How about we make this very quick for those of you who don’t know. The Castlevania series was once one of the most recognizable franchises in gaming. The original releases of the Nintendo Entertainment System were basic action side-scrollers with relentless difficulty, but around the time of the Playstation era the series saw a huge change. Koji Igarashi soon took control over Castlevania and drove it towards success. Castlevania: Symphony of The Night transformed the design formula similar to the structure of the Metroid series and added a unique spin to it. A unique setting, progression, leveling system, and much more. It was thanks to this landmark title that Castlevania became a household name, and it would eventually influence the metroidvania genre which has grown popular in recent years especially with indie devs. It’s considered one of the greatest games ever made and I still owe it to myself to play it. However, we aren’t here to talk about Symphony of The Night for I don’t own it. We’re here to talk about what happened after the downfall of the Castlevania series. Igarashi directed every major 2D Castlevania afterwards and kept the franchise on a good track.
Konami, the owners of the Castlevania franchise, weren’t treating their staff all that well and soon Koji Igarashi departed from the company. Leading to the mediocre and forgettable hack and slash 3D titles, and leaving Castlevania to rot in the dirt. Koji Igarashi started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to spearhead his own project. A spiritual successor to the masterpiece that was Castlevania: Symphony of The Night. He stated he would do all he could to make this project the best he could and within a short span of time he gained all the fundings needed to work on his dream game. This title was known as Bloodstained and it became one of the few most anticipated crowdfunded indie games of recent memory. Sure there were a couple of delays, but everything was looking stellar during the development process.
One of the goals of the Kickstarer, to make a standalone spinoff, was met and one year before the release of his main project Koji Igarashi teamed up with small indie team Inti Creates to make this spinoff. Within a short amount of time they made Bloodstained: Curse of The Moon which was stylized after the original few Castelvania. The next year Koji Igarashi finally released his dream project and luckily it lived up to expectations. Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night, the worthy successor to a legendary franchise. Bloodstained: ROTN is considered one of the best indie metroidvanias out there and it’s easy to understand how the Bloodstained franchise quickly became so well acclaimed. A respectable director lived up to his promises and Bloodstained has a higher budget and tools to work with compared to a lot of other independent studios. However, I personally am not a fan of the Bloodstained series. Don’t get me wrong, these are great games and I had a fun time going through them. It’s just that they aren’t really clicking for me compared to titles following the same genre format and I’m kind of getting tired of this series. It’s good, but not one of my favorites. Well that’s a weird statement to pull out of the gate, because we’re talking about the sequel to the standalone spinoff, Bloodstained: Curse of The Moon 2, which was made by the same team as the first one. Curse of The Moon 2 is bolder and more ambitious than the first game, and it still is a fun time to be had. However, I just don’t like it as much as other indie platformers. Just like the first game, it captures old school design but fails to find the elements to make it stand out. It's kinda disappointing to be honest. Today we’ll be talking about why I didn't really like Curse of The Moon 2 and why I don't easily recommend it.
Story
The story follows Zangetsu, a traveling swordsman from the East who has come to hunt demons. They have placed a curse on him that creates unending pain and he journeys to a mysterious castle to hopefully lift the curse. During his first adventure he made unlikely allies who were willing to save him when he was taken and corrupted by the demons. Now he is transported somewhere else and journeys to a mysterious tower conjuring a castle similar to the one he ventured through before. This time he is aided by Dominique, a exorcist of the church who noticed the tower herself and wanted to help Zangetsu slay the demons that stand in his way. Zangetsu also meets Robert, a skilled marksman and an old friend of his. Robert doesn’t really trust Dominique as he states that members of the holy church deceive those who are tainted by demonic power or try to fight it in some sort of fashion. Zangetsu tries to convince Robert to trust her, so they venture onward into the unknown. Finally they meet a cute little corgi named Hachi who pilots a mighty locomotive mech which can punch through enemy forces. Trust me this game is kind of stupid. With a team of four once again, Zangetsu travels into the demonic tower. Prepared to face unbending powers alike and bring an end to his suffering. He’ll also obtain an unwavering blade which was designed to kill demons…… and cue Gurunge.
Gameplay
Well the story is kind of just there for the player to follow, but ultimately it’s pointless as it fails to capture me in any sort of fashion. Who cares if the story is good, because that’s not what this game is prioritizing in. What it focuses on is that old school styled platforming action with relentless difficulty, colossal foes at the end of each stage, and satisfaction for overcoming these challenges. Same exact structure as the first Curse of The Moon, and when I say the same exact structure I mean that nothing changed at all. It’s the same exact gae, but with three different characters and new stages. They could have made this a free add on with the original game, like how every new Shovel Knight entry was a free expansion to the original as they used pre-existing elements. However, they have to make the most out of what they have. Anyways, you traverse through each stage slaying foes, picking up items, swapping between equipment, building up your score, and defeating whatever boss lies at the end of the level. You have four characters to utilize and they each have their own playstyles, benefits, and quirks.
Zangetsu is the all rounded character who navigates with ease and is more focused on combat. This time around he gets a cool sword called the Soul Eater which has its own combo set which attacks in quick succession. He can also perform an aerial clash which is wider than his usual jab. Dominique is equipped with a spear, so has a longer ranged attack and can attack enemies above and below her. She can also use the spear to pogo off of enemies as if she were Shovel Knight or Scrooge McDuck. There is Robert who has an extremely low defense compared to everyone else, but he has a rifle which can pick off enemies from a long distance and can jump off walls to reach higher terrain. Finally there is Hachi who pilots a giant mech with a high health bar and defense, can hover in midair for a short period of time, has high attack power, can walk on spikes and other dangerous surfaces, has a downward slam attack, and can break certain barricades. Basically, Hachi is the easy mode for this game, which is inaccurate because this game is still hard. You have a life system, but when one character dies you don’t immediately lose a life. You start back at the beginning of the room with whatever characters you have left, and when all of them are lost you then lose a life. Straight after that you are kicked back to the last major checkpoint you stopped at.
A majority of enemies die in one hit, but at least all of them don’t have to be slain to progress further into a level. It’s more like you have to deal with them, so they don’t become a nuisance as more pile onto the screen. There are moments where the level splits off into two paths and you have the choice of which one to go through. These secondary paths can only be ventured through if you have a specific character alive at the time and a specific ability equipped, so they're there to reward those who maintained a character for a lengthy period of time. There are also permanent upgrades you can pick up which can increase the party’s maximum health, attack power, defense, and magic meter. Wait, there’s a magic meter? Yes. There are numerous lanterns scattered like candy throughout stages and when smashed they can drop items. Yellow lanterns drop basic money sacks which add points to a meter. Score enough points and you earn an extra life. Yellow lanterns can also drop mana bottles which refill your magic meter. There are red lanterns which drop hearts which refill your health and blue lanterns which drop equipment for your party members. Each member can carry one piece of equipment at a time and when used at the right moments they can make certain tricky segments much easier. Like playing your cards correctly.
Zangetsu has a whip which is good for attacking enemies diagonally above him, but also has a inscripted card which can easily light up the ground diagonally below him. Dominique has a multitude of spells to use. She can summon a plant which spawns a small health restores, shoot out a ball of lightning which hits anything above her, summon a giant icy halberd, and another which I forgot to be honest. Robert can throw two javelins towards enemies above, throw a grenade from a distance, and I’m pretty sure he had a cloak ability which was utterly useless. Hachi has the ability to become invincible to projectiles for a short period of time, but nothing else so that’s why when he smashes a blue lantern he gets mana bottles instead. Finally at the end of each stage there is a boss and these things are annoying to deal with. Hard to avoid and telegraph attacks, and require numerous hits to kill. Eventually they’ll trigger a final attack which is basically to enter a suicide bomber state. That’s all really. Hopefully you can slay whatever lies at the top and end the curse of the moon.
Thoughts
Bloodstained: Curse of The Moon 2 is an exceptional follow up to the first and is one of those games made for those who just enjoyed the first. If you loved Curse of The Moon then you will enjoy Curse of The Moon 2. Similar to how if you enjoy Hitman 2 you’ll probably enjoy Hitman 3. It’s a good game, but I was expecting more and I didn’t feel motivated to continue playing it beyond getting the first ending. What am I talking about? How can I talk harshly to an indie game sequel? The thing is that Bloodstained: Curse of The Moon 2 doesn’t really fix any of the major problems I had with the first game and I’m starting to notice more problems this time around.
First off, what does Curse of The Moon 2 do right? Well it does whatever the first game did right. It still gives off that feeling of nostalgia that old school platformers had. It still makes use of the four characters at your disposal and this time around they get you to switch between them more often like if you were weapon switching in Doom. It still offers that sense of satisfaction for overcoming a difficult boss, and the different pathways in each level offer a minor amount of replayability. I forgot if the first game had difficulty settings, but Curse of The Moon 2 offers some ways to change up how challenging the game is. A setting for those who aren’t used to old school platformer difficulty and one for those willing to take on the challenge. I for one took on veteran mode, or the old school design, so it’ll make sense why the barrage of complaints and nitpicks I have are about to rain down on you like a spiked hail storm.
Bloodstained: Curse of The Moon 2 is a more challenging experience than the first, and this can be a good or bad thing. Good, because the game feels rewarding for when you finally perfect a stage and slay the boss at the end. Bad, because everything that makes the game challenging isn't actually all that fun to deal with. What makes the game frustrating to play is the old school game design. It's truthful, but truthful to a fault as it seems the devs didn't realize what didn't work. A relentless amount of foes being tossed towards you. Being knocked back when you take damage and this can be annoying during tricky platforming sections. Not having much aerial control, meaning when you jump forward you can’t change directions or control the arch of your jump. Not many times you are going to heal and a bunch of other stuff that annoyed me. The game encourages you to make full use of your characters and their abilities, but during those moments when one specific character works best in one specific section then you are at a disadvantage when that character is lost. This is especially true when it comes down to bosses where some attacks are downright unavoidable unless you have the character who can outjump it or duck beneath. By the way, bosses are much harder and have way more attacks than they should. Attacks are hard to predict and even if you do know how to dodge you won’t see them coming.
The characters they replace for the previous ones are fine, but they aren’t as useful or well rounded. Checkpoints are far apart from each other and I’m surprised they don’t place one before the boss room. It means if you fail during a boss then you’ll have to walk a long stretch. Losing health and resources you could have used for the boss. The game has three episodes, otherwise you have to play the game three times to obtain the true ending. In the first game I obtained the true ending, but I’m just not feeling it this time. When I looked up the new game plus to see if it was worth it I realized it wasn't all that great. The second playthrough is literally just having all characters in the start besides Dominique, and the third playthrough has a mission based structure. You get all the characters from the first game which is great, but you are still going through the same levels. I didn’t find it to be worth it, and I wanted to play something else.
You remember Shovel Knight? That was a biased question to ask, but it’s one of my favorite games of all time and it’s a retro styled platformer like Curse of The Moon. Where it differs is that Shovel Knight ditched whatever old school design choices didn’t work in favor of making tightly designed levels and overall experience. The controls are smooth, level design is fair, the checkpoints were well placed, and the bosses were tough but not to a point where they were unfair. It was the perfect example of how to do this type of game and I wish Bloodstained would take note of this. Is this a terrible game? No. This is a game made by those who put passion into the first and there is fun to be had. For fifthteen dollars you get quite a bit of content and it’s much bigger than the first. I just don’t like it all that much and have trouble recommending it. So in the end I am going to give Bloodstained: Curse of The Moon 2 a 7/10 for being okay. And now I depart to play something else. Something that is hopefully better.
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