Ever since it was announced that Koji Igarashi was striking out to make games in his iconic style, no longer held back by Konami, we’ve had our hearts set on the first major project Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The wait is over; Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is available now on most platforms.
The game has seen several demos and tests since earning over 5.5 million dollars on Kickstarter, many of which got some harsh criticism on the artstyle, but recently the game was given a visual overhaul to address those complaints. Starting today, we’ll be able to start dissecting Ritual of the Night to see if Igarashi and his team have captured the magic that defined a genre.
The full-blown return to metroidvania form has just launched on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. A Nintendo Switch version is slated to release on June 25th. Mac, Linux, and PSVita ports were all cancelled during development. Out of the three, it is likely we’ll see Linux and Mac support over time if the game sees success. Yet, we’re always hopeful for more Vita titles, no matter how far fetched it may seem.
Ritual of the Night stars Miriam, who has suffered at the hands of experiments revolving around magi-crystals being implanted into her body. After falling into a decade long coma following the painful procedure, she awakens to find a world in danger of being overrun by demons. She then storms the Demon Castle to face these monsters, a deranged alchemist, and the monsters in her self.
In what was one of my favorite tributes to Castlevania, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon involved some of the characters we’ll see and play as in Ritual of the Night, including our new main character Miriam. Curse of the Moon was created as a result of hitting a stretch goal during the Kickstarter and what resulted was a loving recreation and expansion of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse on the NES. The 8-bit trials of Zangetsu were a fun and challenging dive into the lore and elements at work. It was truly a retro-inspired masterpiece from the talented folks at Way Forward.
Ritual of the Night expands upon those designs with a much more complex set of systems more akin to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Miriam will be able to level up, change her equipment, and tackle the environment more freely. We’ve also seen that there will be extra playable characters and a day one DLC up for purchase that was initially given to Kickstarter backers as a reward. That DLC will let players take on Igarashi as a boss and grant access to a Swordwhip weapon. The new content costs $9.99 which was done to honor the support of Kickstarter backers who helped pay for that goal. The new launch trailer also boasts 13 pieces of free DLC including things like a Boss Rush, Speed Run Mode, Online Play, and more. There is also a tease for Shovel Knight and a musical tease for what could be Child of Light in the new trailer.
We have been anxiously awaiting this release for years and we cannot wait to see how it fares. Can Ritual of the Night fulfill the monumental expectations of metroidvania fans? Can it go beyond to establish its own presence in gaming history? Time will tell.
We start playing Ritual of the Night for review this evening.
For more information on Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, check out the official listing on the 505 Games website. Also be sure to check out my full review of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon on Forever Classic Games, which I played on the Switch.
For more Gothic content from Marooners’ Rock, check out our reviews of A Plague Tale: Innocence or Layers of Fear 2.
