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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

In recent years there have been no lack of metroidvanias to come out from indie developers. Clearly, there are a lot of people out there who were huge fans of these games, especially when Koji Igarashi was in charge of the Castlevania series from the late 90s to the 00s. Him and his team helped to define this genre with all of the exploration, tight combat, and excellent boss fights found in those games.

Unfortunately, his output significantly dropped off as Konami shifted focus in the types of games they made, first moving toward more Western-influenced design approaches like we saw in the Lords of Shadow games, then straight up moving away from videogames and into pachinko. If people were hoping for a new game in the spirit of Symphony of the Night by Iga, it wasn’t going to come out of Konami.

Thankfully, Iga eventually decided to leave the company and strike out on his own so that he could create the games he wanted to make. Now here we are with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, an actual spiritual successor to the games that he became famous for at Konami. Not only did it turn out to be a solid game in its own right, but also helped to re-instill some confidence in crowdfunded projects. For a time, backers were getting seriously burned on games that they were supporting, and equally disenchanted by the whole process as a result. The fact that Bloodstained turned into such a solid game arguably washed away some of the sourness that had permeated the community in the wake of disasters like Mighty No. 9, showing potential backers of future projects that maybe there was still hope.

In any case, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a game that picks up right were the Iga-vanias of old left off. The Gothic horror ambiance is back, the unique mix of classical music and rock that defined those games’ soundtracks has returned, there’s a massive castle to explore, slews of interesting enemies, cool bosses, and tons of abilities to learn which in turn open up new areas of the game. Moreover, there are plenty of additional features on top of this including quests, item crafting, and an incredibly in-depth combination of skill and ability load outs that can be unlocked over time. If anything, Iga took all of what worked so well in his previous games, then increased the scale and scope dramatically.

As grandiose as this may sound, things start out simple enough. The backdrop for the game is that it takes place in a time when the Industrial Revolution has gotten underway. As such, the wealthy have begun to embrace machinery en masse as these devices produce so much more than was previously possible. It was clear that the world was undergoing a major shift in how things were done, and the old ways would soon be gone forever. That being the case, the Alchemy Guild was not at all happy about the direction things are going. For centuries it was them that nobility and wealthy merchants turned to for help in commerce and leadership. Seeing their power steadily slip away, the guild became desperate and unleashed demons from hell on the world to scare their former patrons back into the fold. Unfortunately for the guild, things didn’t work out for them. The major powers of the world were able to push back and defeat the otherworldly horde, and in the aftermath much of the guild’s leadership was executed for their crimes.

Amidst all of this, there were two children: Miriam and Gebel. As part of the process for summoning demons, the guild found a way to combine children with a special type of crystal that would work as a conduit to draw these beasts into our reality. Most who underwent the process were doomed, but these two reacted strangely to the process. Miriam could handle crystal power being fed into her but mysterious fell into a deep sleep for a decade. Meanwhile, Gebel also became quite adept at absorbing these crystals and their powers, but would disappear without explanation.

Now, it has been a decade since the Alchemy Guild attempted to seize power, and Miriam has awoken. However, Gebel has also returned and with him a giant castle and an army of demons. Once more, humanity is in danger, even more so this time given the sheer number of creatures unleashed who are also accompanied by some of their finest generals. As such, players take control on Miriam, and must explore this massive castle, unlocking its secrets, then try to figure out what happened to Gebel and why he’s leading this army.

As one can see, this is a very simple story, as might have been common in videogames of old, but the focus of Bloodstained isn’t narrative, it’s action. What we have here is just enough to provide a logical framework for what’s going on in the game without bogging it down. The story progresses as players delve deeper into the castle, and doesn’t get any more complicated, and any perceived twists that come along likely won’t come as a surprise to many. If anything, what gives the story its color and prevents it from being a net negative is all of the interaction Miriam has with other people. Whether its how she works with Johannes, a young alchemist that never agreed with his guild’s actions, the few surviving villagers unfortunate to live right next to where the castle materialized, or the lovable dolt Benjamin, who players will occasionally encounter inside the castle, an enjoyable playfulness arises from Miriam’s interactions with these people that is difficult not to smile at.

As Miriam ventures into the castle, it quickly becomes quite clear that this game is massive, significantly larger than previous Iga-vanias. While things start off decidedly in the Gothic horror genre as Miriam dashes through the mason-filled trappings of a traditional castle, various other settings gradually emerge. These range from libraries to cathedrals, from subterranean deserts to magma-drenched areas deep below the castle. Each of these look amazing and add a lot of personality to the game, all the while enticing players with platforms just a little too far to jump to, walls blocking paths, spikes mocking would be adventurers who would like to go further, heavy steel plates that are clearly used for something, and countless other cues that one has temporarily reached the end of the line, but will have more opportunities to explore after learning an ability of some sort.

Getting past these barriers generally involves hunting down bosses who, when defeated, will give Miriam a new ability. Of course, the first order of business is actually downing them. There are quite a few bosses in Bloodstained, and they are consistently challenging. Each will have multiple types of attacks with more being brought to the fold as the fight plays out and their health diminishes. It’s definitely a good idea to sit back a bit at the onset of a battle to give one’s self some time to see what the boss will do and devise a strategy. There are very clear animations that act as cues for what to expect, albeit some happen much faster than others and will require greater reflexes as a result. Not only are these fights going to put players to the test, but they look cool in the process. Players can expect to have devastating beams fired at them that will quickly get them thinking, “This is bad, very, very bad!” as they hustle to try and dodge or block them. Other times, blood will rain from the ceiling, or Miriam will get charged by a boss while lasers are blasting all over the place. There’s a bombastic quality to many of these boss fights that adds quite a lot of excitement to them.

One other thing that is really nice about these encounters is that it is easy to see that the developers put a lot of effort into making very fair hit boxes. Trying to find openings to take a few swings at a boss can often times mean darting in for a handful of quick swipes before retreating to safety. If the hit boxes were too small, it would quickly become infuriating utilizing these hit and run tactics, as players would either miss too often, or get in too close, putting themselves in danger. Conversely, if they were too big, it could potentially trivialize what are otherwise well-tuned fights. As it stands, these hit boxes feel like they’ve been dialed in quite nicely. Better still, this carries over regardless of what type of weapon Miriam has equipped, as their ranges do vary. Of course, these hit boxes also carry over to the various normal enemies lurking throughout the castle, but they’re particularly important in the game’s many boss fights.

This isn’t to downplay the hordes of regular baddies, because boy are they important as well. There are quite a few different types, each with their own methods of attack, often with several different types on the screen at once. In the event that Miriam becomes swarmed, it takes some solid reflexes to take these things out while minimizing incoming damage. They may not hit terribly hard individually, but collectively can eat away that health bar pretty quick.

It should also be noted that not only does Miriam absorb abilities from bosses, but she can do so from every enemy in the game. These are divided into several sub-types that correspond to five different color-coded slots to be equipped from. For the most part, these are divided into particular abilities corresponding to different colored shards. Yellow shards are passive, enhancing various resistances, improving Miriam’s ability to use specific weapons, and things of that ilk.

Green shards allow her to summon familiars to fight by her side. They’ll each have their own set of abilities depending on who is summoned with some attacking enemies, others healing Miriam, or casting spells that buff her stats. Most importantly, they are there until players decide to summon a different familiar, as opposed to summonable beasts from one of the other shard families, as those ones only appear for a short period of time.

Purple shards are for directional abilities whereby players will use one of their analogue sticks to cause Miriam to hold out her hand in the specified direction. Hitting the trigger button will cause a spell to be cast in that direction. Some of these spells are single use abilities that must be cast repeatedly such as launching projectiles, while others are channeled, requiring players to hold the trigger button down, consequently consuming a certain amount of mana per second as it is in use.

Next we have skill shards which are white. These are also passive and have an on-off switch that can be toggled in the menu. Abilities included here would be things like no longer becoming buoyant while swimming, as well as an ability to invert Miriam’s environment so that she can walk on the ceiling.

Meanwhile, there are the blue manipulation shards that allow Miriam to manipulate herself as well as the environment. Some of the abilities included here are summoning a giant hand that can move very large, heavy objects, creating a shadow clone of Miriam that allows for extra attacks, and an ability that envelopes Miriam in a blue aura, allowing her to move at incredible speeds.

Finally, there are the red conjuring spells. These are arguably the most straightforward magic abilities in the game, including spells that temporarily summon monsters to fight by Miriam’s side, as well as AoE attacks, and elemental attacks. There’s no aiming with these spells, just a simple button press will send magic flying.

These various families of shards can also be powered up. The first way this can be done is through alchemy. Enemies will randomly drop materials when defeated and these can be collected to be used in this process (among other things). Harnessing the power of alchemy will allow a shard to increase in rank which generally results in the shard developing a secondary ability of some sort that will become stronger as the shard’s rank increases. The other way to power up shards is by collecting multiples of the same shard. Stacking them increases their grade which usually results in their raw power increasing, being of a larger size, or longer duration. Finally, familiar shards can be enhanced in the aforementioned ways as well as having the ability to gain levels as they defeat enemies.

So, as one can see. Simply from the shard system, players have a ton of ways they can customize how they play the game. Mileage will obviously vary depending on shards with some being borderline broken because they’re so good, but there is a lot to consider when slapping together loadouts for Miriam. Mercifully, the game allows shards and equipment to be swapped out anywhere as well as having a hot key where players can switch between a few favourite gear sets to streamline things and cut down on micro management.

This brings us to all of the various gear in the game because there is quite a lot of that as well. There are some weapons and armor that can be discovered in treasure chests while exploring the game, but a lot more becomes available as players find tiered recipes, which are also conveniently tucked away in these coffers. As these recipes are discovered, a number of new weapons, armor, and accessories will gradually become available for Johannes to craft for Miriam when visiting him in the village. These are made by either using ingredients dropped by enemies, utilizing previously made equipment as a core component in the new weapon, or breaking down a weapon to its constituent parts, and using those for the new piece of gear. There’s a steady, gratifying power curve that emerges as one unlocks these new tiers of gear and slowly begins to put it on Miriam. These pieces vary in stats such that they accentuate a number of different play styles ranging from more physical, melee-oriented methods of attack, to something much more mana-intensive. There are also some interesting one-offs like slapping on gear high in luck, which is actually very important when farming some of the rarer materials, as this stat helps to increase drop rates so that players hopefully don’t have to repeatedly kill monsters for hours on end. On the whole, there are a lot of really cool weapons and armor in Bloodstained. The only time things get a bit silly is with the legendary weapons, as those melt just about anything, especially on normal mode. Something like the Rhava Bural will trivialize a lot of fights in the game.

There are actually a number of different weapon-types available, each with their own feel. These include daggers, boots, swords, rapiers, whips, katana, great swords, guns, and spears. They all have different attack power, ranges, and speeds at which they can strike. On top of this, they all have a variety of special attacks that can be discovered through inputs akin to what one might find in a fighting game. As such, players have a lot of choice in terms of execution regarding how they want to go in swinging against the demon hordes.

Besides all of the armor crafting, shard collecting, boss fighting, and generally trying to send the forces of hell packing, there’s still a bunch of other stuff to do in Bloodstained. There are a few survivors in the village that are varying degrees of emotionally broken and want to try and set things right. One will ask Miriam to look for various keepsakes that can either be found in the castle or crafted. She wants these so that they can be placed in the caskets of the dead as mementos commemorating how they lived. Meanwhile, there’s an old widow with a laundry list of demons she wants Miriam to track down and kill. Neither of these quest givers are asking anything terribly complicated, but they give players a little something extra to do in their adventures, and the rewards are decent. There is also the ability to cook food which helps to replenish health but, more importantly, adds various temporary stat boosts depending on what is eaten.

Regardless of what one is doing in the game, it’s hard not to enjoy all of its visual and aural splendour, unless, of course, you happen to be one of the individuals who was hellbent on Bloodstained being a 2D, pixel-based affair, in which case, A) I’m surprised you’ve made it this far into the video, and B) it’s unlikely you’ll ever accept the 3D nature of the game’s aesthetic. For those who are fine with this design choice, and it was one from the get go with this project, there is a lot to enjoy here. Miriam has all sorts of little details as her body is subtly crystallized from the experiments that the guild did on her, and her appearance often reflects the gear she is wearing at the time. It even becomes possible to further customize her appearance at a barber hidden away in the castle who will offer haircuts as Miriam unlocks different styles, as well as the ability to change the color of her clothing, hair, eyes, and skin.

Meanwhile, the various environments have all sorts of little details such as laboratories with creatures suspended limply in large glass vats, a cathedral with beautiful lighting and stained glass, a crumbling garden where greenery is slowly consuming the masonry, the robust, baroque sensibilities of the upper chambers of the castle, where Gebel resides, a frozen, icy wasteland that creates a palpable starkness, possibly being a nod to the ninth ring of hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy which was also a crushingly cold realm for those condemned of treachery to be forever trapped in ice. In retrospect, this makes all the more sense when one considers what is happening at this point in the story with Dominique having recently betrayed Miriam and humanity at large, now fleeing to her refuge in order to summon Bael, the king of demons into the world.

Not only do the various environs of the game look good, but so do the enemies. There are a number of different types, and while there are some instances of palette swaps in terms of certain designs reappearing throughout the game, only in different colors, it’s not too widespread. There’s everything from seemingly innocuous bats and frogs, to tenacious little monkeys, imposing armored knights lumbering about, or giant winged demons that one might think would be a melee creature, only to get blasted in the face by some dark magic (turns out this demon mage lifts in its spare time). There’s even the occasional dragon. They’re not even bosses, just a nice (air quotes optional) surprise that gets dropped on players in some of the rooms. There are so many different enemies, and even in the event that there is a palette swap, it makes sense, like elementals that have an overarching theme to their design while appearing in environments in line with their nature.

Overall, the visuals do a combination of drawing players in with its settings accentuating the curiosity and wanderlust that naturally occurs with a metroidvania, while enhancing the sense of danger as players come across the various denizens of the castle.

All the while, the soundtrack adds to this feeling. The tracks feel like a very natural progression from the Iga-vanias of old and with good reason. The composer for much of the music from those games is back for Bloodstained. Michiru Yamane made a name for herself with how she combined classical pieces with a more rock-like sensibility, and that approach to music is alive and kicking here. The game really accentuates the impact of music with regular use of silence as well. When players leave the village and head to the castle, there’s no music as Miriam runs along the path leading to the castle. Only when she enters and finds herself in the large Gothic forey of the structure does the music kick in with stone work everywhere, trumpeting the fact that players have truly taken their first bold steps into a new Iga-vania. This technique continues throughout the game with the music drifting away each time players run through the small corridors that act as dividers between the thematically different areas of the castle. This way the silence provides an aural method of cleansing the palette before proceeding to a new environment on top of the visual cleansing of the corridor.

Each area has its own music that has its own feel that enhances what players are likely feeling or experiencing in that particular area. There’s the punchy theme near the entrance of the castle that is a very obvious nod to Symphony of the Night with its “let’s go on an adventure” fell. There’s the fluttering flutes that play in the Garden of Silence mimicking the wings of the pixies that inhabit it. Thunderous chords are belted out of an organ the moment Miriam steps foot in the cathedral. The waterways beneath the castle have a melancholic loneliness to them with a piano melody that embodies the trickling water there. Each piece of music very nicely compliments what is going on at the time in the game while also having some very memorable melodies that are likely to get stuck in people’s heads.

So, after all these years, fans of Igarashi’s work finally got to see what he would do if given free reign to make a new game in the genre he helped to create. Not only that, but he brought along several of his collaborators from that time, and really did get the band back together so to speak when embarking on this project. What we got is the truest successor to those games to date for no other reason than it was made largely by the same people. Not only did it take what made those games so good, Bloodstained ramped the scale up significantly. The exploration that has always been a central component of these games is at least double what one might find in the old Iga-vanias, there are more bosses than you can shake a stick at, countless ways to augment Miriam’s abilities via the shard system, and enough weapons and equipment to supply a small army. Igarashi and his team took what made their previous games great and blew it up to massive proportions while adding new systems, making it all the more interesting. The only question remaining is “Where does the genre go from here?”

Pennywhether

pennywhether@posteo.net

(April 25, 2021)