Video Game Review: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, released in June 2019 after a successful Kickstarter campaign is the passion project of Koji Igarashi, assistant director and programmer on multiple Castlevania games.

The game falls into the Metroidvania genre, a subgenre of action-adventure games, with the genre’s inspirations being Konami’s Castlevania games similar to Symphony of the Night, as well as Nintendo’s Metroid franchise.

Bloodstained is a revival of the subgenre Igavania, which is just a Metroidvania developed by Koji Igarashi, commonly referred to as just IGA. This includes the mechanics of these past games, including finding new weapons, crafting new items from enemy drops, and collecting shards that grant the player character, Miriam, unique abilities. As the player progresses, some of these shards, usually obtained through defeating bosses, are required for further progression.

With the player travelling through a castle newly formed upon the invasion of demons in the late 1700s, Miriam has to find out what caused the revival of the demons, squaring off with fellow Shardbinder Gebel. Her journey will lead to having to fight 127 different enemies, all referred to as demons in the player’s glossary, including bosses. While some have similar designs, all have something to make them unique.

The game also includes a full crafting and shop system, allowing the player to upgrade the shard they obtain to more powerful states, as well crafting more powerful equipment to help scale into the later parts of the game. The player can also prepare food, which acts as a way of buffing stats or healing. All food also gives permanent stat boosts upon first consumption.

The soundtrack, much like that of Castlevania, is heavily orchestral. While some tracks mix in other instruments, such as guitars. With the heavily gothic themes of the game, it matches and adapts to whichever area the player may be in at the time, drawing upon the area’s theming, much of which being regional or environmentally.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is available for purchase on Steam, Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.