Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the spiritual successor of the (Koji Igarashi-styled) Castlevania games, featuring the same gothic setting, free-roaming castle, vast amount of weapons and magic, and a new crafting system.

What I enjoy most: Many subsystems, weapons, magic and skills to find and upgrade for different playstyles

 
 
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Setting

You play as Miriam, a shardbinder - human infused with the power of demons. Shardbinders were originally created by the alchemist guild in order to be sacrificed, but Miriam and her friend Gebel survived. Ten years after the alchemist guild was destroyed by demons, Miriam learned that Gebel was summoning demons to destroy England. She therefore joined up with Johannes - a former member of the alchemist guild - to stop Gebel.

 

Igavania

Bloodstained: ROTN is a Castlevania game in all but name. The game takes place in a castle very similar to Dracula’s castle in previous games, with the entrance, dining hall, tower, and dungeon. The gameplay is also very similar, featuring various movement abilities that leads to the exploration of more and more of the castle. Even the enemies are extremely similar - with many familiar enemies and monsters inheriting the same design but just with a different name.

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Combat & Abilities

Miriam has access to a huge number of weapons, from daggers to swords to great-swords, to whips and guns. There are also abilities that go with each weapon types - for example, if one equips a “Greatsword expertise” shard, one can strike with a great-sword more rapidly. There are also different types of bullets for guns, and a special weapon that reduce the consumption of bullets. So, overall, there is much room for different play-styles.

All abilities (passive and active) are controlled by shards, and are further divided into 6 types. There are no limit to the number of “Skill shards” one can equip, but one can only equip one of each of the other 5 types. These 5 are conjure shard, manipulative shard, directional shard, passive shard, and familiar shard. Together, these cover everything from movement abilities (e.g. double jump) to bluffs (e.g. extra strength) to familiar (e.g. a silver knight as a constant companion) to defensive and aggressive spells (e.g. shields and fireballs). Some shards are guarantee drops from encounters, and some can be crafted or farmed.

In terms of difficulties, the game is not very hard. Of course, as in all previous Igavanias, there is always the option of grinding and levelling up your character until every enemy becomes easy. However, in general, one can brute-forces most encounters in “normal difficulty”, and “hard difficulty” might be a better starting option for players who want a sense of danger.

Plot & NPC

Without Dracula and Belmonts, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night nonetheless has a very similar structure compared to previous Igavania games. Mariam is still tasked to explore the Castle and confront the master of the Castle. There are a few NPCs - Johannes who provides lore and help with crafting, and Dominique who sells you things. And then there are Alfred, Gebel, and Zangetsu - who are the three other playable characters in Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - who you might need to fight along the way. There are a few twists in the story, but in my opinion the NPC’s are not as memorable as the few previous Castlevania games.

Conclusion

Koji Igarashi is quoted in a Gamasutra interview saying that his focus for this game was to “create a familiar game system that would give a sense of relief to returning players” - and I think he definitely succeeded. Despite the limited innovation, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is extremely fun to play, and is probably more similar to previous Castlevania games than if it was developed by Konami. Some people do not like its graphics, but I personally think it is pretty enough. I had a great time playing it and I look forward to seeing all of the free DLC’s.

(2019/7/29)

 
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List of metroidvania elements

  • Basic information

    • Name of game: Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

    • Designer / Publisher: ArtPlay / 505 Games

    • System: PC, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, XBox

    • Year of publication: 2019

  • Mechanics

    • Style of combat: Melee and Ranged

    • Use of magic: Yes

    • Combat-focus versus Platform-focus: Combat-focus

    • Death mechanics: Save-game

    • (Fall damage): No

  • Progression

    • Levelling / Farming for XP: Yes

    • Farming for Gold / Item: Yes

    • Skill pick-up: Yes

    • (Skill-tree): No

    • (Stats allocation): No

    • (Crafting): Yes

  • Exploration

    • Free-roaming: Yes

      • Gated by movement abilities: Yes

      • Gated by bosses: Yes

    • Type of world map: Single map

    • World generation: Fixed map

    • Auto-map: Yes

  • Alternative game modes

  • Other elements

    • Playability with just keyboard: No (directional shard)