Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

I avoided kickstarting the game because Japanese developers have a pretty poor record on crowdfunding, but the game turned out really well. The controls are tight, plenty of exploration with a large variety of environmentsk, and just the right amound of grind for a game like this. Game has a bit of fan service but could use more IMO. I'm docking 1 star because the game doesn't support OpenInput. It's a pet peeve of mine, but I don't have an xbox controller and not planning to buy one while I still have my perfectly function 15 year old rumblepad.

Konami wouldn't let Igarashi make a new "real" Castlevania, so he did it himself. Tight game play great weapons, difficult without being insane. I'm not sure about the "crafting" (I always wonder about crafting in game) but I'm not that far in yet. All in all...BUY! (Yes, it's worth full price)

This game feels so much like a love letter to Symphony of the Night, and its descendants. There's so many little tributes to that original, as well as touched from other Castlevanias of years past. It doesn't really do anything new, but it picks and chooses all the right elements and is probably the most solid game of this genre in recent years. A delight, and definitely worth your time if you like these kinds of side scrolling exploration action adventures.

Speechless. I was left speechless by how tight the gameplay is. I don't know how to put it into words other than "it feels like money". For every cut corner made to the visuals, presentation and so forth, you can feel it all reinvested hand over fist into the gameplay. Those of you familiar with backdash crouch canceling from previous Iga-vania's will be pleased to learn that the movement tech is back, and yes, it's superior to simply moving forward. I played throughout the entire game on KB+M, slain every secret boss, and had very few gripes with the setup. The most I could complain about the controls would be that right-click targeting feels a bit wonky, and using the Invert spell command (W+S+Space) felt inconsistent. I may have been inputting it wrong, mind you. And just to be thorough, I will also say that I had some trouble inputting the directional commands (quarter circles and such) using WASD. If it makes you feel any better, rhythmically tapping S and Q to backdash crouch cancel feels better on keyboard than controller. All of this aside, it feels like a genuine successor to Iga's Castelvania titles, and a worthy one at that. Mechanically, it's a greatest hits collection of Symphony of the Night, and Aria of Sorrow. Tight level design (aside from Den of Beasts and a few other end-game dungeons), a myriad of unique spells, extremely fun and challenging bosses, eureka moments for progression that reward you for paying attention to details, awesome weapons that can further differentiate themselves within their own sub-category, and meaningful character upgrades made the past 23 hours I dumped into this game feel like mere minutes. It's worth mentioning that there're some bugs here or there, but nothing critical that screwed my game up. Either way, I'm glad this game is a critical success, it deserves it. Hope Iga has plans for a sequel; he's made a believer out of me.

This game is brilliant, it takes me back to the old days of 2D platformers. Fantastic to look at, great soundtrack & extremely responsive controls combined with good level design make this game really stand out in a market oversaturated with realistic looking 3rd person games. I'd certainly recommend Bloodstained. I've never played Symphony of the Night but having played this game for a couple of hours now I'm seriously going to have to play it.