Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon Review

 (Originally published to Glitchwave on 8/10/2022)

[Image from igdb.com]

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

Developer: Inti Creates

Publisher: Inti Creates

Genre(s): 2D Platformer

Platforms: PC, 3DS, PS Vita, PS4, Switch, Xbox One

Release Date: May 24, 2018

“Where has my dear Castlevania gone?” cried the fans of the once glorious gaming franchise that helped define the challenging 2D platformer during gaming’s formative years. At first, these were the teary-eyed yelps of old-school Castlevania fans who longed for another 2D Castlevania game after the Metroidvania and 3D action games eclipsed any need to recall the roots of the franchise with a more traditional title. Nowadays, the once smugly satisfied Castlevania fans who preferred the Metroidvania titles are left in the dark like the old-school fans before them. Castlevania has been forsaken by Konami since Order of Ecclesia on the DS in 2008, neglecting one of the most gilded franchises in gaming with a consistent output of exceptional games. The presence of glossy, high-budget triple-A games that defined the late 2000s might have deterred Konami from producing more Castlevania games. Still, the following generation appreciated the artistry of the minimal quirks in retro games, sparking a renaissance of retro revival titles in the indie circuit. Unfortunately, Konami still didn’t jump at the opportunity to reinvigorate its franchise as the company had shifted its priorities from making games, much to the chagrin of its fans. Hope was not lost, however, as Koji Igarashi, director of Symphony of the Night, stepped in as the savior for the deferred hopes and dreams of Castlevania fans. Igarashi’s revitalization project came in Bloodstained: the spiritual successor to Castlevania, with an initiative to spotlight the classic titles of the series. The first title released in Igarashi’s multi-phased plan to satiate the forlorn Castlevania fans with a new IP was Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, an 8-bit 2D sidescroller intended to emulate the earliest Castlevania games on the NES. Initially, Igarashi planned to first release Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a specific spiritual successor to his own project of Symphony of the Night, but the support for Curse of the Moon on its Kickstarter page was so overwhelmingly positive that Igarashi decided to prioritize the project over his original one. Curse of the Moon reminds us why the Castlevania series was so successful during the 8-bit era.

While other retro revival games like Shovel Knight borrow properties from many 8-bit era games, Curse of the Moon is a shameless Castlevania clone. In fact, Curse of the Moon looks like Castlevania has been relocated via the most half-assed witness protection agency that just changed their last name by one syllable and made their client wear a fake mustache, promising no one would know the difference. Igarashi knows what Castlevania fans have been bereft of for all this time and was evidently willing to provide it, even if his lack of legal rights to the Castlevania name would bring Konami’s cracked legal team to rain fury upon him. Indiscernibility in a spiritual successor of this magnitude has to rely on the changing of names to avoid accusations of plagiarism, and that’s ultimately what separates Castlevania from Bloodstained. For one, the main protagonist is not a blonde-haired, Eastern-European warrior wielding a whip but a swordsman named Zangetsu. Dracula is no longer the prime terror of the night, and neither is any other classic horror monster due to Castlevania already bogarting all of them for themselves. Instead, Zangetsu’s enemies are demons, a nebulous scourge of evil with loads of varied design potential. Whereas the Belmont family rids the land of Dracula’s presence out of obligation, Zangetsu is on a passionate mission to enact revenge against the demons who have cursed him, with the archdemon Gremory being the primary target at the end of the game.

One of the perks of modern gaming harkening back to simpler eras is the benefit of graphical progress. Someone might think this would be superfluous when crafting a game with 8-bit graphics, but they would fail to understand the benefits of hindsight. 8-bit graphics on the NES weren’t just primitive because their crude rigidity lacked a sense of realism. Still, they also tended to be murky and monocolored, making the individual pixels of characters, background and foregrounds indiscernible. The Castlevania games were exemplary titles that used color contrasts for graphical discernibility and to make the game more visually striking but still faltered with some unrefined spots in the foregrounds. Curse of the Moon amplifies the impressive graphical groundwork laid out by the NES Castlevania games to a staggering degree, greatly surpassing the limited capabilities of the NES. Sprite work in Curse of the Moon is so crisply detailed that it practically ascends 8-bit graphics (10-bit?). Color contrasts between the foregrounds and backgrounds are noticeable, but we’ve moved past the era where this was needed for the player’s sense of discernibility. The ice cave at the end of “Frigid Hell” is one deep, cold color of blue, but no pixel is undetectable by the naked eye. I’m so impressed by how the developers crafted the pixel art so expertly here that I feel there is a magical secret they’re keeping from us.

Zangetsu seemingly doesn’t play like a Belmont, but his gameplay echoes the same basic principles of an NES Castlevania game. Jumping is done singularly and has a stilted range of trajectory. Destroying the candles strewn across the land nets the player with additional weapons and ammunition for them. Hearts normally used as ammunition have shifted back to a logical sense of healing items. Ammo is restored with a blue elixir in a few different quantities. However, Curse of the Moon still carries the Castlevania tradition of breaking through walls for big health items, only they are larger hearts instead of roasts. Despite everything here being a clear translation, Zangetsu’s gameplay in combat is too dissimilar to Simon or Trevor. The signature Belmont whip is a fantastic tool for close-quarters combat because it provides players with enough range to keep themselves from harm. Zangetsu’s samurai sword does not require the wind-up that the whip does, but the piddly range for close-range combat puts the player at a greater risk of taking damage. His special weapons increase his range and attack power, but only to a certain extent. Zangetsu isn’t as ideal of a base character to introduce the player compared to Simon.

Luckily, if the player doesn’t care for Zangetsu’s restrained moveset, the game soon offers alternatives for the player. People often compare Curse of the Moon to Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse, and the multiple character options are why. After defeating the first three bosses of the game, a character with their own unique movesets will accompany Zangetsu on his quest, even if the man is shockingly hostile towards them. Miriam will feel more familiar with the veteran Castlevania player because she brandishes a whip with the same pullback and trajectory. Her higher jump ability and strong, versatile range of special weapons make her my frontline character over Zangetsu immediately. Alfred is an old wizard who lacks the base attack range and defense of the other characters. However, he compensates for his frailty with staggering magic. I’d go so far as to state that his magic is borderline game-breaking like Syphas was. Lastly, Alucard Gebel is the supernatural wildcard with the ability to literally fly through levels by transforming into a bat. Grant from Castlevania III is the only character not to be imitated by a clone here, probably because his climbing mechanic was broken, and years of hindsight decided it wasn’t worth improving upon. I never found myself switching from character to character in Castlevania III because the shift was a pace-breaking slog, but all four characters transition beautifully at any given point. If the player prefers to stick with one character for better familiarity, Zangetsu can also kill the other characters and absorb their strengths, rectifying his deficient range.

The specific comparisons between Castlevania III and Curse of the Moon do not end at the characters. Castlevania III was advanced enough to where the player could take alternate forks in the road between the levels. This method of progression fostered plenty of replayability, but I think Curse of the Moon’s method of oscillating pathways is more nuanced. The level design in the NES Castlevanias tended to be relatively linear until a boss encounter, mostly due to hardware restrictions. In Curse of the Moon, multiple paths arrive at the same place, but the game rewards the player for making the extra effort to attempt the alternate way. Normally it would be impolite to point, but the skeletons lying on the ground use their bony fingers to direct the player towards the alternate path. If the player follows their directions, they can bypass the longer route with more enemies and other calamitous features. However, the challenge with directing towards that path isn’t missing the skeletons but not having the character that can go there. Alternate paths are usually locked by character-specific obstacles like high ledges and firey stone demons. If that character is unavailable, the player is forced to take the more treacherous route. This design philosophy makes the player consider the collective characters more as a unit than picking their favorite for the game's duration.

The team-like unit persists with Curse of the Moon’s difficulty. This factor does not draw comparisons to Castlevania III because Curse of the Moon is a cakewalk compared to the hardest NES Castlevania game. Difficulty options are available at the start of the game, and normal difficulty will suffice for even those who have never played a classic Castlevania title. It’s funny to me how the legendary knockback malady that makes Castlevania so difficult is a separate feature that is optional to the player, like putting hot sauce on your breakfast eggs for that extra kick. I’m no Castlevania noob, so I picked this feature to uphold my credentials. Yet, I never became frustrated with the knockback, unlike so many instances in the Castlevania games. Zangetsu and his team apparently have more resilience than the Belmont clan, which is both a blessing and a curse. The difficulty of Curse of the Moon is again based on the absence of one of the four characters. Each has its own life bar, so once they die, the other characters can take their place after the game sets them back. Losing all four characters will cost the player a life, and the checkpoint will bring them back even further. Depending on the situation, the player might be screwed if they need a certain character. I made my other character commit suicide to bring them all back. It costs a life, but the game is pretty generous with them. I clamored for an easier Castlevania game while driving myself insane playing them, but Curse of the Moon feels like a regrettable wish being fulfilled.

A factor of Curse of the Moon that is more character specific than traversing through the levels is the bosses. The monstrous enemies at the end of each level are personal highlights in my regard. While I appreciated the tributes to classic horror monsters that every boss in Castlevania represented, I realized that this inhibited the creativity of the boss designs. No boss is like the other, and they all range in scope and size. A few personal favorites are the golden Valefar from a design standpoint and the bipedal electric lizard Bathin for accompanying every character’s moves to win his fight. Bathin is somewhat of an exception, however, as most other bosses seem to be character specific. How the hell is Zangetsu supposed to reach the flying Andrealphus? If he’s your last character, suicide is the only option, and that shouldn’t be the case. Even the final boss, Gremory, seems to only favor Miriam without using a shit load of magic with the other characters. Bosses tend to eat up lives at an alarming rate because of this.

At the end of the first natural playthrough with all four characters, Zangetsu fulfills his character arc by sacrificing himself to save the rest of the characters. Upon meeting them, his hostility stemmed from their relations to the demon scourge he longed to rid. As the game progresses, he starts to feel companionship towards them and judges those by their character, not their background. It's a surprisingly deep ending for an 8-bit game, but Curse of the Moon is far from over. Completing the game once will unlock a different gameplay mode where the three characters save Zangetsu from Gremory’s influence, but it requires playing the game again. In fact, all other alternative playthroughs involve playing the game again with only slightly different parameters. One more playthrough may be nice, but the six it takes to unlock every ending gets grating after playing through the same game multiple times.

As someone who greatly appreciates the NES Castlevania games and their impact on gaming, Curse of the Moon is a delightful return to form. It checks off all the boxes I wished were present in those games, but I understood clearly why my grievances with those games couldn’t have been placated. Years of progress in the gaming medium now allow developers to fix those mistakes and add an extra layer of polish to make the end product more attractive than it ever could in the 1980s. My small spots of dissatisfaction with Curse of the Moon might just stem from being jaded. Curse of the Moon is the greatest NES-era Castlevania that is neither a Castlevania game nor an NES game. It’s the fully realized product that Castlevania III intended to be.