It has been revealed that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which launched on Switch last summer, has now surpassed one million sales across all platforms. The developers have taken the opportunity to thank fans and to share future plans for the game.
We'll kick things off with this message from the game's producer, Koji Igarashi. He says the game's success is down to the "passionate support" shown by its backers.
A celebratory piece of art has also been shared:
As for the future, here are the current plans for the game. The team notes that schedules are always subject to change, but this should give you a pretty accurate idea of what to expect over the next few months.
Q2 2020
Boss Revenge Mode
Take control of one of four in-game bosses and use them to battle the heroes of Bloodstained!
Chroma Wheel
The salon is back in business with more options than ever for character customization, including hair, clothing, and skin color. Switch up your look with a true color selector and eliminating pre-set options previously available.Boss Revenge and Chroma Wheel will launch on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on Tuesday, June 23rd, and Nintendo Switch in July.
Q3 2020
VS Mode (Local/Online)
A tense survival mode where players compete by indirectly attacking each another.Chaos Mode (Local/Online)
A specialized boss rush for 1 or 2 players. The mode includes randomized drops and special sub goals that will grant more equipment when completed. Collect the best, drop the rest as you build power to defeat all the bosses!Classic Mode
It’s Bloodstained 80s-style as Miriam faces off against a series of sub-bosses laid out across five harrowing stages and three difficulty levels.Q4 2020
Playable Character
Bloodstained’s 3rd playable character after Miriam and Zangetsu. (It’s not Dominique)
Are you one of the million players who have picked up a copy of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night? If you're still on the fence, perhaps our review can persuade you one way or the other.
[source playbloodstained.com]
Comments (56)
"Bloodstained’s 3rd playable character after Miriam and Zangetsu. (It’s not Dominique)"
Inb4 Gebel.😀
I waited the patch, but it's sad to read that the game isn't that smooth on switch.. I'll grab it anyway. I'm getting used to play worse versions of the games on switch.. im talking to you witcher! even if I love the platform. Could anyone tell me how good or bad is to play on switch?
Good to know the current status, annoying to learn that the Switch version (despite being assured it finally has feature-parity with the other versions) will again have a delay for an unknown length of time, without a good explanation.
@rex_rex
I too have come to accept we get the worst versions on Switch but it does make sense with it being lesser hardware despite some of the offenders being ones that definitely could run on Switch.
For me though, I'm not picking up games on Switch for them to look the best or perform the best, I'm picking them up because it is my console of choice and has the highest chance of me actually playing it, sure I have a capable gaming pc but I'd much rather sit on my sofa or elsewhere playing then at my desk chair.
In answer to your question, it really does not perform that badly, yes it definitely looks worse than the other versions, but I have only encountered a couple of times of frame loss when playing and that is it.
Don't believe the haters for the game as they will lead you to believe it's horrific. Sure it should have been patched sooner for performance(cannot comment on pre patch performance) but in it's current state it performs well and I have found it to be a joy to play.
Witcher is a bit different due to what it was doing, true current gen on Switch performing and looking as good as it does really is a feat.
@graysoncharles Maybe because the game is actually a good one and shouldn't be judged solely on its performance? The performance of which really isn't that bad at all.
A whole suite of updates won't salve my disappointment with the game in general. I ceased backing games through crowd funding altogether thanks to my experience with Bloodstained.
@Rosona tks for your return! yes, the switch is definitely the console of my choice. I had a PS4 before it and I had to clean the dust of it after the arrival of my switch.. I'm enjoying Witcher, i'm very near the end (but still got to play the expansions) btw. Tks again, ill buy the game, SOTN is by far my top 1 ps1 game. I love metroidvanias, ill grab it. tks again!
It's a shame because this game plays so well on PC and was one of my favorite games last year. I picked it up on Switch and was so disappointed I couldn't play for more than a few hours. The performance gets even worse is some of the later levels.
This is really good news and a pleasant surprise they are still continuing with free updates/dlc
Just shows that ultimately the quality of the game has truly shone and not been judged on it's early performance issues. Yes they should have performance patched it sooner, but make no mistake, it is far from the catastrophe haters would lead you to believe and for me, I've found it a joy to play, exactly what I wanted from it and even more!
Although is a bit disappointing that we have finally hit parity but that will soon stop being the case.
Weird. Some games I just expect to be done and dusted. Not everything needs to be SaaS.
Is the Switch version fixed yet?
I really enjoyed my time with this game, but it's not exactly a live service games. I'm never going to go back to this, and I can't imagine many people are. I'd much prefer they just spent their time developing a sequel than adding a new character or mode!
I played this game when it became playable on the switch (can't remember the exact patch) and loved it, but I don't think I'll ever touch it again.
@Isaix - it's better, but still not great.
I'll wait for the "Everything is included and you don't have to wait for patches to enjoy the full experience" version to come out.
@graysoncharles played it before the performance update(thought it already happened at the time) and it was still my game of the year
(It's not Dominique)
Aww
Could it be the young alchemist?
Most of these things sound really awesome to me.
I got all achievements in the base game (plus other extra stuff), but I still haven't tried out Zangetsu. I should get to that before the Boss Revenge thingy happens a couple weeks from now.
I backed on Switch at an entirely too high amount and barely touched it after experiencing how poor the version is. Honestly pissed at IGA and the dev team for it, and yeah, very undeserved achievement selling a bunch of half-broken copies before release to fund said project.
So they already reached feature parity for all platforms but still can't fix their release schedules. Makes sense.
Good game, glad to see it's still getting new updates.
Put me in the too pissed to care category.....LOL....Ok I am not that pissed, but really how they handled the Switch has been poor. First off to the best of my knowledge it has still sold best on Switch. So a game they hyped and targeted to Switch turns out to sell best on Switch but get the worst version. It was patch 1.04 that made the most performance improvements on Switch and brought it up to playability. For those wondering, before all the patching the game had some serious issues including crashing, bad input lag, and frame drops. Patching did fix most of that, but the game still looks pretty poor compared to other versions (particularly the water and other effects). Its worth playing on Switch, but honestly if you don't want it portable and have another platform it is much better played on anything else.
I backed the project, but I was not happy about some decisions and behavior during the process. There were too many lies and broken promises along the way. And the passion of the backers that Iga references was also one of the worst aspects of being a backer, as some people felt it was their job to defend the developers from anyone who had legitimate criticism of the project in the project comments. As said, there was plenty of deception. I was happy to be able to sell my game key a year ago on release day, and I came out ahead thanks to ebay. I'll just stick to the old Castlevania games on GBA and DS.
I have a physical version of this game on PS4. It's looks and plays great! I’m glad it is successful. We need more igawania games!
I'm not sure it's quite good enough to deserve that number of sales personally but at least they continue to work on it and make it better and better.
Clearly the new playable character is Alfred as he was the 3rd in Curse of the Moon.
@Rosona yeah really I hated the performance on switch but honestly the games pretty good all things considered
@graysoncharles I dont agree, yeah it had some performance issues on launch but i played and completed it at launch and enjoyed it. i have since played it after the patch and is even smoother and better to play.
The game itself is exactly what he sold to us, a castlevania like game and it is great fun with cool monsters, characters and environments.
I loved this game on Switch, played it around December with the first gameplay patch and only had issues with the boss on the giant tower. These additions don’t interest me much though. I might try classic mode.
Hopefully they’ll learn from their mistakes and make a sequel that launches well on Switch or its successor.
@SmartNickname why? Isnt that just a waste of money if you only going to play it once?
@rex_rex it's worth it. I have both versions and the switch version has some flaws but still extremely enjoyable. Not enough flaws to bring it down
@graysoncharles cry about it. Maybe because the performance doesnt affect gameplay. And it's actually a great game. Better than Symphony of the Night and Aria of Sorrow. You've obviously havent played it.
@Rosona do keep in mind they were developing it for wii u and vita, stopped more than halfway and made a switch version. That's probably why the switch version is not on par
@Magician that's your fault. Dont back it to begin with
@Isaix yes
so wens the next patch to fix some of the resolution/graphics in this game cause ive been holding off playing it till they finish patching this mess up.
@tsdenizen keep in mind they're a team with limited money, were making a wii u and vita version, quit those versions more than halfway thru and made a switch version. Be grateful kid
@graysoncharles bruh I'm 17. You're really over exaggerating right now. It's obvious you havent played the game
@RiasGremory it's mostly patched. A few frame rate drops here and there but not unplayable like be4. I had around 4 frame rate drops and it was like 2 seconds. Nothing to mess you up.
@PickledKong64 theres still improvements needed to fix some of the background like the water for instance.
Well for those wondering how Bloodstained perform without bias (I neither like nor dislike the game, it was just very average imo). The game mostly runs good. There are a small number of areas where frame rate can be bad where it’s noticeably slowed down such as an underground area with a lot of lifts that carry you diagonally to the top-left area. By the end of the game, sometimes there are sudden pause that I have to wait around 3-5sec in order for the game to resume time and time again, it could be the area I’m traversing but it seems to be all over the place. The only time something like this really caused me issues is at the 2nd final boss where the game it was really slow due to frame rate dips and near the end of the battle, the game will pause for probably a minute long, I thought the game froze at first so I reset the game but it happened exactly at the same moment again so I left it for a minute or 2 and then I was able to resume and then go to the next area to fight the final boss.
Overall, other than the 2nd final boss (true ending route), there is probably a total of 3-5 areas out of like 50+ that will cause frame rate dips. In all honesty, I can’t really recommend the switch version other than it’s portability when we all know that superior versions exists but if the switch is the only platform you’re willing to play the game on and don’t think the above issues will affect you, go ahead and get it.
Ugh. Every time an article on this game comes out I think “I should get this!” And then I read the comments about how poorly it performs... damnit.
Yet some people seem to say it plays fine on Switch.... so confused.
I hope the playable character is the old lady who sends you on a bunch of fetch quests.
Also, they need to scrap the 2.5D graphics and just give us beautiful, 2D sprites.
@PickledKong64 ..Lol “Bloodstained Ritual of the Night “is a good game ,but I have to respectfully disagree with you that it is “better than Symphony of the Night “..
@rex_rex The problem with Bloodstained isn’t just that it performs worse. It’s that the performance isn’t really acceptable. Doom and the Witcher 3 are low res, but they still perform fine. And those are modern games. Bloodstained was not well-programmed, I think.
@PickledKong64 Tks buddy! I'll get.. the thing is, it's not that cheap.. but?? what annoys me some ppl say it's supper acceptable, other say it runs hyper bad.. again, since the switch is myyy platform, ill get it anyway.. but the truth is, i truly expected with this famous patch, we could run more or less on the same quality that ps4 and xone.. at least by far, it does not seem an heavy game.. it's a plataformer.. we have more beautiful plataformers on switch..
@roboshort and I think about get doom also.. I haven't played yet and I have big expectations for doom ethernal.. do you have doom on switch? and tks for the reply!
@rex_rex Yeah, I've got it. Doom on Switch is really well done, though it doesn't look as good as it does on other systems. I was looking forward to Doom Eternal too.. but I'd forgotten about it was scheduled to come out. Is it still coming this year?
@roboshort good to know you enjoyed the first version! as far as I know yes man.. it is expected to this year.. Let's see if we have some sort of presentation (or direct, plzzz) this summer.. with all that story of sku from amazon france, one game was from bethesda some youtubers said, probably would be doom ethernal..
@rex_rex of you have ot ph ps4 you might want it on that. I have it on pc and switch but play the switch version a lot
@DreamStar fair
Such cool support from Iga!
The Switch port isn't bad at all. I played through the entire game without a single bug or glitch and don't recall any significant frame drops. One of my most favorite entries to come out in recent memory. Just a ton of fun to play.
@Tonyo I usually play my games once, never thought it was a waste of money...
@Benji80 same. I was really thrown off bc I waited until all the patches were finished. Thought the game would be running smoothly now but I’ve been experiencing a ton of lag, long load times, and shoddy graphical glitches..
@SmartNickname once? wow ok. To each his own
Just finished my second max randomizer run and I still can’t get enough. The Zangetsu playthrough was fun but I probably won’t repeat it. Keep it coming though. I’ll take all the DLC I can get.
If you like metroidvanias then the quality will outshine the performance.
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