The Bloodstained series is a Gothic fantasy themed franchise of 2D action-adventure platformer games developed by renown producer Koji Igarashi. The games that comprise it are intended to be developed in the same vein as those from the Castlevania series, and the franchise as a whole is considered to be a spiritual successor of his previous work on said series; mostly notably, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.
Titles[]
The Bloodstained series is currently comprised of three games, plus a DLC campaign:
- Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (2018) - Six possible endings; one is considered the True one in the Japanese version.
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night (2019) - Three possible main endings, one is considered the True one. Different playable characters (Zangetsu, Bloodless and Aurora) have their own endings, but are considered non-canonical.
- Classic II: Dominique's Curse (2024) - An extra mode of Ritual of the Night in the form of paid DLC, which continues its main game's storyline. Three possible endings, one is considered the True one.
- Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2 (2020) - Two possible final endings, plus an alternate-ending-like scenario mid-game that can add an additional playable episode. No information has been given on which these choices are considered the True ones.
Storyline continuity[]
The series take place across two different, separate continuities:
- The events of Ritual of the Night and Dominique's Curse are considered the main continuity.
- The events of Curse of the Moon and Curse of the Moon 2 are considered their own, spin-off storyline, in a sort of alternative take to the premise of Ritual of the Night.
Furthermore, while all the games so far also feature a variety of multiple, alternate endings, most of games also make it clear which one of them is labeled the True Ending for that particular adventure.
So far, only Dominique's Curse has been shown to directly follow up from its predecessor, the main adventure of Ritual of the Night's True Ending. While there are some elements that make it clear that Curse of the Moon 2 is a sequel story of Curse of the Moon, none of the latter's possible endings perfectly match the scenario presented in Curse of the Moon 2; this still applies to the Japanese version of Curse of the Moon, despite definitively having labeled one of the endings as the "True Ending".
Setting[]
Regardless of the continuity, the series's titles all share the same general setting:
At the beginning of the 18th century's Industrial revolution, a large Alchemy Guild, fearing to lose all of its wealthy patrons to the new scientific discoveries, recklessly summoned a gigantic army of demons in the human world, triggering a massive catastrophe, while also leading them to the creation of the Shardbinders, humans augmented with demonic powers. A decade after the event, the world, in one way or the other, is still struggling against the lingering demonic forces plaguing the land, with the threat of a new, full-scale demonic invasion never too far away.