So I finished Bloodstained:
Ritual of the Night a couple of weeks ago, and…
Well…
Hmmmm.
I feel like this is
the kind of post that might make me a lot of enemies, so let me choose my words
very carefully here. Also, I’ll go ahead
and switch to the
Royal Guard style, just in case.
There are at least
two things I’ve learned while writing junk on the internet. Or maybe I’ve just learned two things period,
but semantics. The first is that you
have to make your statements as clear as possible, so your intent and overall
message don’t get misconstrued along the way.
In the absence of tone and physical expression, there’s a lot you have
to do for typing to convey your meaning.
The second? Don’t dump on the
nostalgia of others, especially if you’re an outsider looking in. Writing about Star Wars: The Force Awakens
taught me that in an instant, to the point where it’s still kind of an old
shame of mine.
It’s even harder
than ever before, I think. In the
general sense, obviously; internet culture has always been dangerously volatile
and oddly confrontational, so that seemingly innocuous comments on a website
can turn into paragraphs-long back-and-forth debates. I don’t think I even need to mention that
polarized e-cliques don’t help matters (even though I just did); it’s hard enough
for others to see eye to eye in the real world, and even harder when two
opposing forces are arguing under the assumption that they’re 100% in the
right.
But to bring it
back to Bloodstained? It’s even
worse. It’s the spiritual successor to a
franchise abandoned and left to rot in the streets by its parent company! It’s the triumphant return of the creator who
helped establish an entire subgenre of platformers! It’s the product of fans sharing their love,
energy, and money, to the point where it was formerly
the most well-funded game in Kickstarter history! It’s safely in
the green zone on Metacritic! What’s
not to love, unless you’re playing the
Switch version? Well, as it turns
out, there’s no need to worry, fear, or despair.
Need a thesis
statement from me? Here it is. Bloodstained is a good game.
…
…But for me,
personally, I wouldn’t rate it much higher than that.
Now hold on. Stop right there. Let me elaborate. I’m not saying this game is overhyped, or
overrated, or anything like that. I’m
not saying it’s bad, or disappointing, or whatever negative connotation you
want to assign. Don’t put words in my
mouth, because if you had to put me in a camp, I’d belong in the positive one. Alongside all the yay-sayers. Let’s get that right immediately. The only difference is that my like and
appreciation of the game isn’t absolute.
I have issues that keep it from being a top-tier winner. And to be clear, they’re not objective
truths. Everything is subjective -- even
if there’s reasoning behind it -- and you should treat it as such. Okay?
Okay.
Here’s the setup. You play as Miriam, a “Shardbinder” who was
once used as a pawn by villainous alchemists to maintain power in a changing
world -- and in doing so, they found ways to unleash a demonic apocalypse upon
the earth. While Miriam went to sleep
for a decade and the alchemists cleaned up the mess they made, another
Shardbinder, Gebel, stuck around and went on to unleash his own apocalypse --
complete with a sprawling castle and hordes of vile creatures that have razed the
land. Now it’s up to Miriam to go all
one-woman army on the forces of evil, even if it means taking out her old
friend.
Well, there’s your
setup. Anything to get you in another
castle to explore, huh?
I don’t think I’d
be saying anything controversial by claiming that Bloodstained takes a
decisive “gameplay first” mentality. You’re
going to be spending a huge amount of your play time -- anywhere from 10 to 15
hours -- traversing the castle grounds, clearing out demons, finding treasure
and hidden goodies, et cetera. If you’ve
played one of the other Castlevania games, or just a Metroidvania-type
in general, then you know exactly what you’re getting into. It’s worth noting, of course, that this game
has legally-distinct versions of some of the classics. No Medusa Heads to screw up your platforming;
this time you’ve got “Dullahan Heads” that fulfill the exact same function in
the exact same context.
I guess some devs
just graduated from the Institute of Game Design for Assholes. But I digress.
I’d say that one of
the strongest elements Bloodstained has going for it is its
customization. My guess is that no two
players have Miriams that are exactly the same, since there’s a multitude of
RPG-like stats. Irrespective of however
you make her look aesthetically with hairstyles, palette changes and
accessories, Miriam provides enough variability to let you create a build
suited to your play style. Want a magic
user who can shoot from afar? You got
it. Want to get up close and personal
with a flurry of kicks that’d make Chun-Li jealous? It’s yours.
For me, I went with a tank build, complete with a great sword (a
holdover from my Dawn of Sorrow days) that sacrificed speed for attack
power, attack range, and the general ability to withstand hellspawn
haymakers to the face.
There are plenty of
nuances to pore over in your quest for power and the perfect Miriam. You’ve got tons of weapons to choose from,
techniques to learn along the way, and little tricks you can use to maximize
damage output and/or minimize damage taken.
A quirk of the great swords I found is that the attack duration is long
enough to let you -- with the right spacing and positioning -- get a
two-for-one deal on attacks if you hit with the tip. I’d bet there are even more tricks you could master
with backdash-cancelling (which admittedly I didn’t bother with, because TANK
AND TANK). And beyond that? You can use the starting kung fu shoes’ triple
kick -- a rekka
if there ever was one -- to reach spaces in the early game that’d otherwise
need a double jump at a minimum.
That’s not even
getting into the real star of the show here: the Shards. Much like Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, Miriam
has a chance to absorb power from enemies, giving her unique magic attacks,
familiars, passive boosts, buffs, and traversal abilities as she treks through
Gebel’s swanky bachelor pad. You have many
to choose from, even if you’re not guaranteed to get everything by way of
drop rates (pretty sure you can get a Shard that lets Miriam shred on a
guitar), so that’s another layer of customization on top of an already robust
set of variables. Granted, you’ll want
to pick the right Shards for the situation, but the point stands. Bloodstained gives players plenty of
toys to play with, no question. On that front,
I’m pretty satisfied.
It’s all in service
of exploring the castle, which is a highlight in its own right, for sure. I mean, I’m inclined to ask how one building
could house a cathedral, a desert, a volcanic cavern, pseudo-Japan, and an icy
wasteland, but it’s probably not worth worrying about when the whole game is
built around alchemy. So whatever, it’s
magic. And also a video game, so of
course there’s gotta be a lava level. No
one can say that there’s a lack of variety, though.
While I wouldn’t
say that the actual platforming is a challenge, it’s not like it was supposed
to be. It’s more about clearing gauntlet
after gauntlet of enemies in typically-close quarters, efficiently dispatching
them until you can reach the next save point or warp to take you back to
town. Side note? By and large, the save points are spaced out
pretty much perfectly; they’re there when you need them most, to the
point where you can actively time how long it’ll be before you can reach
another one. (I want to say “six minutes”,
but I won’t commit to that number.)
Of course, the
customization is in service of traversing the castle’s gauntlets -- and
traversing the castle’s gauntlets is in service of taking out those
bosses. There are some wily demons out
there, from speedsters that’ll tackle you at the speed of light to twin dragons
that hungrily chase you up a tower. Like
any good game of the type, beating them comes down to you being able to answer
three questions with a resounding “yes”.
Have you prepared enough beforehand?
Do you have the resources to patch yourself up if things go sour? Are you able to learn attack patterns and
adapt to enemy strategies? You’ll
probably take some knocks along the way, but for the most part, the challenge with
them -- and Bloodstained as a whole -- is just right.
…Well, until it isn’t.
The fundamental
premise behind this game is that you’re tasked with braving a nearly-endless cavalcade
of horrors, traps, and monsters on your way to the end credits. Your reward for clearing one challenge is the
gift of another -- alongside more appreciable treats like a new location, and
new powers to stuff inside your toy box.
But at a base level, trials beget trials. I’d say that when that cycle, that premise,
and that promise are broken, the game -- any game --
suffers. Given my experience, I can’t
say Bloodstained is an exception.
It’s exceedingly
easy to make Miriam OP. And not OP in an
entertaining way, like Final Fantasy VII or Octopath Traveler. Your variables and arsenal are such that, in
no time at all, you’ll have a setup that turns the gauntlets into
cakewalks. The question of “How am I
going to make it through this area?” can and will be solved the same time, every
time, with “Oh, wait, I can just do this.
Okay, next.” The Teps Oceus spell hits everything on the screen with
lightning, and you don’t even have to aim; if your stats (and the requisite
Shard you can upgrade) are high enough, you can basically clear out a room with
one button press.
Heretical Grinder
is an early-game Shard that summons a whirling sword you can thrust at
enemies. Level it up, and its size,
range, and damage output increase -- but since it does damage over time on
contact, it’s a stunningly-good tool to use against bosses while you tack on
extra melee damage. Riga Stormaea is a
problem solver (so much so that it
got nerfed in a recent patch); once upgraded, you can fill a huge chunk of
the screen with towering flame pillars, and their duration means you’re getting
extra hits per pop. Well before the
endgame, I didn’t even have to think anymore.
Just hit that Triangle button, shout “RIGA STORMAEA!” and then go about
my business.
Enemies can’t keep
up with you. The most they can hope for
is that you run out of healing items -- the stock of which you’ve mercifully
got a hard cap on, lest you capitalism your way through every encounter. Unless you’re asleep at the wheel, running
out of healing items before you need to restock isn’t much of a concern (least
of all because you can heal up anyway if you’ve got the right Shard and a decent
amount of patience).
It’s an issue that
exposes a weak point in Bloodstained, if not the whole Metroidvania subgenre:
if you’re not being stimulated by area exploration and gauntlet-clearing, then
say goodbye to your fun. And be sure to
stab it in the heart if and when you have to backtrack to figure out where you
need to go next…because, by necessity, you’ll have to mow through even
weaker enemies the second or third go-round.
Also, I don’t want
to make a big deal out of it because I haven’t gotten hit with the
worst of it, but I did run into some technical issues. Far be it from me to criticize input text,
but there’s punctuation and sometimes entire words missing in some of the
dialogue. There’s a persistent glitch I
ran into where item drops would get stuck on the level’s geometry. Critically, I had to mash my way through the
ending of the game because the sound effect of the final boss’ last attack/death
blared over everything. It wouldn’t be
the first time a last boss glitch interfered with an ending; my dance party at
the end of Saints Row 4 was soured by my Boss having the head of an
alien conqueror grafted to her hand.
The harshest thing
I can say about Bloodstained’s gameplay is that it loses momentum. There’s still a high amount of value to be
had in its castle exploration, taking on foes and gaining more power as you
take in the sights and sounds. Nobody
can take that away from the devs, least of all me. But speaking personally? After a certain point, the magic started
wearing off. When the bosses started
feeling more like a formality than a threat, when the enemies were just gravel
in the road I could trample, when the gothic horror became as fearsome as a
trip to the grocery store -- that’s when the fun had decidedly waned. What started off as a journey I was eager to
undertake day after day eventually turned into an act of compulsion. I wanted to beat it because…well, it was
there and I hadn’t beaten it yet.
It's at this point
-- well, no, it’s been well before this point that I asked myself a
question. A thought. An inquiry that I needed to have answered,
for the sake of tying a bow on this title.
As someone with no undying, decades-long loyalty to the Castlevania series
-- as someone who isn’t that well-versed in Metroidvania games -- I can’t
help but wonder. Certainly, Bloodstained
is a return to form, a revival of something loved by fans the world
over. But did it do enough to truly
shine past its dire circumstances? Is
there more to it than just being the phoenix born from the ashes of Konami’s
mismanagement? Is it doing more than
just filling the nostalgia-dug hole left by its ancestor’s absence? Is it truly pushing the spirit, and the genre
forward?
I don’t have an
answer to that…yet. But maybe I will
next time. Because hey, at least there’s
that gripping story, right?
...
At least there’s
that gripping story, right?
…I’m gonna make so
many enemies, aren’t I?
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