Before we begin, we need to establish some background.

First, Bloodstained is my first “Castlevania” style game. The only true Castlevania brand game I have played in the past is Castlevania 64. Which, that doesn’t count. I did play through Hollow Knight, but the combat direction of that game is fundamentally different from the core Castlevania design.

Second, I played through the game on the Nintendo Switch. Now, I did see before I began that Bloodstained had some issues on the Switch initially, but that the majority of them had been corrected in the time since its release. While I did experience minor issues. These were primarily performance issues, with frame drops when there were a significant number of effects on the screen. Which I attribute that more to the Switch being made from Tablet Parts circa 2009 rather than the game itself.

Now, let’s get into it.

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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a Metroidvania developed by ArtPlay that released in June of 2019 after a wildly successful kickstarter campaign that raised over Five-and-a-half million dollars.

We play as Miriam, a “Shardbinder” that is able to take the shards that reside within the bodies of demons, infuse them into to her own body, and use their powers to either grant her power-ups or special abilities.

Not only is this a core part of the gameplay, but it is also the crux of the story as well. Another Sharbinder has went rogue, is holed up in a demon castle, is tormenting the local village with the demons, and looks to be potentially bringing about the end of the world.

Our journey opens on a boat with a friend informing us that we have been asleep for 10 years and then exposition dumps on us just before the ship gets assaulted by demons. The ship serves as a small tutorial area, offering a contained explorable environment with secrets, discoverables, and an approachable boss fight before opening to Dracula’s Gebel’s Castle.

We explore a castle seeking out to stop evil with some story “twists” that are outdone by most 90s cartoons. Ending in a climax that can be largely summed up as “And so the demons were defeated and the survivors lived happily ever after.”. The most notable character beyond Miriam is a vampire librarian that allows you to buy power-up books and genuinely thanks you when you return them.

There isn’t a single piece of the story that stands out in a positive or negative light. It just exists.

But a generic story doesn’t immediately spell out a bad game. Some games have next to zero story. It simply means that the story won’t be what drives you forward. Which leaves other aspects of the presentation to pick up the slack. Visuals, Setting, Combat, Gameplay Loop, Flow, Etc.

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The visual style of Bloodstained is its most defining feature. A beautiful presentation that manages depth within the limitations of the 2D side-scrolling formula. Rich colors with heavy lines which root the game in its “Stained Glass” motif. This goes even beyond just the environment. The characters share this painted look, which in the dialogue sections where the models are larger gives them personality and life.

This however doesn’t extend to the enemies, who despite still using the same style, stand out awkwardly against the environments rather than being a natural part of it. This is more likely due instead to awkward movement animations that makes them unnatural for both gameplay and visual purposes. They present as robotic entities playing an animation file rather than genuine enemies.

Regardless, this style offers a unique painted life into Bloodstained that you would be hard pressed to find in most other games.

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I struggled the most with Bloodstained’s gameplay, not with difficulty but with finding the fun. However, after speaking to some long time castlevania fans, it feels right at home with where the series has sat for decades.

Nothing within the gameplay formula is appealing to me as a newcomer, it all feels antiquated. While this game is a direct successor to Castlevania, it also feels shackled by the legacy of the past.

Movement through the the world felt as though the air was filled with thin oil. While playing I messaged a friend regarding this and they commented it might be due to the Switch. I tested the game on Steam and GamePass, and found the movement to still be sluggish.

I believe this to be intentional design. Both as part of the Castlevania legacy, and to lend a form of difficulty into the game. The primary source of damage I took throughout my playthrough was from enemies bumping into me, rather than attacks (even when those enemies had actual attack animations). I just kept wanting a proper “dodge” button. Now, you could say that jumping over an attack or running to the left to avoid the “slam” attack is a ‘dodge’. But this to me is more of just using already poor movement to get out of the way, rather than an actual dodge function. Maybe I have just played too many Soulsians.

Even had smoother movement been available, Miriam’s arsenal left me disappointed. While the weapons and spells were visually appealing, they both fell short in different ways.

Weapons always fell into one of two categories. Either depressingly weak, or trivially powerful. This made it difficult to find a properly challenging altercation. Weapons also have techniques that utilize traditional fighting game inputs to execute a special move. This gave each weapon depth, further supported by the option to master these abilities to use them across an entire weapon type. I didn’t use these abilities much, not because they weren’t useful or appealing, but because the weapons I kept choosing either had few or sometimes even zero techniques.

Magic is the other tool at Miriam’s disposal. Acquired from the corpses of your fallen enemies, Spells come in a wide variation of types and effects. Unfortunately, the majority of the spells are all damage spells, and do surprisingly little damage, which makes their usefulness limited. I was informed that most needed to be leveled up, but limited resources meant that you had to choose carefully. I picked some basic ranged spells and only when leveled up almost to max did they achieve damage that felt mildly serviceable.

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            Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is overall a strong presentation from a new studio made up from industry veterans.

            It will undoubtedly be heralded as a darling example of how to do a true spiritual successor, and a great example of a wildly successful and well handled kickstarter that translated into a beautiful product.

            While the game and I clearly do not mesh well, that doesn’t discredit the quality that exists here. I would caution newcomers to the genre to check your expectations at the title screen. Bloodstained should be compared to the legends of the past, not the heroes of today.

-          Schwahn

Generic Review Score and Blurb:

- 8/10

- Bloodstained is a beautiful presentation marred by the antiquities of the genre. To a fault, it fulfills its role as a spiritual successor to Castlevania. While an enjoyable experience, the weight of its legacy prevents it from ever truly shining.