Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Gets Final Update This Month

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will receive its final update this month as developer ArtPlay finally adds all the additional features promised in its Kickstarter Campaign from 2015.

ArtPlay shared its final development roadmap for Bloodstained on its website which confirmed the update would arrive May 9, 2024 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, while the Nintendo Switch version would arrive May 16. “This will be the final update to the game,” Artplay said.

Bringing Bloodstained to version 1.5, the update is headlined by the additions of Chaos Mode and Versus Mode but also includes four cosmetic packs for protagonist Miriam, one of which is free while the other three can be purchased.

Chaos Mode is akin to rush mode in other games where players, either alone or with an online or local companion, fight through a series of randomized enemies which will grow stronger unless certain challenges are complete.

Versus Mode pits two players directly against each other as both work to defeat enemies, power up their tools, and acquire special attacks to use against their opponent. Each must survive as long as possible, with whoever dies last being crowned the winner.

ArtPlay said that, once this update has been released, its only remaining task is to ship physical PC versions of the game, nine years after backers paid for them. The developer assured that these players received their digital editions upon launch in 2019, of course, but were still awaiting their full Kickstarter backers’ reward.

Coming from former Castlevania producer Koji Igarashi and pitched as a spiritual successor, Bloodstained quickly smashed past its Kickstarter goal and received more than $5.5 million in total funding. This made it the most successful video game Kickstarter ever at the time.

ArtPlay confirmed a full sequel to Bloodstained was in early development as of June 2021, but little has been said about it in the near three years since.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.