Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Reviews
But, then again you could say that this is a prime example of a spiritual successor done right.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the perfect sequel of Castlevania despite its name is not Castlevania.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night is a Castlevania game in all but name, and one of the best of the franchise at that. Igarashi and his team captured everything that made that franchise so beloved, and assembled a long and fun adventure, even if a little rough around the edges on a technical standpoint.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Bloodstained finally delivers upon the promise of a modern follow-up to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and it does so spectacularly.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a love letter to Castlevania. If you have any interest at all in the Metroidvania style of games, you cannot go wrong with this title.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is everything that was great about Igarashi's Metroidvania titles all rolled into one, and feels like it will be as timeless a game as Symphony of the Night.
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
Iga’s goal was to make a solid Metroidvania game, and he definitely achieved that in spades.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is an amazing game, filled with love and passion from its creators and delivers a true "metroidvania" experience. If you like Castlevania games, you'll love this true spiritual successor.
Minus a few iffy aspects, Bloodstained is fun experience. Whether it falls into the realm of one of the greats is unlikely but I enjoyed my time anyway.
Altogether, it’s the worthwhile successor many fans have been waiting for.
Is Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night a really good game? Despite having some issues, it certainly is and will absolutely satisfy nearly every old and new player. But is it as fresh and captivating as Symphony of the Night? Sadly, it's not. It just reintroduces features we've seen in the past and perfects most of them, and adds not much of its own to the formula. RotN is a fantastic game that just lacks new & innovative ideas, and a solid foundation for possible future installments to build upon and create groundbreaking titles
Review in Persian | Read full review
All in all, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is exactly what it was marketed as: the revival of the Igarashi Castlevania games. It might not have Konami's IP, but it has the feel, the gameplay, and the style that no other game has quite been able to replicate. You'll love it if you're a fan of the franchise, and it's a great place to start if you're a newcomer. Some annoying design decisions and general performance issues hold it back. In the end, morning has come to vanquish the terrible night, and Bloodstained is hopefully the start of a new generation of Igavania.
Great spiritual successor of Metroidvania with rich content and ancompromising difficulty.
Review in Slovak | Read full review
For our part we only have to congratulate Koji Igarashi and encourage everyone to give him an opportunity, because you will take home a real gem.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Despite the huge parity of performance on different platforms (especially the Switch version) and its long list of bugs and issues, not to mention its lack of polish, Bloodstained is a very decent game that just proves that Igarashi rightfully earned his mark on the Metroidvania genre. It's not in any way a classic, especially compared to Symphony of the Night and its other contemporaries - but its a good, highly enjoyable and replayable, albeit flawed title nonetheless.
Is Koji Igarashis return to the world of Metroidvania, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, worth your buck? Are you kidding?
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a welcome return to the exploration-heavy Castlevania games of the past.
if you don't have that nostalgia for Symphony of the Night, what will Bloodstained bring to the table? That's something I honestly can't answer—Symphony is one of my favourite games of all time, and a proper successor is something I've been wishing for since long before this game was announced. But Bloodstained is absolutely, unapologetically a game made for Symphony of the Night's many fans, and it lives up to that legacy better than I ever could have hoped for.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night succeeds in continuing the legacy of the Castlevania series but with a different name. As a Metroidvania, it easily ranks in among the best in the genre offering a fairly comprehensive overall package.