Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Review (PC)

very good
key review info
  • Game: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: Yes  
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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night art

It's weird to see a new Castlevania game that doesn't involve Konami in any way, but the Japanese company has taken some bad decision in the last years. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the work of the man behind one of the best Castlevania games – Symphony of the Night, Koji “Iga” Igarashi, who left Konami about 5 years ago.

Just like Hideo Kojima, another father figure who left Konami to create his own studio, Iga pursued his own dreams and became co-founder of Artplay, the studio that crowdfunded Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the spiritual successor to Symphony of the Night.

After raising $5.5 million from Kickstarter backers, Iga went on to develop Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a game that has its own genre – Metroidvania. Although the genre has grown massively since 2015, few games manage to perfectly capture the Castlevania atmosphere. Also, there are times when you don't want a variation of a Castlevania game, but the traditional gameplay and feel that made the series so popular among gamers.

Well, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night offers just that, nothing more, but nothing less. If you've played a Castlevania game before, you'll feel right at home in Ritual of the Night's universe. It's not just the mechanics that make it a Metroidvania game, but the art and music as well.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
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You play as Miriam, the result of a failed experiment who suddenly becomes humanity's last chance of survival. Miriam is a Shardbinder, a genetically modified human capable of absorbing demonic power in the form of shards. The more shards Miriam absorbs, the more powerful she becomes and less humane.

Gebel, another shardbinder turned evil after absorbing too many shards, is trying to let demons loose into our world once again, the same demons that he was supposed to fight to protect humanity. Although the prologue of the game does a good job at explaining what's happening, Ritual of the Night, like all the other Castlevania games, will not hold your hand and you'll have to figure out what to do next more often than not.

With just the basics shown to you during the prologue, you are ushered into a hostile environment where you'll fight strange creatures, demons, and powerful bosses. Armed with just a shortsword and a basic armor, Miriam must improve her skills, learn new moves, find more gear, and absorb powerful demonic shards to successfully end her journey.

There are several dozen demon powers that Miriam can absorb, but the catch is that they drop randomly, so you can either grind for a specific shard or play with whatever the game provides you through your playthrough. Besides shards, you'll find tons of new gear and various items that will help you cook dishes that permanently improve your stats when eaten for the first time.

More importantly, you'll unlock moves like double-jump, which will allow you to access areas that are otherwise inaccessible, as well as make your life much easier. One of the issues with Ritual of the Night is that you are tempted to believe that the game is “obsolete” due to the fact that it's lacking mechanics that are now trivial for this type of games. I'm talking about double-jump, dodge, healing, block and so on.

It's true that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night doesn't feature any of these mechanics at the beginning, but as you progress into the story, you'll be surprised to find that they can be unlocked through shards. All shards can be upgraded, thus becoming more powerful and expanding their functionality with new abilities and skills.

In Ritual of the Night, there's no shortcut for healing, so every time you want to use a potion you'll have to open the inventory, which is especially annoying during boss fights which are more intense. Without spoiling it too much, let's just say that you'll be offered a proper healing mechanic later on.

Since shard drop randomly, if you're lucky enough to get specific ones like the Heretic Grinder early on, Ritual of the Night becomes a walk in the park. Even boss fights tend to become trivial if you're using the Heretic Grinder, so there's basically no balance when it comes to these shards.

When it comes to weapons, the Ritual of the Night is an absolute library of some tools to kill. From shovels and whips to greatswords and daggers, the game covers just about every type of weapons that you can think of. Moreover, each weapon's attack is different in the fact that it can cover areas around your character.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
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For example, using a greatsword will allow you to hit everything in an arc, which a dagger will only punch enemies in front of you. Whips hit everything around you, while ranged weapons only shoot horizontally. There's so much variation in this game that it's impossible not to find weapons and shards that fit your playstyle.

There's also a very robust crafting system in the game, which lets you make your own weapons, armors, items, and food if you find the required raw materials. It offers those who didn't have their fair share of gear and shards the option to experiment with even more weapon combinations.


The Good

  • True successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
  • Gorgeous art style, gothic scenery
  • Robust shard and crafting systems
  • Massive wealth of weapons
  • Encourages exploration

The Bad

  • Clunky, slow combat at times
  • Unintuitive puzzles
  • Feels archaic rather than nostalgic

Conclusion

Although many of the gameplay mechanics that made modern Metroidvania games like Dead Cells, Salt & Sanctuary, and Ori and the Blind Forest look and feel so polished are part of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night as well, the combat and some mechanics (or lack thereof) remain archaic in the spirit of recreating the atmosphere of the previous games in the series.

The combat feels rather clunky and slow at times, while some of the puzzles are completely unintuitive letting you needlessly wander around the map in search of your next objective. Despite its shortcomings, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night stays true to the traditional Metroidvania genre, not altering the original recipe, but not improving on 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.

story 7
gameplay 8
concept 9
graphics 8
audio 8
multiplayer 0
final rating 8
Editor's review
very good
 
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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night screenshots (21 Images)

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night art
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