I came into the game pretty level headed and as a backer for the Kickstarter. Unfortunately, I found myself disappointed. I'm mainly disappointed because I've played a lot of metroidvanias since Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and I feel that this game pales in comparison to other metroidvanias as well as Symphony of the Night. I found myself playing two different comparison games. One that compared Bloodstained the original game that it takes inspiration from and another that compared it to other metroidvanias that have since come out. If you compare it to the original, you'll find that its the same game but with more spells. However, it also has really pointless side quests and the majority of the spells are pretty useless. If you were to compare it to modern metroidvanias, you'll find fleshed out ideas that take the genre in interesting directions like Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight and Cave Story+. By comparison, this game feels like its stuck in 1997 without the good music and memorable boss fights. The reason why I gave it three stars is that I don't think these marks against it make it a bad game. In fact, it seems to have given everyone exactly what they wanted and that's fine. It's good that they're having fun. I just wanted to give my own two cents on the matter.
I personally enjoyed this game. The environments are pretty and well designed despite the pixelated graphics. The game contains a expansive world and has a very heavy focus on exploration. Plus, the soundtrack is fantastic. It's a really good game. So, it's definitely worth checking out.
