Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night — Symphonic, Sweet

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a continuation of the “IGAvania” Castlevania titles Koji “IGA” Igarashi and his development team made during their days at Konami, and isn’t much more than that. The game does little new compared to its predecessors, and is structured in the same way as them. I also did not care.

IGA’s team at ArtPlay was honest about what this game would be when it was crowdfunded over four years ago: A successor to the non-linear Metroidvania games in the Castlevania franchise — “IGAvania” for short. Konami stopped letting them develop the games as the company turned their attention to projects that would generate larger profits, an initiative that ended with them mostly backing out of console game development altogether. With the number of Metroidvania games being made by indie developers, IGA realized that a sizable and vocal audience still wanted these games, which led to the team going through with an overwhelmingly successful crowdfunding campaign. Its backers wanted them to make the same kinds of games Konami would no longer provide the money for with minor changes, and that’s what Bloodstained is.

I like innovation, but didn’t care about it here because it had been so long since the last IGAvania title. They haven’t released a game like this since Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia for Nintendo DS in 2008, nearly eleven years ago. The DS trilogy of Castlevania games were some of my favorite titles on the system, and I missed them dearly. There have been several Metroidvania games since then, mainly from indie developers, but none have included gothic horror-influenced settings like the Castlevania titles contained. For this reason, Bloodstained was welcome.

The “minor changes” I mentioned above pertained to those necessary to make this its own franchise, since they can no longer use elements from and references to the Castlevania legacy. RotN takes place in England around either the late 18th century or early 19th century (notably around the same time as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night — its name is intentionally similar to that one’s) and stars Miriam as its main character. Miriam is a Shardbinder who wields incredible magical power, and travels with alchemist friend Johannes to a castle being taken over by her old friend Gebel. She wishes to stop him from fulfilling his quest for revenge. The story is nothing to write home about, similar to the preceding IGAvania games, but it’s fun enough. Like those games, there are several endings, and getting the best one will require following clues.

The game’s castle is, to no surprise, styled in the same way as Dracula’s Castle and its facsimiles in the Castlevania games. Progression is nonlinear, as Miriam can travel from one location to another after wading through rooms full of enemies and bosses, or through unlocking new abilities and reaching them. RotN has one of the better castles from an IGAvania game in terms of design, on par with Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow, since travelling through rooms isn’t repetitive thanks to not giving off the feeling of being copied and pasted.

It’s a shame the overall art design isn’t as consistent as the better IGAvania titles, with some levels that look out of place within an 18th/19th century European castle — even one suffused with magic or demonic power. The last two levels also pale in comparison to previous ones in terms of their themes and designs. This is a case where, yes, I wish it was more like a Castlevania game.

The IGAvania games have always prided themselves on having multiple combat options for the player to use, which RotN fortunately inherits. There are all kinds of blades that Miriam can equip, including knives, medieval swords, broadswords, rapiers, axes, and even katanas — the last of which were also present in some Castlevania games, so they fit here. A couple of weapon choices show how good it is that the team can stretch their wings and not adhere to Castlevania lineage, like Miriam’s ability to use whips, forbidden in the previous series outside the Belmont and Morris families. Guns are also actually useful in this game, instead of being gimmicky like in the Sorrow games.

I was surprised to realize how this game is more difficult than the average IGAvania title, though it’s not quite as tough as OoE. There’s usually nothing wrong with that, but it’s a problem when the difficulty level isn’t consistent. There’s one particularly difficult boss midway through the game that’s harder than those before and slightly after them. There’s also a point where enemies start suddenly hitting harder, and save points become sparser. This is thankfully never to the point of frustration, but it took me for a loop.

A big chunk of the game involves collecting Shards, which Miriam can equip for extra powers. The game is not subtle about these being stand-ins for Souls from the aforementioned Castlevania Sorrow titles, which protagonist Soma Cruz could equip for similar powers. Some have attacking abilities, while others provide passive attributes like boosting stats or abilities allow Miriam to move or surpass obstacles. Like the Sorrow games, there are broken combinations, but they’re a lot of fun to use. Every enemy has a Shard, and the drop rates are not consistent. It is very easy to lose a lot of time trying to get most, if not all, of them. But I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the occasional farming.

RotN won’t win any awards for its side quest design, but it’s good enough. Stop me if you’ve heard this before: They’re reminiscent of those from previous IGAvania games — particularly the DS titles. Miriam can have weapons, items, and food made by or with Johannes, provided she has the right ingredients, and can collect items and fulfill tasks for villagers. It’s never too big of a distraction, and the rewards are often worth it; even if a reward isn’t needed for Miriam due to being outclassed by equipment she already has, it can always be exchanged for something else.

Given my constant references in this review, I couldn’t have made it clearer that this game wears its status as a Metroidvania Castlevania spiritual successor on its sleeve. It’s loaded with references, some more blatant than others, and certainly goes further than the crowdfunded Mighty No. 9 when compared to Mega Man. It’s enough to make me wonder if Konami will try to file a lawsuit for it being too close. They’ll likely lose given historical precedent for companies suing over close-but-not-quite clones and spiritual successors, but Konami is known for not passing up an opportunity to be dicks.

Michiru Yamane returned as the lead composer for RotN from several predecessor titles, though came with a bunch of help, mainly from Keisuke Ito and Ryusuke Fujioka. Ippo Yamada of Inti Creates and Atsuro Ishizuna both contributed one track. It’s a great soundtrack, though not quite on par with Yamane’s best work for the Castlevania series. The English voice acting is fine, despite it being comprised of Americans providing their best English accents. The only voice I didn’t like was David Hayter’s Zangetsu, whose volume is too low and performance is too one note — and I usually like Hayter’s performances.

I’m happy that a crowdfunded spiritual successor turned out well when prior examples like Mighty No. 9 and Yooka-Laylee turned out mediocre at best and a little disappointing, respectively. If you enjoy Metroidvania games, you probably don’t need me telling you to give it a shot, but I’m doing it anyway. It’s great stuff, and hopefully there’s more from here.