Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (2019) (Switch) (ArtPlay)
0After having owned the console for over two years, I've finally begun to spend some serious game time with my Nintendo Switch. Even though I primarily play in docked mode (i.e. connected to a TV and thus not taking advantage of the system's handheld mode), I now tend to buy most action-oriented gamepad-friendly titles for Switch if there's a version available for said platform. In particular, it's really fascinating see how developers tackle the hardware restraints while attempting to produce a true console gaming experience on what's essentially mobile hardware (case in point is Wolfenstein II, and the upcoming Switch release of Witcher 3 is going to be extremely interesting).
Bloodstained is a multi-platform release with obvious Switch potential (side-scrolling Metroidvania-style gameplay etc.), but while the end result is certainly playable there's some missed potential here in terms of optimizaiton. The game's 3D graphics look rather blurry, the frame rate can drop quite significantly in the more demanding areas and load times are sometimes annoyingly protracted.
I'm normally not a huge fan of Metroidvania titles since I mostly get stuck about halfway through and never figure out where the game wants me to go next. Due to the workmanlike quality of its overall presentation (typical of the limited budgets resulting from even the most successful Kickstarter projects), Bloodstained lacks the lush 2D charm of classic Castlevania titles which so obviously inspired it. The game does have an oddball sense of humor of its own, though (perhaps most noticeably in some of the more unexpected enemy designs), and it has been a lot more challenging than I had anticipiated.