Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

It seems that the Bloodstained Kickstarter project of several years ago is actually coming to fruition.

Source: http://bloodstained.wikia.com/wiki/Bloodstained:_Curse_of_the_Moon

When I first discovered the project, I was super excited. I’ve always loved Castlevania games, and Koji “Iga” Igarashi is the man behind it all. With his exodus from Konami, any future games in the Castlevania series will likely be a stark deviation from the earlier games, and the Bloodstained intellectual property appeared to be the most true spiritual successor possible. All aboard the hype train, choo choo!

I didn’t fund the kickstarter, since I didn’t own a PS4 at the time, but I definitely followed it closely at first. I followed @SwordOrWhip on Twitter for updates. I checked out all the new art. Being a crowdfunded endeavor, I didn’t want to get too invested and end up being let down if the project failed. Still, everything about Bloodstained looked like exactly what I wanted in a Metroidvania (or “Igavania” as the Kickstarter page calls it) game.

Over time, my interest waned. Sure, the team still released new material and updates every now and then, but the final product seemed forever away. Setbacks happen, but why get excited for a game that might feasibly be years away? I got a PS4 in the meantime, so I could have feasibly backed the project for a PS4 copy of the game, but why put money at something that wasn’t anywhere near completion?

About a week ago, out of the blue, a friend told me about Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (CotM). Apparently, CotM was a stretch goal for the original Bloodstained project that I may or may not have read about and then completely forgot. I was taken aback, since I figured any content besides the main game would come out as DLC or something else AFTER Ritual of the Night came out. Either way, I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I haven’t bought CotM yet, but if anyone is planning on getting a birthday present for me, I’m saying that wouldn’t be a bad idea.

In short, CotM is a sort of retro-styled game in the Bloodstained universe. I haven’t read much into it, as I don’t want to spoil it for myself, but it apparently plays and looks very similar to the original Castlevania. Since the backers and those interested in this project are mostly in it as a Castlevania spiritual successor, it makes sense to play toward that nostalgia.

At first, I was puzzled by Iga releasing CotM before RotN. The more I thought on it, however, the more it made sense. For backers, you have investment in this project. For literally everybody else, even fans like me, interest in the project mostly died off. Yeah, I’d check back in on it once it came out. But for a while, it was on the furthest back of the back burners. Now that they’ve officially released a side project game, the spotlight is back on Bloodstained and Iga. People are interested in the project again, they’re talking about it, and it paves the way for a larger and more successful official release. I might have gotten off the hype train a few months back, but I’m hopping back on and riding this thing to the finish.

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