Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. The community score

To be fair, I never give a perfect score. So 4 has got to be my answer ^_^

I wish they had included the ability to jump off of stairs and fall through stairs.

I gave it a 5, because it was way better than I expected and feels like it's worth more than the $10 price tag. My real rating would be a 4.8 if it was an option, because nothing's perfect. Issues on 3DS and Xbox make it not perfect, but I found no problems on PS4 and Switch versions. I don't have it on PC, so I can't comment there.

The game is good enough for me as a free bonus as a kickstarter. But perfect? If the big Bloodstained game is equally good, I will be very disappointed. Yes I realize the base price is more (not much more though I think, only double or triple isn't it?), but Honestly.
The music in this game, Aside from the remixes of the stuff Yamane already did, Do you think any of them will live as long in your heart like previous castlevania tunes? Is this comparable to shovel knight overall? I haven't even played shovel knight but as far as 2d action platformers go I think that one is the gold standard, and perfect is perfect, so...

I don't mean to trash the game, or the team. I still have high hopes for the real game, but if it has issues, I have hopes that we can point them out and I have faith they will be listened to and fixed... But if people think it's perfect no matter what, I'm worried.

I always understand the concept/idea behind not rating anything a perfect score, at least in relation to games, but imo I would be careful letting that idea extend too far. I've seen that said about customer service/survey ratings in business where often only a 5/5 is acceptable for a company/even means they're doing a good job. That very often comes down to employees and their performance reviews and raises. This is definitely off topic, but it's something I've seen/experienced that means some can suffer because of a difference in what scales of good-ness mean subjectively. Perhaps 5 should be excellent and not perfect, since yeah "perfect" as an ideal of perfection is impossible etc etc...but people are humans and they need your help if they're actually really doing a good job, and likely need it if they're working in a service-related occupation.

Anyway CotM is great. In the scope of what it is/trying to do and at its price point, it couldn't be all that much better to me. Screw Alfred tho

Growing up with them I never blamed the old Castlevania games for their jump physics. It was just part of the game, and at the time that was one of the best ones out there. The original one was a quarter muncher that was intentionally meant to be very challenging and that was one of the aspects of that challenge.

It would be something like a 4.5/5 for me, leaning a bit towards 4. It's pretty damn great and for a bonus game it's jaw dropping.

But that aside, considering the game for what it is, I think it's still great. It's no Shovel Knight, but that one had a very different scope in mind, being a sort of "best of the best" of the NES generation. CotM is way more focused in its goal and inspiration, so it's IMO unfair to belittle the content or variety in CotM with the comparison. The game is still very much content packed, extremely repayable and very fun, with responsive controls that hit the balance between old style and modern just right. We all love old Castlevanias and they are titans of game design for designing the whole game around a purposefully restrictive control schemes, but let's be real, they were not always 100% tight. Especially Dracula's Curse, with stairs, crumbling floor and spinning clock gears being the worst offenders and an exercise in frustration.

Bosses are arguably the most modern part of the game and they're wicked memorable, fun and fair with every character pretty much, just inconsistent in the difficulty curve. The final bosses stand out and are way more epic than any form of Dracula of classic 'vanias.

The only areas in which I feel that CotM is a bit lacking are overall difficulty (it's on the easy side overall) and memorability of the stages themselves. They each have their own theme, yes, but aside from some exceptions they lack a bit of the power of some classic stages in atmosphere or overall impression. They're still very fun, but not outstanding.

Speaking of music, the game is good. To me it does come close to some classic soundtracks, but those are classics for a reason. They had almost otherworldly levels of inspiration and are all overall very solid. CotM has one or two meh tracks (Tragedy of Slaughter, I don't really like that one) but has a mostly good selection, with some pieces that have NOTHING to envy to the Castlevania classics. Curse the Moon, the final boss themes (normal and nightmare final bosses) and the credits music are legendary. Yeah, I said it.

So overall CotM is not quite up there with the first one or the other classics (but I'd argue it's almost on par with Castlevania 3 which is one of my least favorite. That game beats CotM in atmosphere by a really long shot, the stages are spectacular, but it's frustrating beyond belief and bosses are really hit and miss on that one), but as I said those are classics for a reason, so essential that coming close to them is a pretty enormous feat. And even if we DID get a better game than those, I doubt we could recognize it as such. It's hard to beat the nostalgic and hystorical value of a game, especially if that game is also extremely good.

So yeah, overall it's a damn good game and certainly something I would be very pleased by even if I backed it on its own campaign separately. If we are to consider it as a "bonus" freebie of a main campaign then it has no competition. I doubt that there are some bonud freebies as good as this one (Shovel Knight campaigns notwithstanding because they are expansions).

Obviously all this is strictly my opinion, and everyone can disagree.

purifyweirdshard Oi! You and me gonna have some words 'bout Alfred, mate!

Solid 4/5 effort.



Still a solid effort though. Music remains kick ass.