Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Koji Igarashi interview

This actioner's Kickstarter claims "RPG elements", and designer Igarashi gives a few details in a new interview about what that may mean.

Please tell us about the crafting system. I understand enemies will drop rare materials which you can use to gain different magic and skills?

Igarashi: [...] I wanted a system where you’d be able to learn to use enemy skills and attacks. There are five different kinds of drops, corresponding to different parts of an enemy, like their heads, arms, etc.

Normal crafting materials will be used on quests, or for weapons and armor, but the sparkling rares, if you level them, will become crystals. Those crystals will link with the magi-crystals on Miriam’s body and allow her to use special abilities/skills. I also want the drops to give different stat subeffects: for example, an enemy head drop will raise your magic power, or a drop from an enemy leg/foot will raise your movement speed. ... An enemy might drop something, but it doesn’t have the subeffect you want -- I hope players enjoy that hunt.

Heroine Miriam's body is gradually being taken over by alchemical "stained glass"

On designing the setting:

I wanted Bloodstained to be set in England. It seemed like the kind of place where a demon summoning might have actually happened. I did some investigation into English history to see if there had ever been such an event.

—And did you find anything?

Igarashi: I did. In the 17th century the Laki volcano in Iceland erupted, killing 1/3 of the population in Iceland. Furthermore, the ash and sulphur dioxide from the eruption blanketed Europe ... yet for some reason, despite the fact that 23000 people died in England, there are no such English stories about it. A huge disaster, but no records remain…

The interview was originally in Japanese at game*spark and appears in translation here.