Bloodstained in the Membrane

Sorry I haven't posted in (looks at watch) uh, forever. My life's been kind of a mess, but at least I've found something to keep my mind off the rough stuff. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was recently made available on Microsoft's Game Pass service, and it's the first game in a very long time that I've felt compelled to play to the end. Heck, I even finished some of the optional quests to keep the excitement alive for just a little longer!

Bloodstained, for those who may have missed it, is a spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. It's got a new (flimsy) plot and a fresh cast of characters, but the core experience is a re-branded SOTN with polygonal graphics. And it's pretty much the revival people hoped Mighty Number 9 would be, nailing the feel of the original so closely that it's a wonder Konami didn't respond with a lawsuit. I mean, come on, one of the hidden bosses is an undead Simon Belmont! There's still a librarian, but this time, he's Alucard from Symphony of the Night, with a different name but the same voice. Instead of a second inverted castle, you can flip the castle you're already in with a command learned late in the game. It's blatant, is what I'm saying. If you don't have a taste for leftovers, you may not like it, but isn't that what 98% of video games serve up these days?

Anyway. Bloodstained. Extremely familiar, and extremely grindy, but extremely awesome, and you can play it for free if you've got Game Pass. You can't beat that with a flame whip.