This game was dropped for free for all PlayStation Plus subscribers and I will admit that a great deal of my gaming choices are decided by what they have on offer for the month as far as this is concerned. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose - every now and then the games are complete duds and sometimes you can't believe they are for "free" because they are so great.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is somewhere in the middle and After about 10 hours of gameplay I've come up with a list of what I consider to be pros and cons. I have a lot of opinions about this game so I decided to divide it up into two sections.
Let's start with the Pros
Number 1: It's great old school metroidvania
This is one of my favorite styles of game and I wish there were more of them. In the past year my favorite game is by far Hollow Knight and I think I speak for a lot of people that say that that particular game is outstanding. This game comes kind of close to the same style in that you power up slowly, gather new abilities and well, you know, do what a Metroidvania game is supposed to do.
New areas are unlocked as you progress and much like Metroid and Castlevania you have the option of going back to previous areas with your new skills to access places that previous were frustrating you because you couldn't reach them, again, just like Metroidvania game is supposed to.
Number 2: You have the ability to overpower yourself if you want
There is one way that I think that Bloodstained is actually better than Hollow Knight and that is if you are the kind of player that doesn't mind grinding a bit in order to gain levels and therefore enter a new area overpowered and ready to kick the asses of the people in the next area, you have the option of doing so. You can repeat the same levels before and gain more XP and level up to the point where it will be relatively easy for you on the next section.
I reached several parts of the game, including the very first boss where I was just getting my ass handed to me so i found this one portion where i could take a step to the left and leave the screen, then re-emerge to the right, pistol in hand and take out this one large enemy over and over again in order to gain 4 levels. The next time I went to the boss the tables had turned and I easily defeated it. I'm not saying everyone likes to play this way and in many ways I think it is kind of a "cheese" tactic.... but I do enjoy it as an option.
Number 3: Tons of weapon options
Unlike most games like this including and especially Hollow Knight, you have many choices of weapons, all of which have their advantages and disadvantages. Some weapons are very fast but you have to be very close to your enemy, others have huge range but very little damage. Others are something in-between.
For me, I hate being really close to enemies in a game like this because it is one of those games where if you so much as touch an enemy it damages you whether they were swinging at you or not. This is a CON in my book but we'll get to that in part two. You also have the option to use pistols but the ammo that actually does any meaningful amount of damage has to be crafted, and this take time... which brings me to the next part.
Number 4: They have crafting
You can really customize the bejesus out of your character by spending a bit of time building your own weapons and choosing which ones to upgrade. I'm quite certain there are loads of pages out there for people that dedicate far more time to gaming than I do and probably some ultra-nerd out there that has determined the DPS for each and every weapon option in the game.
You can also upgrade shards which are your secondary attacks and some of these can be extremely powerful if you are lucky enough to find / make all the necessary materials. One of my favorites is a spell that seeks out enemies no matter where they are, and this is always a great add on for my build because the enemy AI, especially for some of the flying foes, it to stay just out of reach while they launch projectiles at you.
I'm not going to give it its own section but the ability to make food to supplement your stats is a nice touch as well and once you consume something that effect stays on you permanently until you consume some other, more exotic food. It can make a huge difference in battles simply by making and consuming a bowl of chicken curry or a pizza.
Number 5: Perfect difficulty
I say this as a somewhat casual gamer: Just because I write a lot about gaming doesn't necessarily mean that I am very good at them. Super difficult games the likes of Bloodbourne and Nioh are not for me. I am unwilling to devote the amount of time and muscle memory for my hands to master a game of that magnitude.
As you would expect, some bosses are easier than others but mostly it boils down to understanding their attack patterns just like in any game and once you have that figured out, for the most part they are not terribly difficult to overcome. It's all about patience and of course probably losing a couple of times.
Just try to remember how difficult the actual Castlevania games were ok? This pales in comparison to that even though it is clearly a clone of it. Many of the bosses I defeated on my first visit to them but admittedly, I kept my distance and pistoled the hell out of them from afar using all of my good ammo in the process. This can be a mistake that you regret later because making that ammo again can be a huge pain in the butt.
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Those eagle bastards will stay just beyond your fingertips and are a real pain in the butt if you don't have some sort of ranged something or other equipped
Overall, I think that this is a great game but I am dating myself when I say that I come from a different era and I do not believe that great graphics make up for poor gameplay. The game is simplistic enough that almost anyone can play it and it is also customizable to the point where your offense is basically whatever you want it to be.
If you got this for free and it is sitting in your library, not yet "opened," I really think you aught to dive in there and see what you are missing. I do strongly encourage you to not let the difficulty of the first level frustrate you out of playing as it nearly did with me. Once you get past the first level a "store" opens up where you can change your loadout and max out on potions as well and this makes the game as easy as you want it to be.
This doesn't mean that I think this game is perfect: There are plenty of Cons as well.... and we'll get into that in the next couple of days.