Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night released on June 18th to massive critical reception, becoming one of the highest-scored games of the year on OpenCritic. A few days later, on June 25th, the slightly delayed Nintendo Switch version of the game launched, to far less praise. Rampant framerate problems and crashes happened to plague the Switch release, to which the development team released a version 1.01 patch to fix certain issues. Sadly, the patch didn't seem to resolve the fluctuating framerate or even the random crashes. After concerns began to flood the internet, publisher 505 Games announced that they would be putting all their focus into fixing major issues for Bloodstained on the Switch, in order to allow the game to be enjoyable regardless of platform. Smaller patches will be distributed throughout the coming days, to try to increase game performance as soon as possible, so that players don't have to wait for one large patch that addresses every problem.

Source

 

[matias3ds]

- 40€ game
- releases a week after the very good PC/PS4/Xbox version
- no reviews or footage of the switch version prior to the release
- no gameplay trailer on the eShop (instant red flag)

Good thing I waited. I am not the type of guy who puts on a tinfoil hat but...*puts on tinfoil hat*
...it looks like 505 Games was very well aware that the Switch port is rubbish, so what did they do? Release the good versions first, get good PR (the core game itself is excellent, no doubt about that) and then release the Switch version a week later, hoping that people are too hyped from the positive reviews to notice that there is something *very* wrong with the Switch version.
...*puts his tinfoil hat away*

Yeah, does sound very likely with the current state of the industrie...

If Nintendo would be a serious company , they will have to remove the game for the eShop until is working properly

 

[RedoLane]

Bloodstained Ritual of the Night is a perfect Igavania.
…
That is all. I shall excuse myself.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

How bad is it really? Has anyone here played it and knows?
Framerate issues are very common on ports to Switch and I haven't seen anyone else actually care enough to fix framerate issues. Is it that much worse than for example Doom? Bad enough to be unplayable?

 

[DSoryu]

For those bashing 505 games for this poorly port, you should know that the game was outsourced by another development company that seemingly went to make parties instead of make their work. Despite this, that doesn't forgive 505 games because their job was to supervise the quality and avoid the release of such a bad port, even a delay would have been okay, explaining the truth to avoid criticism from the ones who bought this game specifically for the switch and where left with a terrible first impression (luckily I got my PC copy as well).

So it really makes me happy that the main developers behind Bloodstained will take over of this mess.
Their highest priority should be to make this run at 60fps, after all, this is a game that heavily relies in your gameplay abilities.
Secondly, fixing and/or optimizing the post processing effects, some are completely missing or display non existing shadows, even the blood stains (nice detail btw) are missing or end hidden behind the floor/wall textures.

EDIT: According to some google searches, the company in charge of this port is called " Armature Studio ". So there it is, '505 games' are not completely responsible for this bad port, let's hope they address all the issues soon.

 

[burial]

How bad is it really? Has anyone here played it and knows?
Framerate issues are very common on ports to Switch and I haven't seen anyone else actually care enough to fix framerate issues. Is it that much worse than for example Doom? Bad enough to be unplayable?

The Doom port is far superior in every way.

Bloodstained is probably the worst performing/worst looking game Ive played on Switch.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

The Doom port is far superior in every way.

Bloodstained is probably the worst performing/worst looking game Ive played on Switch.

But is it playable? How bad does the FPS get (from your estimation?) 5 FPS? 10 FPS?

 

[the_randomizer]

Why couldn't they just release the game in a better state?

 

[Kadji]

How bad is it really? Has anyone here played it and knows?
Framerate issues are very common on ports to Switch and I haven't seen anyone else actually care enough to fix framerate issues. Is it that much worse than for example Doom? Bad enough to be unplayable?

Correct me if I am Wrong but Dead Cells (Switch) had some major FPS problems when it initially released.
I bought the Game a few weeks ago, and the game now runs with a steady, locked 30fps (and the developer are working on a "high fps" patch afaik, not sure if for Switch though).
And tbh I was quite shocked that games like Doom, Wolfenstein or Witcher 3 can even run on the Switch. And I would not call Doom unplayable, even though Doom can drop to 25 - 20 fps in some instances, and ofc the visual quality is crap compared to a high end system. Those are big 3d games though.
Bloodstained, while using 3D models and geometry, does not look like it's a heavy hitter on the graphics side, the shaders and effects look very basic to me.
And the Switch should be more than capable to run such a game with 60 FPS when games like SMO, Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart can deliver a nice, 60 fps experience while having better graphics by a mile compared to Bloodstained. Sure, Nintendo has *perfect* knowledge over their Hardware, but some other 3rd party games also manage to hit that sweet 60 fps.

For me it seems like 505 or whoever was responsible for the Switch Port did not know wtf they were doing.
Same with the 30+ seconds of Load Time on CTR NF - who thought this was acceptable?

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Correct me if I am Wrong but Dead Cells (Switch) had some major FPS problems when it initially released.
I bought the Game a few weeks ago, and the game now runs with a steady, locked 30fps (and the developer are working on a "high fps" patch afaik, not sure if for Switch though).
And tbh I was quite shocked that games like Doom, Wolfenstein or Witcher 3 can even run on the Switch. And I would not call Doom unplayable, even though Doom can drop to 25 - 20 fps in some instances, and ofc the visual quality is crap compared to a high end system. Those are big 3d games though.
Bloodstained, while using 3D models and geometry, does not look like it's a heavy hitter on the graphics side, the shaders and effects look very basic to me.
And the Switch should be more than capable to run such a game with 60 FPS when games like SMO, Splatoon 2 and Mario Kart can deliver a nice, 60 fps experience while having better graphics by a mile compared to Bloodstained. Sure, Nintendo has *perfect* knowledge over their Hardware, but some other 3rd party games also manage to hit that sweet 60 fps.

For me it seems like 505 or whoever was responsible for the Switch Port did not know wtf they were doing.
Same with the 30+ seconds of Load Time on CTR NF - who thought this was acceptable?

I didn't mean Doom was unplayable but it's kind of borderline. They got it just well enough working to warrant even bothering to release the thing.
Ark on Switch on the other hand I hear is completely unplayable.

I am surprised Dead Cells didn't run at 60 FPS considering it's a 2D game and the graphics are simple (although visually appealing), guess that just shows how piss poor devs have become at optimizing their games now that they have more raw power available.

 

[proffk]

I found out that this game was development for the Wii U before going to the NSW. Maybe explains the lack of visuals. Seeing the downgrade from the PS4/NSW comparisons of the ship stage where rain water runs off the ship really annoys me. What do these devs think gamers won't notice.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

All I'm saying is.... Mighty No.9 On wii u. It could REALLY USE SOME PATCHES!

But i'm glad they will "Try" to fix it, because it seems like video games are getting bad reputation on kickstarter. I don't think this should have happened. Is almost as bad as ebay

 

[Kadji]

Does ARK run well on *any* platform? No matter which Platform, all I hear about that game is that it runs like crap, even on higher end PCs (but not 4k overkill machines, me and my friends are not that rich).
Fully agree with Doom. In some places it was borderline, but most of the time the game was 'just fine'.

 

[Pipistrele]

505 games don't bother. Switch owners won't buy your game. Releasing the switch port in such a poor state and purposely concealing the quality of your work till last second is really a thing.

Speak for yourself, I'll gladly buy it once current issues are fixed

 

[sTo0z]

dude, many footage are online and can prove that your msg is just a troll msg.

For sure, I own the PS4 version and it runs completely fine for me. No frame issues so far and not a single crash. Currently level 20 and about 35% map explored for reference. Maybe it gets worse later or something, but not a single issue so far.

 

[lolboy]

Pissstained ritual of the night

 

[GreatCrippler]

I've played a few hours on the Switch so far. It has issues, but it's not anywhere near the mess people are making it out to be. Is it the lesser port? Sure. Is it bad, or unplayable? Nope, it's good.

 

[Something whatever]

can't get my money back now ...might as well wait and see if they could really fix it

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

SWITCH VERSION IS A PORT?

 

[AbyssalMonkey]

For those bashing 505 games for this poorly port, you should know that the game was outsourced by another development company that seemingly went to make parties instead of make their work. Despite this, that doesn't forgive 505 games because their job was to supervise the quality and avoid the release of such a bad port, even a delay would have been okay, explaining the truth to avoid criticism from the ones who bought this game specifically for the switch and where left with a terrible first impression (luckily I got my PC copy as well).

So it really makes me happy that the main developers behind Bloodstained will take over of this mess.
Their highest priority should be to make this run at 60fps, after all, this is a game that heavily relies in your gameplay abilities.
Secondly, fixing and/or optimizing the post processing effects, some are completely missing or display non existing shadows, even the blood stains (nice detail btw) are missing or end hidden behind the floor/wall textures.

EDIT: According to some google searches, the company in charge of this port is called " Armature Studio ". So there it is, '505 games' are not completely responsible for this bad port, let's hope they address all the issues soon.

Outsourcing a port is still something to criticize. The company chose to not do it themselves, outsourced it, and are now suffering the backlash because of it. The age old adage still applies: if you want something done right, do it yourself.

On PC there are a few bugs still existing, like words in the English script randomly missing for no apparent reason. I mean, you can immediately tell too, there is a huge blank space.
Minor annoyances with the script are there too, and are noticable if you know even marginal Japanese and have the JP dub on. They rewrite sections of script in such a way that lose nuance. At one point the main character says in Japanese "Do I look like a monster?" and it's translated as something like "I'm a human".

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Bloodstained on Siwtch is a buggy mess. Not only for any random crash here and there… but also "items drops" get stuck on walls, the character keep bouncing out of bound (you can defeat the Twin Dragon from behind) and the hit box is as random as it can.
Plus any weird decisión over game design, like the way you need to advance in underwater. The late game is extremely confusing on terms of design.

The items getting stuck and not being able to be picked up is an issue on the PC version as well.

Gotta say, this game is way more grindy than usual for an IGAVania. And I'm also not a fan of the endgame. Feels like they wanted to have a second Castle of some kind, but used whatever was made and called it the final part of the game.

- 40€ game
- releases a week after the very good PC/PS4/Xbox version
- no reviews or footage of the switch version prior to the release
- no gameplay trailer on the eShop (instant red flag)

Good thing I waited. I am not the type of guy who puts on a tinfoil hat but...*puts on tinfoil hat*
...it looks like 505 Games was very well aware that the Switch port is rubbish, so what did they do? Release the good versions first, get good PR (the core game itself is excellent, no doubt about that) and then release the Switch version a week later, hoping that people are too hyped from the positive reviews to notice that there is something *very* wrong with the Switch version.
...*puts his tinfoil hat away*

Yeah, does sound very likely with the current state of the industrie...

Actually, they had a demo at E3 (I think. If it wasn't E3 it was some other trade show), and the damn thing was actually running so bad that it was causing the Switch system(s) running it to overheat.

IDK how the fuck they couldn't get a game like this running on the Switch at 60fps at the lowest settings possible. UE4 is technically compatible with the Switch, DBFZ was released for it, and that's a game with FAR more impressive graphics than Bloodstained, which, as someone currently playing the PC version, is running fine, but the item pickups getting stuck on ledges (it's a bug on the PC version as well) is really fucking me over in a game that's already about as grindy as Circle of the Moon in terms of needing to craft a bunch of crap together just to get a majority of the items in the game, and with an endgame that's...meh. The promise of smaller updates to fix things isn't very encouraging, I'll say that much!

While I'm glad the game didn't get delayed for PS5/Xbox Scarlett/multiplayer/other shit the main playerbase supporting the game couldn't give a crap about, I have to say that while I started out positive with the game, as I played it more and more, the game didn't blow me away the same way a lot of the previous games did. Maybe it's the 2.5D graphics in an era after Guilty Gear Xrd (not that you can blame them, the original version of that game came out in 2013/2014, a year before the game was even announced as a KS project if I remember right), maybe it's the soundtrack that just doesn't live up to SOTN, another -vania game with no remixes (unless if you count the Saturn port with everything that's wrong in that version of the game), maybe it's the aforementioned grind, maybe it's the fact that, yes, open world games aren't the same as Metroidvanias, but c'mon, you can't tell me that the Batman Arkham games aren't taking some inspiration from the ideas and working them into bigger scale and higher budget games.

It isn't as bad as the Mighty No. 9 debacle, because they at least cancelled the ports of games that simply weren't going to be feasible at the time (I personally would've just not said the Wii U/Vita would be supported at the time, because the Wii U is the WiiABU, and the Vita is only good for Persona 4 Golden, a game that should've had a simultaneous PS3 release alongside the Vita version) as opposed to promising those ports and them never seeing the light of day, but this game may be a one and done for yours truly. Maybe another playthrough on the Switch if they can get things working on that front, but otherwise, I might be selling my backer stuff to help pay off other things in life that is more important than a resurrected vampire that's rising in an industry that, post-Great Recession, only cares about playing it safe, something this game ironically does in more ways than one in terms of its mechanics and the way certain things...play out, without going into spoiler territory.