Bloodstained - Ritual of the Night and Curse of the Moon - The Bear and Badger

JonB

Bloodstained is a kickstarted project led by Koji Igarashi, who was behind a lot of the 2D Castlevania games including the classic Symphony of the Night. So this is basically more Castlevania without the name, because Konami couldn't be arsed with it anymore or something.

And there are two different Bloodstained games. Ritual of the Night is the main one and is yet to be given a release date. This has more modern visuals and will play like the Metroidvania games in the series.

Curse of the Moon is more like the 8-bit games, especially Castlevania III, apparently, with linear progression and switching between characters. And this one is now out (24.05.2018) on PS4, Vita, Switch and PC, with 3DS and XBone versions coming in the next week or two. If you backed the kickstarter over a certain amount you'll get it free. Otherwise it's £7.99 (at least on PS4).

So, think I'll be grabbing this today, although I don't have much time to play it this week. Looks good.

retroking1981

So the good one's out today :-D

Will be picking this up as soon as I get home!

JonB

I've bought it on PS4, although won't get to play it this week at all now. Would've got a chance to play it if I'd bought it on Vita, but it's not crossplay, unfortunately.

One of those times where a Switch would've been handy.

Moot_Geeza

I'll be ever so picky and say that I would've preferred a 16-bit look for the linear one, but it's still neat. Hopefully they'll stick the Vita version on Plus before they ditch the free games. There can't be that many options left when the powers that be make their selections.

Brooks

Konami definitely suck shit, but I'm not sure this is what I want instead.

hylian_elf

The one out today looks a bit old and shit. Will wait for main course.

Skerret

Fuck me that voiceover is horrendous

davyK

I like old graphics but only when they are as good as they need to be. I prefer the 16bit look for Castlevania style games. I might give it a go on Steam though.

retroking1981

Instantly in love with this, fucking excellent.

Moot_Geeza

Nice. It looks like the game Master of Darkness wanted to be.

Brooks

Blasphemous looks way cooler than this shit.

Moot_Geeza

Blasphemous looks like a Chakan homage. The Messenger looks cooler than both.

I've decided to buy this on Vita, didn't regret paying £8 for Volgarr. I've never played more than 15 mins of an 8-bit Castlevania and without the inflated appreciation of nostalgia I reckon this one might be a better bet.

JonB

Managed to get 20 mins and play the first level. First impressions are good. Certainly feels like Castlevania, with a modern smoothness to the controls, but not being Vania gives it some more freedom in terms of locations.

Checkpointing could prove to be a bit harsh though.

Brooks

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Blasphemous looks like a Chakan homage. The Messenger looks cooler than both.

1. And???

2. Ehh idk.

hylian_elf

Brooks wrote:

Blasphemous looks way cooler than this shit.

Ooh it does look good. Will keep an eye out.

Moot_Geeza

The last 15 seconds or so of the video I watched looked interesting. Having recently played Chakan again, let's hope it sets the bar a little higher.

Volgarr though chaps, get your Rastan fix.

retroking1981

So when did Curse of the Moon become a thing?

I wasn't following this all that closely and just assumed it was the SotN style game we was getting.

JonB

It was only actually announced a couple of weeks ago. But I think I read it was always part of the stretch goals in the kickstarter.

davyK

Prefer Curse of the Moon's look to the antiseptic modern look of Ritual of the Night.

The look of Rebirth on the Wii pleased me. Kind of a souped-up-SNES feel.

ayns

I grabbed it on Switch.

Like it.

Moot_Geeza

Warning, don't buy this on Vita. You can pay for it, like I just did on the browser, but there's no evidence of it either a) on my Vita download list, b) in my purchase history or c) on the Vita store itself. Presumably they're having some teething problems, but it looks like I won't be playing this on the train tomorrow. Pretty sure this has happened to me once before and it sorted itself out before I had to contact customer services.

JonB

Hmm. Weird.

Glad I didn't get it on the Vita anyway. Thought I might play through it while away this week but in the end haven't picked up the machine at all. Now it'll be waiting on the PS4 when I get home.

JonB

@Moot_Geeza Seems it's a widespread problem and no solution as yet. See here.

Moot_Geeza

Saw that page, cheers. I'll give it a few days, if they haven't fixed it I'll refund and go for the Switch version.

Moot_Geeza

Working now, all set for tomorrow. Tough break, Badland Game of the Year Edition.

JonB

Just played through the first 5 levels. Playing in veteran mode, which only gives limited lives and means you get knocked back when hit. It's not especially difficult though. Lost some lives against bosses and falling down the odd pit, but the generous extra lives system means I still have more than I started with.

It's all very solidly made really. Changing between characters for different routes and strategies works well. The controls are good. The bosses are imaginative and pose a challenge without being too tough. I wouldn't say it does anything really special, but since it's intended as an 8-bit Castlevania game with a bit of modern polish, you have to say it delivers.

Only real issue perhaps is the way it handles character deaths against bosses, because certain characters are clearly far more useful against each boss than others. Lose the most suitable characters and you're left trying to do it with the others, at which point you might as well suicide, lose a life and try again with a full roster.

Moot_Geeza

I played the first three on the way to work this morning. It's another souper-NES thing, that ghost train in the opening seconds of stage one would've ruined the 'inspired by' console. Music is hitting the spot too. My only complaint so far is how useless the third character feels. I'm sure there'll be a reason to use him at some point, but he's definitely this game's Psycho Fox hippo.

Glad I played on veteran, I wasn't sure which one to select at first as Volgarr was such a massive undertaking and I'm not sure if I'm ready for that level of brutality again just yet. Turns out there was no need to worry, thus far anyway - as Jon points out it's not really that difficult. Most sections can be traversed first time and if not they only require one death to learn.

JonB

The third character's spells can be very useful. Definitely not the one to use for general level traversal, but well worth having in reserve to break out at specific points.

hylian_elf

Jon, you’re making it actually sound good.

JonB

Ha. It is good. As long as you go in expecting a tarted up NES game you won't be disappointed.

JonB

And finished.

Last couple of levels were quite tricky and even frustrating in places, but still had about 5 lives left in the end.

Probably took me about 3 hours to get through in all.

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