Note: This review is based on the PC version. I will append notes for other versions where applicable. Also, the review will cover all canonical story material for the moral section. Paid DLC content is also addressed, but only that with canonical importance will be noted for the moral score.


Some series, for legal reasons or simply because a certain franchise name is being left to grow dust, fork off to make their continuation, minus all the bits and pieces of the original that would enrage lawyers while still delivering the same gameplay and fun. It is for this reason Bloodstained: Ritual of Night exists. To provide for the fans of Castlevania what Konami refuses to do as of the time of this writing.

First a bit of background. Castlevania at the height of its popularity was during its "Metroidvania" phase, a period roughly from 1997-2008 when most Castlevania games that met wide approval with the fans combined the exploratory and RPG elements of the Metroid series by Nintendo with monsters and universe of the Castlevania series. These games, called "Igavania" games by the Bloodstained creator (and former Konami staff Koji Igarashi for the Castlevania games), were sadly terminated after 2008, barring a rare re-release for other platforms when Konami wasn't busy making tepid God of War clones with Castlevania branding or making low brow pachinko machines based off the series with tacky fanservice or the once-promising but overall disgraceful Netflix anime series.

Konami still owns the legal use of Castlevania and did nothing good with it after letting Igarashi-san go, and Bloodstained was a game made in a similar style by Igarashi to give fans the same type of game with enough change to keep lawyers off his back. Otherwise, the 2019 release of Bloodstained, after a startlingly successful Kickstarter campaign, delivered Castlevania with the serial numbers filed off in Igavania tradition.

That said, in some ways, this game will not do anything new, as it's every one of the better ideas of Igarashi-san's games compressed into one game. Even the story will be very familiar if you've played most to all of the Igavania's prior. On the other hand, since this was a Kickstarter game that promised to give the fans turbo-charged nostalgia, one can't fault the game for knowing its audience.

The story is that ten years before the plot, with the Industrial Revolution introducing high technology, the Alchemist Guild was feeling left in the dust. Wanting humanity to see them as still essential to daily life, they stupidly summoned a bunch of demons to engineer a crisis they could fix. This backfired horribly, and they were all but wiped out, but before leaving unfortunate people named "Shardbinders" in their wake. These Shardbinders were meant to solve the engineered problem but were mostly just victims. Now, ten years later, Miriam, one of the Shardbinders put into a coma by the events of the backstory, wakes up to find remnants of the mess still exist and joins forces with the Church to put an end to it for good.

If this story gives you deja vu minus the conspicuous absence of Dracula, then you are a Castlevania fan. If you are new to Castlevania, this means you'll get to explore an Igavania world with monsters mined from public domain sources, find interesting ways to exorcise them, and slam the door on a source of evil in some amazing fashion towards the end.

The gameplay is what any Metroid/Igavania fan expects. In a 2D context, the player must explore a world map using various weapons and abilities. They must discover various upgrades and secrets, confront bosses to unlock other areas, and discover the true ending (after a few fakeout endings). The world is an interconnected one, where the player can revisit any location that can be accessed to discover things not obtainable earlier.

The main character is Miriam, whose "Shardbinder" skill is nigh identical to the Souls mechanic of the Castlevania Aria/Dawn of Sorrow games, and even works in a very similar fashion. Ergo, some enemies will drop Shards, which she absorbs and can then use their talents for herself. Not all are required, but all have some form of use. There are five (technically six) types.

Conjure Shards are "attack" shards that are easy to spam in combat. Manipulative Shards tend to be support skills as opposed to weapons themselves. Directional Shards tend to cost slightly more than Conjure Shards but can be aimed in any direction you like. Passive Shards tend to provide boosts that, after being leveled up enough, will be on permanently as Skill Shards, which can be toggled on and off at player preferences. Finally, Familar Shards summon a helping ally, like a fairy who can heal you and point out breakable walls or a flying sword that helps fight enemies.

Miriam also has access to a variety of different weapon types as well as fighting game-style techniques to make each weapon type even more versatile. The sheer degree of choice means you can swap around to different weapons as needed or even build your combat style around just one type; both styles are entirely viable.

A few other playable main characters are available. Zangetsu, whose playable mode forks off the base endings, is a Japanese samurai take on the classic "Julius Belmont" mode of Aria/Dawn of Sorrow. Aurora, who is guest starring from the game Kingdom: Two Crowns, is yet another character with her own mode that has no story connection to the other two. Typing in the code BLOODLESS as a character name allows the player to play the boss character Bloodless, who has her own fleshed-out non-canon fun mode with its own challenges.

There are some extra modes bundled in for free, such as Boss Rush Mode, Boss Revenge (play as a boss and defeat the heroes), Chaos Mode (a mode where the player can randomize an entire run regarding enemy powers, drops, placement, and many other randomized elements), Classic Mode (an amazingly good analog to the original Castlevania starring Miriam doing a retraux style version of the Bloodstained story NES style). There is also a versus/co-op multiplayer mode to play against or with friends (Xbox One and Windows versions support crossplay). As if this was not enough, several fun crossovers with other franchises have various degrees of integration, such as Shovel Knight-themed enemies (with their shovel and armor as equipable to cosplay as him) and crossovers with other games like Journey (which has a hidden bonus level in the main Bloodstained map area). There is also an 8-bit Nightmare secret level that allows Miriam to do a pastiche of the first level of OG Castlevania with just enough changed elements to keep Konami lawyers away. Finally, there are other secrets and shoutouts to Castlevania. Still, I won't spoil them, this is THE ultimate fan game even if they had to scrape off the Castlevania licensing for legal reasons.

There are some paid DLC, but most are non-canon costumes, one adds in a secret boss fight with Iga-san himself doing a funny spin on OG Dracula (complete with the usual moves and even includes the memetic wine glass toss from Symphony of the Night and is voiced by him in both English and Japanese), and one adds a second classic retraux mode, which forks off the true ending. This second mode is a well-done pastiche of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (the great grandfather of the ideas Iga-san would flesh out further) and a bridge to a possible sequel that continues from the canon true ending of the main plot.

Graphically, this is a 2D game, but with a lot of 3D style effects and 2.5 style areas to give the feeling of depth and immersion. The game uses an anime style with a gothic color scheme, fitting the concept of the game like a glove. The music and sound effects are going to be a deja vu fest for Castlevania fans, with many tracks being quite as good as the official games and even better at times. Voice acting is provided in both English and Japanese, quite well done in both languages.

Bloodstained is playable with either a keyboard and mouse or with a gamepad. The latter is recommended, with full support for Xbox-style controllers on the Steam version. Controls are remappable if need be but I found the stock controls to be fine and the game provides appropriate tutorials to get you started.

This is a very stable game, with hardly any crashes. It uses the Unreal Engine and is quite well-optimized. There is unofficial modding support for the game, and this can cause crashes if the mods and game version do not match, but they otherwise work fine. This is rated Playable on the Steam Deck and runs out of the box on Windows and via Steam Proton on Linux. The requirements of the game aren't too high and I found it runs very smoothly on my gaming laptop even after hours of play.

Morally, this is going to have some issues, given the dark themes.

Violence is going to be somewhat bloody. While enemies disappear on death, some leave quite a lot of blood, though you can mute the horror humorously by turning the blood some ridiculous color in the options so it looks more like grape jam or yellow paint if you are so inclined (and this globally applies so all blood effects look comical). Miriam and all other playable characters act in self-defense and you are not able to harm genuine innocents, only monsters and humanoids trying to kill and maim you.

Language is going to be mild at best. Most to all enemy names heavily mine the foreign language pits and the game dialogue is Old English style. The worst you see is mentions of "d*mn" or "Hell" in the appropriate religious context.

In the sexuality department, there are going to be some revealing female demons. Miriam herself (albeit because her condition as a Shardbinder requires it) has a rather open dress exposing cleavage and her back, but in her case, it's to make sure she has Shardbinder power access. Regardless, some alternate outfits can cover her up somewhat. A few monsters have a partial nudity effect like the first boss, but given how grotesque it looks, this is more for horror than anything else. Only one boss is shown truly naked, and even this is brief and from an angle that only shows her briefly from behind.

Given the game backstory, there is a profound occult and supernatural presence, with occult texts like the Ars Goetia extensively mined. That said, God and the Christian Church get a rather positive portrayal as standing against this and your main character is being directly supported by the same.

The game features the commendable moral lesson that power of any sort leads to evil unless used for ends that would be moral and pleasing to God, a fact the main character is clearly willing to emphasize to the villains who intend to use their power to spite Him. It's further backed up by showing how attempts to defy God only corrupt the mind, body, and soul of those who try with no benefit whatsoever, both in supernatural ways and by destroying any sense of moral restraint they once possessed. The main character Miriam makes a special point to call out the villain's plan to do evil to cast down God as absolute madness under the same logic as the Bible: it's suicidal and self-destructive to the body and soul. The canonical DLC follow-up mode continues in this vein, with the best ending hinging on rejecting the allure of demonic promises and power.

On the ethical side, Miriam herself is quite a commendable woman. Even though Shardbinders could do evil with the ability to seal demon powers into shards, she only uses that power to defend the innocent and freely assists the Church in destroying its source, desiring only to be free of it. She also uses her bad lot in life as an inspiration to rise above evil and pettiness, seeking to defend the innocent and, to paraphrase her own words, "choose to do good despite her circumstances". Other characters who remain true to their faith and refuse to be driven to evil are also shown to be morally commendable as well.

Overall, if you want more Castlevania-style games in the Igavania mold, this game is going to deliver a metric ton of content in that vein done in a very competent fashion. Morally, it's got some concerning issues but also commendable Christian-friendly themes about not regarding God with contempt and why evil is not a toy to treat with callous abandon. I absolutely enjoyed this game and look forward to the planned sequel.