Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - Nintendo Switch

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.

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.

Purchased at launch after missing out on the Kickstarter, and 20 hours in, I am not disappointed in the game itself. The sheer amount of content, customization options, exploration, and beautiful design I’ve come to expect from an IgaVania is all here in spades. Lots of easter-eggs, side-quests, and crafting fill out the game, but sometimes can feel like busy-work. 505 has yet to release the July 15th patch, so my review is of the release version, do keep that in mind. The negatives don’t make the game unplayable, but are disconcerting to have to put up with at first. There is a notable lag between button pushes and on-screen action. The graphics have taken a bit more of a hit on the Switch than I expected. Everything looks beautiful-but-muddy, and some graphical effects either glitch or are just broken (i.e. water effects). I believe the issues with this release are due to the late-stage change from Wii U to Switch, and weighing the blowback between a long delay and having to patch after release. I am confident these issues will be ironed out, but not confident on the time-frame. If these things are unacceptable, or portability is not an issue, I’d have to recommend another platform for now. This is no Mighty No 9, Bloodstained is well worth the wait and the price. It just may be worth it more on another system right now.

It is everything that I wanted for a Castlevania game. The game play is great, lots of location to visit, the characters are interesting enough to keep you playing. The only thing is Switch version does suffer graphic down grade and some performance issue. But you get portability so keep that mind before you buy.

A great game to play if you like the Castlevania franchise especially Symphony of the Night which this game is created by the same creator. There are some issues with the switch port as for it was developed pretty late in the games development the game doesn't have the superior Graphics like the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One version and also frames drop below 30 and sometimes there can be random crashes. The company has addressed the frame drops and the crashing and are working to fix them.

This game definitely scratches the itch for a new Castlevania. Amazing music and great action only brought down by typical launch bugs and glitches. I suggest you verify if the bugs have been patched prior to purchasing. If you have another console to play this on, dont waste your money on the Switch version. If this is your only way of playing this game, kindly expect input lag and toned down graphics. It is playable though and certainly not at all broken.

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.