Developer ArtPlay and publisher 505 Games have abandoned plans to add a “roguelike” mode to Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, instead promising a new Randomizer mode. The news comes as part of the latest Kickstarter project update from Senior Community Manager Jason Ryan.
The roguelike game mode was planned in response to the $5,000,000 stretch goal of the game’s record-breaking crowdfunding campaign back in 2015.
However, according to Ryan, the team has been forced to drop it from the upcoming content schedule as “the code that was created early in the game’s development is not currently compatible with this type of gameplay.”
Instead, ArtPlay will implement a Randomizer mode, a popular concept in the video game speedrunning community. This mode will allow players to alter a range of parameters for each new playthrough, including item placement, enemy drops, the game’s end goal, and quest design. Each run will be timed and generate a seed that players can share to compete for the fastest completion time.
No release date for the new mode has been announced, but it will launch for free alongside playable Zangetsu DLC.
Randomizer and Zangetsu will come first, followed by other content updates planned for the future like Boss Revenge and a third playable character. Moving forward, updates should release with shorter gaps, as the Switch version of the game has finally achieved parity with the other versions.
