Castlevania Director Announces Spiritual Successor Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Like a great many number of creators in recent times, Konami’s Koji Igarashi finds himself unable to make a new game in the series that he helped to stardom and success- while demand for a true Castlevania game in the style of Symphony of the Night on PlayStation continues to fester, Konami is unwilling to deliver, and the man who wants to cannot, because he no longer works with Konami, who holds the IP.

Like a great many creators, then – like the former Rare staff who came together to work on Yooka-Laylee, the spiritual follow up to Banjo Kazooie, or like Keiji Inafune, who decided to give the world the Mega Man game that Capcom wouldn’t when he announced Mighty No. 9 – Igarashi too has taken to Kickstarter. He announced Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a ‘Metroid-vania’ game that was in the same vein as post Symphony Castlevania games for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on Monday. He then decided to get the game crowdfunded by putting it on Kickstarter. And ended up meeting the $500,000 funding goal in under four hours. Currently, the game stands at $1.63 million, with another 31 days left.

That right there is proof and evidence of the sheer extent of demand that there is for a new Castlevania game. It looks great, too- just look at the pitch video above, that comes from the game’s Kickstarter page. The project is described as “an exploration-focused, side-scrolling platformer featuring RPG and crafting elements,” with Koji Igarashi, the namesake of “Igavania”-style games, leading the project,and Michiru Yamane composing the music. Inti Creates will be leading the development.

If funded, the game will be developed for Xboc One, Playstation 4, and PC. For the first time on Kickstarter, backers will have the option to receive actual PS4 / XB1 / PC retail discs, which means that Igarashi has big plans for the game- he does not plan to keep this game confined to a digital release, he plans on making it a bigger, retail release.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt, and we will keep you posted on the game, which is currently due to launch some time in 2017.