Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

[Oracle]

So I pre-ordered on Switch last night, and I'm still waiting for the damn thing to be playable. I guess this is one of those "12PM PT" digital launches... and here I was all pumped to pull an all-nighter and start at midnight. Damnit.

Anyway, anyone else grab this one yet? I was torn between PC version and Switch version, but Switch won out for me. Game is getting a lot of high praise, I hope it's as good as the hype (said by no one, ever).

[Julius Seeker]

I plan on getting it, but the reason I'm holding off is that I'm in the middle of some other games right now. Thanks to the digital age, we no longer have to buy a small niche game day one or not at all.

As a note, the Castlevania Collection for Switch is a fairly decent price, 24 bucks; in my opinion, a good game to keep on the wishlist (especially for a 50-75% discount) for a nice trip down memory lane when you're looking for it.

[Eric]

I actually backed the kickstarter.

This is a Iga ass Castlevania game.

The bad: I'm not a fan of the graphics overall, I do think they did the best they could with the engine/art style they settled on, and some of the monsters just have bad design like they couldn't rip directly from Castlevania so there's a lot of unoriginal knock-offs that just look bad or don't really fit/relate the area they're in. The dialog is cringe worthy though I do like that David Hayter showed up. Honestly none of it is particularly memorable character or story wise.

The good: The gameplay, quests, castle design, character progression is all solid Metroidvania. Exploring the castle is good, farming is quick and actually fun if you really really want a particular power, questing is integrated well enough (KILL THEM DEAD RAWR) lol. Crafting is ok, I feel like maybe some recipes to discover to craft stronger items might be something they should consider for the future vs just finding loot throughout the castle or as drops, but overall it feels great to progress through and clear the areas to 100%.

The biggest problem with this game isn't the game itself but the fact that Hollow Knight has raised the fucking bar so much for the Metroidvania genre.

[Julius Seeker]

farming is quick and actually fun if you really really want a particular power.

This is a very key thing for me. In pretty much all the other Metroidvania games this was a satisfaction-killer for me. As a result, I tended to gravitate strictly to the traditional Castlevanias on replays, never replaying any of the Metroidvanias, and I eventually quit buying them (I think one on DS was the last one I got). I like the Metroid style: I love the original Metroid and Hollow Knight.

[Oracle]

The biggest problem with this game isn't the game itself but the fact that Hollow Knight has raised the fucking bar so much for the Metroidvania genre.

Yup, hard to argue. That's the game I keep finding myself comparing Bloodstained to.

I'm liking the game so far. Re: characters and dialog - never really a draw in these games for me, sure as hell wasn't a strong point of C:SotN

I don't mind the visuals in Bloodstained that much, but they are nothing special, and they are definitely far from crisp when taking a look at a semi-still image - tons of blurring effects going on. I'm also playing on the system which very likely has the poorest graphics, in general, of any version of the game. I find during the action that the visuals flow together well, and the screen isn't just a constant mess of effects, which is pretty much all that counts. I've encountered some slowdown on the Switch, only in a couple larger areas, but I still consider that pretty unacceptable.

While my first boss battle killed me a few times, it simply taught me that I can't go through most fights simply by force and setup alone - some limited dodging and pattern understanding is required. Bottom line, I went into the fight lazy the first few times. The next few bosses I have found particularly easy. Now, I know, I'm starting on Normal and there are two additional difficulties to unlock, but Hollow Knight had no such 'easy mode'. That game just punched you in the face from the get go, and then you could make it even harder from there.

Again, may be the system I'm playing on, but there is definitely some input lag going on. I just can't seem to be as precise as I want to be with the controls. This is a definite drawback for me and a case where a game like Hollow Knight is clearly better. You HAD to be precise in HK.

The equipment diversity (specifically weapons), spell system, crafting system, etc. are big positives for me. The ability system in Hollow Knight was great, but Bloodstained brings more of the traditional RPG element to equipment and abilities that I enjoy. I'm a min/max player when it comes to equipment, and I like the flexibility this system affords, including the quick-switch 'Short Cuts' for different weapon/armor/spell combos.

It's not Hollow Knight, but Bloodstained is scratching the Metroidvania itch. Likely the last game of this type I play before HK Silksong comes out.

[Zeus]

So I got to play this on the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Man, I absolutely adored this game. It's a phenomenal successor (I wouldn't even call it "spiritual"; it's almost a direct sequel) to Symphony. Basically an update and upgrade to the formula.

It's long, pretty challenging, got a decent story, gives you some side quests for fun, has great bosses, and keeps ramping up both in term of challenge and story right to the very end.

It ain't perfect. There's lots of glitches, the Switch lazy-ass port was a debacle, there's some balancing issues early on, they coulda done more to expand the world, and some of the side quests just are there. But those are relatively minor when compared to the entirety of this game.

I hope.we get more of these from Igarashi.