Since the game's highly successful campaign on Kickstarter back in 2015, many backers were wondering what type of game they'd receive from Koji Igarashi. The game promised a return to the exploration and combat mechanics forged in the 1997 classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. As seen with ill-fated projects like Mighty No. 9 and Nightcry, however, nostalgia alone isn't enough if the game (and the campaign's management) can't deliver on its promises. Fortunately, Bloodstained is not one of these Kickstarter horror stories. Rather, what we have is an incredibly successful (if somewhat unambitious) game that more than deserved the praise it received from critics and backers alike.
Right from the start of the game, Miriam can have just about anything about her customized to the player's liking. The combat, for one, is easy to learn and tricky to master. Whether you want Miriam to be a Kick Chick or a master swordswoman, each combat style has custom weapons you can craft and passive abilities you can equip to buff said styles. Speaking of abilities, the shards are a fun mechanic that is vital to beating the game. Shards you pick up vary from devastating combat abilities like Tis Rozain and Heretical Grinder to lethally funny ones like becoming a Bunny Girl.
I also appreciate that the game never takes itself seriously. Iga clearly had a blast making the game, with enemies ranging from backers' pets to rockstars appearing through the map. Moreover, the voice acting is excellent in both Japanese and English. Ami Koshimizu (Ryuko Matoi's seiyuu) is perfect as Miriam, while David Hayter gives MGS fans a smile on their face with his portrayal as Zangetsu. You can't go wrong with either choice and the music from Michiru Yamane only sweetens the game's audio deal.
If there are two areas of improvement for a potential sequel, they belong in the technical and story departments. My playthrough was not nearly as problematic as the infamous Switch port. I did however run into consistent frame-rate drops in certain levels, with one late-game boss causing my console to freeze. Given the game's simplistic (yet appealing) cel-shaded graphics, I'm perplexed how it could drag console performance apart from potential issues with UE4.
Moreover, the story played it too safe for my book. I guessed the true Big Bad only hours into the playthrough and I wished for additional twists or subversions. Fortunately, given the game's critical success, I hope there's an opportunity for the franchise to pursue a more ambitious plot for its sequel.
So is Bloodstained a perfect game? Not really, but then again which game is? It's an incredibly fun game, and one that proves that crowdfunded games can keep their word.
A Promise Overdelivered
Platform Reviewed: Playstation 4
Since the game's highly successful campaign on Kickstarter back in 2015, many backers were wondering what type of game they'd receive from Koji Igarashi. The game promised a return to the exploration and combat mechanics forged in the 1997 classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. As seen with ill-fated projects like Mighty No. 9 and Nightcry, however, nostalgia alone isn't enough if the game (and the campaign's management) can't deliver on its promises. Fortunately, Bloodstained is not one of these Kickstarter horror stories. Rather, what we have is an incredibly successful (if somewhat unambitious) game that more than deserved the praise it received from critics and backers alike.
Right from the start of the game, Miriam can have just about anything about her customized to the player's liking. The combat, for one, is easy to learn and tricky to master. Whether you want Miriam to be a Kick Chick or a master swordswoman, each combat style has custom weapons you can craft and passive abilities you can equip to buff said styles. Speaking of abilities, the shards are a fun mechanic that is vital to beating the game. Shards you pick up vary from devastating combat abilities like Tis Rozain and Heretical Grinder to lethally funny ones like becoming a Bunny Girl.
I also appreciate that the game never takes itself seriously. Iga clearly had a blast making the game, with enemies ranging from backers' pets to rockstars appearing through the map. Moreover, the voice acting is excellent in both Japanese and English. Ami Koshimizu (Ryuko Matoi's seiyuu) is perfect as Miriam, while David Hayter gives MGS fans a smile on their face with his portrayal as Zangetsu. You can't go wrong with either choice and the music from Michiru Yamane only sweetens the game's audio deal.
If there are two areas of improvement for a potential sequel, they belong in the technical and story departments. My playthrough was not nearly as problematic as the infamous Switch port. I did however run into consistent frame-rate drops in certain levels, with one late-game boss causing my console to freeze. Given the game's simplistic (yet appealing) cel-shaded graphics, I'm perplexed how it could drag console performance apart from potential issues with UE4.
Moreover, the story played it too safe for my book. I guessed the true Big Bad only hours into the playthrough and I wished for additional twists or subversions. Fortunately, given the game's critical success, I hope there's an opportunity for the franchise to pursue a more ambitious plot for its sequel.
So is Bloodstained a perfect game? Not really, but then again which game is? It's an incredibly fun game, and one that proves that crowdfunded games can keep their word.