The metroidvania genre is one of my favorite video game genres besides soulslikes, and it’s due to how the formula works brilliantly time and time again. It combines two major elements I like, platforming and exploration, and mixes it with a bunch of other minor ingredients like a complex combat system or the way character progression is handled to create a unique taste. The player wanders around an open possibly interconnected world, fighting enemies, discovering secrets, unlocking new upgrades, and opening up new paths using said upgrades, by getting stronger overtime to face later challenges. I like this type of game design. Through the accumulated power ups and upgrades it truly makes the player feel like they are getting stronger by devoting more time to exploration and find every possible secret. A lot of games focus on linearity, holding the player by the hand and guiding them towards the direction forward, but what they lack is player freedom and letting the mind run wild. Not everything should be told to the player, because a true adventure is one you witness on your own. In metroidvanias they tell the player to solve problems on their own through pure experience.
Some of my most favorite metroidvanias include Owlboy, Axiom Verge, The Messenger, Ori, and Hollow Knight which is probably one of my most favorite games of all time. You're probably wondering by now what started the metroidvania genre? Two games specifically, both coming from two iconic video game franchises. The first game is Super Metroid which is considered by many to be one of the greatest entries in the Metroid series. The second is Castlevania: Symphony of The Night, which is considered to be a major change of pace for the Castlevania series and another one of the greatest games ever made. Castlevania is a series well known for its unique gothic setting and tough as nails difficulty which was rewarding to master, but it was until the major release of Symphony of The Night where the series took a turn towards a new direction.
Directed by Koji Higarashi, Symphony of The Night turned the linear platforming of the previous games into a vast interconnected world, combining the progression system of RPGs and the exploration of Metroid. The game became a staple for the Castlevania series as future titles would follow a similar formula. The Castlevania series was at its peak during this time, but sadly years later this golden streak had to come to a complete halt. The Castlevania franchise is owned by Konami, and much like any other big video game franchise owned by Konami in the 2010s they had to run it straight through the ground and into the deep fiery pits of hell. The Castlevania series was never seen again and many of the team members who worked on Castlevania ended up leaving Konami including Koji Higarashi. However, Koji Higarashi still had the drive to make the formula he loved, so he fled to Kickstarter to crowd fund his own project.
Higurashi announced he would be making his own personal Castlevania titled Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night, a spiritual successor to his original masterpiece. People were excited to see a game so reminiscent of Castlevania, because it was quite literally made by the guy who made Castlevania what it was. Within a few months, Higarashi raised enough money to make Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night a full fledged project as well as meet a couple of bonus goals which would be met overtime. It would take some time to develop Ritual of The Night, as Higarashi wanted the game to be the best it could be with the limited budget he had. He wanted to take everything he and his past co-workers learned with previous Castlevania games, and combine it in one grand adventure. Some footage was shown along the development process and while the reveals received some criticism the overall project was shaping up to be great. In mid 2019, the highly anticipated Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night was finally released for the entire world to play. Fans of the Castlevania series or people who backed the project were amazed with what they got. Many say that it was one of the most streamlined Castlevania-like games they have ever experienced as it combined all the great ideas from the past that worked, and some even called it almost as good, maybe even better than Symphony of The Night. Well, that's a majority of people at least.
I’m going to lay the truth down for you guys. When I tried Ritual of The Night around the time of it’s release I didn’t really get into it. I thought the game was sluggish, looked unpolished, lacked the charm of Castlevania, and some of the design choices didn’t mesh together with the metroidvania exploration. I dropped the game halfway through and never came back. A few months have passed and I ended up craving for more metroidvania action recently, and seeing how I haven’t beaten Ritual of The Night yet I decided to give the game another shot. I dove back into the game and finally beat it. While it’s not one of my favorite metroidvanias and there are quite a few problems, I do have to say that my overall time with the game was decent. It’s one of the few better metroidvania in the market and one of the few ocassions where a highly funded Kickstarter project met expectations. So was Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night worth all those donations. Does it live up to its predecessor? Is it worth your attention? Well let’s sharpen our blades, grab some shards, and prepare to slay some demonic beings.
Story
Back during the Industrial Revolution, there was once a mystical group known as the Alchemy Guild. They spent several days and nights studying the properties of magic and learning how to perform spells, but secretly beneath the surface they performed demonic rituals trying to summon creatures from the great beyond. They kidnapped many individuals and used them as sacrifices during these rituals and eventually they came up with the idea for Shardbinders. The Shardbinders were human beings capable of wielding demonic powers using shards embedded into their body, but most of the sacrifices who were supposed to become such legendary Shard Binders died during the operations. There were many attempts but only two Shardbinders came out alive, Gebel who survived and Miriam who passed out before the rituals could be performed.
Miriam gets knocked into a coma and wakes up ten years later to find out that Gebel has gone mad and plans to take over the world by summoning an army of demons. Gebel conjures a mysterious castle out of nowhere and demons begin to infest the land. Miriam, thinking that this all seems a bit too strange, sets sail for the location of the castle along with her companion Johannes, a former member of the Alchemy Guild who wishes to redeem himself and the actions he has taken in the past. The ship they took to the castle’s isle gets attacked by demons while on the way and Miriam ends up meeting face to face with Gebel. Standing next to him is his henchman Gremory, who has conjured a blood red moon to make the demon infested night eternal. She tries to convince Gebel to stop, saying that on the inside he is still a good person, but Gebel refuses to listen and flees to continue his plans of taking over the world.
Now washed up on shore along the ominous castle Miriam and Johannes set out on a grand adventure to explore each area of the castle, fight whatever demon stands in their way, and stop Gebel before it’s too late. They’ll make many peculiar friends and foes along the way and discover the secrets that lie within, but not everyone is what they seem to be. Something is a miss under the red moon that glimmers above them.
Gameplay
As all metroidvanias go, in Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night you navigate around an interconnected world, platform your way around hazards, pick up new upgrades that allow you open up new sections of the world, and fight enemies that get tougher the deeper you get into the game. Unlike a majority of the metroidvanias I know where exploration and combat is all you have to worry about to unlock the necessity to get stronger, Ritual of The Night borrows a lot of light RPG mechanics. Many of the past Castlevania games have done this before, but Bloodstained does it in a way where you need to level up if you want to stand a chance against later bosses. Killing enemies gives you experience points and by gaining enough points you level up. Leveling up increases your strength, health, magic, defense, resistances, and various other stats.
There are also upgrades scattered throughout the game that can increase your maximum health and magic meter, so leveling up isn’t always the main way you can increase your stats. There are multiple armor sets and trinkets in the game that can increase specific stats, damage resistances, and help forge the type of build you want while exploring the castle. Some armor pieces will even have special properties like being immune to spikes. There are numerous weapons to pick up, each weapon having different traits and attack patterns. Providing different playstyles and strategies for each encounter. Lighter weapons like swords and daggers attack quickly and allow you to dodge easily, but they have short range and hitboxes. Meanwhile heavier weapons like clubs and greatswords deal more damage and have a bigger attack window, but leave you easily exposed due to their long wind up times and makes it even harder to avoid incoming attacks. Experimenting is heavily encouraged in Bloodstained, especially since almost all the bosses in the game have multiple phases and love to change up how they fight constantly. You can even set up different builds through the equipment screen, so you can quickly swap between them during frenetic fights.
Sometimes when you kill an enemy you’ll obtain a shard and by equipping the shard you gain access to a unique demonic power. Much like the weapons and trinkets in this game, you can test what shards fit your playstyle best or fit whatever scenario you are in. Maybe you want to attack from afar by firing a flurry of knives, spark a pillar of fire beneath your enemies, have a magical sword companion fight by your side, spew out a jetstream of water and be able to swim underwater, or summon other demons to help you during combat. Using specific abilites at the right time will even exploit enemy weaknesses. Another system I’d like to explain is crafting new equipment, strengthening shards, and cooking meals to heal yourself. Crafting stronger weapons will require you to obtain rare materials and sometimes exchange weaker weapons you already have at hand. Don’t worry, it’s ultimately worth it in the long run.
Cooking meals will require several resources to make as well, but what makes meals special is that everytime you eat a new meal your maximum health slightly increases. That’s at least a third way to upgrade your health bar! Meals can also heal you in battle which is especially useful since health potions are rare and while buying them is an option they are often quite expensive. It encourages the player to go on the hunt, harvest supplies through a specific NPC, and try out every meal on the menu. There is a problem with this system though, but we’ll get to it later i the conclusion.
There are numerous glass murals and velvet couches scattered across the world. Couches allow you to restore your health and save your game, and murals allow you to fast travel to other sections of the world. If you die you are sent back to the last place you saved your game. So save often, plan out where to go next in between each checkpoin, and prepare for what dangers you may face. You don’t want all your sweet progress and valuables to be lost. Besides that there really isn’t anything else I can say about Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night. You explore the world, open up shortcuts that make the world easier to backtrack through, level up your capabilities, and explore some more. My main complaints for this game will be written in the conclusion. Hopefully you’ll be able to take down Gebel and survive this treacherous night.
Thoughts
Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night is, to a majority of people, masterclass when it comes to providing the refined Castlevania experience. Even though I haven’t played any of the other 2D Castlevania games with the metroidvania format, the quality of this game can be summed up with Yahtzee Croshaw’s summary of the game during his end year list, “It’s practically Symphony of The Night combined with all the good ideas from the other 2D Castlevania entries”. It’s fun, challenging, and always keeps the player going to see what crazy monsters wait for them in the next area. The controls are pretty smooth with Miriam being tight to maneuver allowing slick movement around the trickiest of obstacles. Enemy variety is pretty big, meaning a single enemy type won't feel overused across multiple areas and makes for some of the most thrilling combat encounters.
The music is great, a big old symphony providing a sense of wonder and amazement while exploring the castle. The amount of detail in this game is jaw dropping for an independent project and the environments will make you feel amazed especially with how you got there. Finding a laboratory deep beneath the castle makes sense, but what about a sand temple and a fiery hellish cavern!? There are tons of weapons to utilize, demon abilities to wield, pieces of gear to customize how Miriam looks, and builds to form as Ritual of The Night gives you a multitude of options. What Ritual of The Night does to capture the essence that made the previous 2D Castlevania games amazing is done well, but the game does suffer from many problems. Way more than you expect.
There’s a reason why this game didn’t click for me as well as other metroidvanias. The 3D graphics are great for an independent game, but I found them to be ugly for the most part. There’s a certain charm with games that use a pixel art style or hand drawn characters and backgrounds, because they work well in a 2D space. 3D is fine, but there’s not much going on in the background for me. The voice acting is really cheesy, but Igarashi was on a budget so it would make sense that he didn’t get any professional actors for his characters. However it's 2019 and I know quite a few independent games that have better voice acting than this. The story is really generic and you can predict what happens next before an event even plays out. I don't mind that the story isn't good, but it's more like I didn't like the characters. Compare to Alucard and some of his friends, Miriam and her allies didn't do enough to pull me along for the ride.
Hitboxes are wonky at times, especially when facing enemies who have wide as a whale attacks but you thought you moved far away enough to not get hit but you did anyway. Boss difficulty tends to jump all over the place, especially when facing some of the human bosses. They move quickly, are hard to hit, can cut down your health bar within seconds with their combos, and sometimes have attacks that are down right unavoidable. For example, the Bloodless fight summons blood pillars which travel across the room and you don't have a proper way to avoid them besides hugging the tiny cliff by the entrance of the arena. Most of the time you have to stock up on health items to even stand a chance against bosses. You can craft meals to refill a majority of your health, however the supplies needed for them are rare or have to be harvested from a specific NPC. Plus it takes awhile for the NPC to harvest the supplies for you, so oftentimes you have to wait an unpredictable amount of time. The second boss in the game is a human, and while he is really cool and becomes an important character later on he’s probably the first difficulty spike the player will face. Which is not good and doesn't leave a good impression for the second major boss of the game.
Speaking of the healing system, Bloodstained’s balancing is kind of screwed up. You can carry tons of potions and meals, and as long as you have the supplies you are basically unkillable. This diminishes the challenge as no longer do you need skill, but rather tank blow after blow with endless rations to rely upon. I see players online beating tough bosses on first attempts using fully leveled up shard abilities and large food supplies, so I feel like this game is easy to break if you know exactly what overpowered combos chop through enemy health quickly. I mean it is a metroidvania and you do want to see how powerful you become by the end, but you still want to be able to challenge them even during endgame sections. Finally you have a backstep ability, but I wish there was a way to dodge forward through an attack. My playstyle is to usually dodge through attacks and keep striking, but that’s not possible since you can’t dodge forward using invincibility frames or through attacks which is stupid.
There’s a lot of glaring problems I have with this game and to be honest I’m kind of disappointed with it, but deep down Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night is a well made game and it’s recommendable to anyone who was a big fan of Castlevania or Igarashi’s style of games. It's available for forty dollars which is unusually high, but wait for a sale or until a year later and this game will be available for twenty dollars in most places. In the end I give Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night an 8/10 for being pretty good.
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