Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, the latest from the mind of Koji Igarashi, producer of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, has been quietly chugging along over the past few months, with the project's kickstarter page giving fans a monthly update to detail the game's progress. Now, in its latest update, Igarashi has some bad news: Bloodstained has been delayed to 2018.
The game was supposed to see a simultaneous release for the PC, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U and PS Vita in March 2017, but now they have all been pushed back to 2018 so that the game could turn out the way he envisioned it.
"Things have been progressing with development for Bloodstained, but between our current production set-up and release deadline, I've realized that at this rate the game may not end up meeting my quality standards," he said in a development update.
To rectify this, the team is hiring new developers so that everything stays on track.
"I've decided to add a new development team to the main production and improve our approach so that we can keep the game fully on track for how I envision it. We're in the process of securing these new developers. We will share more information with all of you soon."
It's been a long road for the spiritual successor of the most popular Castlevania game in the series. Launched in May 2015, the Kickstarter reached its goal of $500,000 in only four hours and now currently resides at over $5.5 million — well in excess of the $850,000 needed to get added bonuses such as a hardcover artbook, second playable character and voice acting from David Hayter, the man behind the voice of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid.
The campaign currently has 64,867 backers, and the fact that it does is hardly surprising. Castlevania hasn't been quite the same since Harmony of Despair in 2010/2011, with the most recent games featuring a new playstyle, a new producer (ex-MGS producer Hideo Kojima) and new development team.
Perhaps that's the reason why backers weren't really upset when they learned the game was being pushed back. SoTN remains an immensely game, and fans are relishing the opportunity to play a proper game made by the one who created it — a one-year wait means little if they can get a refined product.
In the meantime, a new release date for Bloodstained: Ritual of The Night is unknown, but Igarashi is aiming at some time in the first half of 2018.
Check out the announcement below:
