Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

The wait was worth it. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a whole new castle to crash full of unexpected monsters and mysteries in the vein of classic Castlevania.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night suffers on Nintendo Switch due to distracting technical issues.

The wait was worth it - this spiritual successor to Castlevania is a gorgeous, accessible 2D platformer stuffed with nostalgia.

Bloodstained: ROTN faithfully recreates the metroidvania experience of the 2000s—a feast for fans of a very specific experience; a bit too old-fashioned for anyone else.

Ritual of the Night starts off a little too familiar, but quickly ramps up into an impressive exemplar of the genre it's retreading

I’m still not sure if Bloodstained has made a dyed in the wool Metroidvania fan out of me, but it’s certainly the most fun I’ve had playing one in a while.

Bloodstained is occasionally frustrating, refreshingly open, and as promised, wholly Castlevania. Hopefully some polish is on the way for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night as to not alienate folks who are new to the genre, but as any Castlevania fan knows, partial jank comes with the territory.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a wonderful love letter to Castlevania fans. It's gothy, camp, and unabashedly old school. But it's also a meticulously crafted game that constantly rewards players for exploration and offers unbridled options in combat. For long-time Metroidvania fans, Ritual of the Night is an unmissable celebration of the genre from the mind of one if its chief architects, while for newcomers it's an accessible entry-point that's easy to pick up and oh so difficult to put down. Let's hope the next one doesn't take quite as long.

Despite the fact that this is unquestionably a very fine video game, there's no escaping the fact that the Switch version has some serious issues

It's been a hot minute since the Kickstarter for Koji Igarashi's new game wrapped up and Castlevania fans have a good reason to celebrate on how this turned out.