After a highly-successful Kickstarter and a healthy amount of hype, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is now available. The first post-Konami Igavania puts Koji Igarashi back at the helm of a side-scrolling action-platforming game with a new cast. The 8-bit inspired Bloodstained: Circle of the Moon hit last year and showed that they’re working on creating their own lore – with a few nods to the Castlevania series whenever possible. That was more of a classic Vania while this is going to be more akin to Symphony of the Night – only brought into the modern era. Unlike the classic Igavanias of days gone by, the game won’t be limited in terms of console releases to say the least. Most of those were limited to a single device – with the first GBA game getting a release on the Wii U’s eShop.
Ritual of the Night will see a release on all modern platforms now with a Switch release coming next week and the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One seeing a release today. All console releases will be physical and digital, while a PC physical release will go out to backers when the game is fully feature-complete. On PC, you can buy the game on Steam and get the day one update offering up an 8-bit inspired level and you can also buy DLC for it now as well. Both the soundtrack and Iga’s Back Pack are available now, with the former getting you some kick-ass tunes and the latter getting you a new weapon called the swordwhip and a special boss in the form of Igarashi! While there are plenty of Metroidvanias on PC, there aren’t any Igavanias – and this is the first one that is also available DRM-free. GOG has the game offered up at the same price as the other platforms, only without any DRM attached to it – so you never have to worry about having an online connection to enjoy the game.
A new launch trailer is also out showcasing that 13 pieces of DLC will be releases for free, including the 8-bit level that gets shown off for the first time and we get a glimpse of Shovel Knight as well. Ritual of the Night marks a new era in the Metroidvania sub-genre. This looks like the most feature-rich entry in the sub-genre ever made, with a ton of new modes being added later on for free. The only paid content appears to be what’s out there now with the Back Pack, and the addition of Shovel Knight to the playable roster is huge. Yacht Club has licensed him out to a few games, but this is definitely the biggest release with him it that wasn’t a Shovel Knight game, and its core gameplay is more in-line with Shovel Knight – so it should feel like a natural fit.
