What if a retro revival like Mighty No. 9 went right? Well you get Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Koji Igarashi's triumphant return to making Castlevania, but now with a new set of faces. Seriously, as much as I love the Netflix animes, Konami has got to make some more games in the IP. I like the remastered collections, but y'all left us on a couple of cliffhangers! Ritual of the Night seems to be most closely related to the DS Castlevania games in a lot of aspects. The Shard system mirrors Aria/Dawn of Sorrow's Soul system (unfortunately with all of its RNG-based pitfalls), Meriam could be Shanoa's twin from Order of Ecclesia and the Villager Questlines being such a major part of Bloodstained was a treat to see come back from Order of Ecclesia as well. The one area in which the game loses me a little is the story, since it seems like Iga wanted to evoke Castlevania without using any of the IP, (which includes public domain figures like Dracula confusingly enough). Not to mention, the setting and enemy design feel less cohesive, and it doesn't help that the dialogue in the game is extremely tedious, more often than not serving as an obstacle to the next bit of gameplay. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I believe that the game's biggest flaw is trying to cram as many Castlevania-isms in this game without all the space in the game to do so. It delievered on its Kickstarter promises, but honestly, it overstays its welcome just a little bit sometimes. Its lack of creativity sometimes disappointed me. Meriam's dynamic with Gebel is literally Shanoa and Albus. The execution of "final boss" fakeouts felt exactly like they did in Symphony of the Night or Aria of Sorrow. I don't really expect anything drastically different, but they were a little too similar for my personal liking. On another note, I never fully got used to this style in 3D models. I think I still do prefer the sprites since the visuals get a bit busy at times, but the cinematography during the cutscenes are great, the new boss and levels designed around 3D environments added a much needed spin on things, and seeing Meriam wearing some of the outfits and hairstyles you choose for her is fun as well. The extra modes are a nice addition as well, and the fact that they have an official randomizer mode is amazing as well; I will have to get around to that sometime. The playable side character modes are also here as well, although I haven't had a chance to fully explore those modes either. Despite a lot of the game suffering from what I believe to be a lack of focus on this project, we are still so back, and with no news from Konami about any interest in new Castlevania and new entries in the Bloodstained series being announced, this is something worth getting excited over! Also, this game is a Jojo's reference

Amazing Metroidvania and spiritual successor to Castlevania. This game is special.

Jogo polido no PC, o combate é aquele arroz com feijão, usa muito dos Castlevanias a partir do Ária of Sorrow. Ampla variedade de coisas pra fazer, curti o sistema de crafting e as lutas contra chefes, visualmente boas. O mapa não me incomodou, saltar com divekick em velas é divertido pra caramba, repleto de segredos. A dublagem dos personagens ficou muito boa. O que não me agradou: subquests muito repetitivas e pouco inspiradas, eventuais bugs e crashes e o ponto mais fraco, a história, que é existente e previsível. Pra quem quer fazer 100% do jogo, se preparem, o jogo é muito mas muito longo.