Castlevania veteran Shutaro Ida steps down from Bloodstained 2 following cancer diagnosis

Castlevania veteran and Bloodstained designer Shutaro Ida has stepped down from Bloodstained 2 after being diagnosed with cancer.

Ida, who was a lead developer on the DS Castlevania games and went on to design spiritual successor Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, posted on his X account that he had already started work on the sequel to Bloodstained but now has to focus on his treatment.

“I, Shutaro, also known as Curry Boy and Curry Sage, have been diagnosed with cancer and have now begun my battle with the disease,” he wrote.

“I had already started discussing the sequel to Bloodstained and I have various ideas for the game. From now on, I will hand over this work to others. Thank you for your support.”

Ida’s post was retweeted by Castlevania and Bloodstained producer Koji Igarashi, who offered his best wishes.

“Up until now, the DS [Castlevania] series and Bloodstained have been produced primarily by director Shutaro,” he wrote. “They can truly be called his works.

“It is a great blow that he is stepping away from the project, but we will do our best to make up for this. We hope that he will recover soon so we can work together again.”

It was confirmed back in 2021 that a sequel to Bloodstained was “in very early planning stages”, but that development resources were still focused on completing extra content for the first game

An update released back in May added Chaos mode, Versus mode and a free cosmetic pack based on the platformer Shantae.

In August, Konami released Castlevania Dominus Collection, a retro compilation consisting of the three Castlevania games released for the Nintendo DS – Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia.