Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Director Stepping Back from Sequel After Cancer Diagnosis

Castlevania veteran Shutaro Ida has announced that he will be stepping back from work on Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night 2 following his recent cancer diagnosis.

The game developer, who worked on a long list of entries in Konami’s Castlevania series and more recently directed 2019’s Bloodstained, announced the news in a post on X/Twitter. He says he’ll be offloading some of his responsibilities with the rest of the team at developer ArtPlay now that he has begun his cancer battle.

“I, SHUTARO, also known as Curry Boy and Curry Sage, have been diagnosed with cancer and have begun my battle with the disease. I have already started talking about the sequel to Bloodstained, and have ideas for the game and such. From now on, the responsibility [for game direction] will be shared. Thank you for your support,” Ida wrote in a post translated by X and verified by IGN.

Ida has been instrumental in the Bloodstained universe and had planned on continuing it with a sequel. Bloodstained 2 was originally announced back in 2021, though no additional details about its progress have arrived since then. At the time, publisher 505 Games touted the action RPG as a success that managed to reach “generally favorable” reviews from both critics and fans on Metacritic.

これまで、DSシリーズやブラッドステインドは実質的にSHUTAROディレクターを中心に制作を行ってきました。
正に彼の作品と言えるでしょう。
そんな彼がプロジェクトから遠ざかるのは大変な痛手ですが、それに負けぬよう頑張ります。
また一緒に仕事ができるまで回復することを期待します。 https://t.co/YirZi5fYYD

— IGA (@KojiIGA) October 1, 2024

Longtime Castlevania producer and ArtPlay president Koji Igarashi re-posted Iida’s remarks. While acknowledging Iida’s contributions to the series and gaming as a whole, he assures fans that the rest of the team will push through until Ida is able to work with them again.

“Up until now, the DS [Castlevania] series and Bloodstained have essentially been produced primarily by Director SHUTARO. It can truly be called his work. It is a great blow to have him step away from the project, but we will do our best not to be defeated by it. I hope that you will recover quickly enough to work with us again.”

Ida led the charge on Bloodstained and made a game that we ranked as the fourth best Metroidvania of all-time. In our 8.8/10 review, we said, “The wait was worth it. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a whole new castle to crash full of unexpected monsters and mysteries in the vein of classic Castlevania.”

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.