Konami has completely screwed up their IP. This is just fact. Metal Gear has been ruined, and its creator driven from the company. The same can be said for Koji “Iga” Igarashi and his creation, Castlevania. I can’t even remember when we last had a new Castlevania game. I think it was for the last generation of systems. And I recall it being a 3D mess (as all 3D Castlevania games are…). I’m fairly certain the last true, sidescrolling Castlevania was Order of Ecclesia for the Nintendo DS. So, yeah, it’s been a while. Luckily (or maybe, unfortunately) Iga is no longer a part of Konami, which means he is free to create the kind of games he wants to create. However, as Konami owns the rights to Castlevania, that meant Iga had to create something new. Enter: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (BCOTM). BCOTM is, ironically, actually just a prelude to a bigger game in the new series. As I understand it, this game was a Kickstarter stretch goal. The official, bigger game, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is still in development, so, players have this to tide them over until the main game gets released.
While Ritual of the Night looks to be a full fledged, modern Metroidvania style of a game, BCOTM is vastly different, drawing all its inspiration from the very first Castlevania released for the NES. It looks, sounds, and feels like a game ripped straight out of the NES library. Right down to the archaic game design choices. However, it’s got some modern help (thankfully), which makes it a little more bearable than its 30 year old inspiration.
The game itself is centered around a man named Zangetsu. He’s been cursed by demons, and now seeks to destroy all demons, big and small. He finds out about some big bad demon, and sets out to kill it. That’s pretty much the whole premise of the game. No one should be playing BCOTM for its story.
With the short intro out of the way, the player is put right into the thick of things, taking control of Zangetsu, killing demons, and making your way through the game.
Playing as Zangetsu, you get a feel for what you can do in the game. Zangetsu attacks with a sword, which doesn’t have amazing distance, but it attacks quickly. He also can make use of sub-weapons. Sub-weapons can be picked up throughout a level, and consume “weapon energy” to use. So, while they’re powerful, they’re limited on how much energy you have (naturally, energy and health can be refilled by picking up items that are dropped from enemies or environments). Zangetsu’s sub-weapons vary in both physical and magical attacks. He’s essentially the all around guy. However, he’s not the only playable character.
In the first three levels, after beating each boss, you will encounter three potential allies. All of whom have their own unique weapons, sub weapons and abilities.
First is Miriam. Miriam attacks with a whip (classic Castlevania), which has great reach, but is slower than the sword. Her sub-weapons are all physical in nature (throwing daggers, swinging giant axes, etc.). She also has two unique movement abilities. She can jump higher than anyone else, and she can slide, gaining access to areas Zangetsu wouldn’t be able to reach. All that said, she has slightly less health than Zangetsu.
Second is Alfred. Alfred is an alchemist, I believe, but an easier term would just be “wizard.” His main attack is a simple, slow moving, short ranged staff bash. It’s practically useless. He also has the least amount of health. Where he shines, however, is his sub-weapons. Powerful magic spells that each have great effect. Used properly, Alfred can kill most bosses with ease (assuming you have enough weapon energy to cast his spells).
And finally, there’s Gebel. Gebel might as well have just been named “Alucard,” as he is essentially that same character. Gebel attacks by sending out three bat-shaped fireballs from his cape. And although he has no sub-weapons, he can transform into a small bat at will (using weapon energy every second he’s transformed) and fly anywhere in a level. Because he is so useful, however, the game balances this by giving him just a little more health than Alfred. The best are often the least tanky.
Switching between the four characters is as easy as pressing L or R (for the Switch anyway, not sure what it is on other systems). Because each character has their own health, being able to switch on the fly often saved me from certain death. Speaking of death, however, this was a rather large annoyance for me. If you died as one of the four characters, you would start back at a checkpoint (which were mercifully plentiful) without the character you died as. The only way you could get that character back was to die as all four, then start back at the checkpoint. More than once, I would intentionally die three more times, if I lost a character I knew I needed or wanted.
Thankfully, the game has two “styles” (see: difficulty). Veteran and casual. Both are rather self explanatory. Veteran gives you a set amount of lives, while casual gives you an infinite amount and you get no knockback (the bane of platformers) when hit by an enemy. Best of all, there is no punishment for choosing casual. You are free to enjoy the game, whichever way you want.
Death was just one of many archaic design choices that bothered me about the game, however. I will say in advanced, that I believe each and every one of these choices was made consciously, to replicate the true feel of an NES game. That doesn’t make them any less annoying though. While movement feels fine, it is halted any time you attack on the ground. Also, moving while jumping is a chore. You have no control over your lateral movement in the air. If you jump while standing still, you simply jump straight up. If you jump while moving, you jump in the direction you were heading. If you miscalculate your jump distance, you cannot course correct. Also, if you get hit in the air while moving (or flying as a bat) you drop straight down from where you got hit, halting any movement. While none of this was game breaking, I certainly didn’t love it.
There’s also the complete lack of information. Aside from a few borderline “Engrish” text boxes explaining basic character abilities, I was left to wonder about many things. Sub-wepons, for example. The only way to know what each one did, was experiment. Which isn’t bad, but a couple were so obscure that even in experimenting, it took me a while to realize just what they were doing. There are also power-ups that can be collected throughout the game’s seven levels. These are permanent, and do different things like upgrade max heath, max weapon energy, defense, and attack. Since there’s no real explanation of this, just a picture in a pause menu, I was left to guess what each one did (although the health and weapon ones were obvious).
Speaking of levels. The level design in this game is fantastic. I will note that, although each level has branching paths, there isn’t a lot of real “exploration,” as all paths will ultimately lead to the boss of the level. This game is more sidescroller action, rather than a deep, exploratory “Metroidvania” type of a game. And that’s perfectly fine. This game never tries to set itself up as anything more than it is.
But as I said, the level design is nonetheless fantastic. And what makes it all the more intriguing is the fact that each level will help guide you. Throughout the levels, there will be “fallen adventurers” (heaps of skeletons) that will point the way, leading you to the optimal, shortest path through the level. These paths will also, often lead to the aforementioned upgrades for your character, which is a welcome inclusion. Adding a slight amount of depth to this simple game. The optimal path may not always be accessible, however, as you will often need your allies’ special abilities to get there. Zangetsu can’t get to many special places on his own. And if you’ve lost an ally due to death part way through a level, you might be forced to take longer, more dangerous paths.
I feel I should also mention the very odd inclusion of the “Curse of the Moon.” This ability (I guess) is accessed from the menu. It can let the player “travel back in time,” to a previous level. If they do so, however, they will lose all progress, items, and allies they’ve received between the points of travel. I guess it’s nice, if you missed a power-up or killed an ally and regret it, but I ultimately found it pretty useless. The game really isn’t long enough for me to care about going “back in time” to get something I missed.
In addition to excellent level design, the bosses are also great. Although they might be difficult, I found that with enough attempts, I was able to learn their patterns and beat them with enough practice. They were excellent challenges, without being overbearingly hard. The only complaint I have regarding bosses is their death throes. After beating a boss (indicated by a distinct audio/visual cue), the boss will make one final attack before dying. These final attacks became more and more devastating and more and more difficult to avoid, the further into the game I got. While switching to an ally with more health often meant I could just take the attack and still be okay, that wasn’t always an option. I never lost to a boss this way, but there were times when it was far too close for comfort.
Going back to allies for a second. The game, while linear, is not short on player choice, as you can choose not to recruit any of the other playable characters. Instead, you can just kill them. This will result in Zangetsu acquiring new and unique abilities otherwise unavailable in the game. These abilities are double jump (pretty dang useful), a jumping slash attack (sort of useful), and a dash (completely useless as it only lasts a second, and is often times detrimental, as it is easy to accidentally activate it by double tapping a direction, resulting in running right off a ledge).
Because of these choices, there is a bit of replayability to the game. While a single run through will clock out at just over an hour, I found myself replaying the game multiple times.
If you recruit all allies, and beat the game, you will unlock “Nightmare mode.” The name is more intimidating than it is, though. As this is simply a continuation of the story. You replay the game as the three allies, sans Zangetsu, due to Zangetsu becoming the main villain due to the events in the first playthrough. While almost all the game is the same (with the exception of the bosses having more health), it does get mixed up a bit at the end. The final level gets pretty interesting as all three allies split up, each tasked with a new sub-level and boss that they must defeat on their own, before ultimately facing off against Zangetsu. I thought this was a pretty cool idea, and a fun way to mix things up.
Playing through the game normally, and killing all allies, however, will result in unlocking Ultimate mode. Which is basically Normal mode, with Nightmare mode boss health. However, Zangetsu has all his special abilities from the start, including a new charge attack, which is a wide slashing attack with large damage and a huge hit box. He can also recruit his allies as in Normal mode.
Each of these modes/choices will result in different endings. I’m not sure exactly how many endings there are, because four runs through the game was plenty for me. But it’s nice that there’s a little incentive to replay the game, giving this little gem a little more life.
Unlocking all modes, also unlocks a Boss Rush mode. As I’ve never been a fan of those, I have yet to play that. But I imagine it’s like any other Boss Rush mode in any other game.
All in all, this is NES Castlevania in a new wrapper. It’s fun, it’s short, it’s a little archaic. But I enjoyed my time with it. And I’m very much looking forward to the follow up game, Ritual of the Night. It’s good to see Iga back to doing what he does best.
