Game review: Bloodstained Curse of the Moon - Buy this game now!

Castlevania is one of the longest-running and most beloved franchises in gaming. However, the series seems to have been forgotten by publisher Konami in recent years, with the last main title in the series coming over 4 years ago. No matter how much fans of the series beg for it, these pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

The producer of the last great sidescrolling Castlevania games, Koji Igarashi, left Konami to create his own spiritual successor to the franchise by Kickstarting his own game, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. The game was an instant hit on Kickstarter and blew through multiple stretch goals, one being a retro-styled side story that was a freebie for backers of the project.

Last week, this standalone game was released on multiple platforms for just $10, so I had to give it a shot and I’m so very glad that I did. Its basically a highly-polished sequel to Castlevania 3.

And its amazing.

_{^{Image source: User INTI Creates on YouTube}}

Bloodstained Curse of the Moon features a compact plot that serves as a prequel to the full-sized Bloodstained game, in which you follow sword-wielding demon hunter Zangetsu on his quest to vanquish a powerful demon who has recently emerged to threaten the world. You begin the game in control of Zangetsu, but eventually add whip-wielding Miriam, alchemist Alfred and vampire Gebel to your roster. Once they’ve joined your party, you can quickly switch between your characters at will, which is a necessity as you will need the abilities of each to defeat certain enemies, reach high platforms, or slide into narrow tunnels. Each character is completely unique and you’ll eventually learn the strengths and weaknesses of each of them.

Each of your characters has their own life bar, so you basically have the combined health of up to four characters to work with. If one of your characters dies, you return to the last checkpoint with your remaining ‘living’ characters. Once all four of your characters have been killed, you then lose a life and all of them are resurrected. Additional lives can be picked up either as icons in the levels or by hitting score thresholds.

Much like in Castlevania, your character has a primary weapon and sub weapons. Each character (minus Gebel) has three sub weapons, which is powered by magical bottles you’ll pick up, and each extend the abilities of the characters. Gebel has no sub weapons, but instead magic is used to power his abilities like changing into a flying bat.

The stages of the game are instantly familiar to any old-school Castlevania fans. This game just feels like Castlevania (particularly Castlevania 3), from the branching paths, to the multiple characters, to the candles that drop items and even breakable bricks that hide hearts and bottles. This game is essentially old-school Castlevania’s twin.

_{^{Image source: User INTI Creates on YouTube}}

The game features 8 stages, each with branching paths that you won’t be able to access the first time you play. The additional characters are required to access these alternate paths, which leads you to extra powerups and goodies on your second playthrough. It took me just under 2 and a half hours to complete the game on my first run, and after completion you’re given the chance to play again in a harder mode with one of your characters removed and harder boss fights. I had to up my game to beat the bosses that I thought I knew, because the second round gives them additional attacks and patterns to learn!

While the game is relatively short, multiple difficulty levels and endings will keep you coming back for more as you improve your skills. In addition, the harder settings require you to find creative ways to stack up each of your character’s abilities against bosses to find better methods of bringing them down. Its fun and highly rewarding to figure out your best way of taking down a boss that you had no problem with the first time you encountered them.

I spent the weekend with this game and what else can I say? I’m extremely impressed with the well-designed and clever game that INTI Creates has conjured. At only $10, its a crime to not pick this thing up on your platform of choice.

_{^{Image source: User INTI Creates on YouTube}}

This game is simply beautiful. If it weren’t for effects that are just a bit too advanced for the NES, you could swear this is simply a jaw-droppingly gorgeous game on the original Nintendo Entertainment System. The sprites, color palette and resolution all seem to look legit (especially in screenshots), but there’s advanced parallax scrolling effects and huge bosses that simply wouldn’t be possible on the old little gray box. Character designs are wonderful, bosses are massive and extremely detailed and the complex backgrounds give the game a really polished feel.

Music and sounds are on point too. Sound effects are perfect with sounds that sound appropriate for the era, while the music is as good as you’d hear in any 8-bit Castlevania game. Much like the soundtrack to the very similar feeling Shovel Knight, the music sounds like it could possibly come from the NES, but it just a bit too advanced to be possible. I’ll probably be listening to this soundtrack in the background at work this week. Its just that good.

_{^{Image source: User INTI Creates on YouTube}}

This is the real deal, the Castlevania game we’ve been waiting for since the 2D era of the series ended on the 2DS. For anyone who loves the 8- and 16-bit Castlevania games, this is a must-buy. At just $10 and available on every modern platform, there’s no excuse to not give it a shot.

Just buy it and thank me later.

Thanks for reading. As always, upvotes, resteems and comments are appreciated!

_{^{Cover Images: User INTI Creates on YouTube and OperationRainfall}}