A few weeks ago, Slain: Back From Hell launched on the Switch eShop, and it admittedly didn’t impress all that much. The game had a troubled release cycle, with the main issue being that the difficulty was initially far too high, and the final release didn’t quite shape up to provide what it promised. Even so, desperate fans of the Castlevania games don’t have many more options on the Switch, and Stage Clear Studios is still working on polishing up this release.
A new update just went out for Slain that improves the performance and bumps up the FPS from 30 to 60. Considering that one of the high points of the game is the impressive visuals, this should no doubt come as a pleasant surprise to the fans. Hopefully the developer will continue to provide more updates over time to tweak the game; there certainly is a decent foundation to be worked with.
What do you think? Did you like Slain? How do you think it stacks up to Castlevania? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Comments 29
Mmm classic castlevania? I’m tempted.
I'm surprised to see the support. That's a pretty big bump in terms of performance. If they get the stupidly spawning enemies under control, it might be worth a purchase.
It now runs at 60 Frames Per Soul or is it 60 Fatalities per Soul.
I'll let myself out.
Nice, maybe ill try it out myself.
GLORIOUS 60 FRAMES PER SECOND
@Kobeskillz wait until it's on a big sale--you'll thank me later.
So does this update apply to dock mode only? Cause I play handheld mode and I didn't see any difference in the framerates.
I heard about its troubled original release but the updated release seems to have polarised people. I have the physical Vita release but yet to play. Do like indie Switch games though.
Are the controls good or are they as messed up as the Steam version? I bought the game on Steam and the controls were so horrible that it was literally unplayable. I haven't tried again since which is a pity since I think the setting/art style/music are awesome. But except form that the game is horrible in every other way.
Cool bump up in performance.
That being said , Mario Odyssey can do it. If these devs were given the same tools/knowledge as Nintendo we would see alot more of the fabled 60fps imo.
I still think that’s a crazy low score, it’s better than that.
“Impressive visuals” Uh Yea ok then. 60fps should have been there from the start, considering it’s pixel art.
It still doesn't seem as smoothe as it should be. If you look at the title screen you and see how nice and clear it is but when you actually play it still has a stutter to the graphics as you move. Maybe it is intebtional. Game is still sweet though.
Aren't pretty much all 2D pixel platformers 60fps (or 50fps for the PAL of old)? I'm sure all the NES/SNES ones were anyway?
I like this game. Play it on ps4. It deserve more love. A 7 or 8/10 for me. Got it in a discount for 6 $CAN a couple of months ago.
Morphite got an update too that MASSIVELY improved the framerate. Got a great new icon too.
I'm tempted to get this and I'd like to know if it is really so difficult as they say. I don't mind hard games as long as they are fair and rewarding but if that's not the case, I'm out. Can someone who played the game give me his/her thoughts?
@SonOfVon Yes it's hard as heck but is totally beatable if you can manage to learn from your mistakes. I say if you could beat Cuphead, Battletoads, and Ninja Gaiden with no problem, then this game would be a cake walk to you.
Does the game auto update with this new patch? I started the game and no download screen popped up like it does for other games. Maybe its only pops up for cartridge based games?
With that being said, it does seem that the sword action swings faster, which helps a ton. This game was too hard with its initial release. Having to start all the way back to the check points sucks.
Are you kidding me? This game was 30 fps before the update?
@GravyThief most of those games had significant slowdown. Not 60 fps
@DownRightSam so average 57.8986453723543 fps?
Of course it’s no castlevania and a bit hard but I’ve enjoyed the game on Xbox.
@Hughesy It doesn't work like that. 2D and 3D are demanding in their own ways. They are programmed in completely different ways that make use of completely different features of the GPU. And GPUs these days are heavily optimized towards 3D rendering, not 2D.
@joey302
a lot of castlevania was crap too imo. poor controls, slow movement, stupid flying heads, terribad jumping, etc..
i did dig the ps2 castlevanias. i hope those get ported over. best 3d versions imo.
Got the physical version today. Still feels like 30fps. Is there maybe a difference between docked/undocked still?
@PixelStef Ive only played it docked yet, and the moving of the background nausiates me. Like seriously. It does not feel 60 FPS at all.
@Polymorph85
Having the same issues, looks like the physical game is not linked somehow to the digital version, as the game should not be at version 1.0.0 as they released a patch end of Dec 2017 that changed 30fps into 60fps.
Update: I contacted Merge Games through there website contact form. Hopefully they will clarify it. Keep you posted!
Update2: Merge Games response:
Thanks for reaching out to us. As far as I know, any content that was previously released for the game should’ve been included within the initial release of the physical product. This means that it should be version 1.0.0 but still include the previous patch updates.
@Polymorph85
Check this video, in Italian unfortunately:
https://youtu.be/jXMQdvNgMQE
Make sure YouTube is also set to 720p60fps or 1080p60fps. It looks much more fluent to me than what we now have with the physical version, very noticable around 1:23
The first 27 seconds are of the 30fps version before the patch. I think this is reflecting what we are playing.
What do you think?
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