Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was one of the most successful videogame Kickstarters of all time—so successful, in fact, that it raised enough money to fund a "prequel mini-game," which was released in 2018 as Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. That turned out to be a really good game in its own right: We called it "a Castlevania-inspired throwback that's 8-bit of alright" in an 80/100 review.
And even though Ritual of the Moon was originally conceived as a throw-in bonus, it's the one getting a sequel. During today's New Game+ Expo livestream, producer Koji Igarashi announced that Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is now in development. Like its predecessor, the new game will feature "a dark, 8-bit aesthetic," and will tell an all-new story about Zangetsu, a swordsman from the Far East who bears a powerful dislike for demons and the alchemists who summon them.
"Zangetsu must battle his way to the demonic stronghold, but he doesn't have to do it alone! Zangetsu can ally himself with a brand new cast of characters he meets along the way and add them to the playable roster," the Curse of the Moon 2 web page says. "Each new character adds a variety of gameplay options, abilities, and ways to complete the game's many stages."
The page also has a closer look at those characters: Zangetsu is a tough guy with the fastest attack speed, "making him a strong, straightforward character," while Dominique is "a mysterious exorcist affiliated with the church" who can revive and heal allies (and has the ability to bounce on enemies to reach high places), and Robert is a former soldier and excellent marksman who brings "extreme firepower" to party but has extremely low defense and no magical abilities.
Hachi is the interesting one, though: He's a Welsh Corgi who was embedded inside a suited of magical power armor by an evil alchemist. Hachi moves slowly and has no offensive subweapons, but is super-tough, crossed large gaps that others cannot, and can stomp enemies into paste.
The page also includes a rundown of game systems and loops, the bosses you'll face, and some very basic system requirements:
- OS: Windows 7, 8.1, 10
- Processor: 2Ghz or faster processor
- Memory: 2GB RAM
- Graphics: 512MB VRAM (NVIDIA GeForce)
- DirectX Version: 9.0c
- Storage: 500MB
What it does not have, unfortunately, is a release date, but the site does confirm that it will be released for PC on Steam.
