It's an homage to the games you used to play, no doubt. It has its fun moments. It has all the cheesy dialog and plot you'd expect. Level design is decent and the music is quite good. Unfortunately, after the nostalgia wears off, and it wears off pretty fast, you start to wonder why you're still playing. What you don't get is anything particularly new or innovative. The same things that bugged you 20 years ago will bug you now: enemies kiting through walls, slightly awkward movements, an environment that is dangerous to you and you alone, lots of grinding for items, you get the drift. If you're after a sequel for things you played when Bill Clinton was president, you're in luck. But, in general, not only does Bloodstained not move the bar, it looks at the bar and adjusts it downward by a good 15 years. About halfway through it, you really feel as though the designers are phoning it in - and it's most definitely a landline.
