Bloodstained Ritual of the Night (PS4) Review

When it comes to Blooodstained: Ritual of the Night, there is one word that comes to mind, expectation. Following a massively successful Kickstarter campaign and a back and forth with backers and fans that eventually led to a visual overhaul, Ritual of the Night seems like it has been a game that has shifted design quite a bit. Even after several years and honing in that experience, Ritual of the Night in its current form has some problems. However, despite technical and inconsistent elements, this game is a culmination of the greatest elements of the Castlevania franchise that it graciously pulls from. Even with that pedigree though, the expectation of fans was massive, which could sour the experience for some players when they discover that this is nowhere near a perfect game.

Make no mistake, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a Castlevania game in all but name. This looks to have been the goal of the game’s producer, Koji Igarashi, a man who is legendary from his work on previous Castlevania titles, who put the “vania” in “Metroidvania” with the almost universally praised Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Bloodstained is a breakthrough moment for a group of artists that appeared to have been shackled by publisher Konami, a company that also famously slighted Hideo Kojima of Metal Gear Solid fame.

As a longtime Castlevania fan, I was elated to hear that Igarashi was striking out to help form a new game studio, Artplay. I didn’t get the opportunity to play early builds of Ritual of the Night, but I did hear through various content creators that those versions were pretty disappointing. This was coupled with the criticism of the visuals, which thankfully were changed to a style that was just more appealing. Artplay appears to be taking criticism to heart. They don’t seem to be afraid to make changes when it could potentially make the game better. This is apparent through the game’s advertisements and from updates on the game’s Kickstarter.

When I finally got to play the game, I was ecstatic to find that Miriam’s adventure through the Demon Castle felt incredibly familiar.

Ritual of the Night is essentially a mix of the best mechanics in the Castlevania franchise. There are lots of weapons and armor to equip with headgear and some special items change the appearance of the main character. There are even items that completely transform Miriam like an armor set that turns her into a Shovel Armor monster, which is a loving tribute to Shovel Knight.

Throughout the game are bookshelves, which reveal input commands for certain weapons. These moves are only locked behind knowing the button combination to pull them off, so with previous experience or experimentation, these moves can be immediately used. There are also side quests like hunting down specific monsters, finding certain items, or making a particular dish for a lady that’s just awful with knowing what food she is hankering for.

Miriam also collects Shards from defeated enemies, similarly to what was used in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow on the GBA. Aria of Sorrow is one of my favorite games ever, so it was incredible to be able to feverishly collect powers and abilities again. It also seems like the issue of some monsters having incredibly low drop rates has been rectified. For the most part, I was able to get any Shard I wanted, either through some minor grinding or by using items to boost my chances. There are only a couple of monsters that proved problematic and that was because of their strengths as optional mini-bosses.

Not all powers are created equal though. There are multiple categories of Shards such as passive abilities, conjuring, manipulation, directional, and familiars. There are also skill shards that are typically used as traversal moves. I ended up gravitating towards directional shards, starting with a powerful arrow shot and eventually moving on to a Roy Mustang style explosion. Between these and a conjuring spell that swirled angry paintings around Miriam to do damage, I rarely used any other abilities.

In particular, I found the manipulation Shards to be lackluster. These are designated to the R1 button and can do things like increase stats, summon a repeatedly slashing werewolf, or give Miriam and insane dash in the late game. I barely touched the R1 button at all, until I got the aforementioned dash, which did make the game’s slower pacing feel so much better.

For much of the game (unless exploiting the easy-to-cancel backstep like a speedrunner) Miriam moves slowly, making me desperately yearn for a forward step. Her jump arc also feels pretty weak and the game’s visual style can make moving around hard to get used to. Much of my early hours were spent taking hits and not making easy jumps. This seems to be a byproduct of the game’s performance, which is sorely lacking and holds back the game tremendously.

To note, I played Ritual of the Night on the PS4 over the course of about a month with the latest patches. Throughout the game, I experienced regular slowdown and straight-up hangups, especially when killing multiple enemies in one shot and getting items or Shards from both. This is coupled with frequent and long enough load times just makes for a rough time for those hoping for a buttery smooth experience.

The worst issues were found trying to fight an optional monster on the train. By sitting in a chair in this level, the camera zooms into the train’s window, watching as trees whip by. The framerate here is laughably bad and it made the few minutes of waiting for the monster to spawn almost unbearable.

Now, thankfully we live in a world of digital enhancements so I hope to see Artplay really pin down these issues to make Ritual of the Night a game that’s exciting to revisit ten or even twenty years from now. Yet, in its current form, the issues do bring down the experience as a whole. I’m also excited to see what sort of extra modes and such will be added as DLC as there are lots planned for the future.

In a perfect world, Artplay would also release a final retail copy of the game with all of the DLC. There were issues with the first copies of the game having a progress-halting bug, which means if that isn’t fixed in the next print batch, there are copies of the game that will be unplayable once the digital updates are no longer available. This is why I have personally held off on picking up a physical Switch copy because when I want to share the game with friends or family decades later, it won’t be a fully functional copy.

Weird performance issues aside, Ritual of the Night is almost everything fans enjoy from the Castlevania games. The narrative involves a character with a troubled past taking on a seemingly impossible to defeat evil, all while storming through a strange castle of horrors and beauty. Visually, I think Ritual of the Night would have looked better with pixel art or with hand-drawn sprites but the 3D models and backgrounds are often balanced well and really show off the appeals of gothic imagery. This is why I think that Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is overall a more distilled, damn near perfect title by comparison.

Although, there are some areas in Ritual of the Night that are just awful to look at. I really felt this when going through the thankfully short lava caves. This area is plagued by a bright, orange background that just overpowers almost every scene. I also wasn’t a big fan of the average design of the Den of Behemoths, which pits Miriam against giant versions of monsters she faced in earlier areas. The monsters were cool and fun to fight, giving me flashbacks of the giant world in Super Mario Bros 3, but the area was just too similar to the starting areas of the game.

Much like the visuals, the sound design in Ritual of the Night is a mixed bag. There are some songs that I really enjoy and I find myself whistling the common ones throughout the day. However, there is one song in particular, Bibliotheca Ex Machina, that has this awful synthesizer sound that just repeatedly jabs the same note. I was wearing headphones for much of my time with the game and had to take them off when that song started to play. On the other hand, most of the sound effects sound punchy, even if some of the monster death sounds are hilarious and silly.

Come to think of it, much of Ritual of the Night is ridiculous. One minute I was facing down a stained glass golem hand thing, the next I was admiring a gothic painting of undoubtedly a Kickstarter backer’s cat. It definitely takes away from the gravity of the game’s dialogue when equipping Miriam with a talisman that’s just stuck to her forehead. Don’t go into Ritual of the Night expecting a dark, dreary tale of woe and triumph. Even though those elements are certainly there, much of it is overshadowed by an anything-goes approach to design, which honestly does make it feel more whimsical and entertaining.

That said, aside from my gripes with how the game runs, Ritual of the Night never stopped being fun to play. Long after I’ve finished my initial playthrough where I watched a titanic credits scene, I found myself going back into my file to hunt up items I missed or finish up some quest lines. There are plenty of extras in Ritual of the Night and I haven’t even dabbled in the boss rush or speedrun modes. Secrets are aplenty and frequent, rewarding exploring and revisiting areas as new movement options become available. Plus there are lots of lists to complete for those that enjoy collecting things.

I think that overall Ritual of the Night will satisfy longtime Castlevania fans. Despite the game’s performance hangups, there is a lot to love in this game. Yet, I am keeping my eyes towards the future, as this particular version is less than ideal. I really hope to see some crazy things come up in DLC and I would love to see a sequel or another entry in the Bloodstained universe. Fans of Castlevania though will get much more out of the experience than players unfamiliar with the franchise. Again though, I consider Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon to be a better game overall.

For now, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a decent start to what will hopefully be an incredible journey.

For more information about Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, check out the official website on 505 Games. A digital PlayStation 4 copy of the game was provided for the purpose of review.

To read more of my thoughts on games, check out my review of Judgement or a review of one of my favorite PSVR games so far, Trover Saves the Universe. Screenshots were captured through the PS4 Share function.