We are finally getting more details and release dates for the upcoming Castlevania spiritual successor. After an extremely extended development cycle, ArtPlay and 505 Games now have definitive release dates for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The game will be launching on all major platforms starting in mid-June. Plus we are getting a brand new trailer to mark the occasion. Get a closer look down below.
Castlevania Spiritual Successor:
After crushing its Kickstarter girls some time ago, anyone familiar with the Castlevania series has been eagerly awaiting Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The game is being created by the folks at ArtPlay alongside veteran Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi. Not be confused with the companion game that has already received solid reviews from critics – Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon was developed in 6 months and acted as an appetizer of sorts to the full game. While that title certainly did its job, today’s new trailer for the actual Castlevania spiritual successor takes it a whole lot further.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night:
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has had gamers excited for a while now. But early development footage of the game brought in its fair share of criticism from fans. Mainly regarding bland backgrounds and overall color treatment, even the most supportive gamers were slightly disappointed. 505 and Igarashi have had a lot of time to either deal with the production notes or just take the money and run. Fortunately for us, the company went back to the drawing board with some serious improvements for the upcoming Castlevania spiritual successor.
As you can see in today’s launch date trailer, 505 has taken time to directly showcase the new look of the game. While still maintaining the overall gothic nature of the title, clearly the team has gone to great lengths to completely overhaul the visuals. Mainly the backgrounds, the game looks much better than it did before and I, for one, was already sold on it.
Release Dates:
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the new Castlevania spiritual successor is set for release on June 18th for PS4, Xbox One and PC, while the Switch version lands on June 25th. The new gothic horror action side-scrolling RPG is set in 18th century England and features music from Michiru Yamane and Ippo Yamada of Symphony of the Night and Resident Evil fame.
9to5Toys’ Take:
Clearly Konami doesn’t take its beloved franchise serious enough to create an actual new game in the series, vintage-style or otherwise. So why not have the producer that created the original titles take a shot at it? Everyone could use a little Castlevania in their life and I cannot wait to jump back in. Early criticism of Curse of the Moon had the game looking a little too close to the original Castlevania titles, so hopefully Igarashi and his squad have done enough to separate Ritual of the Night from its source material while still feeling like a proper Castlevania spiritual successor.
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