by “Heroes get remembered… but legends never die.”
When Konami announced that they were no longer in the video game market, choosing instead to focus on their lucrative… pachinko machine business… the gaming community mourned the loss of great franchise titles such as Silent Hill, Metal Gear Solid and Castlevania. Castlevania was the big hit for me, since the game was huge part of my childhood, as well as the focus for great memories with several friends. Proof though, that not even corporate politics can kill an idea if it is strong enough–Iga, the father of Castlevania moved on to make his own company “Inti” to continue making Castlevania games under a completely different title, “Bloodstained.”
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is the first of two games in this spiritual successor series, choosing to imitate more of an NES feel right down to the pallet choice for our hero, “Zangetsu” (who color-wise looks identical to the old Simon sprites). It’s a nice hybrid of the old and the new–sure, the characters may look like the old NES sprites, but there’s more pixel density so we get a lot cleaner detail on all the art. Likewise, we still have levels filled with screen transitions and somewhat clunky platforming, but there’s also multiple routes to take within a level as well as generous checkpoints at every turn. An interesting twist is that instead of playing as just Simo–er–Zangetsu, you pick up 3 additional heroes that you can swap to on the fly, similar to Portrait of Ruin or Dawn of Sorrow. Overall, it’s a great modern-day representation of an NES game since it feels like a Nintendo game, just with heavy quality of life changes.
From a production standpoint, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with this game. It’s very polished, enemies have good design (lots of telegraphed attack patterns) and nothing feels terribly frustrating. On the other hand though, it’s not much of a challenge, is a little short and even though it’s very well-made, we don’t see a whole lot here that is new or particularly innovative. Getting to swap between 4 characters on the fly is probably its biggest selling point mechanically, but realistically it’s about the same as swapping weapons in any other Castlevania game. You’re just choosing the right tool for the job. Again, this aspect is done really well (all the characters are simple but very unique and all useful in their own way) but once you get beyond this aspect, it’s you’re basic platformer with a Castlevania flavor. The bosses overall weren’t too much of a challenge either, but I can’t be too mad since their designs were really fun to watch.
Overall, the game is very good, but doesn’t offer enough to me to justify a Tier 1 slot, so it comes recommended at Tier 2. Pick it up if you like Castlevania or NES pixel-art or if you want to know the backstory for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (which spoilers, RotN is easily a Tier 1 bombshell… more to come on that after I finish it). I was able to finish it blind in a about 2 hours (Youtube link below if you’re interested in watching) which is again on the short side, but if you’re looking for replayablity, you could go through again and try to collect all of powerups, try different routes through the level, or play Nightmare Mode. Regardless of whether or not this game blew me away or not, it’s still amazing to me that in spite of Konami killing Castlevania, the world’s love of the franchise is keeping it alive in spite of this. Truly, legends never die.
