Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4

If you love Castlevania Sotn or any of the DS version then you will love this game.

A passion project for the Producer of Castlevania himself Koji Igarashi! Long time fans will immediately recognize the name behind the game and have the lofty expectations that come with it. I’m here to let the fans and newcomers alike know it’s been worth the wait. The graphics are gorgeous, the music is iconic and while the story isn’t the strongest I think it’s adequate. This side scrolling genre, dubbed by many as Metroidvania, starts off with minimal exposition to invest the player in the story. What will stand out immediately are the right controls, 60fps on a Pro and the music. There is some rpg elements similar to Symphony of the Night in terms of upgradeable gear, skill points and inventory management. The performing feels good and watching the game in motion is akin to watching a brightly colored painting dancing the night away. For casual gamers like myself you can expect to spend around 30 hours to complete the story and upwards of 50 for completionists. All in all this is a solid effort for one of the industries most respected producers and I can’t wait to see what’s in the pipeline for future games.

If you enjoy exploratory platformers, it goes without saying that "Bloodstained" should already be on your radar. "Symphony Of The Night" mastermind Koji Igarashi helmed this effort with composer Michiru Yamane on board as well, and the result is amazing as expected. The spirit of "Castlevania" is firing on all cylinders here–there's lots of exploratory fun to had and a fair amount of secrets to uncover of the course of the 20+ hour journey. There's lots of weapons, armors, and abilities to be found...along with a robust crafting/cooking system. For all it does right, "Bloodstained" could still have used a little more time in the oven. Some features don't seem fully implemented (such as the seed planting feature), and there's some obvious glitches that need to be ironed out. Your helms and weapons change Miriam's appearance in-game, but only a couple of armors do so. Perhaps they planned on every armor having a different look but ran out of time before the deadline? I'm confident that the glitches will be taken care of with time (as of this review a couple have already been fixed), and there are a few free DLCs on the horizon which will hopefully flesh out the experience even more. Definitely a must buy!

Metroidvania fans rejoice! The true successor to IGA's Castlevania games has finally arrived, and it was worth the wait. Awesome combat, secrets to discover, the story is pretty interesting and original, and the game looks great on the PS4 Pro. I did have it completely freeze up on me once, but the team seems committed to supporting this game long term. Unrelated to this review for the PS4 version, I'm disappointed by the Switch release, as I really wanted to play this in hand-held form. Hopefully they address the performance issues there, as the game is so good I wouldn't mind double-dipping to pick up a second time. Go buy this!

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the sequel to the beloved Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in all but name and characters. Initiated as a Kickstarter project in May of 2015 following the success of Keiji Inafune's Mighty No. 9 Kickstarter efforts, Bloodstained was quickly funded by backers and was the second of three major spiritual successor Kickstarter campaigns (the third being Yooka-Laylee, a spiritual successor to the Nintendo 64 3D platformer Banjo-Kazooie) to promise a modernized take on a beloved title from the past. Mighty No. 9 and Yooka-Laylee released in 2016 and 2017, respectively, with the former title performing poorly and the latter being a decidedly good-but-not-great experience. This left all eyes on Bloodstained to see whether one of these three projects could manage to succeed. Thankfully, Bloodstained gets it right. Bloodstained is very much a modernized take on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. The structure of the game is virtually identical. The soundtrack is reminiscent of the Castlevania series, and is excellent in its own right. More than any of that, though, Koji Igarashi and his team nailed the gameplay. Bloodstained is an absolute joy to play, with tight, responsive, and smooth controls. It feels perfect, achieving exactly what it set out to achieve. The visuals are beautifully gothic, encapsulating the horror theme of the game. There are some enemies that are holdovers from Castlevania, while others are Lovecraftian, cosmic horror-inspired foes. All of them are well-animated and exquisitely detailed. The game has decidedly received a visual enhancement from earlier trailers. In addition to the aesthetic presentation, the game is densely packed with items to pick up. Like other games in the so-called Metroidvania genre, the (huge) map overlaps itself with deep intricacies that encourage exploration. Even the opening area, which serves as a tutorial for the structure of the game as a whole, is riddled with secrets that open up new pathways as you explore its mini-labyrinth. While I don't want to give away any aspects of the narrative of the game, I'll briefly note that I enjoyed the story and thought the voice acting was particularly good.