Usually, Kickstarter stretch goals include new features, like boss rushes or voice acting. Koji Igarashi decided to go one step further for his Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night campaign and include a prequel mini-game (that has since evolved into a spin-off mini-game) for backers. Igarashi revealed the trailer several days ago that featured several snippets of gameplay, and now NinEverything has one-upped Igarashi with uncut gameplay footage, and it is everything Castlevania fans could ever want.
As we have already established, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a retro game inspired by classic Castlevania games, especially Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Not only do characters and enemies move with the weighty feel of old games, but their simple animations and their vivid and contrasting color palettes seem to have been ripped straight from 8-bit Castlevania titles, as has the “veteran” difficulty that knocks back characters when hit.
Judging by NinEverything’s video, every ounce of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon oozes classic game design, especially enemy placement. Enemies tend to be placed near platform ledges in 8-bit games, and players who misjudge their jumps (which is half of the difficulty of platformer games like classic Castlevania) will bump into these enemies and careen off the platforms, usually into bottomless pits. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon has that in spades. It might seem like a cheap tactic to modern gamers, but, when done right, it results in a tough-but-fair challenge. And judging by NinEverything’s video, that’s exactly what Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is supposed to be: a blast from the past with a tough-but-fair challenge that apes 8-bit Castlevania.
Since Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a spiritual successor to classic metroidvania games like Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, it’s only fitting its spin-off title is a spiritual successor to Castlevania games that originally made the franchise popular. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is scheduled to release on May 24th for the Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, and PC.
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