Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

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4.5/5

( 277 Reviews )

4.5

277 Reviews

English & 10 more

Posted on: July 10, 2019

Verified owner

Games: 0 Reviews: 9

My First "Castlevania"

Having recently fallen in love with the Metriodvania genre due to games like Hollow Knight and the Messenger, I have never played either of the originators, Metroid or Castlevania. I went into this game with high hopes and was not disappointed. The gameplay is smooth and responsive, the combat has a ton of variety. The boss battles are great, rounded out by a fun soundtrack. My biggest complaint is that unlike Hollow Knight and the Messenger, exploration feels like the weakest part of this game. The castle feels assembled rather than a natural environment with interesting areas to explore or see. I found myself saying "oh cool a Lava area," rather than inquiring why is this lava pit down here or why does this castle have this area. That being said, having another fun Metroidvania game on GOG is a blessing for me and I plan on continuing into NG+ once I round out the very intensive 100% completion. The game is clearly made for fans of both previous fans of Castlevania and a new round of fans for Bloodstained. I eagerly look forward to the additional characters coming to this game.

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Posted on: July 23, 2019

skprog

Verified owner

Games: 337 Reviews: 17

well worth the money

this game is good. 16 hours in and half way. loving the shard combat and the crafting system. this game packs alot of stuff from bunny ears to hard core armour. shoes that sqeak everytime you step. if you want to support a good game without microbull transaction AAA want to be game developers live service bs this is the game for you.

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Posted on: January 20, 2020

Games: 619 Reviews: 2

Like Aria of Sorrow, but...

Having played through the entirety of the game at least once, it's clear that there is some love to Castlevania's themes throughout the game (obvious given it's creator's roots and background). The game most resembles the GBA Castlevania game "Aria of Sorrows" (AoS), matching similar to it's map layout for the first part of the game before you figure out the path to the true Ending. On that note, there are a few things this game does better and worse than Aria of Sorrow. -Difficulty AoS had a pretty good difficulty curve, letting you feel weak at the start and strong by the end. Bloodstained struggles by being inconsistent. Story Bosses can sometimes be super easy, but you can get wrecked by simple mobs until you find one or two abilities that you'll spam. Because your meals count as healing items, with grinding you can out-feast your way out of almost any fight. But even at level 60, an optional boss was doing 1/6th my health per hit, and could stack multiple hits in a couple seconds. -Story Bloodstained gets the edge for having distinct characters, but misses the mark by hiding a lot of lore through the map on bookshelves, and a sudden plot twist in the last hour. AoS was a little weak, but you knew all the characters early, and your abilities being so strange in the game fit well with that game's twist. -Progress Bloodstained suffers by relying on a small number of strong abilities and grinding for gear and meals to get stronger. AoS had grinding for abilities, but exploration also gave you everything you needed. The only required grind was the abilities to reach endgame, and you didn't require strong abilities, just keen reaction and planning. -Music Bloodstained with full scores wins over the gameboy advance of course, but AoS was to my memory more thematically appropriate. -Overall Bloodstained is a fun game for those who've been itching for the next 2D Castlevania, but needed to have better gameplay balance to really shine.

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Posted on: February 18, 2020

Cocaine_Owlbear

Verified owner

Games: 106 Reviews: 1

So, it's pretty great, yeah?

From start to finish, Bloodstained is exactly what it sets out to be - a spiritual sucessor to the Castlevania games that Konomi isn't interested in making anymore. The controls are spot on, there's a ton of findable and craftable weapons, the magic system is neat and just packed with diagetic flavor. I love it. In short, you play as Miriam, a young woman infected with some sort of mystical crystal that allows her to absorb the souls of monsters, but may or may not be killing her. You're on a mission to stop another crystal possessed individual from unleasing an apocolypse that would destroy mankind. And that's more or less it. The game looks great, although the quality can be a bit uneven at times and some things look strangely out of place. I would have preferred a hand-drawn or pixel style, but this rendered stuff looks good for what it is. Gameplay is satisfying - you run around using a variety of weapons and powers, mercelessly slaughtering the monsters in and around the castle. As you unlock certain powers, more places become available to you. Poking around and being inquisitive yields rewards and, in one case, is required to advance the story, sotalk to everyone and look at everything you can. Controls are good, but not perfect (I mean, it's not Dead Cells, after all). Overall, it's a great game. My biggest complaint, I suppose, is that the devs promised continuing updates and added content, but there hasn't been an update since October - and that was mostly just to get the Switch version working right. I eagerly await added content, but it seemed like they were going to bring it in a bit faster than they have, and that's kinda a letdown. Still, great game worth multiple playthroughs. Get it!

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Posted on: January 17, 2021

松香

Verified owner

Games: 64 Reviews: 1

真香

开始觉得战斗不太顺手，搁置了很久，重新捡起来才发现真香！觉得 Miriam 不够漂亮可以去 Nexus 打 MOD~

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