Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night officially hit Switch today, a week after it arrived on other platforms, and despite the wait it still seems to have a number of issues not present elsewhere. Players who have started playing the Switch version of the new game are reporting slow and inconsistent framerates, low resolutions, and even intermittent crashes while trying to play the crowdfunded Castlevania successor on Nintendo's console.
You can see some of the issues for yourself in this video comparison of Bloodstained's Switch and PS4 versions. The Switch version is on the left side of the screen and the PS4 on the right.
Some discrepancy between a Nintendo Switch version of a game and a PC/PS4/Xbox One version is not unusual. Multiplatform Switch games often run at a lower resolution (especially in handheld mode) and with less extravagant visual effects, simply because Switch's compact hardware isn't designed to have the same horsepower as its full-size competitors. But Bloodstained's Switch version seems worse than the norm.
Reddit user Trav_Hogan reports that the game's performance has only gotten worse as they've gotten further into the game, with certain parts that struggle to maintain even 15 frames per second (half of the standard 30). They also say they're encountering gameplay freezes, input delay, and loading scenes between rooms that take even longer than the initial boot up - all while running the latest update of the game, Bloodstained version 1.01.
Other players shared similar complaints on Twitter.
The Switch port of Bloodstained Ritual of the Night is terrible, the visuals are paired back so much and everything is fuzzy....I made a bad choice, should of got it on steam instead HOPEFULLY there is a patch coming for the switch version to fix this eyesore pic.twitter.com/Fi6APhynuGJune 25, 2019
Low res, missing effects altogether, and choppy as hell. Looks like it doesn't even hit 30fps.June 24, 2019
This bloodstained switch port. pic.twitter.com/kRyt5N5LPgJune 25, 2019
It's still early days for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night on Switch, and there's plenty of time for the developers to release performance-improving updates. That said, it is discouraging for Bloodstained to have hit Switch in this state, given the fact that it took just over four years for the game to go from $5.5 million Kickstarter success to a released project. On the other hand, the Switch itself was only announced about halfway through development - so the whole thing's kind of a bonus to begin with.
Even if its performance could use some improvements on Switch, at least Bloodstained doesn't look "like poop" any more. And don't miss our latest Release Radar video so you can stay up to date on all the biggest events in games and entertainment this week.
