Bloodstained‘s backstory is nonsensical, but its characters are worthwhile

The story goes that after the Laki eruption of 1783, a demon horde was released into the world as part of an ill-advised ploy by a guild of alchemists. The advent of industrialism looked to be taking the world in a secular direction where their talents would be of dwindling importance, so the demons were intended to send a message and serve as job insurance, but the situation spiraled out of control and many people died. The church eventually took care of the demons, but by then, the alchemists had become largely irrelevant. Here’s where the writing starts to take a weird turn—for reasons that are never made clear, the method the alchemists used to summon the demons was to implant children with crystals and then sacrifice them as part of a rite. Only two of these “Shardbinder” children survived: a boy named Gebel who didn’t die during the ritual for unclear reasons and a girl named Miriam (Bloodstained‘s main character) who wasn’t sacrificed because she fell into a magical sleep.

Needless to say, there are some pretty big questions raised by all of this that are never addressed (unless that crucial bit of explanation is hidden away on one of the rare bookshelves that I missed). How did Gebel survive a rite that appears to involve being stabbed? Why did the alchemists’ sacrificial ritual require their victims to be conscious? Main character Miriam is more powerful than any of the other Shardbinders, but all of that power apparently disappeared when she suddenly fell asleep. The reasons behind this sleep are revealed eventually, but it’s all too plot-convenient and contrived for my tastes.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night‘s moment-to-moment writing is quite good, though. Miriam’s awakening coincides with the appearance of a demonic castle filled with creatures who begin wreaking havoc on the surrounding area, and her attempts to figure out the source of the demons and banish the castle are backed up by an enjoyable supporting cast.

Her main ally is Johannes, an alchemist penitent for his role in unleashing the demons, but she also meets an exorcist named Dominique who runs the game’s item shop and a brusque samurai named Zangetsu. You rarely feel alone in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night; in addition to a familiar spirit who can be equipped for backup (some of which make a lot of noise), you’ll encounter your allies as you progress through the map, and this very helpfully provides you with a sense of which direction you should be traveling. There’s even a team-up sequence with Zangetsu that’s one of the most entertaining parts of the game despite being on a timer. So long as you don’t sweat the details, Bloodstained‘s writing is solid.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night‘s gameplay is all about giving you options

Miriam can attack, jump, and slide (which can be used as an attack), and her abilities are further augmented by enemy shards that occasionally become bonded to her implanted crystal after beating them. Some of these shards unlock plot-crucial abilities like short warps that allow you to explore more of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night‘s map. Others are optional abilities that are mapped to one of two buttons. There are even passive shards which can provide healing over time, increase the damage you do with specific weapon types, increase attack speed, or any number of other things. You’re given far more abilities than you can have equipped at once, so what you use is a reflection of your playstyle.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night also has a ton of equipment. You have the standard armor and accessory slots that provide bonuses to Miriam’s stats (though sometimes at a corresponding cost to another), as well as weapons that break down into multiple categories and have different attack speeds and effects. Equipment is used in a really interesting way, with a late-game armor and weapon both having special effects required to push the story forward. Having to read item descriptions to progress is a bold move, but it pays off.

The weapons in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night are all balanced really well. Guns are powerful but require costly ammo, greatswords are slow but have a wide swing arc and do heavy damage, daggers are weak but fast enough to land many blows that add up, and so on with other weapon types.

One weapon that I found has a charge attack. Another shoots out before boomeranging back, making it ideal for safely dispatching mid-game enemies. If you equip shoes instead of a weapon, your slides and dive kicks will do normal damage, making it possible to dispatch enemies with Mario-ish head bounces. By the end of the game, you’ll have a bunch of custom equipment loadouts that can be swapped between with a few button presses, and the whole thing is just weirdly empowering. The powers you obtain are on the verge of breaking the game wide open, and I love games that give you that much flexibility. In fact, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night occasionally has to disable your more abusable abilities to avoid sequence-breaking in certain rooms. Cleverly combining shards and equipment loadouts is incredibly rewarding.

The backtracking and bugs can be pretty serious problems, unfortunately

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has 3-4 points where you defeat a boss and hit a dead end, only to be faced with the realization that you have no idea where you’re supposed to go. In those cases, your only real options are to wander aimlessly in search of something you’ve missed, and in one case, a plot-crucial ability is held hostage by a normal enemy shard. If you’re exploring in search of missed areas and not actively defeating every enemy you come across, it’s possible to become lost for over an hour at this point. I certainly did. This slams the pacing to a screeching halt.

I played through Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on a base Xbox One, and that was probably a mistake; in addition to the lower resolution, there were numerous freezes and frame rate hiccups. Slowdown is less prevalent, but it’s really noticeable when it happens. I also experienced around 6 crashes to the Xbox One’s dashboard. Interacting with bookshelves appears to be the action most likely to cause a crash, but I’ve also had it crash while running around, after hitting enemies, and when picking up items. The Nintendo Switch version is allegedly in even worse shape, so I’d recommend avoiding consoles altogether and playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on PC.

This is a buggy game. At one point, I teleported through some rubble, and I don’t think that’s the intended way to enter the room in question. Certain weapons—especially the red umbrella you obtain after a boss fight against a vampiress—have unclear hitboxes and can be frustrating to use against small enemies as a result. Words and punctuation are either missing or prone to not showing up in the dialogue, leading to some conversations having word-sized gaps. At one point while cooking food (which is great for healing HP during boss battles since food isn’t capped like healing potions are), Miriam’s hat failed to render, causing her to have a Friar Tuck haircut. The 3D perspective doesn’t do the platforming any favors, either; platforms often end one step earlier than expected.

The lighting is kind of bland, but I’m a fan of Bloodstained‘s soundtrack

Visually, I find myself more mixed about Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night than expected. That comes down to a single moment early in the game where I noticed that the moon was in the foreground rather than the background, with it conspicuously overlapping parts of the castle. That struck me as being kind of amateurish, only for me to later realize that it was a deliberate early hint for how to reach Bloodstained‘s real ending. Bravo, whoever made that design decision. The areas are hit-and-miss, though, with the underground areas lit by lava or torches having personality while the castle that you spend most of your time in is flatly lit in a way that makes the stone look plasticky. The details that add depth also tend to make the screen really busy. The characters all look good, though, and the masks/hats/glasses you equip onto Miriam are all reflected on her character model. Most armor doesn’t change her default clothes, but that’s only because you can customize her look at an in-game barber.

Finally, there’s the music. I may not be experienced with the Castlevania series, but I’ve heard a lot of its music and recognize that its audio is one of the things it’s known for. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night carries on that legacy, its soundtrack populated almost exclusively by earworms.