Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Reviews

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night doesn’t reinvent the idea of what a Castlevania game should be, but it does a better job than any of its contemporaries at emulating that classic formula that Konami have long abandoned. While it’s technically got a few issues they’re hurdles that I am sure it will overcome. Still, in a market that’s flooded with imitations, Bloodstained is the real deal. A true successor to Castlevania that fans and newcomers will easily sink their teeth into.

If Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night failed to live up to its Kickstarter promise, that would be yet another bad sign for this funding source. This review details how things have finally turned out on this project.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a fantastic game and is a sequel to Koji Igarashi’s Castlevania games in all but name. There’s enough familiarity there but also many new ideas which will please newcomers and veterans alike. It may have been a long time coming but Koji Igarashi’s return has been well worth the wait.

Verdict: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night had to overcome a lot of challenges to become the game it is today. While its development might have been rocky and a bit longer than originally planned, it’s earned its place as the rightful successor to Igarashi’s previous games; and while there are a few technical issues, the game stands on its own to be a phenomenal product with tons of options and replayability. Bloodstained appears well-poised to be yet another classic title that will be remembered decades from now, just like Symphony of the Night before it.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is pure fun, and I couldn't be more pleased with the experience. Diving back into creator Koji Igarashi's iconic style of gameplay has been deeply nostalgic for me; I even found myself humming old Symphony of the Night tunes after playing the new release for a few hours. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a prime example of how much fun the Metroidvania genre has to offer, and will undoubtedly serve as a point of comparison for all retro-inspired platformers that follow it.

The hunger for a new adventure from Koji Igarashi has been unlike anything else in the video gaming industry. What was once a nearly yearly staple of Nintendo’s handheld line has been noticeably absent in the past decade or so. In fact, the last IGA-helmed title, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, was released in the second half of 2008. Since then, an entire genre of retro-inspired titles and even AA-developed tributes have cropped up across every modern console. Most of these other titles had their own unique hook but they all seemed to lack the same cohesive charm that IGA’s team could craft together under the Konami brand. IGA had since left the team at Konami behind and founded a new team to make a new gothic adventure but they needed a little help getting the project funded via Kickstarter. That insatiable hunger was enough to fund the entire project in a single day and rise to become one of the highest Kickstarter projects of all time. Now, four years and five and a half million dollars later, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has been unleashed upon the world so that players can experience a new generation of IGAvania.

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.

Almost perfect if not for the nitty-gritty. If it’s quite there but not enough to push the boundaries, it’s still an awesome game.

It's been a long wait yet Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is finally here so as a huge Castlevania fan, here's my review.

It's been a hot minute since the Kickstarter for Koji Igarashi's new game wrapped up and Castlevania fans have a good reason to celebrate on how this turned out.

Castle crashers.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the Castlevania spiritual successor you've been waiting for! Here is our review...

It may not be perfect, but it's the closest we will get to a Castlevania game in 2019.

Despite this score appearing low. I freaking love this game. But I would be remiss if I didn't point out the flaws that felt more common than the shard drops in the game's early going. I'm really hopeful for the future of this title, because I don't think Iga would be willing to let this game (Blood)stain his legacy.

Genre is mostly bullshit. It’s useful for discussion and for imagining where a certain game exists on the continuum of innovation and progress. These discussions are important, and for them, we need genre. But genre doesn’t do a lot for games, especially once they start to borrow from each other, forcing us to come up with new genres to collect them under. Genre can never really keep up.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was one of my most anticipated games of 2019. I’ve been looking forward to the bloody thing ever since its official Kickstarter reveal back in 2015. The release of the companion prequel Curse of the Moon, as well as my largely positive experience at E3 2018 only made me want Ritual of the Night more and more. Even before I started playing the Switch version of the game, I started reading articles about how broken this port was and how underwhelming it was....

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a comfortable return for Koji Igarashi. It doesn't push any boundaries, but it's a fluid, well-crafted labor of love with tons of content and a satisfying core gameplay loop.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is not the perfect Iga-vania, but it is a worthy entry in the genre. It's clearly Castlevania in all but name and long term fans will find much to enjoy here, but it's lacking in polish and refinement with a few niggles with the controls and too many unwelcome bugs at launch. With a few more patches, Bloodstained should be the game all us fans wanted it to be.

There is no shortage of good Metroidvanias these days, but Bloodstained does show that Koji Igarashi’s particular brand of “Igavania” still has teeth. Exploring the castle’s many secrets is a delight, and there is a dizzying array of weapons and powers waiting to be bent to your will. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, one of the greatest games ever made, finally has a worthy successor on consoles and now on PC.

The night begins to shine.

Koji Igarashi created a picture perfect homage to his own games.

But, despite its issues, 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.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night stands as one of the best Vania games of recent memory, and one of the most satisfying games of 2019 so far.

There are few crowdfunded games that have been as widely anticipated as Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Promising a return to the classic f the 2D Castlevania titles, primarily Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the game amassed over $5 million on Kickstarter back in 2015, making it one of the platform’s biggest success stories. Helmed by former Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi, Bloodstained had a lot of expectations riding on it.

Bloodstained is occasionally frustrating, refreshingly open, and as promised, wholly Castlevania. Hopefully some polish is on the way for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night as to not alienate folks who are new to the genre, but as any Castlevania fan knows, partial jank comes with the territory.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is everything that was great about Igarashi’s Metroidvania titles all rolled into one, and feels like it will be as timeless a game as Symphony of the Night.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a thrilling and rewarding adventure into the MetroidVania genre. It is a fantastic entry level title for those yet to familiarize themselves with the genre, and a brilliant entry of quality and character for veterans.