A sequel for the Castlevania-inspired Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is on the way.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night released a couple of years back now, and while we've had some DLC and 8-bit spinoff Curse of the Moon to tide us over since there, there's been very little said on what else might be in store for fans of the cult franchise, Castlevania. Until now, anyway.
Our pals at PC Gamer noticed that secreted in the financial reports of Digital Bros – the parent company of 505 Games, which not-so-coincidentally enough published Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night – was a slide about the game that contained news that a "second version [is] in development".
Regarding recent reports, @505_Games and @ArtplayEN are in very early planning stages for a #Bloodstained sequel. However, current development resources are focused on completing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night's upcoming content. We have a lot planned for you. pic.twitter.com/yPV0n31gBXJune 4, 2021
Of course, "second version" isn't necessarily confirmation of a straight-up sequel, but thankfully the official Bloodstained social media channels swiftly teased the series had "a lot planned for you" and confirmed that the studio was indeed "in very early planning stages for a Bloodstained sequel".
As we wrote in our round-up of the best games to play if you loved Hollow Knight, legendary developer Koji Igarashi is synonymous with the Castlevania series and his most recent game, the unashamedly old-school Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, is very much in the same mold. It’s a Castlevania game in all but name: the baddie’s fortress is a castle, you can’t attack up or down, and abilities you pick up from downed enemies often add one of their own moves to your arsenal.
Short of booting up 1997’s Symphony of the Night (and you can do just that on PS4 with the Castlevania Requiem collection), Bloodstained is your best glimpse at an era that Hollow Knight owes an awful lot to.
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