Koji Igarashi, is ready to produce a brand new game, perhaps called by humans who wish to pay him tribute.

Or, help him succeed in his Kickstarter project, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, a spiritual successor to his long-standing work producing games for the Konami’s Castlevania game franchise; mostly for the Playstation and Nintendo DS. His most notable work remains Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, an essential game for every side-scrolling aficionado to experience.

So now, Koji brings his gothic-horror side scrolling animated style fun back, under his own wing as an indie label under development by Inti Creates. The game promises to bring back those awesome RPG, exploratory, action-filled elements that enriched his games produced for Castlevania. The game will have Michro Yamane as composer, whose work includes Castlevania SOTN, and many other games. Ippo Yamada is also on board as a sound producer for Bloodstained, whose past work also includes ,many Mega Man games. For the English voice acting, David Hayter is stated to be on board (thanks to stretch goals), best known for this work as Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid game franchise.

Bloodstained ROTN now has fantastic success thanks to eager fans and their collective deep pockets via Kickstarter; now reached over $28,000,000 of its original $500,000 goals. With half a month to go, I predict Bloodstained will reach above 40 mil. Many stretch goals were met adding new features promised to the game, including cross-platform development for the PC, Wii, Ps4, XB1, 2-player Co-op, and the “Biggest Castle” of which I think means a bigger exploratory area than previous Castlevania games produced by Koji Igarashi. Also added, are Boss Rush, Speed-Run, Classic, Nightmare game modes.

There is more to this project, with many exclusive rewards for contributors. For more details, click here.

Personal Thoughts:

I love Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, as one of my top favorite games of all time. I played and enjoyed some of the later DS games to a lesser extent, but always drawn to them for their similarity to SOTN. Everything about them, especially SOTN, have a complete experience in gameplay, music, visuals, and fun with a sense of gothic-style spookiness that to each full completion.  I could sense his work, with the excellent style of the games he produced, but never quite familiar with his name. I see in the video, a man with a sense of humor and fun; looking to expand beyond the Konami realms. With Bloodstained and the success of his Kickstarter project, I think his prime time will be soon; to make the best name for himself as this première purveyor of “Igavania” games.

Until then, “enough talk, have at you!!”

– Orion T