It’s been a long time coming but Koji Igarashi’s spiritual successor to classic Castlevania games, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, has finally arrived no PC and consoles, with the Switch version set to arrive next week. To celebrate, Iga has dropped a launch trailer touting loads of free DLC and even a surprise or two.
If you’re looking to avoid all spoilers for Bloodstained, you might want to skip the following trailer and, well, the rest of this article. There are no plot details to speak of, but a surprise cameo is revealed in the final moments of the trailer that might upset those looking to go in mostly blind.
Still with me? Good. Here’s the trailer.
I knew that Iga was touting some fun surprises for Bloodstained, but I wasn’t expecting freaking Shovel Knight to show up as what appears to be a playable character. And that was just the exclamation point on a trailer already packed with delicious tidbits.
The trailer begins with Iga offering up a rather badass bit of dialogue while torturing what I can only assume is a stand-in for Konami, the publisher he parted ways with reportedly because they didn’t want to let him make another classic-style Castlevania game. He says he’s returned “with an army at my back,” which is a nod to the game’s huge crowdfunding success courtesy of the director’s dedicated fanbase.
Iga notes he’s here to make games the way they’re supposed to be made, with a focus on quality and while accepting criticism. He then says Bloodstained is twice as big as his last game and notes 13 DLC will be released post-launch at no extra charge. And these aren’t just cosmetic items, either. The DLC includes three new playable characters, a “Classic Mode,” New Game +, boss rush, a roguelike dungeon, Speed Run Mode, online play, co-op, versus mode and and a Nightmare Difficulty.
And while review copies were not made available until launch due to a massive day one patch, early impressions have been super solid. The Steam reviews are overwhelmingly positive and, if you tool around on sites like YouTube, various folks are already touting the game as a solid spiritual successor to Castlevania with a smattering of bugs that will hopefully get patched out alongside the DLC updates.
I’m not saying run out and buy the game but, if you were on the fence, it at least sounds like this was a crowdfunded project that didn’t straight-up crumble under its own weight.
