Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has had me hooked like no other game released this year. Koji Igarashi and those who have worked with him have proved that there’s still life in the old Metroidvania formula and delivered a modern-day classic. It perhaps loses a little something without the iconic Dracula as the big-bad, but the gameplay surpasses that of any previous Castlevania games created with the same mould. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night looks great, has a brilliant soundtrack and is overwhelmingly gratifying to play. If only it had a little more polish, then it’d be pretty much perfect.

A game worthy of being called a spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and one of the great examples of a very good Kickstarter video game.

Beyond the time-tested mechanics, gamers also get an experience that looks and sounds really good. Even with the Switch’s inferior processing power, it runs more than well enough. Of course, there are still worthwhile improvements beyond the need to fix any crashes. A few slight tweaks to the early game difficulty curve and earlier access to a few mobility oriented powers would have been nice, but those are small hurdles in lengthy, and fun, enough experience that will almost certainly keep you interested beyond the initial playthrough. Altogether, it’s the worthwhile successor many fans have been waiting for.

It's Castlevania in everything but name and fans of Igarachi's earlier work will find a lot to love between excellent combat and rewarding traversal. The Switch port is harder to recommend at present, but the game is likely to be among the console's best after a patch or two.

Despite its numerous shortcomings, I can’t shake the feeling of how much I loved playing Bloodstained. It scratches an itch I didn’t think I necessarily had. It’s fun leveling up, crafting bizarre weapons, upgrading my spells, getting sidequests done, and filling out more of the map bit by bit.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a welcome return to the exploration-heavy Castlevania games of the past. Visually, the art style is likely to be off-putting for some, but the gameplay is fun and varied throughout, and finding hidden passages and treasures never gets old.

It’s exactly what fans expect from an Igrashi-produced Metroidvania game, and even the inferior Switch port is still a fun time that should satisfy Castlevania fans who are tired of waiting for Konami to properly continue the series.

The work of 505 Games is a proposal that pays homage to the metroidvania genre in a conservative way. Polishing with great success its formula but without offering anything innovative to what we already know about it.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a good game, don't get me wrong, but boy, waiting for it to become great has been a job in itself! [Issue #48 – September/October 2020, p. 72]