White Owls Inc. have officially revealed Hotel Barcelona Under New Management, a significant gameplay update for Hotel Barcelona. The update structurally refines the player experience with improved combat, flow, player control, and multiplayer support, as well as a host of quality-of-life updates.
The update is available for free to everyone who currently owns Hotel Barcelona, while new players can now try out the game with a 35% discount. It arrives alongside five free crossover skins for all players, and follows a wave of international award recognition.
Hotel Barcelona Under New Management Update Patch Notes
Combat, Flow, and Player Control
- 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 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
Five New Playable Skins, Free for All Players
- Demonschool Faye – A cult indie crossover presence inside the nightmare hotel
- Slitterhead Alex – A horror infused guest skin with a sharp silhouette in combat
- Slitterhead Julee – A second Slitterhead crossover that stands out immediately in motion
- Promise Mascot Agency Pinky – A surreal mascot dropped into violent horror for striking contrast
- Promise Mascot Agency Michi – A companion mascot skin that heightens the absurdity of the setting
Hotel Barcelona is a 2.5D action horror roguelite led by industry legends Hidetaka Suehiro (Swery65) and Goichi Suda (Suda51). Players control Justine, a federal marshal whose mind is partially possessed by the spirit of a killer known as Dr Carnival. The result is a constant tension between control and chaos as you fight through themed floors filled with traps, killers, and escalating threats.
The game secured nine victories at the 2025 NYX Game Awards, including three Grand Winner titles and six Gold Awards. It is currently nominated at the NAVGTR Awards, the SAGA Awards, PlayStation Partner Awards Japan Asia, and the BitSummit awards.
Try out Hotel Barcelona Under New Management on Steam, PSN and Xbox.
