Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Great game

It did what is nearly impossible these days; managed to be a spiritual successor that was actually as good or better than the games that came before it.

Super fun, Super Vania, Super Metro

The gameplay is quite funny, it can entertain you for hours and hours; there are tons of weapons and spells to empower and try, and the length is quite fair. Drop rating of items and spells is acceptable and balanced. That is enough for me to give 3 stars. But... Plot somewhat inexistent: the same old heated slop with no twists, no surprises, no interesting characters. Few moment really challenging; the rest is spamming a handful of useful spells and weapons attacks (did someone really found weapons' techniques somehow useful?!? I never used them...). Most of time will pass farming and grinding: no strategy, no tactics, no technique. Repetitive, at most. The graphic rendering of characters is somewhat detached from the ambient, giving to the gameplay a sort of unwanted grotesque-kitsch effect. This is my personal taste, but surely it kills the atmosphere. Monsters and characters design: already seen in hundred of anime and animeish games. An unworthy copy of the classic Castlevania. Can give some fun, but there are better and better games of this genre out there...

I'm sure this won't be a poular opinion, but it is honest, and from my viewpoint. Obviously others see it differently. What I liked: The art is good The weapons feel different from each other and seem to fit many possible play styles The sound is nice and fits the atmosphere Controls are responsive Not so much: Kind of just, well. Dull. Shoe-box level design Mobs and boss miss-match for play styles, though I know this isn't uncommon I've played most Castlevania games since they've been coming out (American versions anyway), but I've never been a die-hard fan or anything. Play them, enjoy them or don't, move on. This one certainly feels like CV, I guess (walk left and right, smash latterns, meet enemy and note thier pattern, kill them, move on), but I didn't find anything compelling to keep playing. I've asked for a refund - if I can't find a game enjoyable in teh first hour (sorry, that's plenty of time to clear the galleon and fight the boss three or four times), then i'm not going to waste further time on something that eventually gets good. I have way too many games in various libraries (Steam, GoG, Epic, Ubi, Origins, yadda yadda...) for that nonsense. Personally I would rate this a 2 or 2.5, but it obviously speaks to a lot of players, it just isn't my cuppa.