGod is that the team really likes moving stages but didn't want to repeat the LocomotiveLevel from ''[=CotM 1=]'' so they added a moving parallax background to invoke the feeling of movement in an otherwise static level.

** Episode EX's stage 2 is called The Blue Rose, which is the signature sword that Miriam is seen wielding in her promotional images in ''VideoGame/BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight''.
** The subtitle for the Final Episode is "Cleave the Moon", much like the name of the last stage in the previous game if you didn't recruit any allies. Furthermore, attempting the final stage without recruiting allies changes the stage's name to [[GratuitousLatin "Luna Secare"]], meaning "cleave the moon", [[spoiler:and this time around, Zangetsu does exactly that]].

* CuttingOffTheBranches: Miriam, Alfred, and Gebel are all alive, suggesting that none of the paths in the first game involving killing them are canon for this game, although ''2'' also [[AbortedArc ignores]] the ending of Nightmare Mode, suggesting that this game follows an ending where Zangetsu ignored one or two allies in the first game.

* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: A couple times the level boss can be seen in the background. You might be wondering why the moon keeps appearing even when Gremory has been defeated...

** Hachi and Gebel: Both have flight capabilities, do not have attacks that go along the ground, and neither use sub-weapons (meaning that weapon lamps give jars).

** Robert and Alfred: Both start with the lowest health of their respective teams and gave powerful distance attacks.

** Dominique and Miriam: Both are the lone women and play the role of Teammom during a crisis. They also both use shards, with Dominique's sub-weapon output looking like them in this installment and Miriam using them in ''VideoGame/BloodstainedRitualOfTheNight''.

*** Speaking of Inti's references to a [[VideoGame/MegaManZero previous series,]] [[spoiler: Mephisto's]] BeamSpam attack is shot-for-shot Seraph Copy-X's own BeamSpam from ''VideoGame/MegaManZero1'' slowed down to account for a lack of a dash or wall climb in this game, except for the fact the orbs the lasers are shot from are colored red and blue...making them look a lot like Crea and Prea from ''VideoGame/MegaManZero3''.

* BlingBlingBang: Valefor is a demon composed of gold coins and attacks you with mountains of coins, his fists, and gold-plated {{mook}}s.

** The true final stage of the game brings in mind [[spoiler:''Konami VideoGame/WaiWaiWorld'', a platforming game which has an UnexpectedShmupLevel near the end of and topping it off with an AstralFinale.]]

* RedHerring: The score/life counter at the top right of the screen also has a timer function, which would indicate the presence of a TimedMission. There is nothing of the sort; the timer (currently) does nothing, as it's always set to infinite.

* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Stage 4 is a town that's been frozen over, requisite ice physics included. Notably, Hachi's PoweredArmor has the ability to walk on iced surfaces normally with special treads, making platforming significantly easier if you have him (and much harder when you don't).

* UnexpectedShmupLevel: In the Ultimate Mode, [[spoiler:after gathering all the materials needed, Alfred constructs an alchemist-based battle plane that travels to the moon and fires weapons based on the playable characters' abilities. Cue a top-down plane shooter gameplay similar to ''VideoGame/{{Twinbee}}'' or ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}} / Life Force''.]]

* UpToEleven: If ''Curse of the Moon 1'' is an evolution of ''Videogame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'' then ''2'' is this trope with the inclusion of three new playable characters bringing to playable character count to ''seven'' and the inclusion of two-player co-op.

* ContinuingIsPainful: [[spoiler:Much like any classic arcade shooter, dying in the Flying Armor cause you to lose all of your power-ups and leaves you with just the standard normal shot. You do spit out one upgrade and a Speed boost on death, but you better hope you can pick those up in time. Not helping matters is that the enemies quickly get tougher the farther you get in the stage.]]

* MarathonBoss: Fighting the TrueFinalBoss as Zangetsu alone rewards you with [[spoiler:a grueling multi-stage slugfest where you must destroy several skeletal wyrms in a row to get high enough to fight the actual boss.]]

** The ArrangeMode option that allows you to start the game with a fully-powered Zangetsu called "Ultimate Mode", much like [[VideoGame/MegaManZero a previous Inti Creates series]] that has an unlockable feature of the same name.

** The Soul Eater's enhanced sword attacks basically give Zangetsu a [[VideoGame/MegaManZero Z-Saber]].