First off let me just say right off the bat I love this game. I played the game offline most of the time so my friend could play with me on his computer, so that is why is says I've spent 11 hours on the game, but I've actually spent like 40 hours on the game. I beat the story once but I've 100% pretty much everything. Right now I am working on getting the last couple of weapons to have 100% of the items and then I'd have every achievement.
You didn't come here for that though, so let me get into why I love this game. This game reminds me of Castlevania Symphony of the Night and a couple of other Castlevania games a lot, and it's obvious why. I mean Iga did an amazing job capturing what was once Castlevania. He made a game that felt like Castlevania SotN, but also combined elements from the ds and gameboy games too for the shards system. I loved all the ds and gameboy games, so this addition was approved by me.
The story might be cliched but honestly I was for it because most of the Castlevania games don't have too much of a complex story. Go fight mosters/demons to get to Dracula, possibly find a secret good ending or get a bad ending. In this game the story was very simple. Gebel is now evil, go fight demons to get to him and save the town and get rid of the castle. The combat system is also like the old games and may show age but is still great. You have many weapons to choose from, and you can pretty much use any weapon you want throughout the game. The music was written by the same composer of Castlevania SotN, and so it is amazing and reminds me of that game, but also feels fresh and new. The music in SotN was amazing and I love to this day, so Bloodstained getting this right was an amazing feeling to have when hearing the music throughout the game. The whole map itself was also close to the feeling of exploring the map of the Castlevania games. Go right into it, then find some areas you can't do right away, fight a boss, and then find an ability that helps you progress. You end up backtracking a lot to find where you should go, but you eventually find that area you couldn't reach just yet is now available to you. It isn't all given to you too. You have to do some of the work to get there, the game doesn't just go "Remember that area earlier on? Go there." You have to find it after gaining the ability, and that makes it all more satisfactory when figuring it out. The townspeople in the game too remind me of the ones from Order of Ecclesia where you go and do a ton of side quests for them as you play the game. There isn't as many as there were in that game, but they are still there and add to the experience. The crafting system and food system was a surprise and a twist on the formula, and added something new to this game. It added many different items and weapons that you can craft throughout the journey. The food system was unique to where if you craft a food and eat it, it would give you permanent boosts like more hp or mp, which was an incentive to make them all. However I've only said good things about the game, so lets go into the bad.
I personally didn't like the amount of items because you had to grind a lot for them and it felt like the game has been extended a ton just for it. Granted in Castlevania it had you grinding enemies a ton, but that was an aspect I was hoping to be improved. Granted I didn't think they'd get rid of it, I just felt the improvement would make the game a little more enjoyable. Just adding higher drop rates for materials from enemies would make the process of making all the weapons and foods all the better. Castlevania has low drop rates and made you grind the enemies for quite a bit if you were unlucky. However, even though it is the same in Bloodstained, I am used to it so I can somewhat overlook it, it just feels a little annoying. They also added a technique system to the game so you have special inputs for certain weapons to do cool moves. There are 23 in the game, and I feel like most of them are copy and paste inputs just for different weapons, and throughout the game I felt no need to use any of them, they were just there if you wanted them. They felt like they were just stuck on to the game, and is not really needed at all, but that is fine. It was just a little lame when I realized you could master them and I had to master them at the end of the game because I hadn't really felt the need to use them throughout the game. They were just basically cool moves to use with the weapons. They do however add some strategy for some of the weapons, like with daggers you could throw them and for one of the special weapons, you could send a huge projectile out towards enemies, so you didn't have to get so close with the weapons. It just wasn't fully necessary, and maybe others might enjoy it but to me it was kinda lame. Another thing to note is that there are a lot of weapons in the game which kinda was all like each other and felt like a little too much when having to craft them all. I haven't even finished all of the weapons, I only have like 10 more to make not even, and I feel annoyed with how they all kinda just make stronger versions of each other, but the process to make them is tedious and long, so the excitement for making a weapon is lessened when you know you are just gonna get another version of the weapon, just a little stronger. Other than that I had nothing else I found bad about the game.

The review is really long now so I gotta do what others do and sum up everything if you don't wanna read all of it

The Good:
-Felt like Castlevania, the game this was based on
-Story was good to me, may be cliched but I still enjoyed it and it stayed true to Castlevania style
-The music was amazing and was well written, the composer did a great job
-Work to progress, not spoon-fed to you
-Side quests were like Castlevania: Order of the Ecclesia and were done throughout the game, and weren't too hard, but still an enjoyable part to the game
-The crafting mechanic was new and fresh and was mainly the most unique part of the game

The Bad:
-Possibly too many items
-A lot of grinding enemies like old games, and did not improve the low rates for dropping materials
-Crafting and cooking is a lot less enjoyable when you have to grind for the materials for a long period of time
-Techniques feel like something not necessary and just kinda added, they don't add much to the game
-If you didn't like Castlevania SotN or and of the gameboy or ds games, you probably won't like this game

I hope you enjoyed my review.