A major update for the Swery X Suda51 collaboration Hotel Barcelona has been released, looking to address all of the feedback (nasty and nice) and make sweeping improvements to the game.
“You ranted. You yelled. Some even sent death threats.” says the update trailer blurb. “But we listened. The Under New Management Update is live: same core, better everything. Thank you for being real with us.”
The update brings five free crossover skins for all players, including Demonschool Faye, Slitterhead Alex, Slitterhead Julee, Promise Mascot Agency Pinky and Promise Mascot Agency Michi, but the real impact will be felt with the gameplay improvements. Movement is faster, combat recovery shorter, parries and dodges improved, and on and on.
Hotel Barcelona Under New Management Update Patch Notes
- Faster recovery from attacks with expanded cancel timing into jump, dodge, guard, and follow up attacks
- Reduced stamina friction and shortened attack animations for a more aggressive combat rhythm
- Increased base dodge distance and rebalanced dodge skills
- Fully reworked parry system. Precise guard timing now triggers parries and rewards HP Recovery Orbs
- Guard now consumes stamina, creating meaningful defensive decisions
- Multiple new parry skills added to the skill tree. Skill layout and progression reworked
- New skill “Enhancement Luck+” added
- Weapon balance adjustments including Flamethrower AP tuning
Enemy and Stage Rebalancing
- Enemy HP, attack ranges, and reaction timing adjusted across multiple types
- Phantom Lost removed from Normal difficulty and below
- Boss durability and behaviour adjustments for Jacob, Nigel, and Eve
- Terrain, camera distance, and door placement improvements in key stages
Invasion Multiplayer Improvements
- Reduced imbalance caused by player progression differences
- Improved parry reactions between players
- Doppelgängers can no longer invade during boss fights
- Doppelgängers no longer interfere with enemies or environmental systems
- Matchmaking and multiplayer UI improvements
Quality of Life and Performance
- Optimised performance across the entire game
- DUALSHOCK controller support added
- Prologue tutorial, layout, and UI improvements
- Dialogue autoplay added
- Extensive UI, localisation, boss fight, journal, animation, and achievement fixes
In our original review from last year, Steve opined “It absolutely oozes the kind of style you’d expect its leading creators and there is real potential in the setting and story, but the actual game just isn’t that fun to play. The clunky controls stand out against the many similar action platformers and the multiple currencies make upgrades an unwelcome grind. I can’t help but think the story would be better suited to an anime rather than its current form.”
Source: press release
