Following two prior delays that pushed its release from early 2017 to "not quite yet," the side-scrolling action-adventure Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has been given a new release date of June 18. And to prove that it hasn't been time wasted, publisher 505 Games also dropped a new trailer demonstrating how the game has improved over the past couple of years.
The video begins with a full-on embrace of the criticism aimed at the Kickstarter backer beta released last year, which included complaints about lighting, backgrounds, textures, and more: As one put it succinctly, "Boy does this look rough." That's not the sort of thing most developers are going to do unless they're pretty confident in how they've tightened things up, and based on the trailer I think it's fair to say that the art has been improved dramatically.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is an "Igavania" about Miriam, an orphan in 18th century England who's been left scarred by an alchemical curse that's slowly turning her body into crystal. This is obviously not an ideal situation, and so she sets off through a great Gothic castle to defeat the summoner Gebel and his hellish flunkies. Along the way she'll unlock new spells and powers, collect, craft, and upgrade different weapons and gear, and uncover various sorts of secrets including other playable characters.
If you didn't back it on Kickstarter, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is available (on June 18, remember) from Steam and GOG.
