Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Reviews
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a welcome return to the exploration-heavy Castlevania games of the past.
Miriam and her adventure are a must if you have a Nintendo Switch. Playing Bloodstained has become my ritual of the night.
After delays and a lot of promises, Bloodstained is finally available. The game is a love letter to the fans of the genre, even including nods to the popular series Castlevania, even with good and rewarding gameplay sometimes the performance of the game leaves a lot to be desired.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
With plenty of weapons to find, powers to unlock and secrets to uncover Bloodstained will keep you adventuring through the castle for quite a while. If you’re into the Metroid-Vania genre you should definitely check it out. Igarashi has delivered a solid spiritual successor to his classic Castlevania titles but has also given Bloodstained it’s own two feet to stand on. I’d love to see where he decides to take this series next.
It's been a hot minute since the Kickstarter for Koji Igarashi's new game wrapped up and Castlevania fans have a good reason to celebrate on how this turned out.
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 suffers on Nintendo Switch due to distracting technical issues.
So, what we've got in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a well-designed game that's poorly developed. A championship-caliber team that needs another few months (or perhaps another year) of training camp. 505 Games has promised to fix the glaring problems, but I can't review a game based on promises. There's still some fun to be had here, but it shouldn't have been released in its current state. Wait for the updates. If they don't come, wait for a sale…and stay away from the bookshelves.
Ritual of the Night is one of the best games released so far this year, and even if you don’t love 2D platformers, the excellent exploration elements, movement, and combat are good enough to win anyone over.
A competent Metroidvania that will entertain for ten to fifteen hours.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is everything Castlevania fans could possibly want and is a great 2D action platformer in its own right.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’s excels with its art and design, and once it’s up to speed, offers some wonderfully enjoyable platforming action. But its slow start will inevitably push some players away.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night carries on the tradition of classic Igavania games in a masterful way.
Is Koji Igarashis return to the world of Metroidvania, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, worth your buck? Are you kidding?
Aside from technical issues, Bloodstained remains an excellent title. It's Castlevania in everything but name and fans of Igarachi's earlier work will find a lot to love between excellent combat and rewarding traversal. The Switch port is harder to recommend at present, but the game is likely to be among the console's best after a patch or two. Grab your pitchfork and torches, there's huntin' to do.
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.
GREAT - The wait for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was completely worth it. The Switch version is still plenty of fun to play but is marred with some technical issues at the time of this writing, which holds back its overall score from being even higher. Those that can overlook these issues will find a compelling adventure game filled with secrets and content that should give most gamers over 20 hours of playtime.
BloodStained is the Castlevania that the gamer were waiting for a long time
Review in Spanish | Read full review
In conclusion, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the perfect game for fans thirsty for metroidvania games. Iga has finally accomplished what he has promised for the fans and does it well.
Igarashi-san has made another masterpiece. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is an unapologetic celebration of the best parts of his previous work, bringing them all together with some fresh approaches to progression. Gorgeous and rewarding, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is phenomenal and is a worthy, near flawless successor to Symphony Of the Night, and that's high praise indeed.
