I'm growing tired of Switch ports releasing with obvious, glaring bugs alongside garbage performance

ScOULaris · Oct 22, 2019

This isn't going to be one of my long, detailed OP's with pictures, GIFs, etc. I just want to vent about the current state of affairs with regard to Switch ports, although the situation certainly applies to games on other modern platforms as well. I'm focusing specifically on Switch releases here, however, because that's where I find it to be an epidemic.

Okay, I get that the ability to patch games via the Internet on consoles has resulted in fewer resources being put into pre-release quality assurance testing in games. Before console games could be patched, developers/publishers had no choice but to thoroughly playtest their games lest they release a forever-broken failure into the market. Now, we all know the drill.

Game releases, sometimes with an enormous day-one patch or additional large download required to get the game's full content
The game performs like utter shit on Switch, so people immediately start posting, "Waiting for a performance patch." You know, as if the fucking general performance of the game is just an afterthought that can be easily patched weeks/months after release.
Performance aside, people start reporting bugs. Oftentimes these aren't really obscure bugs that only crop up in edge-case scenarios. They're usually completely obvious bugs that the majority of players will encounter and notice within the first minutes or hours of the game. Once again, people just say, "Game is buggy, waiting for a patch to hopefully fix these issues."

How and why in the fucking fuck is this the new norm that we accept now? Games releasing in a state that suggests they were hardly playtested at all is just the new normal? I understand that this happens even more often with indie releases or ports, and they have fewer resources available to them for bug-testing prior to release than a bigger studio would. But it's becoming increasingly common for blatantly obvious bugs that even a casual observer couldn't miss making their way into the release build of a game. Then the devs will chime in with, "Keep those bugs reports coming. We're working on it!"

Consumers are just becoming free bug testers for these games. Hell, better than free. They pay full price as an early adopter just to offer up basic bug reporting to the developers.

I know I'm ranting, and I don't mean to demonize all developers who've struggled with buggy releases. Hell, I'd love to hear from a developer who could offer some insight from their side of the equation in this thread. But damn if this new normal isn't annoying as hell. Sometimes I honestly feel like "patch culture" has done more harm than good for console gaming.

Putosaure · Oct 22, 2019

We want names!

Bomblord · Oct 22, 2019

Welcome to 2006 OP. This has been the norm on "next gen consoles" since Next Gen was the PS3/360. Well.... to be fair it more became the norm about halfway into that gen.

Windows-PC · Oct 22, 2019

Which games are you talking about?

Alastor3 · Oct 22, 2019

It's not just Nintendo lol, have you played the release date of the post of Square Enix games like Chrono Trigger, FF7, FF9 ??

JeffGubb · Oct 22, 2019

OK. I would simply not buy those games.

Deleted member 873 · Oct 22, 2019

Just say you wanted to play Bloodstained n go

NateDrake · Oct 22, 2019

1-3 apply to games released on other platforms, too, you know. Day 1 patch isn't some exclusive Switch feature.

WWE 2K20 is a disaster on PS4 and Xbox One right now.

Doskoi Panda · Oct 22, 2019

Putosaure said:
We want names!

Mortal Kombat 11, Bloodstained, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, ARK, Saint's Row: The Third, RIME, Hyrule Warriors, WWE2k18

Trisc · Oct 22, 2019

Solid said:
Mortal Kombat 11, Bloodstained, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, ARK, Saint's Row: The Third, RIME, Hyrule Warriors, WWE2k18

Saint's Row and Hyrule Warriors are particularly weird, given how those games were on comparatively weaker hardware in the previous gen.

Kingpin Rogers · Oct 22, 2019

I still refuse to buy Dark Souls thanks to the compressed audio.
(edit) what's wrong with Hyrule Warriors? I bought the Switch version and it seems fine to me, much better than the Wii U version.

cw_sasuke · Oct 22, 2019

OP really acting as if Day 1 patches, bugs or delays are Switch exclusive features.
Plenty of games nowadays have performance issues on base consoles and long ass's loading times.

Why would you expect it to be diffrent on the least powerful system based on a mobile SoC with even restrictions ?

kikuchiyo · Oct 22, 2019

I assume you didn't use the .0 releases or iOS or Catalina. Software is hard, and while developers should be spending more time, this isn't a problem only for Nintendo (or only game development).

MechaX · Oct 22, 2019

Stuff like Grandia II confounds me; there is no reason that a port of a Dreamcast game should be running as poorly as it does in certain areas.

And the Bloodstained situation is just... unfortunate.

I bought Valkyria Chronicles and I am just... sad that it has performance issues as well.

I have Okami HD on it as well and I'm going to flip some tables if it has issues as well; this game better not

Doskoi Panda · Oct 22, 2019

Kingpin Rogers said:
I still refuse to buy Dark Souls thanks to the compressed audio.

Witcher 3 also has noticibly compressed audio but it's way more forgivable considering the size of the game vs Dark Souls

Zutrax · Oct 22, 2019

Solid said:
Mortal Kombat 11, Bloodstained, Wolfenstein: Youngblood, ARK, Saint's Row: The Third, RIME, Hyrule Warriors, WWE2k18

"Hyrule Warriors"

Huh? I put hundreds of hours into this version of the game and it runs and plays just as well if not better than both the 3DS and Wii-U versions.

Jiraiya · Oct 22, 2019

I don't get people who hate day one patches. Why y'all act like you weren't stuck with those bugs before patches were a thing? Games weren't released in some magical state of bliss with no frame dips and such.

Doskoi Panda · Oct 22, 2019

Zutrax said:
"Hyrule Warriors"

Huh? I put hundreds of hours into this version of the game and it runs and plays just as well if not better than both the 3DS and Wii-U versions.

Handheld mode. Game plays at 1080p when docked. Game also plays at 1080p in handheld mode, which doesn't suit handheld mode's lowered clocks, and results in bad performance. I can't say if it'd be an easy thing to fix or not, but I don't think it's unreasonable to say that it should have been fixed regardless.

RingRang · Oct 22, 2019

cw_sasuke said:
OP really acting as if Day 1 patches, bugs or delays are Switch exclusive features.
Plenty of games nowadays have performance issues on base consoles and long ass's loading times.

The OP only mentioned Switch games. Didn't say anything else about other platforms. How do you even know they own other platforms?

Jiraiya said:
I don't get people who hate day one patches. Why y'all act like you weren't stuck with those bugs before patches were a thing? Games weren't released in some magical state of bliss with no frame dips and such.

Uh, as someone who has been playing games for a long time now, I can assure you games are launching in a buggier state than they ever did before. Developers now know they can "fix it later with a patch".

Jaded Alyx · Oct 22, 2019

This kind of stuff happens on all platforms to be honest. No, it doesn't make it any less shitty, but it's certainly not some Switch only thing.

Etrian Darkness · Oct 22, 2019

I kinda assumed this would be about Skullgirls.

I mean I just don't buy the ports with issues. And if I really want the game on Switch I wait.

ScOULaris · Oct 22, 2019

Putosaure said:
We want names!

It was the recent releases of A Hat in Time and Skullgirls that pushed me over the edge toward making this thread. Just obvious bugs that the developers simply HAD to know were there, but they released it anyway.

As I said in the OP, I know that these issues apply to all platforms in today's market, but Switch ports in particular seem to release in buggy, under-performing states as a general rule. Everyone is trying to get in on that eShop gold rush, playtesting be damned.

ShinobiBk · Oct 22, 2019

It sucks
Bloodstained seemed particularly suspicious given it released a week later. The week sure wasn't used to improve anything technically but it definitely gave them a great excuse to not send out review copies

The more worrying trend is multiple first party games this year that weren't up to par imo.
Yoshi's Crafted World tanked the resolution to run at an acceptable framerate.
Fire Emblem, Astral Chain and Link's Awakening all had shaky performance, with Fire Emblem also looking really bad

Spacejaws · Oct 22, 2019

Honestly stopped me triple dipping on Dark Souls. Moreso because Bandai Namco's support on the matter claims it's intentional and nessecary despite being proven otherwise by users showing there is plenty of space on the card for the original audio files and hacking them in themselves and iirc the same team had audio compression issues on another game and fixed it post launch.

The refusal of BN to even bother with it or acknowledge it outside of a support reply shrugging it off really soured me on buying it.

Edit* Just looked it up. Virtuous also did AC III for Switch and patched better audio quality in later. I guess it's one of their porting tricks?

BennyWhatever · Oct 22, 2019

I know it's easy to focus on the problems, but there have been a number of big/successful Switch ports with little to no issues. I'm thinking Ori for starters.

ShadowFox08 · Oct 22, 2019

Kingpin Rogers said:
I still refuse to buy Dark Souls thanks to the compressed audio.
(edit) what's wrong with Hyrule Warriors? I bought the Switch version and it seems fine to me, much better than the Wii U version.

The compressed audio really isn't that bad.

lake · Oct 22, 2019

Kingpin Rogers said:
I still refuse to buy Dark Souls thanks to the compressed audio.

If your Switch has custom firmware there is a mod to restore Dark Souls' audio quality.

One just came out for Witcher III as well.

Deleted member 3010 · Oct 22, 2019

There are good ports and bad ports.

Don't buy the bad ports and be vocal on the publishers social media accounts. Buy the ones that are good and support devs who do great ports.

Most importantly, inform yourself about the ports in question before buying, so that it doesn't feel like a stab in the back.

Burrman · Oct 22, 2019

Same. Sucks that's the only reason why I only buy first party games on the switch still. Well mostly. I only like the portability for certain types of games like into the breach so most third parties are bought on Xbox

hikarutilmitt · Oct 22, 2019

Part of this is the quick and dirtiness of some of the ports, another part is that the Switch isn't as powerful as the current gen systems, so cuts have to be made. MK11 made cuts but it seems like it runs fine otherwise. It ended up being like MK9 on Vita compared to the PS360 cousins.

Deleted member 388 · Oct 22, 2019

Loading times on PixelJunk Monsters 2 is so bad on the Switch, completely put me off finishing it. Also refuse to buy it on any other system as a matter of principle. Now when I get a Switch game I look up on reddit to see if there are any performance complaints. Also still wondering how Dragon Quest Builders 2 only has a steady frame rate in handheld mode.

But yeah, speaking of bad ports, how about that frame rate on Link's Awakening?

CyborgNumberBlue · Oct 22, 2019

Etrian Darkness said:
I kinda assumed this would be about Skullgirls.

I mean I just don't buy the ports with issues. And if I really want the game on Switch I wait.

Does the Switch really not handle Skullgirls? A game from last gen?

Spacejaws · Oct 22, 2019

hikarutilmitt said:
Part of this is the quick and dirtiness of some of the ports, another part is that the Switch isn't as powerful as the current gen systems, so cuts have to be made. MK11 made cuts but it seems like it runs fine otherwise. It ended up being like MK9 on Vita compared to the PS360 cousins.

Think the biggest issue with the Switch version is the same as the PC in that they are weeks, sometimes months until they recieve the same patches that PS4/Xbone get. The Kombat League exploit went largely ignored for Switch and PC whereas on the other consoles they fixed it within a week. Not sure if Switch misses out on the unique Towers of Time stuff like PC does(special events skip PC sometimes for whatever reason) and in general it is like being a second class citizen or at least you are clearly on the 'not preferred' platform. Kano still has big bugs on PC (and I'm guessing Switch because they are mistreated the same a lot of the time) where his damage scaling is borked.

What I'm getting at is it's treated like a bastard offspring rather than a competing platform to the point the big MK streamers are all really negative about the Switch version. Even PND Ketchup and Mustard who are usually pretty easy going comment that they can't imagine it being anybodies primary version, that it's best use is to quickly lab stuff out casually but even that is dependant on the version being up to date with current patches.

Doskoi Panda · Oct 22, 2019

Action Burger said:
Loading times on PixelJunk Monsters 2 is so bad on the Switch, completely put me off finishing it. Also refuse to buy it on any other system as a matter of principle. Now when I get a Switch game I look up on reddit to see if there are any performance complaints. Also still wondering how Dragon Quest Builders 2 only has a steady frame rate in handheld mode.

But yeah, speaking of bad ports, how about that frame rate on Link's Awakening?

That's not a port. And not to downplay the framerate issues, they're noticeable, but they're not as impactful as with many (or really any) of the games listed in this thread. Game is still 60fps almost all of the time.

Deleted member 896 · Oct 22, 2019

Spacejaws said:
Think the biggest issue with the Switch version is the same as the PC in that they are weeks, sometimes months until they recieve the same patches that PS4/Xbone get. The Kombat League exploit went largely ignored for Switch and PC whereas on the other consoles they fixed it within a week. Not sure if Switch misses out on the unique Towers of Time stuff like PC does(special events skip PC sometimes for whatever reason) and in general it is like being a second class citizen or at least you are clearly on the 'not preferred' platform. Kano still has big bugs on PC (and I'm guessing Switch because they are mistreated the same a lot of the time) where his damage scaling is borked.

Yeah, I mean the problem here is just that the PS4/Xbox One versions are handled internally while PC and Switch are farmed out to different studios (QLOC and Shiver). The only potential fixes are to delay the PS4/XBO updates or bring the other versions in-house... which they may not be well-equipped to do. Ideally you'd hope for the latter, but barring that I feel like the only other solutions are going to be other things people won't like in the vein of simply delaying the launch of other versions until the content pipeline of the main versions is either complete or much more slow.

leng jai · Oct 22, 2019

Solid said:
Witcher 3 also has noticibly compressed audio but it's way more forgivable considering the size of the game vs Dark Souls

Funny how it was a big deal for Dark Souls bit I've hardly heard anyone outside of myself even mention it in TW3. They could have at least provided an additional download for the full quality.

Cronogear · Oct 22, 2019

Dark Souls Remastered's compresses audio completely ruined the game for me. It looked and ran fine, but it sounded like I was playing it on a DS.

Deleted member 388 · Oct 22, 2019

Solid said:
That's not a port. And not to downplay the framerate issues, they're noticeable, but they're not as impactful as with many (or really any) of the games listed in this thread. Game is still 60fps almost all of the time.

Being cheeky by calling it a port but I'm honestly more impressed with how poorly it runs for a Nintendo published game. I'm still having fun with the game but I accidentally jumped into a pit hole this morning because it began to lag.

Spacejaws · Oct 22, 2019

Steve Youngblood said:
Yeah, I mean the problem here is just that the PS4/Xbox One versions are handled internally while PC and Switch are farmed out to different studios (QLOC and Shiver). The only potential fixes are to delay the PS4/XBO updates or bring the other versions in-house... which they may not be well-equipped to do. Ideally you'd hope for the latter, but barring that I feel like the only other solutions are going to be other things people won't like in the vein of simply delaying the launch of other versions until the content pipeline of the main versions is either complete or much more slow.

I kinda wish they just had a better process, like I suppose involving those devs while they are going through the patching process etc. I'm not sure why some patches seem like they are either delayed are just skipped until the next big one. Possibly hot fixes are just deemed not worth it but that's the attitude I suppose the OP is considering that some dev's(not all or even many! Tons of great ports) treating the Switch like some low rent junk machine that they can throw content at and not follow through and still expect the money to roll in is an attitude I hope we don't see more of as the power disparity of the consoles increases. I still have PTSD from the Wii's junk spin off output like Soulcalibur Legends ugh.

thecaseace · Oct 22, 2019

Not only does the OP make out a decade old issue as being exclusive to a 3 year old console, they also fail to provide any solid examples.

Discussion is a two way street here friend.

Deleted member 15447 · Oct 22, 2019

Two games OP?

Deleted member 43084 · Oct 22, 2019

Solid said:
Handheld mode. Game plays at 1080p when docked. Game also plays at 1080p in handheld mode, which doesn't suit handheld mode's lowered clocks, and results in bad performance. I can't say if it'd be an easy thing to fix or not, but I don't think it's unreasonable to say that it should have been fixed regardless.

Hyrule Warriors still a solid 30fps on handheld, it's not a performance disaster like other games mentioned in this thread.

Taco_Human · Oct 22, 2019

Horizon Zero Chase was great for about 8 hours until it started crashing every time I tried to keep playing races. I heard it was gonna get a patch and nothing a year later. I'm pissed too OP

Pryme · Oct 22, 2019

OP, you bought a console with a wide power gulf between it and the main home consoles. Given that no publisher in their right minds would use the Switch as the lead development platform for multiplatform titles, you can expect downporting to result in the odd performance challenges or two.

there are pros and cons to the Switch strategy. Can't take all the pros and wish away the 'cons'

ss_lemonade · Oct 22, 2019

Taco_Human said:
Horizon Zero Chase was great for about 8 hours until it started crashing every time I tried to keep playing races. I heard it was gonna get a patch and nothing a year later. I'm pissed too OP

That game seems to have framerate problems too on a PS4 Pro and it crashed on me once. Might be the game?

fiendcode · Oct 22, 2019

Dark Souls audio isn't even significantly compressed, the Switch file size is actually larger than the 360 original. It's just badly mastered.

fiendcode · Oct 22, 2019

Pryme said:
OP, you bought a console with a wide power gulf between it and the main home consoles. Given that no publisher in their right minds would use the Switch as the lead development platform for multiplatform titles, you can expect downporting to result in the odd performance challenges or two.

there are pros and cons to the Switch strategy. Can't take all the pros and wish away the 'cons'

Many of these issues aren't due to system capability though, they're mainly just badly handled ports.

And anything that's not an MTX driven AAA release would probably be best served leading with Switch tbh. Look at Bloodstained, it's where the market is.

blueredandgold · Oct 22, 2019

I'd like to see as much talk as possible about new Switch titles whether they are ports or not, it just doesn't happen.

I am not saying Witcher 3 on Switch should be a GOTY contender (on second thought, that should absolutely happen :D ) but I'm always looking for old Steam forum posts about some games that should be at the forefront of discussion.

Let me tell you, the release of the back catalogue Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest games is intimidating to a series novice because nobody is acknowledging them, and they would seem like the best fodder to talk about as most everybody has some sort of baseline.

I have historically disliked the time of the year when That One Event Game comes out and everybody is covering it, I often chose to shy away from hearing about it.

Jaded Alyx · Oct 22, 2019

Etrian Darkness said:
I kinda assumed this would be about Skullgirls.

I'm out of the loop. What happened with Skullgirls?

Skullgirls is out??

Taco_Human said:
Horizon Zero Chase

Horizon Chase Turbo

OmegaX · Oct 22, 2019

Oxenfree was so disappointing. It has really long load times and the game has mini stutters every once in a while. It's perfectly playable but those load times are atrocious. It's a shame because it is one of my favorite games.

I'm growing tired of Switch ports releasing with obvious, glaring bugs alongside garbage performance

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