Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Hidden gem of a game. It's not a massive game or long but you will be busy collecting all sort of goodies besides the usual armor and weapons. It has a some interesting bosses and a few secrets that made me reminisce of games like Castlevania, which Bloodstained obviously took inspiration from.
I enjoyed having different ways to do combat and even though quests are simple, they also add to the game.
I found myself enjoying the music quite a lot.
I only played with Miriam on normal difficulty but you can play as other characters and other difficulties.
Bloodstained also has a few games modes you can try besides story mode.

Replaying this game twice after 6 years was a pure joy. Absolutely love the movement mechanics, being able to cancel Backdash by just crouching breaks fingers after hours, but man is it fun.

Games a legit successor to SOTN if you're into that, I'm having a blast discovering just how much the devs to recreated from that old classic. Should have snagged this game up sooner.

This being basically just a modern Symphony of the Night- I have to say- they did a great job on this game. Just excellent work all around. If you have any interest in these kinds of games, try this one out!

boring at first, great mid and later game

I tried beating this like 3 separate times before giving up each time or getting bored.
The 4th time I was suddenly having so much fun that I 100% completed everything there is to do, then immediately after started a game as another character and beat it again.
If you dropped the game before, maaaaybe give it another chance?

Very nice Metroidvania with a lot of attention to detail - oh, and a great soundtrack aswell.
I can't wait for part II. If you like the genre, I can clearly recommend this one.

I can't recommend games from this developer to anyone. I purchased Bloodstained and even tried to support them by buying across multiple platforms.

However, their extreme fear of piracy leads to frustrating restrictions—like requiring a Nintendo Account on Switch and constantly prompting for an Online Subscription. Despite owning the physical cartridge, offline play isn't an option.

To make matters worse, the game is riddled with severe bugs that remain unaddressed years after release. Performance issues persist even on high-end hardware. And as for the controls? They feel more like steering a boat than precise gameplay.

Overall, a massive disappointment.

A very competent Castlevania-like. Enemy variety/design, ambiance and music are top-notch. Only quibble is that it has too many systems - crafting, cooking, quests. Why do so many games these days feel like they have to have systems from every other genre? I'm almost surprised that it doesn't have a fishing minigame (or maybe I haven't found it yet). Luckily, these additional systems can be safely ignored and you can play the game like a classic Castlevania game.

For anyone looking for a Metroidvania in the style of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, or any of the Nintendo DS Castlevanias like those found in the Dominus Collection, this game delivers as close as you can get on account of the team being lead by the main producer and designer of those classic titles: Koji Igarashi.

I will admit that I'm kinda bad at memorizing attack patterns and dodging out of the way, or in time, but at least on normal, this game is a ton of fun, and if a fight is too hard, you can do some grinding for food ingredients to stock up on meals to scarf down mid-fight. I don't think food items have a cap in this game, unlike the meager 5 high potion and 9 normal potion limit.

This game still shines brightest for me among most modern indie. fantasy, Metroidvanias, on account of it not borrowing design mechanics from Dark Souls like so many others do these days, with the exception of a small handful of other good titles. But as someone who doesn't enjoy Dark Souls mechanics at all, this is one of the few bastions of traditional Metroidvania designs and experiences.

A really nice game, but also difficult to finish.
Without help from the internet on what to do next, at 2-3 points, there was no way I could reach the real end of it.

Love it, soundtrack and gameplay satisfied me, with decent difficult boss, feel worth the price when playing it

Very good game with a really strong, exciting and addictive first half but a less interesting second half. 16.5/20. Unfortunately, the game loses originality the more you play it. It's still good, but it could have been excellent without the following flaws.

After sometime the game just feels repetitive and less unique in terms of level design, music, bosses and even the story which was moderately interesting and seemed a little unique becomes very boring, predictable and cliché.
In the end, I felt the game was too big and too long for its own good, and contained in the second half quite a few useless areas that really lack originality compared to others and create boredom with successions of hallways full of reused assets and enemies.

I found the need to farm to upgrade and the companion mechanic bad. in addition to craft endgame weapons, we need to farm again.. (something i couldn't achieve since the game ended before i could naturally drop all the craft materials and i didn"t want to farm again).

Sometimes the game lacks clarity in terms of progression, like when we need to farm to drop a specific shard to go underwater without a clue.

But overall, it's a great experience and I strongly recommend it for every fan of the Castlevania/Metroidvania formula. It's neither Symphony of the Night nor Aria of sorrow , but it's still great.

In his first Bloodstained Kickstarter video Koji Igarashi loudly and boldy proclaimed that AAA publishers were wrong in saying that nobody wanted Metroid/Iga-vania games anymore. He was right. As someone who grew up on Castlevania and Metroid (and enjoyed Symphony of the Night on PS3 as a digital download as an adult) I was and am thrilled with how this game turned out. Polished graphics. Fluid gameplay and tight controls. Lots of things to cook up (both through alchemy and literally cooking up food as healing items) and find throughout the castle. New apperance but it's still got the same great taste you remember and love. If you like these types of games you'll love Bloodstained (as much as you'll chuck your controller across the room in anger at it - it's definitely Nintendo Hard™). I can't recommend it enough.

It was my very first Castlevania style game and I must admit I loved it and hated it.
* I hated due to the grinding part of the game. Indeed some power can only obtained via a grinding process which can be very frustrating.
* I loved it because I love metroidvania style games and this game do share some element with the genre.

If you're a fan of the Metrovania style games this in my opinion is one of the absolute best ever made. I 100% this on console before I switched to PC and I love it so much I'm in the process of getting it 100% on PC.

I see a lot of people making comparisons to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. While valid, Bloodstained is more like a spiritual successor to the DS Castlevania games. It's good, but also kind of messy. Like all the ideas, good and bad got thrown in, leaving nothing off the table. Tons of soul collecting, crafting, side quest, exploration and everything else you'd expect from a metroidvania, done by the guy who made the genre. But it's not Symphony of the Night. If you want that experience, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth is the closest you're going to get until Konami decides they want money again and make a PC port of Symphony of the Night. If you liked the handheld metroidvanias, then Bloodstained is perfect experience.

NES Castlevania remake is the icing on the cake 😍😍

got hardly stuck at a moment skill issue but still really nice game (dope ost btw 🎸🎸🎹🎹)

I had heard of MetroidVania, Castlevania and Metroid games but had never played one. This one is pretty good!
The story is not very ambitions, but nothing wrong with a straight forward fight the evil story.

The graphics are nice, character models are okay, voice acting is great.

Gameplay is fun and addicting and on normal you dont really have to grind much for anything, buy a few potions and food items for a tough boss fight and area and you're golden.

My favorite weapons were Rhava bural and Rhava valer. I hate how almost all weapons in this game except these two stops you from moving and wont let you cancel their animations. You make every enemy encounter and boss fight much more difficult by not using Rhava bural or Rhava valer.

Overall satisfied, 8/10, worth it.

It's too bloody hard, mashallah. I can't get past Zangetsu, help.

It was fun for a while but eventually I got stuck and didn't know how to proceed and had to wander around the huge map trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do next and I got bored and stopped playing.

A good game unlike some other producer of a certain mecha boy IP
Iga at the very least respected his fans and receive all the criticism and made the game better
and it did become better
cant wait for more games from him

If you enjoyed Castlevania: Symphony of the night or any of Director Koji Igarashi's other Castlevanias you know exactly what to expect. It has a fun Castle + environs area to explore and while the launch was a little rough with random crashes and bugs is generally much more playable now. It's got excellent controls and pacing for it's exploration as well as fun enemies.

It's OK, but nothing special. Not that many gear to change, didn't find out that many crafting materials either. Bosses are very easy, most of the time i just spammed attack and special. The game is very short. The ending is very unsatisfying. I finished the game with 45% map explored. WTF. Sure there are another areas I can explore (maybe another endings) but i have little to zero motivation to do so. I am no metroidvania expert, but Salt&Sanctuary is much better game.

Review

The Highlights

• The graphics are pretty good. I am a pixel art enthusiast, but I do enjoy 3D visuals when they are well done, and I found that in Bloodstained.
  
  
• The game has a really nice voice-over for the characters. All of them have pretty good voice acting, and the voice actor for one character in specific called Zangetsu is none other than David Hayter. I find that very amusing and very cool.
  
  
• The leading design aspect of Bloodstained is the shards. There're 6 types of them:
  
  [list]
• Red shards are offensive, they act as a foward attack (these attacks widely vary).
  
• Purple shards are also offensive, but they act differently as the attacks can be directed in a 360° angle using the right analog-stick.
  
• Yellow shards act as passive status boosters.
  
• Green shards are familiars, their help differ depending on each—I quite liked them.
  
• Blue shards are weird, their effect can really very—they are used by holding RB, and the effects can be passive, offensive, downright change Miriam, or even enhance your movement.
  
• And finally, White shards are just abilities that you get in order to progress.

The Drawbacks

• The game crashed several times at a specific part of the map. It didn't matter as much when I first discovered it, but at some point when I had more progress, I was exploring a lot (hours,) and I hadn't saved yet, then I went to the area, but I forgot about the crash... I lost all my progress. That really sucked. And it also crashed out of nowhere at one point, and I lost all my progress as well.
  
  
• I took quite some time to figure out what I had to do after I got the double jump. There's a passage where you need a key, but the game doesn't tell you in a helpful manner what you need to do. That isn't very good game design.
  
  
• The bosses are underwhelming. I faced all of them, and except for Zangetsu, one optional boss, and the blood lady (but I beat her out of order,) I managed to beat them on the first or second try. The battles aren't bad, but they are just disappointing as there isn't much challenge.
  

The Neutral Ground

• The game has lots of extra modes. Boss Rush, Speed Run, Classic Mode, Boss Revenge; there is a lot of options if you like diferent stuff. Granted, I mostly just tested these modes, since I dind't find any of them appealing to play.
  
  [list]
• WARNING: The DLC Classic II: Dominique's Curse is not worth it, unless you like the old Castlevanias where the movement is super clunky and difficult, you probably won't like this DLC.

Conclusion:

8/10

This may not be a Castlevania game in name, but it is a Castlevania game in spirit. This game has Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow written all over it.
It is loaded with features and content. Between the main game, classic mode, boss rush mode, and the randomizer, there is plenty to keep you busy well after you've earned all the achievements.
Definitely worth your time and money.

Great game.

Big map, nice variety of enemies and a lot of weapons and spells to try out and build around.

My only complaints are the rng involved in the drop of items and magic shards, the grinding is not fun it's just re-enter the room X times until the enemy drops the item or the shard, and it could be a lot of times depending on the Luck stat of the character and the items equiped. And the side quests are pretty dull in my opinion, even if they give nice rewards from time to time, is not fun having to give stat boosters to the old hag for items that could or couldn't be useful.

8/10

I tried to love this game and get past all of the hindrances, but simply it's plagued with myriad nuances that simply made me lose all the interest at one point. It stats very promising but sadly the game doesn't do any justice to the genre and it does every possible aspect of it with persistent mediocrity.

Exploration and visual presentation is extremely unmemorable, graphically just ok and not rewarding at all. Every room is filled with 1hp monsters that have a sole purpose of stopping you in your track as they move in irregular patterns and knock you around with every hit, artificially lengthening the game and making going around a very tedious process. Platforming is almost non existent, and where it is introduced, is very badly executed. There's a lot of treasure chest that respawn and additionally wastes your time by thinking you missed something by tracking back to some rooms, especially after acquiring a new ability that expands on areas you can reach

Combat is there just for the sake of it being there, there's literally no reason to kill anything after going through new zone and killing new enemies a few times or eventually clearing the ever repetitive hub quest of killing x monsters of y type. Shop, crafting system, items and weapons are all very boring, have a VS fighter style input to execute specific actions that are just outperformed by specific shards / skills or basic attack spamming. Moreover, some locations are locked away behind basic enemy spells that you can acquire through shards they drop and some rooms require multiple different skills to traverse which you have to have equipped. This wouldn't be an issue if they didn't share a single same shard slot. There is a set / shortcut menu to save different sets, but it's still objectively a terrible mechanic and a huge drag to constantly think about and save presets especially if you're acquiring a new items now and then and have to keep making new sets. This could've been solved by simply making required spells be in the non equipable skill shard set.

There's a ton of other smaller hindrances, but ultimately every single design choice tries to do something new and reinvent the wheel and does it terribly by making every single aspect of the game a drag to do rather than a fun experience

I enjoyed playing this game overall, the only parts I found frustrating were waiting for RNG drops for items I wanted - e.g to do crafting, getting certain shards to drop etc (though this may not be a problem with the game itself, I might just be using the systems in place inefficiently). I think the level up system was really helpful for me as I'm not all that skilled at side-stroller action games and it made boss fights manageable. For players looking for a challenge I understand there are modes made just for you/you can just tackle the bosses at a lower level than I did.

A call back to symphony of the night that is very much a sequel/remake of it.
Pros:
This game is incredibly fun with both it's exploration and game play loop rewarding the player for looking and trying new things with power ups and buffs in a lot of hidden places.
It is very much a castlevania game in the fullest which means that all the new powers you unlock are really cool.
A lot of the shards you unlock are cool visually, even the most basic ones being up-gradable to to ones that fill the screen with projectiles.
I love the art style and designs of a lot of the characters and bosses, even when they get cluttered like on Zangestu.
Bosses are really fun and most of the time don't feel like you got scammed when you lose
All the extra game-modes add a lot of repeatability to the game with new move sets

Cons:
A lot of the added modes are really basic and don't add much outside of "Wow I play as character from game!"
Voice acting is terrible, but it is funny bad
Story is a retold version of COTM 1 and 2
Game can become very much a grind when trying to get a lot of the little buffs, like from meals

Overall, this game is a blast to play through even though it has some flaws and would recommend it to any person who has played a metroidvania or castlevania game

I didn’t expect it to be this good.

When I first saw the gameplay and trailer, I wasn’t too impressed. I even tried playing the ship area on my mobile phone, felt kinda lost, and dropped the game. But when I picked it up again and played it on PC, it turned out to be excellent.

The graphics? Somehow, they just work really well. The gameplay? Feels exactly like classic Castlevania games. A huge map to explore, not always knowing where to go next, stacking up potions and food before a boss fight… It brings back so many Castlevania memories.

Damn, I’ve still got a long way to go, but I just had to share my thoughts. Great game. Definitely aiming for 100%!

Solid 7/10 for me.

I've played the game before on my PS4 when it first released, but never got around to finishing it. So I wanted to dive in fresh again on Steam. Overall, I really enjoyed the game. There's a great amount of "builds" you can do via the shard system they have which is pretty dope. Map design, music, art, are all great.

I didn't like that some of the progression for the game was locked behind "RNG." I actually got stuck for a good bit and had to look up what to do. I then realized that in order to explore areas I didn't know how to access, I had to rely on an enemy to drop a specific shard I needed. I had no idea that was a thing! Usually, I was able to get little hints from the main hub area. But this (plus a few others similar situations) being behind RNG drops of a certain enemies soured the experience for me.

solid castlevania clone with a lot of variety on spells/abilities. It reminds me of my gameboy DS castlevania but with more polish and choices.

I'm recommending Bloodstained only because I think the majority of players out there will enjoy it, but personally I wasn't a fan. It felt like a step forward but three steps back from my favorite Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. That game did a lot of work to streamline the mechanics of the Sorrow games, reducing the grind and making each ability useful in some way. Plus, it was very challenging even on normal which made you pay attention to weaknesses and constantly switch up your strategy. And it did story and worldbuilding better than most Castlevanias by tying Shanoa's quest to Wygol Village.

Bloodstained walks back from all of that. Story progression is back to Symphony of the Night, the Shard system is basically back to the Soul system from Dawn of Sorrow, and the challenge on normal is minimal for an experienced player. The game tries to have its own equivalent of Wygol, but instead of interesting and varied sidequests, that tie into the personality and backstory of the questgiver, it's a lliteral giant list of "kill X number of monsters" quests and fetchquests.

I want to clarify that none of these things are bad, and somebody craving more Castlevania after so many years probably would get a kick out of this. However, I personally found it disappointing, and I'm kind of over these more sandbox-y Metroidvanias that are intentionally horribly unbalanced. I prefer a more focused and challenging experience like a Hollow Knight or an UNSIGHTED.

This game plays very much like SotN, along with additional features of other Castlevania platformer RPG's. Tons of drops and ways to level different things. Several difficulties and game modes including a randomizer. At 46 hours and i'm still grinding out some things before I start NG+ on harder difficulties. Grinding can be cut down using special items and specific luck builds and also careful planning on where you choose to grind from. I'm lvl 96 at this review and with all shards at level 9 and almost all of them at rank 9. Rank 9 passives will automatically stay on your character and they do stack if you equip a rank 9 passive which is a great concept. Technically the viable builds that could exist here are very high in number. Super amazing game. As someone who grew up with SotN and still does speedruns to this day, this game is a faithful successor. Absolute gold. I can't wait to see what trying to speedrun nightmare difficulty is like with all gear and shards maxed. Worth full price if you are into these types of games.

Iga is a true legend. He left Konami when they ruined Castlevania, then launched Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on Kickstarter with big goals and he delivered. He brought back Castlevania greats like Michiru Yamane, Ayami Kojima, and Shutaro for music, art, and direction.

Unlike Inafune’s disastrous Poopy No. 9, Bloodstained exceeded expectations, not only as a spiritual successor but as the start of something great. As The Completionist said, “Konami may have the IP, but I have the heart and soul of Castlevania.” Couldn't agree more.

If you're familiar with Castlevania, especially Symphony of the Night or the DS games, you'll feel right at home. It's a Metroidvania with a strong emphasis on exploration. Every room is meant to be discovered and rewards you for doing so. The combat is about precision and timing, adding depth and challenge rather than relying on flashy combos.

玩之前：看起来似乎有刷材料的要素，都2025年了还有人会喜欢玩这种无脑刷刷刷的游戏？就玩玩它的恶魔城好了；

玩之后：...嘿...嘿嘿......刷材料炼金怎么这么好玩，姐们的蓝色蔷薇真好看啊......列表里怎么还有这么多问号？我要把他们刷个够...嘿...嘿嘿...........

---

认真评：

操作手感颇有一种落后时代（致敬经典）的感觉，钝钝的，相对的也就很难激起玩家（我）凹某个 boss、某段流程的胜负心，糊弄着打过就行了，但这样玩又总差点意思，人类（我）有时就是这么贱；

游戏内容很丰富，也可以说是臃肿（虽然设计了好多技能，但好用的就那么几个，有一大堆一眼凑数的设计，比如召唤xxx），用来解锁下一阶段的关键道具就藏在一大堆杂物里面，导致玩家（我）在探寻真结局时可能经常卡关。卡关了怎么办？翻背包？查攻略？错！错！错！当然是先去刷材料炼金了（）

无论如何，我很难说这不是一段愉悦的游戏体验，但也差不多玩够了。

可能会再玩一两周目的主线，研究了一下全成就还要买DLC，成功治好了我的全成就癖。

Bloodstained is a 2D action platformer (in this case, referred to as a 'Metroidvania' for its large interconnected map and progression system) that sees you taking control of Miriam as she explores a large castle, fighting off hellish monsters. Being the subject of alchemic experiments that turned her into a 'Shardbinder', she searches for her old friend, the only other survivor of the experiments.

The castle is split into several 'areas' with their own individual themings, for example one area is the gardens, and another the library. Mostly you'll be traversing an area, fighting through monsters and finding secrets, until you fight a boss and gain something that allows you to reach the next area. Miriam's friends will also offer services to help, including selling her items and allowing her to craft new equipment, weapons, items, and even food using materials found in the castle.

You also have access to various kinds of 'magic', granted by the 'shards' occasionally dropped by monsters. These can be upgraded and have a large variety of effects, but you can only have one of each of the five or six shard types equipped at once. Most shards will deplete your 'magic meter' as you use them, so you'll usually want to use them to support your main weapon. As for main weapons, there are many different types and are all obtainable in the first area, so you'll quickly and easily find one that suits you. Some of them even have special techniques you can master.

A lot of what you'll be doing, if you choose to, is farming monsters for their drops. If you're a collector or a completionist there's a decent amount to chew on, as each of the 100+ monsters has its own, usually individual item and shard drops, the former of which you'll be needing to craft or upgrade things. Farming monsters for drops is usually pretty fun and relaxing i found, but i could understand if you didn't like it. It's not necessary at all, but it might make your search easier if you're struggling. The effects of the shard upgrades make the game all the more fun as well!

Apart from the main game there are even a few other modes, including some multiplayer options, though i haven't really played around with them too much, yet. I only really have a scant few very personal nitpicks (100% achievements being locked behind a mostly negatively reviewed DLC being a less personal one). Apart from that, the music is exceptional, the story and worldbuilding has depth, the monsters are great and have personality, and as a whole the game is very well made. The game is seriously good fun and I couldn't possibly recommend it enough!

This game kinda sucks. Enemy animation is clunky and unreadable. Getting constantly stunlocked by enemies contact damage and clunky controls makes this game really annoying to play. Unbalanced weapons and spells. Abudance of useless stuff in this game. Its just amateurish

I just really enjoy this game. Is it perfect? No. But it's super fun and in a few ways, does things better than SoTN. Great OST too.

It tries hard but it's missing a level of refinement that keeps it from being more than the sum of it's parts. The map design is just not quite. The controls are just not quite. The equipment and mechanics are all just not quite, giving you variability the promotes the illusion of things you'll try, combinations that might be interesting, but you won't because none of quite works well and all just kinda turns out to be fluff. it sum, it just doesn't hang together. It's passion project made by people who loved the genre but don't quite understand what made the games they loved great.

when I was a kid, Metroidvania games were amazing! it felt so good to increase your abilities and to retread previous areas to find secrets and hidden items.

but now, it just feels like work and weirdly poor game design. like, what if the first 10 hours of your game had to be played in slow-motion? why do I have to retrace every damn area every time I find a new ability? and none of the abilities really make sense: I fought a stained-glass hand and now I can move heavy things? what? and the hand could pick up and throw things, but I just have to scoot them around? If they powerups made sense, or the hurdles felt realistic, it'd be one thing. but instead it's like "better wait to find the metroid ball ability so you can roll in a tight space!" when a real person could just CRAWL. and lets not get started on the double jump! "oops, that chest is juuuuuust too far away to reach, better come back later to artificially lengthen the game!"

add onto that ALL THE COLLECTABLES. all these shards that are effectively identical, they do "a thing when you press the button", and they've got LEVELs *AND* RANKS, and you've gotta navigate menus to switch them around, and you've gotta spend resources to rank them up but they level up another way? it's just complexity for the sake of complexity. and the equipment, and all the weapons, and not enough clarity in what they actually do or what purpose they serve, and not really a clear upgrade path or any idea of why they're different. like, wow, another knife, can't wait to wave it uselessly at an enemy who will continue to run/walk/leap at me until I die? everyone know sharing a hitbox with an enemy deals damage to you, but not to them, silly! video game logic! and some weapons have combos? what?! I don't want to have to remember fighting game combos for each type of weapon! this is a platformer, I'm using the movement buttons to MOVE during the FIGHTS. why would I want to memorize combos for entire classes of weapons I'll probably never use? or better question, why would the devs include that in the first place?

also, the "GIANT ENEMY" that go down in three hits is so dumb. like, what if you actually designed your enemies to increase in scale and power over the course of the game, instead of arbitrarily assigning HP to them nomatter what they look like? the giant Lions have less HP than the fairies. why wouldnt you just fill the early levels with goblins and skeletons, and eventually change them out for more believably powerful enemies? there's a frog and it just did 20 damage to me, while the suit of armor with a chainsword deals 15? it's DUMB.

Also, UP is not JUMP. Up is "Talk or interact" but they could have made the JUMP button the interact button and then UP WOULD BE JUMP.

add on the grimderp storyline of "bad guys unleash hell and french girl has to do errands for peasants until the main villain reveals themself and the game ends, probably". I played about 15% of the game (castle completion anyways), and took a break for a year. now I'm back and it's just...not fun, still. there's really not a sense of progression, even leveling up means basically nothing? or else, I've yet to see what it does aside from maybe making some of your numbers slightly bigger? the Enemies are either too weak to matter (but you still have to kill them) or so crazy strong that you can hardly leave the save point because they'll take your health down so badly you have to run back for fear of dying. it's just....frustrating to see a game genre I love in new light and realizing it's pretty empty.

Great game play loyal to Castlevania, and good character interaction, great music and graphics fit the genre.

If you are a fan of Castlevania or games of that nature, this is a great option! PLENTY of demon shards to acquire (Basically every single enemy), items to craft (weapons to food to potions to special shards), large map with a great amount of hidden rooms or breakable walls to boost your stats. Over all it is a win

If you love Metroidvanias, especially the GBA/DS Castlevania games, this is a must. Took a while to get into, but when you understand the systems and use a guide or two to know where to find some ingredients, then it becomes a lot of fun. It really nails the combat and drive to find that new item around every corner.

really awesome game!
I thought the art style was going to not sit right but at some point it kinda worked, it's not perfect but I think it fits the theme.
The story was alright, since it's a metroidvania most of the plot revolves around revealing backstory so I liked how we learned more about the cool worldbuilding as the game went on. Did it explain why this castle from hell looks like this? not really but the story seemed to be more character-driven than I expected.
The gameplay is really fun! This is definitely the part that is important and also what kept me playing. The whole shard system feels very fresh and was fun to experiment using the different ones for different situations. I do think all but ONE "puzzle" in the game was smartly thought of where it didn't feel to difficult to understand what the game wants me to do, the one puzzle that I hated though kind of relies on RNG and is the only one that relies on it so it felt like a cop out in design but at least the rest were good.
I also think the map/level design is awesome. Because you could easily tell if you are nearing a save point or have a gut feeling when you think a fast travel point is nearby. Plus I love how distinct each area looked so you don't get confused where you are even without looking at the full map.
The boss fights are very varied. Though I will note they range from super easy to cheese to learning difficult patterns and staying alive, almost nothing in between. All of them were fun though.
If you like Castlevania or just metroidvanias in general I think you will find a lot of fun in this game!

Yup it's Symphony of the Night but better. The art style's not as nice as the SOTN's but beyond that this is basically everything I enjoyed about SOTN but fully fleshed out and without the stupid ass upside down castle portion.

It's not doing anything new really, but it does take the knowledge of games that came before and put it all together. 40 bucks is kinda steep but ehhh I mean it's still probably the best Symphony of the Night type game so I'll let you decide.

Idk if it's better than Super Metroid, but it's easily the best Castlevania game of that style.

Use a guide if you get stuck. There's some real stupid shit that prevents you from progressing late game if you don't figure it out and ain't nobody got time for that. This is almost always the case in Metroidvanias and it's no different here. Kinda sucks but it is what it is. Doesn't help that I played half the game and then didn't play the rest of it for a year.

How many years later and we're still missing promised features?

Low quality DLC doesn't make up for it. I loved almost all of Koji's Castlevania games dearly. I have a pretty large tattoo of Alucard on my arm. Look at my steam profile. Big fan.

This entire venture has been surprisingly underwhelming. This entire experience has been exceptionally disappointing. Makes me start to wonder if Konami got rid of him because his hand of midas/lightning in a bottle just wasn't there anymore.

Seems like it. Very sad. Hopefully he can find some inspiration that snaps him back on track.

Legally distinct Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia 2, now in even more 2.5D

Pros
- plays like a more refined OoE
- has giant cats

Cons
- if you thought soul grinding in Dawn of Sorrow was bad, shard/loot grinding in this game is even worse
- the 2.5D style makes distinguishing environments really difficult at times and result in some janky hitbox issues
- you are forced to kill the giant cats

Mixed journey through the game. I hated the first 6 or so hours because the 2.5D style really threw me off, but once I got used to it, it wasn't bad, but I still wished this was in true 2D. Progression system is uneven, really weak at the start, and super strong at the end due to how the passive shards can be ranked up and stacked at the end.

In terms of difficulty relative to past Castlevania titles, I'd rank it between DoS and OoE, but lean more toward DoS on the easier side of things.

Overall 7/10. If you like Castlevania you will most likely like this as well. Game is fine, but it could've been way better.

This is not a review about the game itself, I actually really enjoyed playing this game. But I felt I had to leave a negative review to show that I'm quite pissed after recently finding out that my previous 100% achievements for this game was removed from me, all because the developers decided to not only add more to the game, but to also lock those behind paid DLC that is apparently a) not like the rest of the game, and b) not very well-made.

You can call me petty all you want, but it's not often I actually beat games these days, let alone go for 100% in them. And to get it for this game I had to do some pretty damn grindy things that were not that enjoyable for hours at a time, given the sheer amount of collectibles there are in this game. So me losing that status for this game is not something I'm happy with at all and, to be completely honest, should not be something that's allowed to happen. Steam really needs to do what they do on consoles and add separate categories for base game achievements and post-launch/DLC achievements. Until then, devs need to not be stupid like this and sour on players who put the effort in to get all achievements.