The term ‘spiritual successor’ is bandied about a lot. It’s a double-edged term, really, one that not only enables a new game to piggyback onto an already-established, popular franchise but also imbues it with palpable – and occasionally unobtainable – expectation.
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night reviewDeveloper: ArtPlay/WayForward/Inti CreatesPublisher: 505Platform played: PS4Availability: Out now on PC, Xbox One and PS4, June 25th on Switch
That was my fear, at least initially, with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. A Castlevania game in all but name, it burst onto Kickstarter as one of crowdfunding’s most notable and successful campaigns, but with every delay and every change, it felt as though the dream of creator Koji Igarashi was fading. Fans began to worry. Is Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night just another Kickstarter failure?
Whilst, admittedly, it lacks a last-minute coat of perfecting polish, Bloodstained is a delightful traditional 2D platformer stuffed with charm, humour, and astonishing attention to detail. Offering a meaty campaign, multiple endings and numerous side quests and collectables, Bloodstained is a perfect blend of contemporary design with old-school mechanics.
You play as Miriam, a young woman who nodded off into a ten-year nap that fortuitously prevented her grisly sacrifice. On waking up a decade later she finds all but one of her fellow Shardbinders, Gebel, have been slain, and while the crystals embedded into her skin (ouch) permit her to harness the powers of demonic entities, Gebel has seemingly absorbed one too many and gone full rogue, unleashing hell in the process. Literally.
It’s outlandish and a little nonsensical, granted, but as you might expect from the mind behind Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a delicious slice of ‘IGA-vania’, stuffed with highly creative enemies, thoughtful, satisfying combat, and a host of collectables and secrets set against a stunning score and gorgeous gothic environments.