Bloodstained
Koji Igarashi created a homage to his own games.
Five years ago Koji Igarashi, director and writer on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, left Konami to make another Castlevania-style game. Five years is a long time, and the Metroidvania genre has grown substantially in that period, but sometimes you don’t want a variation on a familiar theme. You want the same game in a new package. Rejoice, because with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, that’s exactly what you’re getting.
Miriam is a science experiment in the shape of a dolled-up anime girl. Together with her friend, a man named Gebel, she was part of an experiment that transplanted the essence of demons into her body. This demonic power comes in the form of shards, thus she’s called a Shardbinder. The more shards you absorb the more you let go of your humanity, a fate that befell Gebel.
Gebel is now out to fill the world with demons, all from the comfort of his castle – because of course there is a castle. It’s a sprawling place full of heavy chandeliers, grim-looking statues and monsters keeping watch. From the entrance hall to the gardens, towers and even the caves below, every inch of this castle is waiting to be explored and plundered, and for the most part its backdrops are varied enough to make you want to see what’s around the next corner.
Combat is the main focus, and on normal difficulty most enemies don’t pose much of a threat. Early on a nice rhythm between exploration and combat builds, and feels very genre-specific in the way you anticipate the respawning enemies and find increasingly fun, increasingly quick ways to deal with them. To this end you regularly find new weapons to try out on an unsuspecting
demon’s hide. Each weapon has a different range and animation, which are important aspects in sequence breaking smaller enemies and getting hits in with bosses. Compared to the rest of the game, the boss fights present a tough challenge, but as so often with Metroidvanias, at one point it clicks and careful study of attack timings and/or a bit of luck pays off. It’s satisfying every time.
There’s no way to attack up or downwards, which is the ultimate proof Bloodstained was designed as a throwback experience. Your bursting inventory doesn’t win points for usefulness as much as it simply appeals to the part of our brains that wants to collect all the things. That’s also the only reason for crafting meals for tiny stat buffs in the village or for visiting the castle’s demon barber who lets you switch outfits – as if you’re browsing a shopping mall rather than a house of horrors. Finding your way around can stump you sometimes, but backtracking is made easy through genre-typical fast travel rooms.
There is a point to be made for Metroidvanias that aren’t tough as nails these days, which is why Bloodstained is likely to appeal to newcomers. But, like the vampires it so reveres, it’s starting to feel long in the tooth when compared to the innovation found elsewhere in the genre. It’s a neat little time capsule of a game, an amusing diversion with a flow that makes time flow swiftly until you’re brickwalled by a boss. Sometimes that’s all you want.