Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon Reviews
The wait for Ritual just got a heck of a lot easier.
As far as throwbacks go, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a worthwhile venture. It captures the essence of yesteryear's classics, while offering numerous options to comfort an audience that might be unfamiliar with that time period. The game is also quite entertaining, and the replay-value is quite high. Still, it is not possible to shake the feeling that something is missing. It's as if the developer decided the safe choice was the right one, and left all of the risk-taking up to the player. Will this game be remembered in thirty years? Only time will tell.
Curse of the Moon is a nostalgic trip back to the era of classic Castlevania games, warts and all.
Curse of the Moon has a fun roster of unique heroes, but the slow-moving action quickly grows stale
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a good game to get started in games like Castlevania at an interesting price.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon brings back the essence of the 8-bit Castlevania games in a masterful way.
"Castlevania's spiritual successor by blood."
Review in Finnish | Read full review
The 8-bit graphics, the chiptune sound design, and the old-school gameplay harmoniously mix together to make a game that feels like it loaded straight off a cartridge.
There's a big difference between being inspired by something and flat out copying it. Curse of the Moon copies Dracula's Curse and does a good job of it. So much so, that if you're a fan of Dracula's Curse, you might not even need to play Curse of the Moon. Compare that to Shovel Knight, which combined the best parts of series like Mega Man, Mario, and Ducktails, to be an excellent game in its own right which I recommend to everyone. Personally, I prefer the Shovel Knight approach to retro-inspired games, although Curse of the Moon is a great way to revisit a classic without requiring so much skill and patience to see it through to completion.
The perfect game that harkens back to classic days of the NES Castlevanias, with the same feel and style. It has some issues and is clearly made for the already built fan base, it’s still a lot of fun.
All that said, Curse of the Moon is a very enjoyable old-school Castlevania homage that's well worth the price of admission—as long as you have nostalgia for those games. Those of you who have no patience for the first three Castlevania games in particular may want to give Curse a wide berth, but I daresay there are systems in place here that may tickle your fancy.
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon may be a prequel to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, but functions as a worthy homage to the NES Castlevania games.
Classicvanias and retro action games fans can give a chance to Bloodstained : Curse of the Moon on blind faith. This game is a beautiful, really enjoyable - even if it can considered a bit short - and vibrant tribute to Castlevania III : Dracula's Curse with some great action and platofrming, beautiful 8-Bit graphics and musics, in a new setting that we hope will fulfill ita potential with Ritual of the Night.
Review in French | Read full review
Bloodstained: Curse Of The Moon is undoubtedly aimed at a very specific audience, and you'll know if you're part of that just by looking at the screenshots. If those, combined with words such as these, make your heart sing, however, it's definitely worth your time. It's like Castlevania just decided to come soaring back into all our lives, and how can that ever be a bad thing? Exactly.
Aside from the repetition, which is, in retrospect, how many gamers got longevity out of old Castlevania games, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a superb game. It is ideal for gamers who want an old-school challenge as well as an old-school game in both aesthetic and design.
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon keeps the lifeblood of the Castlevania series pumping with a condensed, and appropriately retro homage. It might not blaze the trail on anything new like a few other recent Inti Creates projects have, but it does exactly what it needs to do, and helps bolster the new legacy of Bloodstained proper before it's even out.
Made with affection and artistry, this retro appetiser is a very pleasant surprise.
The prospect of playing such a lovingly crafted tribute to the vintage heyday of Konami's seemingly abandoned Castlevania series more than makes up for a few out-of-place boss fights and a slightly too punitive death penalty. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon delivers a brief but effective burst of nostalgia, and thanks to its many creative modifiers it contains enough replay value to engage (and challenge) anyone who pines for gaming's bygone days. And this isn't even the "real" Bloodstained! As appetizers go, it's substantial — nearly satisfying enough to be its own main course.
Bloodstained Curse of the Moon is a fantastic title that pays homage to the classics of the Castlevania series, offering a balanced, varied, and very solid title. We look forward to seeing how Ritual of the Night evolves.
Review in Spanish | Read full review