Veterans Koji Igarashi and Shutaro Ida, among others, stopped developing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night after Konami made it clear they were no longer interested in making a new Castlevania.
Funded by Kickstarter, it became a huge success and the couple have since expanded the acclaimed campaign. However, in recent years, they have been making series. But now, Shutaro Ida – lead developer of the excellent Castlevania games for the Nintendo DS and producer of Bloodstained – has announced that he will have to leave the workforce due to cancer.
Castlevania legend Koji Igarashi – who, among other things, worked as a programmer and script writer on the classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night – definitely regretted it and wrote (translated by Bing):
“Until now, the DS and Bloodstained series have been mostly produced by director Shutaro. That’s his job. He was able to get back to the point where we can work together again.
The latter is indeed a dream, but now of course we pray that everything goes well with Shutaro Ida, and of course everything else is secondary.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is included with Game Pass and PS Plus. You should definitely try it.