Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Spiritual Succesor to Castlevania Symphony of hte Night

Anyone out there who knows about Konami knows that they used to make good games. The company has done a lot of things recently that may lead to destroying of age-old franchises. I agree with everything that Jim Sterling said about it on his Jim Quisition, but beware there is a little language in the video:



Konami came out and said that "The genre is dead" regarding Castlevania games in 2d. Some of those games were the BEST I've ever played in my life. Hands-down, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is the best game I've ever played in my life. The music, gameplay, secrets, all of it.
Here's the soundtrack from the game:



The director of Castlevania: SOTN was Koji Igarashi. Mr. Igarashi has gone independent from Konami, and will be making the spiritual successor to SOTN. The name of the game is called Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Here's the video that Mr. Igarashi made. If you are in any way interested in the Castlevania games, you can get Castlevania: SOTN on the PSN network. If you haven't you should give the game a try.

Here is the video that Mr. Igarashi made to get the spiritual successor kicked off:



To me, this is the revolution in the gaming industry. These over-large corporations are saying "That won't sell". Sorry to say it, but there are literally millions of fans out here who want to be served! Video gaming in my humble opinion has become controlled by a mostly corporate oligarchy. They will not win. All the people with the artistic talents are going to split off from the giant industry, and we will see a revival in the good games that have been pressed into the shadows!

I was kind of surprised that I didn't see anything about this on ATS. If you're into Castlevania in any way, you should definitely check this out.

I am very excited about this new game.... It's a shame all the big devs can't turn out a good game and it takes ex employees to get a kickstarter for the projects but I'm glad some people are still churning out the great games!

a reply to: jheated5

I agree. I think that this should happen for all of the talent that has been suppressed . The director of the Final Fantasy games split off, and made his own gaming company. I haven't seen much besides The Last Story, and a few other notable games like Lost Odyssey. I hope that all of the great directors get a hint from this campaign that "We're still out here. The fans-especially in North America still want them to make games like the "Good old games" that used to be made. "

Yeah...kind of burned out on the whole Japanese weird thing.

a reply to: the owlbear
I wouldn't categorize Castlevania as "weird" by any nations standards. Its Badass! I've played most of them. I never got to SotN so my favorite is Castlevania IV. For the SNES. I was never able to get into some of the newer ones because I didnt have as much time to play games.

The other cool thing about this is that the legendary composer Michiru Yamane will be working on the music. The OP had the music posted from Castlevania: SOTN. She was the main composer of the soundtrack on Castlevania: SOTN.

Also, because Konami said that "We couldn't re-hire David Hayter for the voice acting on some of the Metal Gear Solid games", Mr. Igarashi has decided to hire David Hayter to do the main voicework for the game, among others. He is putting together a legendary crew.

I've just got to post an update to this thread. Since I originally posted, the game will be coming out on some new consoles! Originally, the game was to be made just for PS4, XBONE, and PC. Some of the stretch goals have been achieved with funding, so now it will be coming to Wii U (And still using Unreal Engine 4!) plus it will be coming to PSVITA! They say that these versions will not scale down the versions that are made for the consoles/PC.

I suspect they may need to scale things down for the Vita version, but Armature will be the studio handling the Wii-U and Vita ports. This is good news for those consoles, because Armature has a well-known history in making great games for both of these consoles. The next stretch goal will likely be funded, and that is the Vita version.

The stretch goal after that I suspect is to bring an orchestral soundtrack to the game. All of this is very exciting to me. Inti Creates will help with the art and shaders. Since Koji Igarashi will be directing, it will be great-I'm sure.

The game will not release until March 2017, so it will take 2 years to make (which isn't bad). They will be also hiring more voice actors for the English version soon as well. The stretch goals of retro-levels have now been achieved, as well as 8-bit remixed soundtrack.

The monsters will come from the 3rd Key of Solomon, so it's doubtful that Dracula will appear as a boss in this game. There's plenty of monsters to create from that material. The game will be set somewhere in the 1700's to 1800's from what I've gathered.

If you're into this type of game, I think it will be worth taking a look at. Take that Konami! The genre is not dead. It's quite alive and well. I'm sure that there will be sequels or a series that will develop around this. I hope the larger developers start learning that if they don't give the gamers what they want, they will kill off the well-known intellectual properties for good. I'm talking to developers like you Square-Enix, Rare, etc., etc., etc.! The future of video games is going to be bleak and empty with the large developers if they don't take note of this. That's where the "real talent" that made them well-known will split off and make the things that their fans want. The revolution in entertainment is here to stay.

In some ways, I hope this gives Konami the motivation to make a 2-d Castlevania in the future, but I don't think it will be anything close to the old ones, without Mr. Igarashi's help.