Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Preview
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the gothic brainchild of Koji Igarashi. Fans of the Castlevania series will no doubt recognize Igarashi’s style, characterized by exploration, backtracking, power acquisition and savage boss fights. Bloodstained features the same style of perspective, combat and progression with a brand new protagonist and a fresh, stained-glass setting. I had a chance to play through the demo this week at E3. Hopeful fans can rest easy, as it appears this Kickstarter project will be worth the wait.
I was given access to a small selection of weapons and spells over the course of the demo. Like the perspective and the action, they evoked that Castlevania feeling in spades. The smaller swords and knives were fast but weak. The claymore was strong but slow. The whip, because of course you can get a whip, has similar strengths and weaknesses. There were a few spells in my inventory by the time the demo was done, but I mostly stuck to the fireball.
The demo encompassed a single stage and a boss fight. While footage of this content has been shown off before, playing it is a whole different experience. Combat is fluid, moving quickly and precisely. The powers you acquire feel good and respond fast. The controls are a natural fit. I wanted to strike down an enemy mid-jump, and so I did. Simple as that. Moves like the double-jump, the fireball and the whip are as natural as breathing. Whether my Castlevania experience was bolstering my performance or not, pulling off the moves was butter smooth.
I was a clumsy mess during the boss fight. If not for the generous supply of potions on hand, I would have been easily annihilated. Even without the items I could glimpse the pattern needed to win. Things like where to stand and when to strike revealed themselves without feeling obvious or forced. Pulling it off these strategies is a different matter, but that just makes it all the more satisfying when you succeed.
Playing through the demo took all of ten minutes, but it was enough to get a feel for the tone of the game. The trailers and the screenshots don’t give you the full picture. I felt like the action moved too slow for me until I got my hands on the game. Things start out slowly, but this is to encourage care in your movements. You need a clear head on your shoulders for the boss fights. Forgive me if all of this sounds incredibly presumptuous. This may not be a Castlevania game. Those rules might not apply here. But it really feels like they do, and that’s a good thing.
