Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (2020)

The second Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon entry is a love letter to classic NES-era Castlevania, expanding on the first game with more characters, longer stages, and local co-op. Each playable character brings unique abilities, from traditional whip-like attacks to Hachi the adorable corgi piloting a steam-powered mech, adding both charm and variety to the gameplay. This might sound like there are few to no additions compared to the first title, but this one tries to push even further, each element that the first game did very well, being practically a totally improved game in comparison.

The pixel art, chiptune-inspired soundtrack, and creative boss designs reinforce its retro appeal, while the multiple episodes and branching paths encourage replayability. The game embraces old-school difficulty, with stiff controls, punishing checkpoints, and enemy placements that often feel designed to test patience as much as skill. Some may find this limitation to be a downside, but personally speaking I like the challenge of these less fluid and more clunky controls, I find it to be a good change of pace when compared to the smooth and twitch-like perfect controls of titles, which is considered the more "modern" approach.

For people who enjoy tough but fair platforming challenges, this difficulty adds to the satisfaction of overcoming each stage. However, those less accustomed to retro design may find the repetition and rigid mechanics frustrating. Overall, the sequel improves on its predecessor with richer content and more personality, making it a rewarding experience for fans of classic action-platformers. It may not win over everyone with its uncompromising design, but for those who appreciate the challenge, it delivers a nostalgic yet fresh adventure. There is no excuse to skip this one if you liked the first entry, but if you don't, than this sequel won't win you over.

PROS

• More mechanically diverse characters gives slightly more variety to the action
• If you like the first game a lot, you will like this one, and they considerably upped the difficulty for returning players to still have a challenge

CONS

• Overly similar to the first entry in the series, it practically feels like the same game
• Boss fights and enemy designs aren't as memorable this time around
• Final level kinda sucks

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (CotM2) plays very similar to the first, reviving the old-style Castlevania games (awkward jumps, whips, subweapons powered by hearts) with the twist of multiple player characters that you can freely swap between, each with their own main weapon, sub weapon, and health.

The Good: Like other action platformers of this ilk (e.g. Castlevania, Ninja Gaiden) the main gameplay loop involves observing the screen, identifying the obstacles, and planning out how to efficiently deal with those hazards with the tools at hand. CotM2 is unique (along with CotM1) in giving you more options in having multiple characters, each of which can hold their own subweapon, allowing you to have more utility but not in a game-breaking way. When properly executed, you will effortlessly clear a room that would otherwise kill an unprepared player (most characters can only take 3-6 hits), and feel rewarded for your tactful thinking. The boss design is very good both mechanically and visually, and fighting them feels rewarding- at first, they may seem unbeatable, but they all have patterns which are learnable (save maybe one boss?), after which they are chumps.

The Bad: Completion of the game requires going through the stages multiple times (For me, 4 times, but possible anywhere between 2 and 6), and the variety runs out after the second run, since each stage essentially has only two paths through it. While you can use character abilities to gain access to shortcuts, this can require awkward mid-jump character switching and, in the end, is still only a shortcut that just lets you skip a few rooms. If you persevere through the repeated content, the final level is indeed different enough from the previous content but in a potentially frustrating way.