Castlevania veteran Shutaro Ida has announced that he is withdrawing from work on Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night 2 following his recent cancer diagnosis.
The game developer, who has worked on a long list of titles in Konami’s Castlevania series and most recently directed 2019’s Bloodstained, announced the news in post on X/Twitter. He says that now that he has begun his fight against cancer, he will take over some of his responsibilities along with the rest of the ArtPlay development team.
Ida played a key role in the Bloodstained universe and planned to continue it in a sequel. Originally there was Bloodstained 2 announced already in 2021although no additional details have been forthcoming on progress since then. At the time, publisher 505 Games touted the action RPG as a success, receiving “generally positive” reviews from critics and fans alike on Metacritical.
Until now, the DS and Bloodstained series were mainly produced by director SHUTARO.
It’s sheltered to say it’s his work.
Having him removed from the project is a huge pain, but I will do everything in my power to prevent that from happening.
I hope you recover enough to work together again. https://t.co/YirZi5fYYD— IGA (@KojiIGA) October 1, 2024
Longtime Castlevania producer and president of ArtPlay, Koji Igarashi reposted Iida’s comments. While appreciating Ida’s contributions to the series and the game as a whole, he assures fans that the rest of the team will keep fighting until Ida is able to work with them again.
Ida led the charge on Bloodstained and created the game we classified as the fourth best Metroidvania of all time. in ours Review 8.8/10we said, “It was worth the wait. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a brand recent castle filled with unexpected monsters and secrets in the style of classic Castlevania.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor to IGN. He began writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work on outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP and Gameranx.
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