Bloodstained Ritual of the Night

🎮 Steam ⏳ 30 hours ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)

Modern Metroidvania Successor #

The first Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night that delivers a faithful and engaging Metroidvania experience. The exploration is well-paced, the castle layout is intricate and rewarding, and the shard system adds a layer of creativity and customization that keeps combat fresh. Combined with varied weapons, spells, and the ability to swap loadouts quickly, the gameplay feels both deep and flexible.

Gothic Roots Revived #

The presentation leans heavily into gothic atmosphere, with moody environments and a strong soundtrack composed by Michiru Yamane, which elevates the experience and ties it back to its Castlevania roots. This is truly one of it’s standouts, the same people that worked in the original SOTN was developing this, and for fans of this genre this was enough to be interested. Visuals are stylish, though some players found the character models and mix of art styles inconsistent compared to the initial Kickstarter promise.

Combat Over Story #

While the gameplay is polished, the story and characters are largely serviceable rather than memorable, often acting as a backdrop for the action rather than a driving force. As already said, the focus here is in the combat, and while the previous games of this genre already had very complex and fun combat mechanics, this one showed us what the original developers are able to achieve.

Build Freedom Rewarded #

It is impressive the amount of builds you can think of while playing this, even the “funny” ones such as the Luck-based builds are viable, so you are in for a treat if you like that kind of thing. Overall, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night succeeds as a modern take on classic Metroidvanias, it doesn’t reinvent the formula, but it embraces it with confidence, offering fans of the genre a rich, nostalgic, and satisfying adventure.