Bloodstained

In June, 505 Games - on behalf of Koji Igarashi and the rest of the team behind Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - said it would improve the Switch version of the game with a series of "small updates" rather than forcing players to wait for a bigger one.

Now, though, this plan has been wiped. Instead of a smaller update, the aim is to roll out a single and much bigger patch for the Switch release. Here's the rundown from the 505 Games senior community manager:

we have moved resources around to give priority to Switch performance improvements. This includes additional resources from WayForward as well as assistance from the Epic/Unreal team. It’s a slow process, and we apologize for the delay. When we do push out optimizations, we want it to be worth the wait.

This doesn’t mean every single person on the team is typing away on Switch code, but it is currently getting the bulk of dev time.

Initially we had planned to release a number of small updates to give incremental improvements. After looking at what needs to be accomplished, our goal is to bundle performance improvements into (likely) one patch. Doing so eases the submission process and will result in an overall faster completion. Since this is still in development, we don’t have a firm ETA. We will update everyone when we have a more concrete release window.

In saying this, there has been a "smaller" Switch update released. Update 1.02 includes bug fixes, balance updates and localisation improvements. You can see the full changes on the Bloodstained forums.

Iga himself even chimed in and apologised for the continued inconvenience, especially on the Switch. He also mentioned how work on the game's DLC is currently underway:

We apologize for the continued inconvenience for certain regions this far after launch. Especially on the Nintendo Switch, we are making progress on the optimization to make sure the gameplay improves. We will do our best to deliver this as soon as possible. Aside from the improvements, we are also working on the DLC at this very moment.

There have been many changes in the upcoming patch so it might be worth visiting back to it, even if you may have already beaten the game.

How has your experience with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night been so far? Will you be revisiting the game to try out the new small patch? Leave a comment below.

[source kickstarter.com]