It has been one very long night since the last Igavania game was released, but the morning sun has vanquished the horrible night. In the 11 years since Koji Igarashi released Order of Ecclesia, the genre he helped evolve with Symphony of the Night has expanded and changed with the times. Could Igarashi’s formula stand the test of time, against modern Metroidvania style games? As a Day 1 backer, that was always my biggest worry.
So just let me get it out of the way and answer my own question: Yes, yes it does. Igarashi once again proves there are few who can make a game of this nature better than he can.
TRY MY METROIDVANIA
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a long written love letter to anyone who has ever gotten even a minute of enjoyment out of the Castlevania series, borrowing ideas and taking homages from almost every single ‘Vania that Iga worked on over the years. But it also polishes these concepts and ideas to a modern shine, unlike any other game of this genre has seen.
At its heart, the combat and exploration will always be the key pillars of a metroidvania game, and Bloodstained has both of them in spades. Being the largest Igavania made Igarashi, it never finds itself dragging out.
STABBY STABBY
At your disposal are dozens of weapons to whip or slash your way through Not-Dracula’s Castle from a few different categories of weapons. Each weapon style feels different enough that each player will find something that fits their play style best, from fast swinging swords and daggers, to the thrusting spears or the slow great swords and yes even whips. You will find a weapon for every occasion.
Borrowing from one of the biggest core concepts of Aria of Sorrow, Miriam can absorb “shards” from enemies she defeats, using them to harness the enemies power. It adds a layer of stratagem to the combat, as they try to back you away from tried and true press attack to win, without redefining the experience. Many of these magic spells feel very similar to sub-weapons of Castlevania‘s past, while adding in some new ideas.
R.I.P. HIDE & SEEK
Taking a bit of a cue from fighting games, Bloodstained has an infinitely deeper combat than one might see at first. The game almost wants you to learn about frames and interrupts like it was a fighter– even mixing in weapon techniques you learn along the way; thus helping you get in the right position for the right strike and punish any opening left by an enemy. As such, it is one of the most rewarding combat experiences in an Igavania style game. From start to finish, slaying the denizens of hell never begins to feel old as you always find new ways to slay the hordes.
Exploring Not-Dracula’s Castle in Bloodstained in fantastic. While I was one who did not hate how the game looked before the redesign, the “Not Poop” graphics look amazing. There is stunning level of detail in the graphics you rarely see in a 2.5D game, with a framerate that never seems to slow down, even with dozens of enemies on screen. You will also find plenty to look at in the background as you trek through the large castle, with dozens of areas each sporting a unique look and theme.
eyeTUNES
There is no one who can review.. uh.. a Castlevania.. game without discussing the music. Each entry boasted an excellent assortment of Gothic perfection. While this may not have “Castlevania” on the box, the music is still done by Michiru Yamane who, after all these years, is still one of the best composers in the industry. The music in Bloodstained is some of Yamane’s work in a while too; each of the tracks boasts her unique style, giving life and soul to each area of the Castle. Bloodstained is a feast for the ears, almost hard to put into words just how fantastic the game sounds.
The game’s sound even boasts a few homages to days past, with some of the sound effects being reused from older games being kind of cute to the vocal talents of David Hayter and even a vocal cameo from Alucard’s Symphony of the Night English voice actor. There really is no reason to play Ritual of the Night with the sound down.
DEAD & CONF– USED
As fantastic as Bloodstained is, it is not by any stretch perfect. The plot is a bit generic, but are we really playing a Igavania for the plot? One of my biggest problems, though, is that some of the game’s mechanics offer very little explanation– leaving a lot of trial and error as you play. This, at times vague, approach to the game also extends into its exploration loop. Core to metroidvania games is finding new items and gear to advance to new areas of the map; but some of these are not apparently located and can easily be missed (leaving you confused and wandering for hours without making any progress).
Thankfully, most of the formula works, and these hiccups in the exploration are few and far between, and come in the later chunks of the adventure. But there will come a few times when every inch of what you can explore has been explored, and you are left wondering just how you are supposed to bypass that.
BUG OFF
One of the biggest issues the game is suffering from though: bugs. Their are a few game-breaking bugs that are very common, stuff like this is almost inexcusable in 2019 to let past QA. Even worse, the majority of the game’s bugs arrived after a patch to fix the build. There are few things more frustrating than having progress halted because of a bug, and with the chest bug you may find the treasure chest you need with a key item already open. Like a thief came and stole your hard-earned prize, preventing progress.
But what the game gets right is so good, it is easy enough to look past its flaws — provided you can progress, and your progress has not been stalled by a bug or design flaw. Still, Ritual of the Night is the game Igarashi promised it would be. It is a spiritual successor to Castlevania in every single way, and that is a good thing. Playing Bloodstained leaves me wanting to play more Bloodstained, and not dig out its source material, as far too many “spiritual successors” do.
With a 15+ hour castle, and 13 (free!) DLC’s adding additional content, like more playable characters and a rogue-like mode, there is plenty to love with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, for fans of past glory or those stepping into their first castle. Bloodstained is the whip to the ass it needed to be. 4.25/5 Bibles.
-Keiko Fukuyama