Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is finally out now, after being Kickstarter crowdfunded way back in 2015 to the tune of $5.5 million. It’s a spiritual successor to the Castlevania series, specifically the 2D Metroidvanias such as Symphony of the Night, and it’s been worked on by Castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi. One of the surprising but welcome selling points was talk of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night co-op modes, but are they still here?
While Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is predominantly a single-player focused vampire-hunting 2D Metroidvania, co-op and multiplayer were talked about during the Kickstarter campaign as real possibilities. Does the game have co-op modes now at launch? If not, will co-op modes being coming later, and will they include online? Are there any other multiplayer modes, and will they be added as paid DLC? We’ve got the answers below.
Does Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night have coop now?
Up until recently, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night had a co-op tag on Steam and elsewhere, but it’s recently been removed. While this doesn’t mean that it will never get co-op, we can confirm that the game does not have any co-op modes or multiplayer available now, at launch. While it’s still got a robust single-player campaign, if you were planning on playing the whole thing entirely in co-op you may want to hold off for now. However, there is still good news for prospective co-op adventurers…
Will Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night coop be added later?
It’s a little disappointing that co-op play isn’t in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night right now, as it was promised during the Kickstarter campaign, and it’s definitely worrying that the co-op tag has been removed from Steam. However, there’s no reason to panic. As Kickstarter backers know, the development team confirmed a while ago that co-op modes would definitely be coming to the game, but they would be have to be added to Bloodstained later as a free update.
While there is no specific time frame for the DLC co-op modes or any updates like this, developer ArtPlay has confirmed to Kickstarter backers that two additional playable characters and the co-op modes will be coming in due course. The team had to cut co-op from launch in order to both get the game out on time, and to make co-op as good as it can be. It should hopefully be worth the wait.
Will co-op be local only or online when it’s added?
Initially only local play was revealed for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night co-op, however as of the recent Kickstarter update, ArtPlay says that both local and online play will be available for the game’s co-op and multiplayer modes. That is good news for co-op players who can’t do couch co-op, but what about these other multiplayer modes? What can we expect?
Are there any other Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night multiplayer modes?
A few other modes have been confirmed for the game, other than campaign co-op. The Kickstarter update mentions Versus modes, so there will be some sort of antagonistic multiplayer component too. It’s also been confirmed as getting similar asynchronous online features similar to Dark Souls, such as seeing a friend’s performance when fighting a boss, and possibly a gravestone where your friend died, and maybe even a chance to avenge them similar to Middle-Earth: Shadow of War.
Other modes coming, which may have some form of co-op or multiplayer, include a Boss Rush, Speedrun, Roguelike, Chaos, Classic mode, and Boss Revenge. It’s most likely that the boss attack modes at least will have co-op. Boss Rush and Speedrun should be out sometime this week in a patch, according to the team, but if they are co-op they probably won’t get it added until the proper multiplayer update.
Will these modes be free or paid DLC?
While it’s a shame all these modes have been delayed from launch day, especially the co-op and multiplayer modes, the good news is that every single one will be available to everyone as a free update. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night will still get paid DLC, including the Iga’s Back Pack for $9.99, launching on June 18 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and June 25 for Switch, which consists of Kickstarter backer items. There may also be an expansion later. The modes, however, will all be free.
