Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Played and beat Blood-Stained: Ritual Of The Night a long time ago on an older computer that wasn't as good at running it. While I would have preferred the "old skool pixel look" of SOTN and Igas's Nintendo DS outings,the game still looks decent in 2.5D having both spectacular visual effects and very gonzo over the top boss battles! Being a shard-binder, Miriam pretty much has the same power of Soma Cruz in being able to absorb the powers of her demonic enemies by absorbing the devil-shards they leave behind. Some of these give you new spells or allow you to summon forth the creatures you just slayed while others can be more essential in aiding your exploration of the massive castle and hidden areas around it. The game has the dark-fantasy-gothic vibe Dark-Souls and Castlevania fans expect that's intermittently broken up by more whimsical easter-eggs that are tributes to backers of the project or are little "cross over events" referencing other beloved games made on smaller budgets (Everything from Shantae to Shovel knight to Two Kingdoms to Child Of Light) Sometimes it can get a tad obnoxious but for me it hasn't detracted from the core experience. (At least not much) There's also a lot of post-game content too after you beat the main campaign which is always goes towards giving you more bang for your buck. I want to say fans of this genre should immediately pick it up but true Castlevania aficionados can be a tough lot to please. I know they would have preferred more retro styled hand-crafted pixel graphics as I would have but that would have taken much more development time. ROTN also suffers from what I call "safe edginess" in which its' mature themes were softened somewhat,in part due to the off-beat easter-eggs and odd-ball cameo references tacked on. Regardless for me ROTN's merits definitely outweigh its' flaws!

It has all my favorite elements. I love to grind until I'm OPAF and upgrade my gear and stats. Perfect gameplay loop for me!

Metroidvania's now are a dime a dozen, and each one has different things they focus on. Some are platforming heavy, testing nerves and reflexes; some are "souls-like" and force you to pay attention to patterns or get one-shotted. But what about metroidvania's like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night comes to scratch that itch. Explore a gigantic castle, find or craft equipment, test out different kinds of weapons and spells to see which fits your playing style---blazing through the game or grinding levels and gear, trying to find all the secrets and side quests. Characters are charming, if a bit underdeveloped. Graphics are very very nice, and most of the tracks are superb. Worthy heir of the Castlevania mantle!

I donated to this games gofundme at the begining and i'm happy with the game after years of waiting. Although it could be longer.

I always loved Symphony of the Night beyond any of the games that came after. They all tried to capture the simplicity, elegance, and splendor of SotN and Bloodstained has finally scratched the itch that Aria or Dawn of Sorrow couldn't quite capture.