Review - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (Switch 2018)
Holy crap it’s a new classic Castlevania! Well, actually it’s not really a Castlevania game but a spiritual successor. This is Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, a prequel game of the kickstarted Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night developed by Inti Creates and overseen by IGA the director of legendary game Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and of course the director of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
I have been waiting for a game like this for over a decade, settling for Castlevania romhacks and perhaps some indie games in the meantime. Inti Creates is responsible for some great games like the Mega Man Zero series and the Gunvolt games, but they also worked on Mighty nr.9….. eeks….
I played the game so click and see how it turned out.
Oh man doesn’t this just look Castlevania perfect?!
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon puts you in charge of Zangetsu, a cursed man on a path of killing all demons as revenge for placing him under this curse. This one night he senses an especially strong demon so naturally he embarks on a journey to slay him. As he fights through hordes of monsters and jumps between platforms he meets more companion who share his goal of slaying the great demon.
With a total of 4 characters with various strong and weak points it is your job to figure out how to utilize each characters moveset and identify where when to use a use them. Zangetsu is your strong vanilla character but the other characters have special moves that can take you to shortcuts; Miriam can jump high and slide, Alfred can use magic and Gebel can turn into a bat and fly.
By now you might have figured out that this game is very similar and most likely inspired by one of my favorite games of all time, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Gebel plays basically like Alucard in Castlevania III and Alfred plays like Sypha.
The cast of characters is just fantastic; Miriam, Zangetsu, Alfred and Gebel
The controls are like a hybrid of the Dracula’s Curse controls and the Rondo of Blood Controls. You and jump, but you cannot turn back a la Mega Man, but like in Rondo of Blood you can turn around mid air but just to attack. You can also jump and land in the stairs like in Rondo of Blood, but you cannot jump while ascending/descending the stairs like in Super Castlevania IV.
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Nintendo Switch joy cons are fine for games like this, I have played the Mega Man Legacy Collection, and the Wonder Boy 3 remake and the joy cons perform just fine.
Enemies and level design are also like a hybrid of those two games as you have multiple paths in each stage, although they always lead down to the same boss on a linear path.
Speaking of bosses, they are just absolutely amazing! They sprites are huge, and their design in completely off the chains cool. They have extremely innovative ways of attacking but they have a pretty simple pattern you should learn in three tries at maximum.
Giant undead rich b*tch boss
This is a point that bothered me the most about the game, despite the fantastic authentic Castlevania controls, good level design and the great bosses etc the game is just too easy.
I breezed through the game in 1h30m and that included short breaks. After that I unlocked a Nightmare mode which I am halfway through (not very difficult either…yet) and after clearing that I’m sure you’ll unlock a boss rush mode which is nice and all but it kind of ruins the fun that I have already seen all the stages in the game and did not really have to work for it. I will however give them a break in some regards since the game is a bonus stretch goal for another game, and for the fact it is only a 10$ game.
After my first normal clear I got the feeling that the ending I saw was not the true ending of the game. Inti Creates told us of multiple endings so the game is not over for me yet.
You can travel to earlier stages, and there are some special items for you to find so there is some extra stuff to do as long as you are having fun.
One big difference from Castlevania III however is the fact that when you die, you will spawn in the same area and play as the other characters and you will not lose a, extra life until all four characters are dead. When you lose a life(all 4 character die) you get sent to a checkpoint which is not so bad and losing all extra lives will send you to the beginning of the stage. Beating a boss with only one or characters alive can be tough so losing those characters will hurt your later chances.
Another great looking boss, now pitted against the classic Castlevania whip wielder Miriam (main character of Ritual of the Night)
Graphically, Bloostained: Curse of the Moon looks like an authentic NES Castlevania horror game. Sure there are some sprites in the game the NES might not have handled and perhaps the NES could not have handled all the colors at once but it truly looks like a sequel of Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse and perhaps a prequel to Rondo of Blood.
I am not a big fan of indie games with what I call “fake retro” graphics where the sprites look super pixelated without really looking like NES or Master system games. Bloostained: Curse of the Moon does this perfectly and is a festival for the eyes of the NES and Castlevania fanboy.
The music in this game is also pretty big. Although not composed by former Castlevania composer heavy hitters like Michiru Yamane this game has some amazing tunes. It might not live up to the NES originals but it sure tries only to maybe come up a bit short.
Gebel is a nice fight in a stage reminiscent of the ghost ship in Castlevania III and perhaps also the one in Rondo of Blood
Overall, Bloostained: Curse of the Moon is a fantastic spiritual successor to the NES Castlevania games and it scratches that old classic Castlevania itch so really well with the exception of the game being too easy and therefore short.
It should be noted that you can choose whether to take your companions on your journey or not. Not doing so would increase the difficulty substantially and might be the true hardcore classic way of playing the game.
The controls, environment, level design, multiple paths, boss fights, graphics and music is all at a level of excellency worthy of great praise.
Now I’m off to complete Nightmare mode, in the meanwhile consider this a early review score of the game I am having so much fun playing…. Thank you!
Gameplay - 9
Visuals - 9,5
Music - 8,5
Lasting appeal - 8
Is it fun? - 9
Overall - 9 (an awesome game)
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