Bloodstained Review

Look, I'll be honest with you, Metroidvanias (or Search Action games, or whatever we're calling them this week) are basically my comfort food in gaming. I've sunk countless hours into indie titles in this genre, so when I heard that Koji Igarashi himself was getting another shot at making a spiritual successor to Castlevania after all those years? I was genuinely shocked. This was during that wave of veteran developers leaving their studios to create passion projects, and we all know Konami didn't exactly give their talent a graceful exit. As a longtime Castlevania fan, I had to know: would this live up to the legacy, or would it just be another hollow imitation?

Background/Synposis

Without diving too deep into spoiler territory, here's what you need to know: Bloodstained throws us into the 18th century during the Industrial Revolution. The Alchemy Guild essentially a cult practicing forbidden demon-summoning arts got desperate when they saw science threatening to replace religious faith. Their solution? Create "Shardbinders" by experimenting on orphans like our protagonist Miriam and her fellow victim Gebel, turning them into living demon magnets.

Things went sideways when Gebel eventually snapped and destroyed the guild in revenge. Meanwhile, poor Miriam ended up in a coma through all that chaos. Fast forward ten years: Miriam wakes up just as the mysterious Hellhold Castle materializes thanks to lingering dark magic, bringing all those demons back with it. With help from an alchemist named Johannes, she sets out to investigate the castle and confront whatever's waiting inside.

It's a straightforward setup, but that's actually perfect for a Metroidvania. The real story unfolds as you explore, giving you genuine reasons to poke into every corner of that massive castle.

Castlevania Never Left

If you've never played a Metroidvania before, here's the deal: this is all about exploration with light RPG systems layered on top. You'll gradually unlock new paths through the castle by finding power-ups, defeating bosses, and solving puzzles—all while cutting through waves of enemies on your way to face Gebel.

When I say "lite RPG elements", I mean Miriam can equip different armor, weapons, potions, and accessories that boost her stats. You'll find gear in chests, occasionally get lucky with monster drops (they're pretty rare), buy stuff from shops, or and this is where it gets fun—craft your own items. Yeah, crafting systems were everywhere back then (thanks, Minecraft), but here it actually works well. You collect materials from enemies and chests to craft better equipment and even food that gives you temporary buffs plus permanent health and mana increases. Your recipe book grows nicely as you progress.

Exploration and Metroidavnaia Galore

But here's the real heart of Bloodstained—the shard system. Remember how Miriam's a Shardbinder? That's not just lore fluff. As you explore the castle, enemies don't just give you XP and loot—they can also drop shards that grant Miriam new abilities. We're talking both offensive and defensive powers that completely change how you approach combat and exploration. This system is absolutely the core of what makes the game tick, and honestly? It's brilliant. Every new enemy becomes a potential power-up, which kept me engaged throughout my entire playthrough.

There’s a lot of shards throughout the game would give you different buffs depending on the one equipped. Even some could summon familiars which basically companions that can assist you in battle, the system it does seem to be intuitive but doesn’t font without its flaws. While, not common, the drop rate for shards can be abysmally low (4% to be exact), so there would be times that certain ability would prove to be useful but the enemy itself would acquire you killing it multiple times in order to obtain it.

One aspect of the game which can’t be subjective, but I want to point out is the difficulty look. I am not wanting to complain about difficulty and games but there was points that the game would become unnecessarily brutal in future areas and no matter your build, it will still give you an hard time. Even applies to the bosses of the game.

I do not know what game Dev design is this but some of the attack patterns of bosses can border on brutal or unreadable especially for the damage rate when you get. One part in the beginning of the game when you’re fighting against another important character, Zangetsu like most bosses you encounter the damage output and a type patterns can order an unfair and unreadable. I can see putting off a lot of people from the experience.

Also another aspect game is following the Castlevania charm but some parts of the game are painfully obtuse and of course there’s no direction of where you’re supposed to go next there was periods that I went through the game. I actually had no idea where to go unless I had a guide for it. Look, I’m awful figuring out my own way across the map but there is periods that the game is so obtuse what I actually don’t understand where I was supposed to go and I was pretty much no hints otherwise from characters to where to go next.

Essentially the game requires you to actually examine the cutscenes seems to pay attention because if you need to pay attention to someone words or dialogue, you are gonna be completely clueless to what direction you’re supposed to be going in! Trust me, this has happened more than once in my playthrough which if I want the exploration type I would have given up.

As for the narrative, it’s one of the serviceable attempts, I did find a lot of the characters kind of just there, while the initial lore was interesting. The characters the carry the narrative feels pretty archetypal and nothing really as note outside the designs with some twists here and there. As for the main character, Miriam, she didn’t come across quite a character in the sense that she isn’t as blind as I thought she would be. She has a boat has a moments of quirk in a but overall it didn’t really stand out with me as particularly interesting, she pretty much some purpose and a lot of of the characters kind of feel like that. I would say they were badly written, but I wouldn’t say that particularly the most interesting either.

Saying all that the gameplay is where the whole experience really shines as for cast game is actually pretty fun. I always found myself actually exploring and just go through the environments which I think is a very well done accompanied with a stellar soundtrack, by the one and only, Michiru Yamane. Outside, some enemy types being recycled in the late game and 3D models looking on the more dated side if made into sprites. I do think the game is well executed in terms of its presentation. Even if you were done with the main game, there’s many other modes to choose from to keep you coming back for more.

Final Verdict

So, where does it leave this review, if you are sucker for Castlevania franchise or just Metroidvanias. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is worth giving a shot if you haven’t already. Though, its sequel is on the horizon, it would be worth checking out if you haven’t already. You won’t be disappointed