I'm a HUGE fan of the Castlevania games directed by Koji Igarashi and Shutaro Ida. Aria of Sorrow was the first Metroidvania I ever played, and I've been addicted to the genre AND the series ever since. Needless to say, Castlevania is near and dear to my heart, and the fact that the very same developers that brought that franchise to life went on to develop the modern classic that is Bloodstained RoTN is nothing less than a minor miracle.

This game hits all the marks of a good Metroidvania, and is just as fun to play in 2024 as it was five years ago thanks in large part to the insane amount of content this game has to offer. It might not be as polished as other giants in the Metroidvania genre like Hollow Knight or Blasphemous, but what it lacks in polish it makes up for in charm. Bloodstained just has that special sauce that made Symphony of the Night and all of its spiritual successors the enduring classics that they are to this day. Very few games in the genre, as excellent as they may be, can claim to FEEL quite like Bloodstained does. The ornate gothic aesthetic, the iconic character designs, the outstanding soundtrack composed by Michiru Yamane, the addictive movement mechanics, the head-spinning variety of weapons and spells to collect, the GIGANTIC castle to explore, and the cute little easter eggs and fun details dotted around the map all come together make this game an absolute joy to play.

I haven't even MENTIONED all of this game's extra features, like a Castlevania 1 inspired Classic Mode, multiple extra character modes, AND a fully fleshed out randomizer mode??? That last one is such an insanely cool thing to include as an actual feature in-game, as randomizers are typically developed by modders as unofficial add-ons for speedrunners. They REALLY didn't have to do that, but they did!!! It shows a commitment to the fans that I can't help but love and respect, and it truly does fill the void left behind by Konami. The Bloodstained team should be insanely proud of the work they put into this game.

Despite all the love I have for this game, it would be dishonest of me to not mention the two areas where this game really does fail to live up to the standard set by its predecessors. The first is the visuals. It pains me to say, but this game can look quite ugly at times. The 2.5D visual style they went for was a really unappealing choice in my opinion, and in 2024 looks dated and cheap. It's a huge shame, especially considering how gracefully the visuals of the 2D Castlevania games have aged. The pixel art of Symphony of the Night is timeless, and I can't help but feel like the Bloodstained team really missed out on an opportunity to set the bar for pixel art in video games even higher with this title. Ironically, the spin-off game Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon DOES still retain a pixel art style, and its visuals look absolutely stunning in comparison to Ritual's! If there's anything I'm hoping for in a potential sequal to Ritual of the Night, it's a return to the 2D art style of the classics. A pixel art or hand-drawn visual style would do WONDERS for a game like this.

The second area where this game really misses the mark is its performance. Ritual of the Night is BUGGY, and is optimized shockingly poorly for modern hardware. The game can occasionally softlock while navigating menus, which can be EXTREMELY frustrating if you haven't saved in a while. 3D areas like the Towers of Twin Dragons, while visually impressive, can cause the game to slow down dramatically, and sometimes can cause glitches like enemy ragdolls stretching unnaturally. These issues are rare, but VERY noticeable when they do occur. Additionally, some of the loading times between areas are unacceptably long, especially in Classic mode, where I've had to wait upwards of 60 seconds before getting to actually play a level. A game released in 2019--ESPECIALLY a 2D platformer--should not be performing this sluggishly on a gaming PC.

Despite these two pretty big flaws, I still wholeheartedly recommend buying and playing Bloodstained RoTN if you are at all a fan of the Castlevania series, or even just Metroidvanias in general. This game is OOZING with charm, and has a familiar but addicting gameplay loop that I'm still coming back to all these years later. Here's hoping the sequel can successfully iterate on all the great things this game managed to achieve!!!

It took a little while for the developers to get there, but they made it. This game is worthy of the prestige of Castlevania. It has beautiful art, fun gameplay, and a story that you can sink your teeth into. Add Shantae-esque transformations, and side characters that you actually care about, and this game is absolutely worth your money.

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