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Digital Foundry's analysis of Dragon Quest XI S : Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch family of systems
- Thread starter Deleted member 2791
- Start date
This port makes pretty much every other PS4-Switch port look like a joke in comparison. Absolute masterful work here.
Also I'm really glad that someone else FINALLY heard the same 60's Batman music in the battle theme. It's literally the first thing I thought of when I played the demo!
Also I'm really glad that someone else FINALLY heard the same 60's Batman music in the battle theme. It's literally the first thing I thought of when I played the demo!
PS4 does have higher polygon characters, textures, shadows, ambient occlusion, texture filtering etc as well in addition to the 56% higher resolution. But yeah, the devs have done a wonderful job closing the gap vs many other 3rd party ports and taking advantage of the the graphical style. From what I gather, the game doesn't seem to be a major CPU or bandwidth bottleneck like many other 3rd party ports that will widen the gap beyond the 3-4x GPU power difference also.
Maybe my issue was I was going from the PC version to the Switch version.
I haven't played the full version yet, but the demo looked good enough to me!
I imagine that would be a pretty big difference, so I could see that coloring an opinion significantly.
I imagine that would be a pretty big difference, so I could see that coloring an opinion significantly.
Bilboard trees are still used in tons of open world games for very distant LODs. Doesn't matter if a technique is old, all that matters is if its effective.
And it's incredibly effective here.
Amazing research, fun video and actual info from DF and Dark1x as always. I wanted confirmation on all changes (no only the obvious resolution variance) and I got everything I needed thanks to this video.
Best comparison I've ever seen. Masterfully edited in as well. Huge props for that.
Can't wait to watch this. I'm nearly 30 hours in on the Switch, mostly playing docked, and have been impressed as all hell. Of course, the gaming community doesn't disappoint on the hyperbole -- 900p is cool on a VCR-sized console, but 720 to 810p on a 6-inch tablet is an unplayable compromise. Honestly, you of course notice the difference when you're looking at the two versions side-by-side, but when you're playing the Switch version, it feels in no way compromised -- it's still a drop-dead gorgeous game (to say nothing of the ridiculous laundry list of improvements they've managed to make).
This really deserves praise. Not to diminish the work of other developers, but the ports that take a "crank down the resolution and compress the everloving hell out of the textures" approach don't look nearly as good to my eye as this one does (thinking of The Witcher 3 and Divinity II as recent examples, here). The additional work that was done to make this much more bespoke to the platform pays off in spades.
This really deserves praise. Not to diminish the work of other developers, but the ports that take a "crank down the resolution and compress the everloving hell out of the textures" approach don't look nearly as good to my eye as this one does (thinking of The Witcher 3 and Divinity II as recent examples, here). The additional work that was done to make this much more bespoke to the platform pays off in spades.
sorry, but 'the nintendo switch family of systems'? not 'nintendo switch & switch lite'? really?...
I mean there's basically 3 different Switches models now. Switch, revised Switch and Switch Lite.
well, yeah, but considering that never once in this review are the different switch versions even compared, i'm really not getting the necessity of the 'family of systems' bit. it's basically a' dragon quest xi on nintendo switch' review, period...
I think it's a joke about how long the name of the game is.
What was the word that one person used to describe the look of this port again? Abysmal? I forget.
Oh, for fuck's sake. I've heard "unplayable," too. And it was also used as a poster child for "demakes" in a thread about demakes (because it's clearly so very compromised that it doesn't even count as a port).
To be fair it is a demake. You can play in 16 bit mode. :P
Apparently Square Enix refers to this version internally as a "remake", which when you look at the work done, makes sense. Upgrading to a new version of a game engine is never easy (depreciation of features, new rendering pipelines, whole nine yards), plus changed models, textures, level geometry, and new features, I can see why they'd call it that.
I *think* I'm nearing the end of act 2, at like 56 hours. It's my first Dragon Quest and I'm loving it
What games do you play on Switch? I'd understand if you only play native res games like Mario Kart, but "blurry" ports on Switch at this point are the norm, even for games that are much, much smaller in scope. I think your issue isn't with the port but with the Switch itself.
I'm happy that there was so much love and sweat put into this version, it's so gorgeous! I especially loved the part about the file size being cut down thanks to a new UE4 codec for the pre-rendered videos.
Thank you, Digital Foundry, for also once again clearly stating that the game is 900p on base PS4. There was this persistent myth that the game had been upgraded with some UE4 update to 1080p. Each time someone told that myth I asked for receipts and they never were able to deliver those. It was so persistent however that at some point I wasn't sure myself anymore, lol.
I wish they were talking about the 2D mode, or even the Japanese 3DS port. And, yeah, I'll say it again -- I'd love it if more developers approached their Switch ports in the way that Square did for this one. The amount of bespoke work they put into the engine, rendering, models, textures, etc. really sets a new bar, and achieves far greater results than just dialing down the resolution, textures and effects settings (again, not to diminish the work that goes into other ports -- I know it's not quite so simple, but you get the idea).
