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Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PS4, Xbox1, Switch, PC, 3DS)

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    Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (PS4, Xbox1, Switch, PC, 3DS)

    Hadn't heard about this until only last week. Basically it's an 8 bit Castlevania type game by Inti Creates that started life as a stretch goal on Koji Igarashi's 'Bloodstained' project. It's now been released for free to backers and for cold hard cash to everyone else. To play, it's as you'd expect. The old left-to-right Castlevania adventure typical of the 8 bit games, and also later classics like Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood. There are standard attacks and power-up attacks that need magic, the latter changing when you smash lanterns. When you defeat a boss you recruit its soul as another playable character and can switch between these on the fly. They offer a nice range of abilities and movesets especially when you start switching their secondary weapons about, all of which are unique to the character: you've got your moody demon slayer, a ninja whip lady, a fusty old alchemist, an emo-type evil dude who spews blood clouds and can transform into a bat. It's very slightly difficult in an old school way, heightened by the deliberately slow movements, although the fact you can switch out your characters and soon have four on the go means - effectively - that every life is four lives. The different abilities also open up different routes. Music is a stand-out, bosses are fun and creative, enemies not too varied but the toxic frogs are cool, levels take in all the usual locations including of course a clocktower. I've played about one and a half hours and I'm on level 5 which looks like it may be the last. Was it worth the £7.99 I splurged on it in a fug of nostalgia when I got in from work via the pub last night? Probably not, but there you go. Still, I'm quite enjoying it and you could do worse if you're craving some 8 bit Castlevania. Pleasingly, unlike those older games, it doesn't set you back on level one when you die.

    #2
    Originally posted by Golgo View Post
    Hadn't heard about this until only last week. Basically it's an 8 bit Castlevania type game by Inti Creates that started life as a stretch goal on Koji Igarashi's 'Bloodstained' project. It's now been released for free to backers and for cold hard cash to everyone else. To play, it's as you'd expect. The old left-to-right Castlevania adventure typical of the 8 bit games, and also later classics like Castlevania IV and Rondo of Blood. There are standard attacks and power-up attacks that need magic, the latter changing when you smash lanterns. When you defeat a boss you recruit its soul as another playable character and can switch between these on the fly. They offer a nice range of abilities and movesets especially when you start switching their secondary weapons about, all of which are unique to the character: you've got your moody demon slayer, a ninja whip lady, a fusty old alchemist, an emo-type evil dude who spews blood clouds and can transform into a bat. It's very slightly difficult in an old school way, heightened by the deliberately slow movements, although the fact you can switch out your characters and soon have four on the go means - effectively - that every life is four lives. The different abilities also open up different routes. Music is a stand-out, bosses are fun and creative, enemies not too varied but the toxic frogs are cool, levels take in all the usual locations including of course a clocktower. I've played about one and a half hours and I'm on level 5 which looks like it may be the last. Was it worth the £7.99 I splurged on it in a fug of nostalgia when I got in from work via the pub last night? Probably not, but there you go. Still, I'm quite enjoying it and you could do worse if you're craving some 8 bit Castlevania. Pleasingly, unlike those older games, it doesn't set you back on level one when you die.
    Just bought this on 3DS as I have a little Inti Creates collection going on. What difficulty are you playing on?

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      #3
      Playing on Veteran, which is the hardest setting you can start with. It's also the default. Basically it means you get a knock back when you're hit so can end up in a pit, plus you don't have unlimited lives. The other setting is Casual and there's no knock back and lives are unlimited. I don't know if there's any further difficulties after you complete. Veteran is not very hard to be honest. Your lives are replenished after every level.

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        #4
        I’d love to be playing this but Sony has messed up the Vita release in the EU it seems. I bought the game but PSN refuses to let me download it. Lots of other people are suffering the same problem with Sony and Inti Creates bouncing the blame back on each other. Coupled with the delay on 3DS over here until next week it’s been very much of a shame. I was looking forward to a CV3 themed weekend.

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          #5
          I'd knew the 3DS launch was messed up, didn't know the Vita was messed too (tbh didn't even know there was one, sorry!). I think the game would feel great on handheld. I bought it on PS4 because I couldn't get it on 3DS.

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            #6
            I spent a couple of hours on this today... it’s really quite good. I have unlocked my three companions and we’re all off on our merry adventure until

            I got killed several times by this two-headed dragon boss thing...



            I’ll have another go later on and see where I get to.

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              #7
              Finished this last night. There were more stages than I anticipated but the last three were garish palette swaps with some annoying platforming and insta-kill mechanics thrown in, so for the last level I knocked it down to 'casual' just to see the back end of it. It was alright, in my view, nothing more. The character swap mechanic was a nice innovation but you've probably played much better back when this kind of thing was new.

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