Game:

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (2018)

Duration: 21:57

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Ah... Bloodstained, the "new" Castlevania title with a bit of an interesting history. If you're familiar with Konami, then you'll no doubt know that they, along with several other major game companies, have undergone significant adjustments over the years. Konami, in particular, has lost key members Koji Igarashi (Credited for many works, but primarily the Castlevania franchise) and Hideo Kojima (legendary and prolific designer with dozens of credits, but is most recognized for Metal Gear, Snatcher, Boktai, Zone of the Enders, Beatmania, and others). It was a pretty toxic and polarizing move to put it mildly, creating a lot of contention among fans and the powers at play, but that's the nature of big business I suppose.

Where do these talents go when they've out-grown their parent companies or have irreconcilable differences? They merge with other companies or form their own, of course. Thanks to the many platforms available like Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, GoFundMe, etc., entrepreneurs, visionaries, and even people simply down on their luck have a way to be crowd-funded to help make their dreams a reality. Not all crowd-funded efforts are a success story... some fall short of their financial goals and we wind up with little to show for it, some reach their financial goals and
don't live up to their potential, and others still fall somewhere inbetween.

Why is any of this important? Because the expectations for Igarashi's latest title, "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night", are exceptionally high. Being a Kickstarter title originally set with a modest budget of $500,000, it would go on to amass more than ten times that amount, making it one of the most sucessfully Kickstarted games in history. Naturally, quite a few stretch goals helped it reach this level of success, one being an 8-bit spinoff to tide supporters over until the main release. Developed by the cool folks over at Inti Creates (Best known for Mega Man Zero, Azure Striker Gunvolt, and Mighty No. 9) and ArtPlay, "Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon" is most comparable to "Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse", though it feels a little like Ninja Gaiden as well. While the project has had a few mishaps (getting in the hands of regular consumers before kickstarter supporters, cancelling the Wii U version in favor of the Switch... which is pretty logical really), I can at least say that the team communicates regularly and releases updates at pretty normal intervals.

In the game, you start out as Zangetsu, who is out for revenge against the alchemists and demons who "cursed him". You go through the first few levels defeating large bosses and acquiring three other allies, who can all be switched to on the fly (unlike CIII) and bring different traits and abilities with them. You can use each characters' different skills to take multiple paths through stages and access different routes which lead to goodies and such like extra points or permanent ability upgrades. The game also contains multiple endings and additional challenges upon repeated playthroughs, adding to the replayability and players only lose lives if all ally characters are defeated on a stage. Zangetsu can also choose to kill his allies, granting him Soul Arts in their place for a unique twist. Other than the slightly faster pace and some of the odd bosses, it feels almost exactly like how an 8-bit homage to Castlevania should feel, so they did a pretty good job. Here's hoping the main game will be great too. This is just a basic video of the game in action. Enjoy.

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