Castlevania successor Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has had its release pushed back to 2018, its creator announces...
Update 3 - 09.09.16: Just a brief report on the progress of Koji Igarashi's much-anticipated Castlevania successor, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - and we're sad to say it isn't great news.
Igarashi has announced that his gothic action platformer, once pencilled in for March 2017, is to have its release pushed back until the first half of 2018. According to our expert calculations, that means we'll have to wait an additional year before Igarashi's unofficial sequel to the cult favorite Symphony of the Night finally emerges.
"I made this decision to absolutely guarantee the game is done right the first time," Igarashi says in a new developer diary video, which you can watch below. The design veteran goes onto explain that he's adding a new development team to work alongside Bloodstained's existing producers, which he hopes will "Keep the game fully on track for how I envision it."
It's disappointing news, for sure, but with another Kickstarted platformer, the Mega Man successor Mighty No. 9, proving to be such a disappointment, it's pleasing to see a developer choosing to delay a project rather than rush it through to completion.
Update 2 - 05.27.15: Things seem to be moving rather fast for game designer Koji Igarashi's Castlevaniasuccessor, Bloodstained. Yesterday, we heard that longstanding Castlevaniacover artist Ayami Kojima's stepping back into the fray to provide some new artwork for Bloodstained - all this as the project reaches the $2.7m mark on Kickstarter.
In a new update on the crowdfunding website, Igarashi and his team have announced that a Wii U port's now one of the new stretch goals. Should Bloodstainedreach the $3m mark, Texas-based design firm Armature will be given the go-ahead to work on an adaptation for Nintendo's plucky little console.
If, like us, you haven't heard of Armature before, they're a studio started up by former members of Retro Studios, who worked on the Metroid Prime series.
Here's what they had to say:
"When we were approached with the opportunity to assist with Bloodstained on Wii U, we were ecstatic. This style of game is one we are intimately familiar with from our Metroid Prime days, and it's exciting to once again put our familiarity with Nintendo hardware to good use. We have extensive remastering experience - our remastering projects include the Metal Gear Solid Collection for PS Vita, Injustice for PS Vita, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel for PS4/XB1. We look forward to the challenge of making sure that the Wii U edition of Bloodstained stands proudly with its brethren on Unreal Engine 4."
Of course, Bloodstained needs to reach $3m first, but with two weeks to go and the project still seemingly carrying a fair bit of momentum behind it, that new goal doesn't seem too far off.
Update 1 - 05.26.15: The online response to Bloodstained, the new game from Castlevania series designer Koji Igarashi, has been positive to say the least.
The gothic platformer's Kickstarter campaign still has two weeks to go, yet it's already soared passed the $2.5m mark - more than five times its initial $500,000 original goal.
As the funding continues to roll in, Igarashi's announced that acclaimed artist Ayami Kojima - whose work was a feature of the Castlevania games from 1998 onwards - will be returning to provide some cover art for Bloodstained. It should be pointed out, however, that the cover art will only appear as a bonus outer sleeve, which will be sent to backers who pledged $100 or more.
Quite why Kojima's art can't be used on all the physical copies of the game isn't clear, though it could be due to some sort of prior agreement with another artist. But for the Castlevania series' dedicated legion of fans, Kojima's involvement is further sign that Bloodstained will be the rebirth they've been waiting for. If you're unaware of the artist's work, here's an example of her distinctive style:
You can read more about Kojima's involvement, plus a reveal of a few new Bloodstained monsters, in this Kickstarter update. Bloodstained is currently pencilled in for release in March 2017.
Original Story - 05.12.15: Over the past few days, a project tantalisingly codenamed Igavania has gradually proliferated across the web. Everything pointed to a new game from Koji Igarashi, the director of numerous Castlevania entries since the classic Symphony of the Night - more than likely a spiritual successor to those games.
As it turns out, this is exactly what we're getting. Yesterday evening, Igarashi formally unveiled Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, a 2.5D platformer in the mould of the gothic action games Igarashi once created for Konami. It's a partnership between Igarashi, Inti Creates - the dev team behind, among other things, Keiji Inafune's Mega Man successor, Mighty No. 9 - and indie publisher Nicalis.
Bloodstained has also launched its Kickstarter campaign, which managed to rocket past its $500,000 minimum goal within a few hours and broke through the $1m barrier in a single day. Given that there's nothing to see of Bloodstained, other than a handful of concept images, reveals just how much hunger there is for another game in the vein of Castlevania.
In the pitch video below - which is quite quaint, with its low-fi special effects - Igarashi talks enthusiastically about his project. On the Kickstarter page, you'll find more of the project's plans, including its addition of crafting to the platforming mix, and the now-confirmed presence of David Hayter as one of the main voice actors.
That Bloodstained has already enjoyed a storming amount of support pretty much guarantees that we'll be hearing more about it soon.
Bloodstained is currently scheduled to appear on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Mac, PC and Linux.
