Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Critic Reviews

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is everything that was great about Igarashi’s Metroidvania titles all rolled into one, and feels like it will be as timeless a game as Symphony of the Night.

Bloodstained is absolutely, unapologetically a game made for Symphony of the Night's many fans, and it lives up to that legacy better than I ever could have hoped for.

This is a game that is well aware of its pedigree, and every person involved in making it has given their all to deliver on that prestige. Aside from some minor performance issues and localization typos barely worth mentioning, Bloodstained is an incredible feat in independent video game development. I’ll be coming back to this one for years to come.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the best I've played this year and it's an automatic recommendation for anyone.

I’d still wholeheartedly suggest picking up Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, especially if you’re a big fan of Koji Igarashi’s previous work. It’s a fantastic callback to those style of games, and goes to show that despite “Metroidvania” being a fairly popular genre, it’s hard to beat a game designed by the folks responsible for making that genre a thing to begin with.

An almost perfect game with just some minor flaws that don't ruin the overall experience.

A sprawling and beautifully executed monument to the Castlevania titles of old, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night feels like a promise delivered for fans of not just the series, but intricately structured action adventures too. The king has returned.

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.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night could be one of the biggest surprises this year. For Castlevania fans, this represents the best chance you’ll ever have to experience that franchise’s golden days. For everyone else, this game is a tightly paced and engaging explore-’em-up that will devour your attention span and reward you appropriately. If you can forgive the lack of polish, it’s hard not to recommend this, especially when it feels so satisfying to play.

The occasional two-second load screen is a paltry price for experiencing a near-masterwork.

Top drawer Metroidvania action from one of the genre’s key innovators. What’s not to love? From great gameplay, a superb soundtrack to one of the most moreish campaigns available for the genre, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is nothing short of a bloody good time.

Metroidvanias are seen as niche games, but Bloodstained proved that you can craft a title in that tradition while making it incredibly appealing to a general audience. Ritual of the Night is one of the best games released so far this year, and even if you don’t love 2D platformers, the excellent exploration elements, movement, and combat are good enough to win anyone over.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night carries on the tradition of classic Igavania games in a masterful way. As a long-time fan of the genre, I personally can't wait for additional DLC as well as the inevitable sequel.

I sunk way too much time into it when I had other games to review. It’s addictive and likely making my top 10 this year. I hope it does well enough that this isn’t the last we see of Bloodstained.

A worthy successor to the legacy laid out by Symphony of the Night that stands on its own with a compelling new universe and highly customizable build system.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is pure fun, and I couldn't be more pleased with the experience. Diving back into creator Koji Igarashi's iconic style of gameplay has been deeply nostalgic for me; I even found myself humming old Symphony of the Night tunes after playing the new release for a few hours.

An awesome spiritual successor to old Castlevanias. The story is the weakest point, true, but everything else is splendid, especially the level design and the sheer amount of creative ideas. If you want a great action RPG platformer, you’ve got one right here.

Few games have managed to be as good as Symphony of the Night; Bloodstained not only manage to be so, but also refines and improves that same old formula for a new generation, becoming the true spiritual successor of the Castlevania series.

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 could easily have been a basic attempt at replicating the Metroidvania genre, masked behind the nostalgia of a partially-retired series and a creator who belongs in the past. Fortunately, this is not the case. Just a year after fierce criticism, the finished game has landed in an unexpected state — perhaps even better than our highest expectations could have imagined.