Episode 1

Episode 1 -The Demon's Crown- is one of the main episodes in Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. As the first chapter of the Curse of the Moon 2's story, it features the easier permutations of the various stages.

Description[]

When a mysterious tower appears, seeming to summon the demonic castle Hellhold once more unto the world, Zangetsu teams up with a church exorcist named Dominique to investigate it.

With the help of a hang glider, they glide through the night sky toward the tower. Upon reaching it, Dominique drops Zangetsu off at the top of the tower and he makes his way down it, eventually being confronted by the Drago-Symbiote. Despite besting the creature, before Zangetsu can finish it off, Dominique beats him to it. Going forward, the duo decide to travel together.

Making their way through a swamp forest, a tree branch gives way, dropping the heroes into the lair of Lubius. Upon defeat, the demon attempts to explode itself, but it is instead torn apart by a Drake Cannon blast.

Enter Robert, alongside whom Zangetsu once fought in a war. Seeing as they have a common enemy, Robert offers to join Zangetsu, but nearly balks when he sees Dominique, due to an unexplained enmity he has toward the Church. Zangetsu convinces him that her skills are needed, but he says he'll shoot Dominique if he ever finds cause to suspect her.

As they move through the next area: a waterfall cave that leads to an abandoned mine, they find flatbed mine carts, that are suddenly pushed along by the Gladiator Dozer. When defeated, it attempts to make a final ramming attempt on the platform, but then a mechanical construct appears and punches the demon off the railway into the lake below.

With danger averted for now, the construct opens and out leaps a welsh corgi. Zangetsu recognizes the dog from a past incident, but Robert takes aim, noting that the machine is a product of alchemy, which cannot be trusted. Zangetsu, remembering Alfred, points out that not all alchemists are evil, not to mention the dog came all this way to reunite with himself, so he's going to let it accompany them. A displeased Robert seethes that this is a mistake and they will come to regret this decision, but ultimately is forced to drop the matter.

The rail car comes to rest at a village frozen over due to attacks from Vepar. Destroying it causes a sword to be expelled from its dying body. When Zangetsu tries to walk away and continue forward, Dominique stops him and says the sword may be of use against the enemies ahead. Seeing as the exorcist will not budge on this matter, Zangetsu claims the Soul Eraser. This sword is capable of vanquishing souls, but is incapable of distinguishing from friend or foe.

The quartet's journey takes them across the sea through a volcanic area and into the Hellhold castle itself, which has taken on a different appearance compared to previous journeys within its walls.

Atop a machine tower, Zangetsu is surprised by the return of Gremory, thought to have been banished during the Hellhold's previous appearance, but he and his allies waste no time putting her down again.

Upon reaching the castle's top floor, Beelzebub begins pursuing them, surrounded in the Dark Swarm that he created, but is forced to actually battle them as they continue to push him back and evade him. However, not even utilizing his larger, stronger appearance grants him success, as though the heroes are exhausted from fighting him, they managed to defeat him, prompting a large hand to impale him from behind before a giant dark energy mass tries to possess the heroes, only for Dominique to leap in front of it and absorb it into herself, becoming claimed by the demon while her allies are launched out of the Hellhold.

Regrouping, Robert is overcome with remorse as he realizes what had been right in front of him throughout his time traveling with this team. A portion of this remorse hardens into resolve as two men and a dog vow to rescue Dominique from her situation or perish in the attempt.

Gameplay[]

During Episode 1, the party is composed by Zangetsu, Dominique, Robert, and Hachi, with each one bringing their special ways to overcome obstacles; the latter three, however, will only progressively join after each stage.

On the topic of boss fights, during Episode 1 the bosses themselves exclusively act with their "Easy" behavior, making the encounters overall easier compared to the alternative "Hard" behavior. Furthermore, due to the early bosses being interrupted by the arrival of a new member of the team, and because Vepar and Beelzebub himself both have a second form, the vast majority of the encounters lack a final desperation attack, which they will instead attempt to pull them off from Episode 2 onward. Finding a way to avoid the damage during said desperation attack will reward extra points and, in some cases in Veteran Mode, even directly an extra life.

After the fight with Vepar, Zangetsu will be forced to pick up the Soul Eraser sword; this powerful weapon switches the eastern demon hunter to his "Ultimate Zangetsu" playstyle, which include increased mobility and upgraded attacks. However, later on, keeping hold of the Soul Eraser instead of switching for the seemingly weaker Zanmato, which will revert Zangetsu to his "normal" playstyle, will result in achieving the Bad Ending of Episode 2 instead of its Good one.

Episode 1 is the only one of the four episodes that can be played during Single character mode, a feature unlocked by beating the alternate ending of the Final Episode, that allows to choose a single one among the seven playable characters to play through the entire episode on their own, likely due to the vastly increased difficulty.

Stages[]

In Episode 1 and the Final Episode, the stages share the same names:

While there is no differences in the stages themselves across the episodes, besides the names in Episode 2 and Episode EX, exploration is far more limited during the early stages of Episode, 1 due to the members of the party becoming available progressively. Still, from the fourth stage onward, many alternate paths become potentially available, although with still the exclusion of the ones that specifically require Miriam's, Alfred's, and Gebel's personal skills.

The names of the stages are clearly themed after the bosses met at end of each one; the name of the last stage, "The Demon's Crown", likely comes from the fact that it takes place at the very top of the Hellhold castle, as well as due to its boss, as Beelzebub's epithet is "The Lord of the Flies".