BLOODSTAINED: RITUAL OF THE NIGHT / DEVELOPER: ARTPLAY / PUBLISHER: 505 GAMES / PLATFORM: PC, PS4 (REVIEWED), SWITCH, XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Funded by a massively succesful Kickstarter campaign in 2015, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night sees former Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi make his grand return to home consoles with the genre that he pretty much created with 1997’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
Way back in 18th century England, a guild of alchemists created Shardbinders – humans with the ability to absorb the power of demons. Of course, demons end up taking over the country until only two Shardbinders remain – one of them, Gebel, is on a revenge mission to destroy England, and the other, Miriam, is you, the only person capable of stopping Gebel…
Gameplay will be familiar to anyone who’s played SotN (or, indeed, pretty much any other Metroidvania), as Miriam explores a huge castle, fighting monsters and gaining new abilities that open up additional areas. Every enemy has the potential to drop a shard which is then automatically absorbed by Miriam, resulting in a new attack (or powering up an existing shard, if you already have one of that type). Shards can be swapped out at any time, and the sheer amount of available combinations means that there’s plenty of scope for experimentation.
RotN looks fantastic, with some beautifully-detailed gothic environments that are often way more colourful than you might expect. Character design is similarly excellent, with a huge variety of monsters to slash your way through. Many of them will be familiar to players of last year’s 8-bit teaser / companion game Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, which is a nice touch.
Fans have been calling for a SotN follow-up since 1997. That’s what was promised, that’s why the Kickstarter was so successful, and that’s exactly what’s been delivered. Bloodstained doesn’t really break any new ground, but as a modern throwback to what is probably the greatest Metroidvania of all time, Ritual of the Night serves its purpose perfectly.
