Should You Buy Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2? (Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Review)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ส.ค. 2024
- Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 is out today on PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC. What's new in this latest entry in the Bloodstained franchise? Should you buy Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2? Is this sequel to the classic Castlevania revival worth picking up, even if you haven't played the first Curse of the Moon yet? Will I stop asking questions? Find out the answers to these questions and more in today's Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 Review!
DISCLAIMER: Early review copy provided by Inti Creates.
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Thanks for watching! Are you picking up Curse of the Moon 2? Let me know!
I think I might
Don't lie to me
yes. but im also hoping it gets a physical and if its by LRG, that its preorders again so basically anyone who wants a physical has the time to get one :)
Waiting for a sale and now the game is on sale. Not to much but wonder if now if the right time to get it.
I knew the embargo was strict when my sub box suddenly gets reviews from like six different channels at exactly noon. I'm glad this series has been so consistent with its quality. Who needs Castlevania when not-Castlevania has been a hit three times in a row? Now I'm imagining a world where Mighty No. 9 wasn't horribly mismanaged and became the franchise it was set up to be.
Speaking of MN9, I've had a video idea for years now exploring the big three overpromised Kickstarter games - Yooka, MN9, and Bloodstained - to see which of the three made out the best. It's Bloodstained, 1000% Bloodstained, but watching each one either fall into or learn from the pitfalls of the one(s) before has been a fascinating watch! Actually that may as well be what the RotN video on Monday is gonna be, just without the points of comparison.
Loved Curse of the Moon 1. In some ways, I prefer it to Ritual because it was my first ever Classicvania style and it opened my eyes to the possiy beyond Metroidvania genre Castlevania only. My sister and I are currently playing Curse of the Moon 2. We just finished part 3 (Zangetsu plus the old cast) and we're definitely enjoying it a lot. Some thoughts with spoilers included:
The game feels harder but with the same quality of life improvements to make it accessible, so the difficulty is manageable. Still makes me punch a wall when I fall off the dumb Classicvania staircases or something, but that's a given lol
New playable characters are great and fun. Hachi is the best new character. Would have liked to use Dominique more since she was my 2nd most used on playthrough 1 (even more than Zangetsu himself). Losing her was annoying given how much I liked her game play. But it meant that I got to use more of the other characters so that's a good balance too.
I've heard slight criticism of the repetitive stages and bosses but tbh I don't think it's fair. CotM 1 had 98% the same exact stages on 4 of its own playthrough as well (normal mode, normal mode with Zangetsu only, nightmare mode, ultimate mode). The only difference then was the boss difficulty spike and a few alternate bosses depending on the mode version (Gremory vs Zangetsu) and the Zangetsu power upgrades. Basically the exact same situation as now where you play the same game 4 times or so with a slightly altered roster of characters, boss difficulty, and a few different bosses per mode. To me, 2 improves on 1 because they feel more different between modes. Playing with Zangetsu, Robert, Hachi and/or Dominique is VERY different from Zangetsu, Miriam, Alfred and Gebel. It's practically different game play even if the stage is similar, now you have new rooms available that you didn't before. Plus you have a different final boss similar to 1. Basically, both games suffer this same issue but 2 handles it better by giving radically different rosters each time (with Dominique, without Dominique, with the old cast).
Edit: another thing I liked was the little scenes in between stages where you saw the groups interacting together. Very cute scenes that actually show them bonding and give the impression that they really are friends.
It would be kinda cool if the extra episodes included mixed up levels from the 1st game with slightly different layouts and bosses with new patterns. Or something like this. Maybe the 8-bit level in Rotn could have been a stage in CoTM2? We could fight the 8-bit Overlord with 8-bit characters this time haha
That would've been a fun option for that third EX Episode, for sure! It would've at least been a bit better than having more or less the same levels as Episode 2 another time.
That’d definitely be awesome! Hopefully once they recognize how many people love this and the first one they’ll be willing to throw more resources behind the curse of the moon franchise in the future
I picked it up right when it became available on Xbox One X. I really liked the first game so this one was a no-brainer. And I don't regret it. I still have to beat my first playthrough, but so far I'm really enjoying it. Yes, it can be frustrating at parts when I bugger up the controls, but I just need to git gud. Definite recommend.
I want to play these games so badly. Bloodstained seems like a series that I would love. I don't think I personally would do 5 play throughs because I'm more of a 1 time player or 2 at most! I love when you do these types of videos because it goes over as much as possible to every detail without ruining anything and getting me hyped about the game.
Stay tuned for early next week on the Ritual of the Night video! That game especially is very up your alley. It's not perfect but I'd put it up there as one of the best Metroidvanias I've played. When it lands, it LANDS.
@@TheGoldenBolt nice! I can't wait!
Try episode 2 on veteran and tell me again if it's easy.
LOL. Word.
I know Castlevania games have a lot of backtracking but this usually works differently.
Igavania e v o l v e d
Good review. I wanted to pick this up for the Vita like I did for the Curse 1 but no dice. I have too many responsibilities these days to put it in a lot of game time at home. I still have to finish Ritual of the Night!! On the go is where it's at for me. Maybe I'll pick it up on sale one day & play it.
You don't need to play episode 2 twice of you get the bad ending first. Ex chapter unlocks final chapter.
But yeah, I was disappointed by the lack of variance. I was hoping they would at least throw some of the stages from the first Game in or something.
Yeah, that was a piece I'd made an assumption on since I skipped right over EX, I'm glad to be wrong on that one!
I can easily see the effort you put into making this video. Nice works!!
Thank you!
Good work as always ya bastard
It's interesting to me, as I played the first Castlevania, and loved it. (I know, i feel old.) I saw someone playing it today, for Halloween, and was instantly hooked. I'll likely get it tomorrow and enjoy it. Update; it's a great game, I've struggled a bit against the bosses, but Best to play Casual.
Lubius is hot! You know that second boss of Bloodstained Curse of The Moon 2
To be fair. COTM1 set expectations for 2s level reuse.
Absolutely, but 2 certainly attempts to hide that reuse in hopes of projecting a larger experience than it actually is. That along with the higher price tag make it questionable enough to highlight in detail, so that potential players have a full understanding of what they're buying.
Ill get it next Friday. Loved the first CotM and RotN.
I can pretty confidently say that you'll certainly love this one too, then!
5:54 Must've hurt. I guess you realized you couldn't get the upgrade since Hachi was down.
I'm glad somebody caught that! I'd gotten it on my first run (or a similarly-placed upgrade, may not have been exactly this one), so I had a brief pang of regret when I realized I messed up lol
The Golden Bolt You could of got that health upgrade with Robert. Just had to walk of the platform, wall grab, and jump off the wall to reach it if Hachi was down.
Am i mistaken or are you using mostly music from curse of the moon 1 within this review? Hah, so i wasn't mistaken - the soundtrack isn't as great as the one from its predecessor.
Also, who is playing in this reviews footage? Can you get someone who actually is able to play decently? Looks like my grandma trying her lucky with playing videogames.
This review is so misleading. There were two big mistakes you made while preparing for this review. First of all you played episode 2 on casual. That would make it seem just as easy as episode 1 with “just a few tweaks” as you put it. Second of all, you made it seem like the original eight levels were the only content in the game but you didn’t complete the final episode which includes two awesome levels at the end that aren’t seen in the previous episodes.
I made it incredibly clear that I played Episode 2 on casual, including my reasons why; explained exhaustively the differences between episodes 1 and 2, and explained that it was much easier _because_ of that difficulty change; and then noted that I wouldn't have explained any further than Ep. 2 to avoid spoiling content, because I was already recommending the game wholeheartedly! I knew there would be a final level, but talking about it would've led to another commenter complaining that I spoiled the game. There's never a win in the comments section, it's always lose-lose.
This review was aimed less at a more "core" Bloodstained player like you or me - since we were all going to get the game anyway - and more at the undecided players, the ones that would be playing on that Casual difficulty. After all, Casual is there for a reason, and just as valid a playstyle as Classic! If you feel misled, with all due respect it looks to me like because you're for some reason watching a review of a game you already seem to have beaten, in order to validate your opinion! Which, hey, you do you, my friend. Thanks for watching!
The Golden Bolt The Golden Bolt Okay, fair point about the whole casual difficulty thing, that really wasn’t my main issue though. My main issue is stating that the game only has 2-3 hours of worth of content which I really don’t understand how you believe that. There are four different final boss fights, three extra characters to unlock (for a total of seven playable characters), two additional levels in the final chapter. It takes a minimum of three play throughs in order to see all of that and six play throughs to see every possible ending. Stating that a game only has 2-3 hours of content turns off people who are on the fence about buying a game like this and I just personally don’t think it’s a fair statement.
For the general purpose of the general buyer, I'd stand by the 2-3 hour statement - most players would see, like I did, "oh, cool, four episodes!" and think that the game is a significantly meatier entry than it is. It's got a lot of meat, but the meat requires repetition to get to the bonus content. I love that stuff, but it's a fair warning to give to others, like if a Sonic game marketed itself as a lengthy adventure when the final chapter requires 3+ playthroughs first. Or Nier, actually!
That said, I think my intent wasn't clear enough there, perhaps - if so, my bad! I haven't watched back yet to double check, but this was more my point, because even Bloodstained fans might look at Curse 2's structure differently at first, compared to 1's very clear bonus content, when they're more similar than they are different!
The regional pricing is a joke though. Here in Russia, the game costs more than Doom Eternal. Japanese devs always ask for the highest prices lol. And did we just hear the same music as in the first game? Reused content en masse for a high price, a big nope. Thank you for the early review!
The music I used was specifically from the first game just for the record, I don't think there are any tracks available from 2 yet that I could've used - the music in-game is great and I don't recall too many returning tracks from CotM1! As for the pricing, holy crap, yeah this isn't even close to a full-priced game in value, that's horrendous.
13:05 wait...so what’s the biggest Kickstarter game ever?
Shenmue 3!
This looks FAR more appealing than BS:ROTN 1. A classic aesthetic with four swap-able characters seems more like the classic NES TMNT than a Castlevania game.
This video should have started with "Yes" and then have been 9 minutes and 59 seconds of credits.
Nice casual playthrough
It looks like you either missed the part where I talk about me testing casual mode out for Episode 2, or you commented before you could get that far! Either way, great job!
@@TheGoldenBolt I watched the whole thing just wanted to see if you would say anything
Yes you should, it's a fucking masterpiece.
Read this as ‘ritual of the night 2’ and got so confused for a few seconds
Give it another year, we'll get an announcement of that too, I'm sure!
Why are you playing on casual mode though? There’s no knock back
In the video I mention that I played the entire first Episode on Veteran, and then opted to do Episodes 2 and Final on Casual because it's more or less the exact same game at that point. It made sense both to play the other difficulty for the purposes of the review (since, y'know, it's in the game because some players want it!), and to take a bit of a break from Veteran when playing the exact same game three to four times in one sitting - since my save file corrupted once before, and I was naturally paranoid about losing everything a second time!
I also played the 1st chapter in Veteran, and once you “git gud” you hardly want to come back and to that (mostly for the inconvenience of the knock back)
I feel Hachi needs a tweak to his controls. I have trouble with the hit and miss nature of his hover...it doesn't always engage and I end up losing him in a pit and have to endure the rest of the stage and boss fight without him. It's annoying because he's...awesome!
The trick to Hachi is to continue to press the jump button to hover, you won't die ever again.
Reviewer: The game is easy
Also reviewer: Playing on Casual mode, not unlocking true final boss. Not unlocking true secret final boss.
And I wonder if this person is that good that he got only 1 continue spent at Sarcophagus boss fight on episode 2.
Commenter: Completely misrepresents what reviewer says to feel intelligent. Man, this is fun!
As I noted in the video, and as you clearly heard but chose to ignore because you're the best kind of person to be around, I moved to Casual both as part of the due diligence of seeing how the game plays for those that aren't hardcore Castlevania fans, and because after beating the exact same game once, there's little reason to justify doing a nearly identical second route. At this point, I said that Casual's lack of knockback turns the game into a cakewalk, _not_ that the game was easy. In fact, I didn't even use the word "easy" in this entire script, but don't let that stop you!
Thanks for watching!
This game is actually great. Buy it!
Am I the only one who preferred the first one 100x more than the sequel?? I mean just the music alone.....
Nah I like this over First but that’s personal preference
@@brucewayne280 Same here. I loved the first game, but the second expanded upon it and made it even better. Same thing with Blaster Master Zero and its sequel. Inti Creates has a knack for making great games and even better sequels.
more like curse of the moon poo lmaoooooo
You're DISGUSTING
"moon poo" 😂😂😂 smashed like
Bought it on my ps4 pro. I own all da Vania games including these bloodstained games. This game starts good like com 1 but takes a wtf turn with the put your spaceship together n game becomes a shooter game. I was like gtfo! Are we playing a platform Vania game or R-type game. Is game decisions like these that ruin your experience. Wish I waited for flash sale price.
The shoot em up was amazing wtf you talking about. Now I'm wishing for an entire game just like that.
These games are way too hard for me lol
How much do you make a year reviewing games?
Less than minimum wage! It's a fun hobby, but I have no expectations that it'll be more than a fun hobby for the next few years or more, depending on how fortunate the channel is with growth!