Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Igarashi-san has made another masterpiece. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is an unapologetic celebration of the best parts of his previous work, bringing them all together with some fresh approaches to progression. Gorgeous and rewarding, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is phenomenal and is a worthy, near flawless successor to Symphony Of the Night, and that’s high praise indeed.

Aside from a few script malfunctions and some odd enemy behavior at points, this is a perfect Metroidvania game. If you are a fan of the genre, a fan of Castlevania, a fan of Metroid, or just a fan of 2D platformers in general, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the best love letter to Castlevania addicted. Created by the programmer, director and producer from titles like Simon’s Quest, Vampire’s Kiss and Symphony of the Night, Koji Igarashi, the game finally arrives to home consoles and PC after a successful crowdfunding campaign, but also a troubled development. Thankfully, the wait was definitely worth and we finally have a huge game, with deep combat and craft systems and loads of game modes. This is without any doubts one of the best Metroidvania of the year and a great Castlevania spiritual successor.

Ritual of the Night is a dream for Metroidvania fans. Despite some hiccups with its graphical presentation, there is little wrong with Igarashi’s newest masterpiece. In a time where games are being weighed down with too much clutter, add-ons and complication, to get a game that knows exactly what it is and what it wants to be is refreshing. Sometimes, all you want to do is smash demons and explore Gothic castles in style, and Igarashi knows that better than anyone.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the perfect sequel to Castlevania despite the fact that its name is not Castlevania.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the Castlevania that fans deserve.

The wait was worth it. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a whole new castle to crash full of unexpected monsters and mysteries in the vein of classic Castlevania.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has some strong competition in a genre teeming with good games and even though it doesn't set any new standards, its a fine example of nostalgia trip done right.

In the end, the joy to be found in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night builds into a crescendo as the end of the adventure draw near. A slow burn that turns into the warmest of genre embraces. Its dedication to and the evolution of the formula that people fell in love with across several Castlevania games is commendable. Does this mean that the game’s appeal to those not all that enamoured by the classical Metroidvania is somewhat diminished as a result? Probably. But, then again you could say that this is a prime example of a spiritual successor done right.

Deep, great and with a huge replayability, the wait was worth it. The return of the bidimensional gothic exploration turns in a great Metroidvania, also a superb Igavania.

We didn’t expect Bloostained: Ritual of the Night to be that good. But it is, really. Even if one can see how complicated the development was, the gameplay and level-design are simply great. An amazing Metroidvania.

Is Bloodstained better for me than the Castlevania template? Probably it fails very close because Symphony of the Night keeps a very special nostalgic place in my heart.

Anyone who never liked the Metroidvania entries in the Castlevania series is extremely unlikely to be enthralled by Bloodstained. Koji Igarashi made no intimations of reinventing the wheel in Ritual of the Night, and the game is recognizably from the creator of Symphony of the Night. Playing this game nevertheless reminded me of how much fun a quality Metroidvania can be, and Konami is certainly in no mood to use its own intellectual property for anything other than Pachinko machines lately – plus if it had, something like paying money for additional save slots might have been introduced. Kickstarter-funded games have a decidedly mixed record, but Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is fortunately one of the success stories.

The combat feels rather clunky and slow at times, while some of the puzzles are completely unintuitive letting you needlessly wonder the maps in search of your next main objective. Despite its shortcomings, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night stays true to the traditional Metroidvania genre, not altering the original recipe, but not improving it either. If you're a Metroidvania fan, this is definitely a 10/10 title, but newcomers to the series will probably not find the same joy in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

Bloodstained “simply” being pretty damn good is more than enough, like being reacquainted with an old friend. I’d love to see the rest of Konami’s classic franchises get similar treatment.

If you are looking for a game that captures pretty much everything that was great about Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, look no further: Bloodstained is the real deal, with a vast castle to explore, tight action, tons of upgrades and plenty of loot. That being said, the game is not perfect and some might argue that it sticks a little bit too close to its roots. That didn't stop me from enjoying the hell out of it though - after all, the game is exactly what the Kickstarter campaign promised.

Bloodstained doesn’t hide what it is or where it came from; it embraces that. I wish it had been a new Castlevania game, but it doesn’t need to have the name to champion everything that made that excellent.

It's very much the Symphony of the Night revamp Castlevania fans asked for, but newcomers may relish its eccentricities too.

Bloodstained has some mighty big shoes to fill but does so admirably. It delivers a classic, yet satisfying experience that fans have been wanting for years.

If you're into post-Symphony of the Night Castlevania, you will find with Bloodstained : Ritual of the Night what you wanted. It doesn' have the name or the same setting, but the feeling and the atmosphere are the same, with some very generous content and a lot of nods to the Konami series. It could have been a lot more polished visually speaking, felt more of like a game of this era, but how can we be frustrated to get what Koji Igarashi and his team were expected to do?

Bloodstained feels like SotN in combat, visuals, and plot but comes off as a rough impostor that we've gotten used to over the years. Rather than try to achieve its own identity, Bloodstained fails to compare to SotN in just about every aspect, but if you've never played its "predecessor," you'll find it a competent Metroidvania. Akin to the handheld Castlevanias and other independently made Metroidvanias, Bloodstained has failed to oust the king, and that really is okay.

Bloodstained: ROTN faithfully recreates the metroidvania experience of the 2000s—a feast for fans of a very specific experience; a bit too old-fashioned for anyone else.

Iga promised to make a spiritual successor to all but defunct Castlevania series – and that’s exactly what he did. Not only that, but he managed to successfully expand upon the familiar formula with nifty additions like skill shards. [Issue#239, p.74]

Want to play an old-school action/exploration game the likes of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? Well, you can't get more old-school, or more... Symphony of the Night than Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. This offers a vast castle to explore, full of monsters to slay, and with lots of ways to slay them, be it the many weapons that your Shardbinder can use, or the demonic powers that she can absorb. If you are in need for something that's NOT an exact copy of late '90s metroidvanias, though, better look elsewhere.