Review : Bloodstained Ritual of The Night

 Source : Microsoft Store page for Bloodstained Ritual of The Night

Bloodstained is a side-scroller RPG game within the MetroidVania genre pioneered by Metroid and Castlevania (hence the genre name). As a preface I wanted to say that this game is what I have been waiting for years ever since the kickstarter succeeded and through the delays as well, for one thing I love this genre of games ever since I played Castlevania : Dawn of Sorrow (shorten to DoS) and then backtracked to find some hidden gems that I must have missed before end of high school. This game is developed by Artplay and led by the famous Koji Igarashi who can be considered like a father to this genre of games.

Words to look out for :

DoS : Dawn of Sorrow

SoTN : Symphony of The Night

OoC : Order of Ecclesia

First Impression

I pre-ordered this game because I didn’t back the kickstarter even though I wanted to so some may consider it an act of penance but rest assured I will try to be as objective as possible in this review. When I started this game I expected something like Castlevania : Symphony of the Night (I will call it SoTN for short) but I was wrong, this game is comparable to Castlevania : Order of Ecclesia (I will shorten it as OoC). Not that OoC is a bad game by itself, I love that game but my first impression turns out to be a bit mistaken but I am not disappointed at all with it in fact I said “ooh” with cheerful glee when I first started the game. The combat is solid, the features of old Castlevanias are there including the annoying but still welcome one and the setting of the narrative screams Castlevania from its heart.

Story

We play as Miriam, a Shardbinder (Shardlinker if you use the Japanese audio like me) who can use powers taken from shards of the demons she vanquished along the way. Miriam is trying to stop a guy named Gebel, a fellow Shardbinder (whose design screams “Count Dracula” right off the bat) who is apparently Miriam’s childhood friend. Gebel sets up his base in a demonic castle and we have to explore it to get to Gebel. On her way she meets some friendly people along the way to help her finish her exploration of the castle. Going to an evil castle to stop bad things from happening is not the most sophisticated of a story (some people may call it generic) but it always works as a premise that can be used for further development and I can tell you this part is not what makes this game really good, that honor belongs to the gameplay. But before I go into gameplay I need to tell you readers something : if you are a fellow fan of this genre and have put tons of hours into the Castlevania series or at least finished one of the games then the story overall can be said as predictable. I have learned that from my accidental findings of one of the endings, yes this game has multiple endings and the condition for each is quite hidden just like Castlevanias of old and you will accidentally opened one of them during play. One of the things I find a bit disappointing in this game is that the pacing of this story is a bit quicker than most and the delivery of some events particularly the last boss is a bit “meh” to me but I don’t feel this is a thing worth making a rant about since this is a Kickstarter project and I have learned from Mighty no 9 to temper my expectation to a degree not to get myself disheartened when release.

Gameplay

Before I list the good parts I shall warn you that there are bugs in this game, I played the PC version and the bugs are relatively harmless except for one bug that forced me to put a stop to the exploration. The game is a 2D exploration with a 3D graphics so expect some confusion during your time exploring “Castle Dracula”. The basics in combat is pretty responsive and simple that some can call it an easy to learn and hard to master type of things. You have a variety of weapons from swords, boots, axes, katanas and whips to use from and one of them pretty much calls out to you in one way or another. There are secret paths here and there and Shards that you get from beating monsters at random chance. These shards can help you play even the part of a magician should you wish to finish the game with magic only and there are active shards and also passive shards ranging from shooting a fireball to summon a familiar that can help you (or annoy you to a certain degree). For those who are accustomed to the Castlevania series I invite you to compare this feature to DoS’s monster souls and as for the familiar system you can compare it to SoTN as it almost outright completely copy pasted the system if you remember the days of SoTN. One thing that is totally different from prior Castlevania games is crafting mechanics be it cooking food or making new items that I can appreciate for being there to spice up the gameplay of an old and beloved genre but I will not hold it against any of you readers who thought if this as a symptom of what Ben “Yahtzee” Croshaw call “Indie-game-itis”. The crafting is actually encouraged for you to try as there are recipes that actually gives you an upgrade and in this game you are always upgrading, like almost every time unless if you deliberately skipped the many crafting options this game offers other than the essentials. The gameplay in general can be explained as “explore, find new powers, backtrack, explore” since this is a genre that is famous for what I can call a meaningful backtracking to see what secrets do the map hold but the concept still holds until today and what the developers do to spice up the game does not devalue the game overall. You can go up or down to explore and even underwater. Speaking of underwater I encountered a bug that froze Miriam in attacking animation and I have to either use a waystone to go back to the starting safe hub of the entire game map and undo the bug or straight load a previous save which is annoying but I learned to adapt, the weapon that I used was whip so your experiences with other weapons varies, other bugs includes animation freeze for the enemies and item drops freeze mid air thus unable to be taken at all. It is certainly annoying in its own right but overall still harmless, at worst I sighed to the possibility of reloading last save and at best I have laughs about my familiar stuck mid animation. Speaking of DoS, OoC and SoTN there are also secrets that is well hidden that I will not blame you for going through a walkthrough, after all I stumbled on an ending by accident which I concluded instantly that it’s not the true ending because it defies video game logic about final bosses.

Chillin' in the save room

source : my own screenshots

Graphics

This game uses 3D graphics for a 2D game so there are some areas particularly cutscenes that looked a bit rough but tolerable, the level design is solid and enjoyable by itself. What I lamented about the graphics is that Miriam’s hair and scarf used physics and looked a bit janky for my tastes. The game seems polished enough not to look bad in the eyes so I’m good on that front. There’s not much I can say about the graphics since this is not a AAA game that goes “style over substance” and Bloodstained can be said as a game that goes the opposite route of “Substance over Style”. Another thing to take note of is that you can customize the appearance of Miriam the way you like it with accessories you gained throughout the game and change her haircut, skin color, eye color, and shirt color too. One thing that is greater to add is every armor changes the way you look, or at least a cosmetic costume. Miriam in swimsuit is probably either gonna be a DLC thing or a mod or possibly not a thing later which is sad in a way.

 Just need a few changes from going full Code Vein

Source : my own screenshots

Conclusion

If the bugs you encounter in your chosen platforms are harmless to your total experience I can safely say that I can recommend you to play since for those who are new to the metroidvania genre then this is a good starting point to jump in and for those who are a fan of this genre then this game is an absolute must try for the solid gameplay and design. The price point is quite troublesome but since they are giving away 13 DLC for free post launch then I guess all is forgiven though.

Score : 8.5/10

Verdict : if it weren’t for the underwater bug I would have given this game a solid 9/10

Recommendation status : TRY IT! You are not going to regret it at all

That is all for now, if you have any comments or anything you want to say just leave it in the comments! any feedbacks are always appreciated! Thanks for reading.

Where i buy my copy : https://store.steampowered.com/app/692850/Bloodstained_Ritual_of_the_Night/