I have only ever backed a handful of games over the years, but Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was one I was all in with. Created by the godfather of the Castlevania series who gave us Symphony of the Night. Thanks to the Curse of the Moon “preview” game that was released a year before, this Metroidvania was a game that I and many others were very excited for.
How to Download Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
You can download this JRPG from GOG or Steam. To proceed, move on to click on the button below the review.
The Game Review
For a retro style game, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has a really awesome and rather in-depth story. It is about a young Miriam who has been given powers thanks to these demonic shards. Gabel (who is kind of like her) takes her under his wing, but he is not as “good” as her. Anyway, all hell breaks loose, demons are running free and she needs to stop them!
While this is not a “Castlevania” game. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is as close to a sequel to Symphony of the Night as we have ever gotten. The game plays like it, looks like it sounds like it and feels like it! Even with the lack of vampires, the game feels like it could have easily been a Castlevania game.
If you had to pigeonhole this title into one genre of game it would have to action RPG. However, there is a tone of variety to the gameplay here and keeping up with it all keeps you on your toes. Right from the start of the game, you have a vast array of weapons that you can get. There is no actual “skill tree” however, you can level up and improve as you go.
Combat is very satisfying and when you come across monsters, you can steal their abilities. Stealing a creature’s ability is awesome and opens up the combat even further. For example, you can get a new attack or even a familiar to help fight alongside you. Then you can use these new abilities to access different areas that you could not before, which is a typical Castlevania type move.
You can play Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night just the way you want. For lack of a better term, your “loadouts” can be dictated by you! Some weapons require specific button presses to do damage with them. Also, there is a crafting mechanic to the game which can require you to do a lot of grinding to get the resources that you really want. This is a game where there is always something for you to do!
The presentation of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is truly amazing. While it does not have vampires, it could easily pass as a Castlevania game. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a 2D style game, but everything is made with high quality looking polygons and as a result, the game looks tremendous.
The overall gameplay is very, very tight. I can see some people perhaps getting bored with the combat. However, most folks who like Metroidvania style games are really going to get super invested into this. I do feel that this is a game that is made very well.
One thing that is pretty amazing about this game is how much content is here right away. With new characters to unlock, secrets to uncover and co-op and not to mention, you have to play through it a few times to really experience it all. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is packed with gameplay.
The game is not perfect from a technical point of view. One of the first updates actually did more harm than good. However, patches are going to fix this and overall, I personally have not come across anything that I would describe as game breaking.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a great example of how to do a Kickstarter game right! The actual game is awesome and a ton of fun to play and a great example for all future Kickstarter projects. However, it is also a game that is not short on content and a game that the development team is clearly very invested in and not just looking to make a quick buck.
