Customer Ratings & Reviews

As you would know by now, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is a Castlevania Symphony of the night clone, and a very good one. The game mechanics, presentation, action is very good. The story is interesting, and presented in a good way. The draw back to the Switch version is it runs in a lower resolution, and has graphical glitches. Hopefully will be patched later on. But if you want to play on the go this is the only way to go.

So the port is bad to the switch 30fps compare to 60 for ps4/Xbox 720p compare to 1080 Oh the steelbook. Is a ps4/Xbox one. They just switched the plastic to hold a switch game. I know they came with the game could you be any cheaper . It’s like putting lipstick on a pig. It’s still an ugly pig.

This much maligned Switch version Of Bloodstained isn’t nearly as bad of a port as it’s made out to be online, especially after a number of fixes present thanks to the latest patch. Sure, there are frame rate issues every now and again, and the visuals aren’t quite as good as they are on the PS4 and Xbox One versions, but the ability to play Bloodstained portably on the Switch makes this the definitive copy to get in my opinion. As for the gameplay itself, it’s a Metroid-vania style game courtesy of Koji Igarashi, the man behind perhaps the best Castelvania game of all time (Symphony of the Night), so all of the different systems and RPG elements should be familiar to people that have played this style of game before. For the uninitiated, what that means is a compelling mix of combat and platforming, with the added intrigue of character progression via leveling up and character customization with items. The shard system in particular is interesting, allowing you to really hone your character in based on your play style, be it with items that grant you huge bonuses for lumbering greatsword attacks, or stats that benefit a long range gunplay strategy. The items are designed in such a way that they rarely feel like simple upgrades, instead offering different bonuses for different sorts of play styles, leaving it largely up to the player to decide what sort of demon slayer they’d like to be. All of these things come together in a package that winds up being pretty fun and addicting, albeit with a few technical hiccups here and there. It’s not an overly long game, but thanks to a tough but fair difficulty level and a whole host of side missions and extra items out there, it doesn’t feel scarce content-wise. If you listen to everyone else on the internet, this Switch version should be avoided. But in my opinion it’s the sort of game that feels uniquely well suited to play on the go in bite size increments, jumping from one save point to another in the space of 10 or 15 minutes. In short, this game is fun and you should buy it, and that recommendation goes doubly if it’s on sale at all. It’s a heck of a lot of fun despite some minor blemishes, and it’s the closest thing to a real Castelvania game that we’re going to get at the moment.

I'm only about 8 hours in or so but needed to write this. I have both the PS4 version and the Switch version (had to show love and support for Iga). Castlevania Symphony of the Night is my favorite game of all time. I lament not being a backer for this project. Anyways, I've spent more time on the Switch version as I can play it while my girlfriend watches TV. Yes, the PS4's graphical fidelity is way better than the switch. Bouncing between the two versions, there is a frame rate difference that most people will probably feel (about 60 fps for the PS4 and approx. 30 fps for the switch). I did experience some slowdown in some moments but no crashing yet. The gameplay however, is top notch. I'm having a blast playing it. There will never ever be a Symphony of the night, but this game is the closest and has it's own identity. The composer from SotN came back for this one so the music is great. The difficulty seems harder than SotN which is one thing I wouldve changed from that game to make it more difficult. The portability has been great because I can play it at work and still enjoy the A+ gameplay. This review is all over the place but to say the switch port is unplayable is a gross misrepsentation. Try it out for yourself and/or watch gameplay videos if you're still skeptical. Again, aside from the technical differences, the gameplay and sound is there.

Bloodstained is a decent game, but the Switch version is plagued by performance issues. I’m generally not someone that is all that sensitive to frame rate drops, but Bloodstained has some of the more egregious frame rate drops that I’ve seen. The game also has poor load times when dong simple things like traveling between rooms. There were a few times where I would jump off of a platform at the top of one room and it would be several seconds before the screen would show me coming up from the bottom of the next room. A few times it was so bad that I thought the game froze. These issues occurred whether I played in hand-held mode or connected to my tv using the dock, and I split my time pretty evenly between them. As for the game itself, overall I think enjoyed it. The visuals are good during gameplay, but the cut scenes look really low-res. The combat is generally fun and there are a lot of weapons and powers that you experiment with until you find what works best for you. I think the amount of shards is probably s little overkill though and I think a lot of people will stick to only using a few different ones. If you are big on story games, I don’t think Bloodstained will hold your attention in that area, but this game is more about combat and exploration. Speaking of exploring, you’ll need to do a lot of that. There were a few times where I wasn’t sure where to go and had thought I missed a clue from a character. A couple times I was so confused that I had to consult the Internet in what I was supposed to do next. I tend to try and avoid this on my first play through of a game because I like to have my own experience and don’t want to risk spoilers, but o was just wandering around aimlessly. All in all, I’d say that the game is good on combat and exploration and is a nice homage to games like Symphony of the Night. The weaker aspects s are the story and the performance issue make me not want to recommend it for the Switch (at least at the time of this review)

Ritual of the Night is the best metroidvania in years, the Switch port has some issues with resolution, performance, and frame rate but is still well worth playing through such a great game, and promising new series!

Believe the bad press - the Switch edition of Bloodstained is the worst of the lot. The graphics are muddy and lack definition. There are regular performance snags where the in-game action just freezes up for a second or two. Slowdown is common, even during scripted scenes where an NPC suddenly enters to provide some plot-advancing exposition. I don't think I saw Johannes suddenly appear once without significant slowdown. Attack and jump commands will sometimes take a split second to execute, giving the controls a floaty quality. All of that being said, the core game is good enough to warrant putting up with the performance problems. I should note that I played the game exclusively in handheld mode, so docked mode and its concomitant higher resource demand could exacerbate the problems listed above. I love IGA's Metroidvanias, so I was willing to put up with some nuisances to play through this game, but I'll tell anyone that players lacking in patience might get frustrated with it really easily. At least the Switch version didn't crash altogether when looking at a bookshelf, like the Xbox version did for me!

This game is basically the long awaited sequel to Castlevania Symphony of the Night. You explore a massive castle full of Gothic horror. The game as of now has some frame rate issues and some pretty long load times that will even occur during a simple screen transiton. I'm still pretty satisifed overall and the music in the game is wonderful.

This was made by the creative team behind the classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I played through that game multiple times so I was very excited about this release. At time of release the Switch version had a lot graphics and load time issues. Thankfully a patch has since been deployed that has cleared those up and there is another patch on the way to improve load times even further. I've spent a few hours with the game now and can say I've seen zero hiccups. This game is a worthy successor to Castlevania. Side scrolling action- RPG. Very easy to pick up and play the controls are tight. This will be one of my go to games when playing the switch on the go. Highly recommended.

Bloodstained as a game is really fantastic, it calls back to the GBA heyday of Castlevania and feels like it. If you’re looking for that it’s great. This version is still that game and works fairly well by and large. It runs at 30 frames per second with general consistency, though it will dip hard in some areas. It’s definitely rough in some places though, load times aren’t terrible but the frame rate and slowdown will definitely affect how it feels to play. This is still a solid version of this game, and it’s getting updated to be better with some frequency.

Insanely fun. By now you've read the reviews and are on the fence over the Switch version. My two cents; if you have a One or PS4, or their successors, then get it on one of those. But if you have a Switch, don't pass this game up! It is Castlevania x4! The game play, enemies, customization, and beauty are enough to warrant the Switch version. Is it ideal, no. The game seems to click at 25 fps rather than a smooth 30 (or even 60 fps) we're so used to seeing past 2009. And the studio has patched it to the point where the details are not as dramatic on the Switch version. But this is the plight of the console at this point, not the titles. Currently, I'm playing it with the 1.20 patch. Mariam is a blast as a protagonist. She's humorous, exotic, and tough as Tifa. If you want to mix it up, you can change her clothes, skin, hair color, all sorts of stuff. You're own Gothic Barbie doll. I made mine look like Gamora, got a wild hair and made her look like Android 21. Pretty soon I'll do a Chun Li. I know there are mods out there that can remove stuff... but I'm fine with how the developers made her. Any who, a recommended title.

Been wanting to get this game since launch but when I heard about the technical issues it had, I held back from it. Now that they released the last performance patch, I decided to buy it. Though it still suffers sometimes, it still runs fine...at least in docked mode. I noticed some frame rate issues in some areas in handheld mode though. That aside and as for the game itself, I really like it though I admit that I’ve never played a Castlevania game before I got this so I’m basically new to this. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, though it would be best to get it on other consoles or PC.

Incredible game that needs a patch to be perfect on the Switch. Don't listen to the people that make this game sound unplayable on Nintendo's system. I bought it day 1 and fell in love with it instantly. I have not played the PS4/Xbox1/PC versions so I am not comparing it to those. I can honestly say that if you have not played those like me and you love Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night this is a great game that should not be missed and plays well portable. I believe they announced a patch on July 15th as well that will address many of the issues reported.

Metroidvanias are my favorite genre on the switch, so I finally picked this up, after reading about the performance issues this had on switch. I don't know what the before patch versions of this looked like, but the after is... not great. on a system that can run the insane and beautiful boss fights of Ori 2, I know bloodstained could look better. hope you like jaggies. that said, this is a classic Igavania, with a definite Castlevania feel and tons of items and customization. have fun!

Fun game, but the bugs are very offputting. Save often to avoid crashing and losing your progress. The framerate drops are a bit annoying, even when nothing is really happening onscreen (reading books). Graphics intensive areas also suffer from slowdown, but nothing gamebreaking. I do not experience any input lag, but spells firing off seems inconsistent. If you don't want to deal with the crashes, wait for the upcoming patches.

The person who created castlevania, that was enough for me to pick this up and it didn’t not disappoint. The graphics are great , story is great , music is awesome. Artwork is beautiful. And they made a second one .

I'm a long time Castlevania fan, so I've been looking forward to this game for a while. It's a ton of fun, especially finding all the different types of weapons and abilities to experiment with. The game still needs some polish though. Graphics (and cutscenes in particular) feel rushed in terms of animation. It also has its fair share of bugs. Overall though, the gameplay is great. Tons of fun, and I am looking forward to future updates adding extra features and game modes!

I've been following this kickstarter since day one and my suspicions tell me this was the cancelled Vita version ported to the Switch. choppy 30fps @ 720p and low res muddy textures. No post process lighting or water effects and extremely high input lag. I don't know how much the upcoming patch can fix this mess but I'd wait it out. Until then I don't recommend buying this version.

This game is awesome if you like the sidecrolling castlevania games from the DS and symphony of the night you will definitely like this story is good game play is amazing music is top tier metroidvania fans will love it

As a lifelong fan of the Castlevania games, I've played them on the NES, Super Nintendo, Playstation, Gameboy Advance, Playstation 2, Nintendo DS, and more. Some of the best titles of all time are in the Castlevania franchise- Symphony of the Night being one of the progenitors of its own genre, Metroidvania. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is like unto Castlevania Symphony of the Night meets Order of Ecclesia- and that carries all of the positive connotations it possibly could. The character, environmental, and sound design are all top notch and clearly make this a game that must be experienced if you're even remotely a fan of Metroidvanias. The level design is superb and you'll find yourself backtracking and finding all sorts of secrets, which is accompanied by phenomenal movement that makes traversing locations a joy. There are tons of little, interesting things to find, plus there's crafting and cooking on top of it. However, the Switch version ain't it, chief. At release, this game has tremendous issues- visual effects missing and insanely low quality textures are just the tip of the iceberg (even the rose tattoo of Miriam, the character on the box art, can sometimes show as a splotchy, pixelated mess not even visually representing a flower. That's how low quality the textures can present). This version of the game crashes a lot, which is wholly unacceptable for a game that doesn't have auto-saves. Sometimes you can crash while selecting the bookcase that *lets you save the game*! It's insanely frustrating to lose progress repeatedly due to game bugs. Notwithstanding, the frame rate is also quite low- it's 30fps in some locations, while dipping to as low as 15 in others, like the tower. This is probably one of the best games I've played in recent memory. Unfortunately, this just isn't a good port of that great game. Keep an eye out for updates that hopefully improve playability (fps, crashing needs to be at the top of the list of things to fix). If you only have a Switch, still consider this version after waiting a bit. This game is fantastic, even if I'm negative over the bugs this product shouldn't have, and those problems hopefully get patched. If you absolutely can't wait to play, the PC version of the game on Steam would likely give you the best experience.