This past week, Microsoft had a showing at Gamescom in Germany, showing off things you didn’t see at E3. Quantum Break (which had been shown since E3 2013), Crackdown (which had been hinted at since E3 2013) and Platinum Game’s Scalebound (which was shown off at last year’s E3) along with a few surprises. While most of the cool stuff isn’t coming out til 2016, there was plenty at the show for Xbox Owners to look forward too.
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Ever since 2010’s Lords of Shadow, the Castlevania franchise just hasn’t been the same. Seeing as how Konami is currently making some questionable moves, Koji Igarashi is hard at work creating a spiritual successor to the franchise. This game will adopt the ‘Metroidvania’, or as he calls it ‘Igavania’ style of gameplay that was made famous by titles such as Symphony of the Night, Portrait of Ruin, and Dawn of Sorrow. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a 2.5D action platformer in the vein of SOTN. Playing as a young girl named Miriam, you investigate the appearance of a mysterious castle in a world controlled by an organization known as the Alchemist Guild. The gameplay will feature a crafting system, upgradable weapons, and special abilities. The art style (right down to the logo as seen above) evokes memories of Konami’s classic franchise. Iga even recruited longtime Castlevania composer Michiru Yamane to do the soundtrack. Seeing as how Koji has gone indie, he’s turned to Kickstarter to secure funding for the title. While he was only asking for $500,000, He managed to raise over 3 times as much (as of the time of this article). With the funding, Iga has secured several stretch goals such as new characters, and voicework from David Hayter (that’s the former Solid Snake) to those who don’t know. The game will be developed by Inti Creates, who are currently working on Mighty No. 9, a spiritual successor to Mega Man. It’s clear that this title will be to Castlevania what Mighty No. 9 is to Mega Man. Perhaps next we should get someone to create a spiritual successor to Contra? Igarashi is hoping to release the game on Mac, PC, Linux, Xbox One, and PS4 in March of 2017.