Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Reviews

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is ranked in the 91st percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
65 / 100
Jun 26, 2019

While it's crammed full of fan-service alongside good core combat and exploration, Ritual of the Night's technical instability and some discomforting design decisions keep it from rivaling its influences. It was clearly made for the fans, so those without an already-established fondness may find it hard to enjoy.

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Jun 26, 2019

As varied and intriguing as the game can get on a conceptual level, it outdoes itself in the minutiae of traversal and combat.

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GameMAG
Top Critic
8 / 10
Jun 26, 2019

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the game that Castlevania series' fans have been waiting for so long - with an interesting world to explore, well-developed locations, great and very atmospheric music, thoughtful progression and a diverse combat system. Small bugs and some design mistakes may disappoint, but if you have long dreamed of getting the spiritual heir to Symphony of the Night, just buy this game. But on on Switch. This version as of now is absolutely unplayable.

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IGN
Top Critic
8.8 / 10.0
Jun 26, 2019

The wait was worth it. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a whole new castle to crash full of unexpected monsters and mysteries in the vein of classic Castlevania.

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4 / 5 stars
Jun 26, 2019

Old-school Castlevania fans should pick up Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night right away. So should anyone with an interest in Metroidvanias, action/RPGs or high-quality side-scrollers in general.

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OnlySP
Daniel Pereira
Jun 25, 2019

Given that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a crowdfunded game, the amount of love and attention evident in its production comes as no surprise. The level of quality that is present in this package is truly astounding, and the appreciation grows even more when considering the free content promised for the coming months. Perfection should not be expected from Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. However, the result is exactly what was promised by the developers, and fans could not ask for more. Throughout its development, Igarashi-san provided continual assurance that he desired to make the game a product of its fans. By listening to criticism and acting on it, he fulfilled his promise with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

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9 / 10
Jun 25, 2019

While it ain’t trully perfect, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is an excelente action game that mixes classic and nostalgic action with RPG mechanics, while focusing heavily on exploration.

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4.5 / 5.0
Jun 25, 2019

A neat world, Beautiful music, A fun adventure, I truly believe Bloodstained Ritual the Night one of the best Side scrolling games in this generation

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USgamer
Top Critic
Jun 25, 2019

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has been a long time coming, but now that it's here, fans of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night have everything to gain. Playing through Bloodstained feels great if you're already a fan of Koji Igarashi's work—and if you're a fan of action-adventure games in general. There are some unfortunate bugs, hitches, and glitches, but once you download the 1.02 patch, you should be through the worst of them.

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Jun 25, 2019

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night could be one of the biggest surprises this year. For Castlevania fans, this represents the best chance you'll ever have to experience that franchise's golden days. For everyone else, this game is a tightly paced and engaging explore-'em-up that will devour your attention span and reward you appropriately.

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9 / 10
Jun 25, 2019

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a wonderful love letter to Castlevania fans. It's gothy, camp, and unabashedly old school. But it's also a meticulously crafted game that constantly rewards players for exploration and offers unbridled options in combat. For long-time Metroidvania fans, Ritual of the Night is an unmissable celebration of the genre from the mind of one if its chief architects, while for newcomers it's an accessible entry-point that's easy to pick up and oh so difficult to put down. Let's hope the next one doesn't take quite as long.

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Ofisil
Top Critic
7 / 10
Jun 25, 2019

Want to play an old-school action/exploration game the likes of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night? Well, you can't get more old-school, or more... Symphony of the Night than Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. This offers a vast castle to explore, full of monsters to slay, and with lots of ways to slay them, be it the many weapons that your Shardbinder can use, or the demonic powers that she can absorb. If you are in need for something that's NOT an exact copy of late '90s metroidvanias, though, better look elsewhere.

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Jun 25, 2019

Koji Igarashi returns on his Kickstarter promise with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a beautiful and feature rich game that is a must-buy.

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9 / 10.0
Jun 25, 2019

Despite its issues, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has had me hooked like no other game released this year.

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TheSixthAxis
Steve C
Top Critic
7 / 10
Jun 25, 2019

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is not the perfect Iga-vania, but it is a worthy entry in the genre. It's clearly Castlevania in all but name and long term fans will find much to enjoy here, but it's lacking in polish and refinement with a few niggles with the controls and too many unwelcome bugs at launch. With a few more patches, Bloodstained should be the game all us fans wanted it to be.

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PC Gamer
Top Critic
77 / 100
Jun 25, 2019

Bloodstained: ROTN faithfully recreates the metroidvania experience of the 2000s—a feast for fans of a very specific experience; a bit too old-fashioned for anyone else.

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8.9 / 10.0
Jun 25, 2019

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the perfect sequel of Castlevania despite its name is not Castlevania.

Review in Chinese | Read full review

80 / 100
Jun 25, 2019

I’ll be exploring this weird world for quite a while yet, and I suspect that many of you will be doing the same.

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Jun 25, 2019

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night stands as one of the best Vania games of recent memory, and one of the most satisfying games of 2019 so far.

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Unscored
Jun 25, 2019

To finish must say that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a very good game and a mandatory metroidvania, happy to say that it is good to see how a Kickstarter campaign of so many years that we have gone so well when everything painted the opposite.

Review in Spanish | Read full review