Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon will be out this month
What A Terrible Moon To Have A Curse
Koji Igarashi’s Kickstarter for an exploration heavy Castlevania throwback Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is set for release later in 2018. But a stretch goal reward for one of the most successful crowdfunding titles of all time will reach your unholy game devices sooner than you might expect. The spin-off title Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon was just announced in Kyoto at BitSummit, and it will be yours to possess forever in just a few weeks. Inti Creates is putting out the 8-bit whip-em-up which was listed on the Kickstarter page as a mini-game. How "mini" this game is might be up for interpretation.
You'll play as Zangetsu who is, as demon slayers come, both someone who loves to slay demons but who also feels a real need to slay demons, based on some past trauma. Could Zangetsu possibly work through these emotional scars in group therapy? Probably. But, for the sake of entertainment value, Zangetsu will travel across haunted lands to defeat a powerful demon lurking in a dark castle. Does the evil demon rent the castle or does he own? This may all be beyond the bounds of the 80s style platformer.
The characters you meet along the way can join your team. They each come with their own set of skills which can open up parts of the map -- like some type of Metroidvania? Wowzers. The number of characters you add to your roster also changes both the difficulty of the game and the endings, which is, pretty dang cool actually.
Again, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is due later this year, and has a gorgeous evolution of the formula from the more exploration heavy Vania titles, but What A Terrible Moon To Have A Curse has a classic Castlevania 3-ish look about it. And that game was my jam. So I'm maybe more excited for this.
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon will release on all platforms on May 24th. You can pre-order on Steam right here.