Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon Review

  A Journalistic Review by DefiantParrot

       *Warning: May Contain Spoilers*

            Originally Written: 08/07/202

                                                                                              

I've been looking forward to this one

Developer: Inti Creates

Publisher: Inti Creates

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Genre: Platformer

Release: May 24, 2018

Happy Halloween everyone!

Here we have a game that I've been meaning to get to for awhile now and I figured Halloween was the best time to do that. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was one of the most successful and anticipated kickstarter projects of all time, and one of the stretch goals of the Kickstarter project was the promise of an 8-bit styled prequel game. 

Now this game is not a prequel it's set in its own continuity and I do find that a bit annoying, I'm not really a fan of alternate timelines and stuff in games, it can make that canon and continuity confusing in my experience. 

 

Looks like my Ex-Wifes place

But nevertheless we got that 8-bit game and today I take a look at it, I sampled this game a bit on my Xbox One when it got released for free with Gold but today I take a look at the game on my spiffy new Nintendo Switch Lite. 

So you get a sort of CastleVania review from me and my first Switch review, aren't I a generous bird?

Now I was looking forward to checking this out because, full transparency here. I had never played a CastleVania game either 8-Bit or 3D and this was my opportunity to see what I've been missing and I was excited. I got a sampling of this before on my Xbox but now it's time to give this game my undivided attention, let's wrap up Halloween with my review of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon.

So the game starts out with an opening crawl detailing a man named Zangetsu. After being cursed by Demons Zangetsu has made it his mission to slay these demonic fuckwits at every available opportunity. One night Zangetsu could feel the presence of a Great Demon who is like a regular demon, only great. Zangetsu made his way towards the presence which was making its home in a mysterious castle. 

 

Time to kill demons and chew bubblegum

That pretty much does it for plot, I kinda wish there was more but this is an 8-bit game that harkens back to the NES days this is pretty standard for those types of games, hell probably more so. 

Ol' boy looks like a Russian Pirate

So upon playing the game I was getting used to the controls, Zangetsus main weapon is a sword and it's fast enough to spam it to take foes out but I do wish it was a bit longer. I'm also happy to see that I can jump on stairs since I know that's a thing that could be an annoyance in CastleVania games. 

Whenever Zangetsu jumps you are locked into that jump, no changing direction or altering yourself in midair so I had to make damn sure I knew where I was gonna land and make sure no enemies would be in the way or else, fucking knockback. 

Of course that's if you're not playing Casual difficulty. On Casual knockback is completely removed and lives are unlimited and yeah I played this mode the most during my time with this game, call me a pussy if you want but I think knockback is an archaic concept that has no place in video games period. 

But this game does give you the option of playing without it and I'm grateful for that. Of course I did play Veteran difficulty once and played through it and while the knockback drove me crazy I still didn't find this game that difficult. I've heard horror stories about how brutal some CastleVania games could be, but this one wasn't that difficult. 

That's not a knock against the game by the way, I think with the just right difficulty and the option to play on Casual mode this is a great game for new players of the MetroidVania series, like myself. I felt very comfortable here, despite this being a style of game I've never really played before. 

This game is so beautiful and so colorful

Certain objects in this game can be destroyed to gain health and subweapons. Zangetsu has this diagonal whip attack which is good for enemies above you, there's also a mask thing that gives Zangetsu this aura that makes his attacks more damaging, but my favorite is the Tarot Card with this Zangetsu throws it at the ground at a 45 degree angle and it makes this small portal that can deal multiple points of damage. This was my favorite when I got to those sections with a large enemy beneath me, I'd stand above them out of reach and use the card to take care of them. 

Subweapons do require weapon energy to be used but destroying those objects I mentioned earlier can gain you more energy for your weapons and enemies can also drop them as well. One thing I will praise to high heaven is that the lanterns hangining on the wall, they are colored purple if there is a weapon inside there. 

This means that I have noone to blame but myself if I accidentally destroy the lantern and get a different subweapon because the game is giving me a heads up about it. I love that feature, there were times where I'd bypass the lantern completely because I already had the subweapon I wanted. 

I liked playing Zangetsu but at first I was a bit worried, his jump wasn't as high I'd like and I already mentioned how I wish his reach was a bit longer. But after defeating the first boss I realized that this game has a partner mechanic. After slaying Thomas the Tank Engines worst nightmare I see a woman was seemingly trapped inside of it. 

 

What the hell am I looking at?

Here is where we learn two things, you can recruit new allies on your quest and have more than one playable character and Zangetsu is a fucking jerk. Like he says he should murder this poor girl right where she stands but, seemingly annoyingly so allows her to join the team. 

 

Miriam became one of my new favorite video game heroines after my playthrough

After the first few bosses there are three characters that you can recruit first up is my favorite Miriam. Her weapon is a whip that has much larger reach than Zangetsus sword, she can jump higher than Zangetsu and can also slide which is great for alternate passageways and getting some upgrades. Her subweapons are this knife that she can throw which I barely ever used, she can throw a scythe which will act as basically a boomerang that was pretty unique. She also has this big fuck off axe that deals a fuckton of damage but has a wind up to it and you gotta be pretty fucking close to utilize. But my favorite weapons for her was her throwing daggers, with these Miriam throws three of them upwards and these were fantastic for killing the annoying flying enemies in this game like the fucking bats or exploding piggy banks or whatever the fuck those were. 

 

Alfred used Thunder, it's super effective!!

After Miriam is the alchemist Alfred possible the oldest person in video game history ever and his health is pathetic and he cannot take a hit to save his life, but his magical abilities came in handy constantly. There's this afterimage effect thing that can project another form of Alfred to give him some reach that I think I used a total of twice. A protective fire circle which will protect against oncoming projectiles, a big fuck off ice spell which will freeze anything and I mean anything in one shot either allowing them to be killed or take more damage when they're struck. His last abilitiy is an electric spell which will constantly home in on enemies and fuck their world clean up, this was the spell I tried to hang onto with Alfred until the next boss fight. 

A great thing about some of these abilities is how they can transfer, for instance I can activate the fire spell with Alfred and then switch to Miriam to traverse and she still has the protection or that pissed off Aura of Zangetsus, I can activate that and then switch to Miriam for the greater reach and still have the benefits of the ability. This adds a small layer of strategy to the gameplay that I adore. 

Finally there is Gebel who is basically Alucards less interesting cousin. His attack is that he shoots three bats out in front of him and the closer he is to an enemy the more damage it'll deal. I kinda fell in love with this attack, it made the Gebe man here my go to character for dealing with those portraits that can instantly kill you. 

I Am Batman

 

Ol' Gebes here doesn't have any sub weapons but his ability allows him to transform into a bat and, provided you have the weapon energy you can bypass entire platforming segments or get to alternate pathways you wouldn't normally be able to reach. 

Having these characters added to the lineup makes the game a hell of alot of fun, they share weapon energy which I sort of wish wasn't the case but is definitely still manageable and with these characters you essentially have four life bars since they all have different health. 

This means if you are playing on veteran difficulty you don't lose a life unless all of your characters have been killed and I mentioned alternate pathways, many of these characters if not all of them are required for many different paths you can take during your adventure which could lead to upgrades. 

For my first playthrough I recruited everyone onto the team and had a fucking blast, I love so many of the bosses in this game from that awful coal thing on the train to the coin jester motherfucker later and the speedy as fuck Evangelion looking motherfucker later, these were all a fucking blast to fight and they were a sight to behold as well. This game may be 8-Bit but it was fucking gorgeous to see all of the colors flash on screen during a boss fight and the music here is sublime. 

I cannot point to one particular track I love, but this entire soundtrack gets a big fucking A Plus from me it is magnificent. 

 

No two levels look the same, the variety is quite nice

But I did mention my first playthrough see the replayability in this game is wonderful because after beating the final boss, Zangetsu gets possessed by the Great Demon and you unlock Nightmare Mode. On Nightmare Mode you start at the beginning of the game with Miriam, Alfred and Mr. Gebes and progress through the game in an attempt to save Zangetsu from the demons possession. You can play this mode in either Casual or Veteran mode which shocked me I figured the game would force me to play on the higher difficulty for this and the final level and boss fight were completely different. 

That final fight against possessed Zangetsu with all three characters fighting at once to try and free him was so fucking cool and that music oh my god it was amazing. 

However I wasn't done there I started yet another playthrough because whenever you get the option to recruit your allies, you could also completely ignore them or you can murder them in cold blood and gain a brand new ability. You get a new aerial attack, the ability to fucking run and a double jump which makes Zangetsu so much more fun to use. I used that double jump to cheese an area where I wasn't supposed to get an ability without Miriam because it allows you alter your movement in midair if you're quick enough. Sure you don't have access to many other pahtways and you only have the one character and lifebar but this playthrough was alot of fun as well, it leads to the bad ending because there's no allies to save Zangetsu this time but I had a blast doing this mode. 

 

Jesus Christ Zangetsu calm the fuck down!

Completing this also unlocked Ultimate Mode. In this mode Zangetsu can once again recruit every ally but he retains all of his consumed abilites. Having the full team plus the powered up Zangetsu was so much fucking fun, it snapped what was left of the difficulty in half but I had a motherfucking blast playing through this game one final time. The versatility in this game is astounding even without powered up Zangetsu but even after my third playthrough I was still getting more out of the game because that last playthrough might as well have been a speedrun with how I was blazing through it.

This was a great fucking time never before have I played through a game multiple times and each time gotten more out of the game and never get bored, I'm itching to pick up my Switch and play the game again after completing it and that is all I want from a game, it's all I can ask and I'm so happy I finally played this. 

 

So folks here we are the final verdict and I've thought long and hard about this but I think it's obvious what I'm about to say. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon receives my Gold Seal of Satisfaction. 

For multiple playthroughs of pure awesomeness

This game is fantastic, if you are a CastleVania fan itching for that next MetroidVania experience this is it. If you are someone who always wanted to give the genre a try I repeat, This. Is. It. 

After playing this I cannot wait to dive into Ritual of the Night, it's really amazing when you think that if that stretch goal had not been reached we would have never had this game. Curse of the Moon was the appetizer to the main meal and honestly I think it's gonna be hard for the meal to compete with this delicious gem.

Fuck Me, I love this game!