505 Games and independent developer ArtPlay have announced the release of a new beta demo available to backers of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night at the $60 USD level and above. Now available as a digital download on Steam for PC, players will be treated to refined content and features, while previewing new enemies and NPCs and taking a deeper look at game narrative and quests.
First showcased at 2018 E3 earlier this month, the demo places players on a sailing ship upon stormy seas before progressing through a village and into a dark castle setting, introducing new characters, enemies and bosses along the way. For the first time, players will also be able to experience alchemy and crafting and visit shopkeeper/exorcist Dominique to stock up on various goods to aid them on their journey.
This imaginative, side-scrolling game is the latest opus from the renowned Koji Igarashi, godfather of the “Igavania” genre of gothic, exploration-focused action platformers. Initially revealed on Kickstarter with a goal of $500,00 USD, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night went on to become one of the most funded games on the platform, with more than $5.5 million pledged by fans eager for its creation.
Set in the late 18th century England, an era when people’s lives changed dramatically with the ushering in of the Industrial Revolution, Bloodstained tells the story of Miriam, an orphan scarred by an alchemist’s demonic curse, which is slowly turning her skin to crystal. As the curse matures, Miriam drifts into a mysterious coma and awakens ten years later as a castle appears, and Hell is resurrected. Now, she must travel to the castle to hunt and kill its summoner, Gebel, battling his demons as she searches for a way to stop the curse.
Koji Igarashi, creator of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, said:
“E3 is one of the biggest game shows in the world, and it was a valuable experience to show off the newest content in Bloodstained and gather feedback from the industry friends and colleagues we invited to play the demo. Now we’re ready to share the newest content and features with our great community of backers so we can source their input as well, which is immensely helpful to us as we continue on our journey toward launch.”
Enjoy!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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I’m kind of interested in this, but the movement just looks labored and slow.
Did you play the old Castlevanias? It has a similar look to it movement wise. They did stand out as being a bit more stiff, but it worked well it was intentional.
Do you really expect a AA game that’s being made on a shoe string budget by an Eastern developer to have good Voice Acting? We’re talking about people who thought Big Boss sounding like a pirate in Portable Ops was a good voice acting job.
They lack a certain polish in that category. The only good voice acting I’ve ever heard from them was Kiefer Sutherland playing Big Boss, or from a Japanese companies Western Subsidiaries.
What I’m trying to say is this voice acting is the charming schlock that Japanese Devs usually bless us with the pleasure of hearing with your ears.
Damn I was going to back this but was in the middle of a move with both work and my home. Then when I remembered they weren’t accepting anymore backers. This can’t release soon enough dammit!
Meh we never purchased these games in the past for their academy award winning VAs.
Agreed, but Igarashi is indie and gettin older so I am cutting him a break myself on those details. Alucard had a similar “roll” to his walk animation too but once in the flow of combat and exploration of SotN kicked in it was not noticeable – nor did I care. Hope this game will have as much depth – or be a close attempt which works for me as well. I mean so far it looks like it.
From what I’ve seen of the game in other trailers and gameplay videos, it does seem to have the depth of the SOTN. Also, the running animation is absolutely dead on Alucard “roll walk/run” animation. I hope we can at least exploit the “roll” like you could in SOTN.
I played the backer demo and the flow you’re talking about started to kick in pretty soon. The gameplay is wonderful.