Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night E3 trailer showcases a new map and improved gameplay

YouTube

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was a huge Kickstarter success in 2015, drawing in more than $5.5 million in support for the "Igavania"-style platformer. It didn't make an especially good impression when we looked at it last year though, and a few months later it was delayed to the first half of 2018. But it's got some new moves to show off at E3, and ahead of that publisher 505 Games has released a new trailer showcasing some of the progress that's been made.

The video features a new map called Church, and also demonstrates some of lead character Miriam's new skills, including Spear Throw, Resist Holy, and Optimizer, as well as her new Whip, Rapier, and Katana weapons. Naturally, there's a boss fight at the end.

"What you see here is part of the church stage, where you will be able to play the bell tower area of the map—it's a very nostalgic theme. The boss that awaits the player is a vampiric mistress, Bloodless, whose appearance might be altered in the future," developer Koji Igarashi wrote in the latest Kickstarter update.

"In the trailer, we've added areas from the stages we've shown previously to demonstrate new visual changes to improve the gameplay experience. We will be picking up our development pace from here, but this is what our current development looks like."

For those who are attending E3, Igarashi said that as a result of "the long lines we experienced" in 2016, the new demo will be shorter and more difficult, with numerous improvements meant to address the issues that "confused" players last year.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.