Another prominent game among the titles that are about to leave the catalog is Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, Koji Igarashi’s creation that is considered the spiritual successor to Castlevania. Bloodstained entered the Game Pass catalog in September 2019, and The Witcher 3 arrived a little later, in December of the same year. Accompanying the departing bandwagon are Alvastia Chronicles, Astrologaster (PC only), and Kona. You still have two weeks to bid a mellow farewell ingrained in powerful, yet warm memories. If you don’t have that much time to enjoy all the games, at least try to try Witcher 3. Not only the game received as many awards as Meryl Streep, but it is an amazing adventure with a compelling story and a plethora of side quests that make you proud to sidetrack your main mission. I played Witcher 3 recently and if you’ve read my 100 RPGs of All Time guide, you know that I really like JRPGS. Every now and then, I take a chance on a WPRG, and boy, am I glad I did. Boasting 125 hours of gameplay, I did everything I could have done in the game, earning the infamous platinum trophy (I know, I know, Xbox has achievements.). The hours went by so fast that I didn’t realize I had invested almost 3 months of my life in the game. But you won’t see me regretting it. The game has an average length of 50 hours in the main story. However, I must say that it is a disrespect towards Geralt to simply run over his adventure and ignore the side quests that help expand the lore of the game and introduce us to amazing characters from the Witcher world. I read the books and I must say that understanding the in-game references gave my gameplay a big plus. All this is to say: enjoy it while it lasts. Anyway, in case you miss it or can’t be bothered to spend all those hours in a two weeks time frame, it’s worth buying the game since it will have a free upgrade for the new generation. Not to brag, but, I also have a platinum trophy in Bloodstained. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is an amazing game and when I learned that its creator was thinking of giving us a spiritual successor, I didn’t give it a second thought. In the best Metroidvania style, Bloodstained maintains the vampiric fluidity of Castlevania: SOTN, but incorporates an element from another game in the series, the Tactical Soul from Aria and Dawn of Sorrow. With each enemy defeated, they can drop a shard, increasing Miriam’s power with new conjurations, passive abilities, familiars, and more. The other games, while not as renowned as the above, also deserve your appreciation. Alvastia Chronicles is an RPG from the studio Kemco. If you are not familiar, Kemco is responsible for bringing to mobile numerous retro RPGs with a distinctive RPG Maker style. The game is not that long and lasts between 15 to 20 hours if you want to reminisce the past a bit. Kona is a detective survival game. Little of the story is revealed at the outset, as Kona is based on the concept of “explore to find out more”. Many compare the gameplay to Resident Evil 7, so if you enjoy the first-person MO, it is worth exploring to find out more before Kona leaves Game Pass. Astrologaster is a PC-only game, so if you only own an Xbox, you can ignore this paragraph. However, if you like a comedy game with an astrology thematic that is set in Shakespeare’s London, it’s worth a peek. Astrologaster is a visual novel filled with decision-making with refined humor. Considering the game has only 6 hours of length, you could enjoy your social distancing weekend with this soon-to-leave-Game-Pass game.
