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Those who purchased the Castlevania Symphony of the Night spiritual successor, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, for the Nintendo Switch, are likely well aware of the game's numerous performance issues. So much so, that there have been fan-made mods to get the game running in a more stable form. 505 Games, the publisher of Bloodstained, had promised they would release an official patch to improve the framerate and overall performance of the game. Unfortunately, the patch was delayed twice, and pushed back to a vague November release. All that waiting is over, now, though, as 505 has come through on their promise, releasing their first major update for Bloodstained on the Nintendo eShop. This update fixes some of the biggest issues fans had with the Switch port, such as lowering the amount of input lag, improving visuals and texture quality to be less muddy and blurry, shortening load times, and fixing the rampant crashing, resulting in a more stable game overall. This won't be the last update, as more are planned, but this should be a good step forward for those who were hoping for a more playable experience.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Well, hope they remember to use the new patch when they produce more copies of the game.

 

[fvig2001]

I mean does anyone still care about this game at this point?

 

[Silent_Gunner]

Well, there's something for yours truly to try out when he gets home. Is the framerates still below 60fps even in docked?

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Probably the switch owners who paid for it.

Plus it's Halloween, perfect timing.

 

[godreborn]

what is the version for this update? 1.03. that's what I have installed, and my switch found nothing when scanning the eshop.

 

[DSoryu]

I mean does anyone still care about this game at this point?

I have the PC version as well, and still interested to see the performance boost of the switch version, good timing to give it a second run.

 

[Chrisssj2]

I mean does anyone still care about this game at this point?

Ofcourse. I haven't played it yet. Ill wait for all patches to be released first.

 

[Shadow#1]

what is the version for this update? 1.03. that's what I have installed, and my switch found nothing when scanning the eshop.

updates dont show up in the eshop unlike 3ds did

 

[darksweet]

finally its out... now for the serious things to happen...

 

[FanNintendo]

Where the download??

 

[Shadow#1]

Where the download??

Press + on game icon then Software Update

 

[snobbysteven]

Glad to hear their patch actually helped a lot. Have seen it too many times where the "fix" is crap.

 

[XDel]

You should have played along with the joke... We only have to wait till 2025; hilarious!!!

 

[FanNintendo]

Press + on game icon then Software
I dont own game pack

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

You should have played along with the joke... We only have to wait till 2025; hilarious!!!

Prob forgot about it playing with Switch 2 hahaha

 

[Naster]

likely well aware of the game's numerous performance issues

Nope. Fully completed the game without any issues. Every last piece of content is available.

 

[The Catboy]

Finally! Those load times were completely unbearable and I honestly couldn't get into the game because of all the issues. I am hoping this time around I can enjoy the game that I waited so long to play.

 

[godreborn]

something odd happened. I downloaded the update on my main micro sd card, but since it was running out of space, I swapped cards with a much smaller one. on that one, I was actually able to download the update itself and not the rest of the game.

 

[nifoc2099]

something odd happened. I downloaded the update on my main micro sd card, but since it was running out of space, I swapped cards with a much smaller one. on that one, I was actually able to download the update itself and not the rest of the game.

Nothing wrong.That is how it works since you don't have your game installed on your 2nd microsd card. This must be the 1st time you saw that patches can be installed standalone without the games themselves.

 

[Silent_Gunner]

So, I tried the game out on my Switch an hour ago...and it really isn't much better. It's running the 1.03 patch, but loading still takes...about a half a minute? A minute? I'm not Digital Foundry, so I didn't keep track, but considering this is cartridge technology as opposed to CDs, and that SOTN loaded in, like, 10 seconds at the most on PS1...then again, that was a mostly sprite-based game as opposed to a polygon-based one...

...all of which still doesn't make up for the 30 fps, stuttering when loading the next room (it even loaded a room while in handheld mode when I first loaded the game. As in, a visible load screen with the icon and everything), and what certainly feels like noticeable input lag. I'm not one of those guys who's crazy about speedrunning or eSports, so I'm not sure if I'm the best judge in this arena. It still doesn't make sense how Mortal Kombat 11, even after receiving several patches on Switch (and trust me, the game slows down anytime it's not in the actual fight. As in, intros, outros, fatalities, etc.. Sure, it slows down a little, but it still somehow manages to look and feel smoother to play than a game that, frankly, doesn't exactly need the highest graphics settings to look smooth. Maybe downscaling some textures and reducing the polycounts would help, not to mention going for simpler effects? I know, I know, time is money, but considering most of your audience that's interested in the game are Switch owners, I'd consider the extra effort to be worth it), feels much better to play than this game that's going for a stylized look on a newer version of an engine that the Switch supposedly supports in some capacity.

tl;dr - they should have just made this a sprite-based game as opposed to a budgeted one who's dialogue screens are reminiscient of Mighty No. 9's! Then, this game could be more easily ported to the Switch. No, I don't think, by the time a hypothetical "Switch Pro" comes out, this version of the game will keep receiving support like the other versions will.