After years of anticipation, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night finally arrived earlier this week to the joy of many who have patiently been awaiting the Castlevania spiritual successor. Unfortunately, the game's launch hasn't gone without a hitch as some players have started to report a bug on the PS4 and Xbox One versions that force them to restart their playthrough entirely.

The bug in question is seemingly associated with patch 1.02 for Bloodstained on PS4 and Xbox One which went live earlier this week for those on PS4. From what 505 Games, the publisher of Bloodstained, has gathered so far, if you start a new game before downloading this 1.02 update, you'll reach a point where certain chests that are required to gain new items will be inaccessible. Without gaining these items, you'll then be unable to advance. So far, the only way to fix this issue has been to restart Bloodstained entirely under a new save file.

The worst part of all is that as of this moment, 505 Games has said it hasn't figured out how to rectify this problem without also saving the file you might have made prior to downloading patch 1.02.

Here's the full statement from 505 Games regarding the situation:

“We have been investigating a PS4/Xbox One issue that is blocking player progress in the game. We apologize for this bug and thank you for your patience while we investigate. The issue occurs when a new game is started before downloading the 1.02 update. After the update, treasure chests will appear in the incorrect open/closed state. Without the items from these chests, progress is blocked. Players affected by this bug will be required to restart the game with a new save in order to properly progress.

We investigated a number of options to address this issue and each fix requires a new game to be started. Despite our efforts to provide a fix that preserves pre-1.02 progress, this is the best solution to avoid future issues. Xbox One players will also be affected by this when the 1.02 patch is delivered next week. Switch players who have a physical copy should download the 1.02 patch before playing.”

This whole thing is a mess, which is a real shame for those who have waited so long to play Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. While it sounds like as long as you have downloaded update 1.02 before starting Bloodstained you should be fine, Xbox One users haven't even received the patch on their console just yet. As 505 Games said in the above statement, it's not planned to arrive until next week. Furthermore, Switch owners who are planning to get the game next week need to download the update beforehand as well to err on the side of caution.

Hopefully, 505 Games is able to find a way to fix this problem while also saving the progress that some players have made. I've had to restart some games before due to bugs and, man, that is always the absolute worst.

Fortunately, our own reviewer of Bloodstained here at DualShockers told me that he hasn't run into this problem himself, so I guess that's good for us. Hopefully, we'll be able to have our review out in a more timely manner because of it. Keep your eyes peeled in the coming days.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is currently out on PS4, Xbox One, and PC and is slated to launch on June 25 for Switch.