I’m old and my reflexes are crap. That’s the first thing I learned from Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 from Inti Creates, famed developers of Blaster Master Zero, Azure Striker Gunvolt, the Mega Man Zero series and much, much more. Inti Creates is well-known for creating some of the best retro-inspired games in the industry, and their first offering in this series, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, was a runaway hit that blew people out of the water with it’s excellent gameplay and vintage style.
If you aren’t aware, there are a plethora of retro-inspired games out there now, often intentionally made with NES or SNES-style graphics, chiptune music, and throwback fonts to create a retro gaming experience with modern sensibilities. Games like Cathedral (which I reviewed here last year) and Dark Void Zero, as well as almost the entire Inti Creates library are fantastic throwbacks because they take up almost no hard drive space, focus on gameplay and have that old school pick-up-and-play feel to them that’s missing from today’s massive games with complex tutorials and ridiculous control schemes.
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 picks up right where the first game left off, with Zangetsu the sword master having defeated the archdemon Gremory in the first game. Now a new threat has arisen, a ‘Demon Tower’ spewing demons into our world and summoning the demon’s castle back. Zangetsu is the only one who can stop them, perhaps with a little help from his friends. There’s no sense in ruining the story here, but while sparse, the tale is a compelling one, made more so by the gameplay and style of Curse of the Moon 2 (CotM2) itself.
Dominique the exorcist helps you infiltrate the castle in the beginning of the game and from there it’s straight into the thick of things! CotM2 is an absolutely spectacular game, opting for a modified version of late generation NES-style graphics. Honestly, this is Castlevania done right and Konami should be ashamed that they haven’t put out anything even remotely of this caliber in quite a long time. It’s to be expected from Koji Igarashi (Iga) working hand in hand with Inti Creates on Cotm2 though. The entire vibe of the game screams Dracula X: Rondo of Blood to me (that’s what we used to call it before it got ported), having grown up with the PC Engine Duo release long before it was finally ported to North America. Right from the beginning, levels have multiple pathways, many of which are inaccessible until you progress further then replay the game with unlocked characters. Hidden items are everywhere, and even hidden rooms are occasionally encountered, many of which serve no discernible purpose when first encountered.
As I played through Curse of the Moon 2, I realized that each of the first four levels was designed for a specific character. After beating the first level with Zangetsu, Dominique shows up just in time for level 2 where her abilities shine. When Robert appears and reluctantly joins your little group, the next level is designed with him in mind and so on. After you’ve acquired all your party members, things heat up though, and you’ll be constantly switching back and forth from character to character, utilizing the variety of abilities they come with to stumble your way through levels. From level 5 on, the difficulty ramps up noticeably and things become much more challenging. Like I said, I’m old and my reflexes suck. I thought I’d be more than a match for Curse of the Moon 2, but I was dead wrong. There are two modes in the game, Casual and Veteran, and Veteran has a limited life count and knockback if you take a hit. After a few levels on veteran, I just couldn’t hack it and ended up shifting to casual for the sake of being able to play the game for this review. I need more practice. One day I’ll go back and try a little harder, but speedrunners and competitors will absolutely love Veteran mode. It’s fantastically challenging and incredibly intense!
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is an incredibly smooth game. Everything is cleanly designed, there are no weird graphical glitches, and the controls are absolutely perfect. It might not seem so at first glance however. For example, in a later level with Dominique, when I hurled myself off a platform barely catching the edge of it, I didn’t jump again and walked off the platform to my doom. Not once. Not twice. But five times. It’s the little things that get you here. No jumping off of staircases or down through them, even though you can jump onto them. Touch the edge of a platform and it counts as a landing. Press the attack button an extra time and try to move, only to have to wait for the attack to finish. No turning from one direction to another while crouched. Everything is designed with such precision that if you’re a sloppy player, like me, you’ll die a lot, no matter what mode you’re on. And don’t think casual is easy either. It’s definitely easier, but it was a struggle to play through some sections of CotM2 even with unlimited lives and no knockback.
The first game consisted of 8 stages, designed to be played multiple times to unlock hidden sections, and CotM2 is no different. Or is it? Certainly there’s a lot to unpack here, but there’s more than you might expect, and the end isn’t always the end with a game like Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2. Special weapons are widely varied and interesting to play around with too. Some of the abilities are strikingly powerful and I definitely didn’t take enough advantage of some of my characters during my initial time with the game. It should be noted that Robert (the sniper) is ridiculously powerful if you get him the bandana and simply obliterates almost everything, but he has the shortest life bar to compensate. And until I switched characters, I had no idea that Hachi was the only one that doesn’t slip on ice! In addition to playing through the game with the four main characters, you can eventually unlock Miriam, Alfred, and Gebel from the first game, allowing for even more variety! Have you really seen everything yet at that point? Probably not. On top of the seven playable characters, there’s even more. A local co-op mode is available, allowing you to play two player on CotM2. I didn’t have a chance to actually test two player mode, but the addition is a welcome one. It definitely beats sitting there and watching your buddy play!
The style of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is absolutely excellent, of course. I’d expect nothing less from Inti Creates. It’s a visually stunning game from an outstanding studio that truly loves gaming, and even with the throwback graphics, the bosses are complex and move at high speeds, the background effects are outstanding, and the enemy design is simply awesome. There’s really nothing at all to complain about in CotM2 visually. The audio design is equally solid, with sweeping music, excellent sound effects, and a soundtrack that would be worth buying on a physical disc. It’s certainly music that’s equal to most of the Castlevania fare out there at the bare minimum and notably better than some.
Controls are simple (as they should be) with jump, attack, and special attack mapped to the face buttons of the Switch and L and R cycling characters. There’s a split second pause as each character swaps out, allowing you to swap constantly and sort of freeze the action, something you can take slight advantage of in a tight spot to change attack styles or just before dying. You can also earn permanent powerups that have a variety of effects. The pause menu shows your character abilities and vital stats, allows you to retry stages, change options, and even select stages, and it’s easy to navigate the screen design in terms of iconography, even undocked on the Switch. In fact, there’s really no difference between docked and undocked play. CotM2 is extremely well-optimized and runs like a dream on the smaller screen. Many games don’t convert well to portable, but that’s definitely not the case here and I found myself finishing several levels entirely in handheld mode. The Switch Pro Controller is better of course, but the regular Joycon setup is no slouch either!
While Casual and Veteran modes are similar in CotM2, there are some changes aside from the knockback. In addition to unlimited continues on Casual (which you will absolutely need if your skills aren’t professional level), there is a slight difference in how boss health works. Each boss has a life bar with multiple segments. As I was playing, I would get partway through a boss fight and then die like a champ because I’m awesome like that, sending my remaining compatriots back to the last save point where they’d have to fight their way back to the boss again, one (or more) person down, and try again. In both Casual and Veteran, the boss’s life bar retains some of the damage it took from previous attacks (assuming you have characters left when you return), meaning that you have a chance against tougher bosses when otherwise you’d absolutely be toast. In Veteran mode, the boss regains more health on each attempt. Additionally, if you lose all your characters in Veteran, you’ll also be put back an extra checkpoint and on top of that, you’ve only got four lives, so die enough and it’s time to start the level over! Again, even with the lack of knockback and the extra boss life bar help, Casual is still no walk in the park. There were a couple of areas I wanted to throw my controller like an old NES brick, but I happened to be playing in undocked mode at the time so it was definitely not a good idea!
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is what platform action gaming is all about; the kind of well thought out modern retro classic that lets you get out of it what you put in. It’s challenging, daring, and takes advantage of every trick in the book to maximize the gameplay experience. I hesitate to call it a ‘metroidvania’ as this is more of a pure platformer with multiple pathways like Dracula X, but it’s close. It can be a frustrating game, and Veteran mode will probably leave your drywall with holes in it, but it’s all the more gratifying when you get somewhere with it! There’s simply not a single bad thing to be said about this one, and that in and of itself is as rare as all get out. I loved every minute I spent with it and unless you hate games of this style, you will too. Incidentally, if you do hate platform games and you’ve gotten this far in the review, why are you still here? Searching every nook and cranny of CotM2 will take a long time and even with your initial playthrough, you’ll more than get your $15 worth. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is the definitive future of post-Castlevania platform gaming! Absolutely don’t hesitate on this one!
This review was based on a digital copy of Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is also available for Steam, Playstation 4, and Xbox One. It will also be available in physical format in a limited pressing by Limited Run Games. All screenshots are from actual gameplay. Spoilers, story elements, and boss images have been intentionally left out of this review to preserve the sense of spectacle of such an excellent game! Whether digital or physical, do not pass this one up!
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