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Anyone else disappointed with the quality of indie ports on the Switch?
- Thread starter AnimeJesus
- Start date
They fixed Golf Story, was able to finish it afterwards. Not a port though and done by two guys as their first effort, game-breaking bugs are still inacceptable but it kind of puts things into perspective. My surprise hit of 2017.
Gungeon has noticeable slowdown in docked mode, though it doesn't really rear its head until later floors. The Gorgun has one attack that does it on floor 2, but otherwise the bigger offenders are stuff like Kill Pillars and Wallmonger. Surprisingly the "last" boss actually doesn't seem to drop frames at all. Also the 6th chamber can often have rooms that drop it too. I don't think it's really a huge problem though as while the framerate is dropping, the game itself slows down too, so you at least don't have to try weaving between shots at half the frame rate while the game still runs full speed.
It's also "secretly" in 3d which probably doesn't help.
It's also "secretly" in 3d which probably doesn't help.
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I don't feel they're any better or worse than first-year ports for other hardware, but I've probably sidestepped a lot of issues simply by not playing in handheld mode all that often.
I will say that the experience has been way, way better than the experience I had with Vita--people loved to talk about all the indie games on Vita but almost every port I tried had obvious and significant issues that made me regret buying that particular version.
I will say that the experience has been way, way better than the experience I had with Vita--people loved to talk about all the indie games on Vita but almost every port I tried had obvious and significant issues that made me regret buying that particular version.
Gungeon outright freezes for a second sometimes if you enter a new room with lots of enemies and stutters even in on the first floor sometimes. Some boss encounters also stuttering. Don't know how it performes on other platforms but I was a bit disappointed. Still prefer it to other platforms as I only play it in portable mode. So it's not unplayable by any means but certainly noticeable.
People saying it doesn't stutter either don't see it or just care as much about framedrops. I mean I love my Switch too but some things just didn't work out that great. Stardew Valley loading times when you start a new day let me stop playing the game near launch. Deleted it, didn't try again. Rime port reports stopped me from buying the game at all.
I wouldn't say I am disappointed with the Switch, I expected it to not run everything very well (or make compromises) due to its power. But those problems keep me from buying most things blindly. Wait for impressions first. I only buy on Switch because of portability anyway.
People saying it doesn't stutter either don't see it or just care as much about framedrops. I mean I love my Switch too but some things just didn't work out that great. Stardew Valley loading times when you start a new day let me stop playing the game near launch. Deleted it, didn't try again. Rime port reports stopped me from buying the game at all.
I wouldn't say I am disappointed with the Switch, I expected it to not run everything very well (or make compromises) due to its power. But those problems keep me from buying most things blindly. Wait for impressions first. I only buy on Switch because of portability anyway.
Hasn't The Sexy Brutale been patched yet? Around mid december they promised a patch within a week to solve the issues.
... well it loads fast and works well but there is some obvious stutter when scrolling.
That said - does not affect this type of game
Who cares?
YL on handheld mode is almost like Mario Odyssey on the go: on a 6-inch screen you don't notice any difference and the game looks and runs great. On the TV it is slightly below the other versions simply because the hardware is completely different. People should keep in mind that the Switch is not even half of the size of the other home consoles.
If you care about resolution and frame rate that much (to complain even about the smallest compromise) i've to ask you why did you buy a Switch? Then you can't say that indie games on Vita were better (because they weren't).
It's a problem, but luckily I only get exclusives on my switch. There's plenty of those to keep me busy.
Just played a few hours of Wonder Boy and it seems like a 100% perfect port to me.
Also Thumper runs amazingly at 60fps with zero drops.
And Yooka Laylee is tops.
Indie quality are going to depend on the developer and should be judged on an individual basis. Not all dismissed because of a few rushed ports.
Try the above mentioned games OP and they will change your opinion.
Also Thumper runs amazingly at 60fps with zero drops.
And Yooka Laylee is tops.
Indie quality are going to depend on the developer and should be judged on an individual basis. Not all dismissed because of a few rushed ports.
Try the above mentioned games OP and they will change your opinion.
stardew still has some issues but the load times are shorter and the sound bug is gone since the latest patch
Which is great for that game imo. I saw a chart of battery life of all switch games and D5 was near No.1 at 6 hours or so. There were much worse looking games that lasted far less. Amazing considering it was a near launch game in Japan?
It's great that the game undocked has long battery life, but when playing docked looks "soft" compared to the PS4 original version.
Switch has enough power to show D5 at 1080p , and it's kind of disappointing that NI didn't use the extra docked power to achieve it.
If I remember correctly, Disgaea 5 was a similar case to Minecraft, in which developers had problems while changing resolution from dock to handheld or vice versa. I think Minecraft got patched, tho. That said, the battery life, indeed, is amazing while playing Disgaea.
Off topic, but i dont get people complaining about doom. Its phenomenal what theve pulled off with that port and even with the 'doom is unplayable at anything below 60', i challenge anyone to just start playing it with an oen mind and not have fun. I only got it out of curiosity and i was glued to it over christmas, just incredibly good fun.
On topic - The only one that bothered me was overcooked as that actually affected gameplay. Now thats patched, im happy with all the indies I have on switch. (well, as ports. I dont like snake pass because that game is a bore)
On topic - The only one that bothered me was overcooked as that actually affected gameplay. Now thats patched, im happy with all the indies I have on switch. (well, as ports. I dont like snake pass because that game is a bore)
No.
I have a ton of indies on Switch and I love most of them. I haven't noticed any huge issues. I pretty much only play in handheld mode.
I recently grabbed End is Nigh, Enter the Gungeon, and Jackbox 4. I'll say that loading times could be better, but that's a non-issue for me. Performance has been great.
On the topic of the Vita being perfect, I have to disagree. I picked up a bunch of indies on mine and was incredibly excited when Binding of Isaac dropped. Load times there were way too long and it couldn't handle updates. Rogue Legacy played great after initial long load times - I hope that one comes to Switch too.
I have a ton of indies on Switch and I love most of them. I haven't noticed any huge issues. I pretty much only play in handheld mode.
I recently grabbed End is Nigh, Enter the Gungeon, and Jackbox 4. I'll say that loading times could be better, but that's a non-issue for me. Performance has been great.
On the topic of the Vita being perfect, I have to disagree. I picked up a bunch of indies on mine and was incredibly excited when Binding of Isaac dropped. Load times there were way too long and it couldn't handle updates. Rogue Legacy played great after initial long load times - I hope that one comes to Switch too.
I own Rocket League on Steam, Xbox One, and PS4. I think the Switch version is my favorite, simply because it's on Switch and I can easily play it handheld or on the TV whenever I want to or even switch between them on the fly.
It plays perfectly, and looks good enough to enable me to play it. For a game like Rocket League that's all I need.
Cross-play between every other platform (except PS4) is just the icing on the cake.
Good to know... I've almost "beaten" it (i.e. gotten to the end of year two), but still have 20+ winter days to get through with no obvious goal.
The load time reduction makes that seem less awful.
I'm pretty confident that I've seen framerate issues (though not necessarily large stutters: i'm talking sub-60fps performance in general) in Gungeon in runs right after starting fresh.
I don't, however, remember if the crashes I've run into were from a fresh start or not. They've all involved reading RR notes, though.
I know this is a very old thread, but I was searching and I feel that this is still a prevelant issue on the switch.
I wanted to buy some indie games for my vacations but some research shows me that many of them have frame rate issues.
Some games that I REALLY wanted to play on the switch but won't due to the performance issues:
Enter the Gungeon
Wizards of Legend
Dead Cells (I really wanted this game on the switch damn it)
Overcooked
Oxenfree
Battlec chasers
Then there are a number of games in which the portable mode resolution is completely unnaceptable which another issue entirely.
What's going on? Is it the hardware that is just not powerful enough for these games or just the developers not taking the time for optimisation?
It's honestly the main reason I'm bummed out qbout my switch. I love the concept of this console but it seems that many games, even simple-looking ones are having a hard time running smoothly or at a good resolution or both.
I wanted to buy some indie games for my vacations but some research shows me that many of them have frame rate issues.
Some games that I REALLY wanted to play on the switch but won't due to the performance issues:
Enter the Gungeon
Wizards of Legend
Dead Cells (I really wanted this game on the switch damn it)
Overcooked
Oxenfree
Battlec chasers
Then there are a number of games in which the portable mode resolution is completely unnaceptable which another issue entirely.
What's going on? Is it the hardware that is just not powerful enough for these games or just the developers not taking the time for optimisation?
It's honestly the main reason I'm bummed out qbout my switch. I love the concept of this console but it seems that many games, even simple-looking ones are having a hard time running smoothly or at a good resolution or both.
Most ive tried are ok, but i played Night In The Woods on the weekend and its stuttery as fuck.
Enter the Gungeon and Dead Cells are tons of fun on Switch ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Just like how Rocket League was massively overblown, most of these other games do too.
Just like how Rocket League was massively overblown, most of these other games do too.
It's the portability and size restrictions that put the Switch where it is. Developers made many of these games with PS4 as a focus first. Moving the games to other platforms that were less powerful was never in the plan for most of them.
Into 2019 you'll start to see games that are better suited to the Switch. Developers will go into the start of the development cycle with that console in mind. Even if they are producing for multiple platforms they'll at least have a better idea where they should be aiming. This is as long as the Switch continues to sell well.
I've played most of Overcooked and it's fine. Unsure what the hold up is on that one either.
Yup. If you're the type of player who is very sensitive to performance in games, I'm not sure why you're choosing Switch in the first place. If it's for the portability, you should be willing to take the slight hit.
How bad are the issues in Dead Cells on the Switch? Want to buy it soon and thought it would be nice to have it in my switch collection. Might go with the PS4 version if it's too bad on switch.
I'm hoping this is the case and that moving forward things become better!
I'm willing to take a slight hit when a game looks like Doom, Wolfenstein or Zelda.
It bothers me when it's a game like Enter the Gungeon, Dead Cells or Wizards of Legend.
If you don't care about it that's fine, but don't pretend that it is an acceptable performance hit for these games on thts more than capable hardware.
Those games were still created with more powerful hardware as their base, so regardless of whether or not you think it makes sense, slight performance hits compared to the other modern platforms isn't very surprising. Now that Switch is successful, new indies will be made with it in mind from the outset, which should make performance in many future games closer to that of other systems.
Not to mention the vast majority of indies on Switch already perform just as well as they do everywhere else. A relatively small number of outliers doesn't really change that.
What? Playing it myself and gameplay is completely smooth - there is some stuttering on the loading screens but they are also there on PS4
The only portion of the game with major stuttering is the retro game Mae plays on her computer.
Pretty much, I think the biggest take away a lot of folks seem forget is how a game looks generally does not correlate how well it runs based on the underlying engine. It's not always a simple as 2D graphics implies toaster hardware requirements. This is a misconception.
Treat each 2D sprite object on screen as its own individual texture, throw enough objects on screen and you can easily flood the memory inducing all sorts of slow downs.
I doubt dead cells was specifically created with something like PS4 in mind, not every game is made for those consoles, indie games especially are made for PC with all kinds of scalability options, we arent talking about a way out here, sometimes games need to be patched.
That's true too and with Dead Cells specifically, Motion Twin stated they wanted a bit more time for Switch optimization, but didn't want to delay the game, so the studio is now completely focused on patching the Switch version.... which still runs extremely well most of the time already, so I have little doubt that game will see significant improvements.
Came from playing the PC version, man, it stutters like crazy. This is docked. It happens on every screen after you leave your home. Tried on SD and on internal. When you're moving and the screen is scrolling, look at the background. Stutters like crazy. Like way more than bloodborne for example which is notorious for it.
I personally haven't noticed very many issues with Overcooked--it takes a little bit to load stages sometimes, but I haven't noticed any framerate issues, docked or undocked. I may have simply not noticed them though, but if there are any, they certainly shouldn't detract from the overall experience.
It's all about perspective. Some people's opinion of "fine" varies wildly. "Tons of fun" is a very vague term. I'm sure I could have fun playing Dead Cells on my Switch if it was my only option, but I'm happier playing it on my PS4 Pro where it runs very smoothly.
You'll see wildly varying opinions of this. Some will tell you it's fine, while others will tell you it's got severe performance issues. More than likely the "fine" people are just being generous with their description.
Overcooked did have some big performance issues at launch, but I believe patches addressed most of them.
Oh okay, that makes sense. I only picked it up in June during that E3 sale, so it definitely seems like they fixed whatever those original issues were.
The fact is that the Switch offers me incredible portability for these games that I don't necessarily want to always play on my TV or on a PC. That makes it extremely easy for me to accept some unstable frame rates here and there or lower resolutions.
The only thing that matters to me is whether it's still fun to play and whether the performance or visual quality gets in the way of being able to enjoy the games.
In the case of Dead Cells, Rocket League, and Enter the Gungeon, none of their respective issues have ever come close to getting in the way of me enjoying those games.
The only thing that matters to me is whether it's still fun to play and whether the performance or visual quality gets in the way of being able to enjoy the games.
In the case of Dead Cells, Rocket League, and Enter the Gungeon, none of their respective issues have ever come close to getting in the way of me enjoying those games.
The OP seems like cherry picking, most indie games on Switch runs good. Even some graphically advanced games like Outlast 2.
One would think that OP would inform himself before making a thread like this, most games on his list that had issues first had been patched to run much better, like RiME, Overcooked, or Rocket League. Some few games have bad performance still like Sexy Brutale, that will be not patched, obviously, because the game bombed on every platform and the developers of SB don't care anymore.
A sad point is, Unity games have issues on every system, on PC the brute force power most of the time hide the issues of Unity, but even on PS4/XOne the long loading times and engine (framerate) hickups are clearly visible in most unity games. And sometimes even more visible on Switch. That is why I don't buy Unity games, regardless of the platform.
By the way the issues of Rocket Leagues poor performance at first had not been ts "physics" as some here mentioned, because these are very simple and not CPU taxing, but the explosions that use many transparencies (and the engine is obviously very unoptimized) that make an enourmous GPU load.
One would think that OP would inform himself before making a thread like this, most games on his list that had issues first had been patched to run much better, like RiME, Overcooked, or Rocket League. Some few games have bad performance still like Sexy Brutale, that will be not patched, obviously, because the game bombed on every platform and the developers of SB don't care anymore.
A sad point is, Unity games have issues on every system, on PC the brute force power most of the time hide the issues of Unity, but even on PS4/XOne the long loading times and engine (framerate) hickups are clearly visible in most unity games. And sometimes even more visible on Switch. That is why I don't buy Unity games, regardless of the platform.
By the way the issues of Rocket Leagues poor performance at first had not been ts "physics" as some here mentioned, because these are very simple and not CPU taxing, but the explosions that use many transparencies (and the engine is obviously very unoptimized) that make an enourmous GPU load.
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You're missing some great games by taking such a stance. Ori and the Blind Forest, Cuphead, INSIDE, and Hollow Knight all run on Unity and are all among the best performing games of this console cycle. The better course of action would be to take each game on a case-by-case basis.
Oh ok, been playing the entire time undocked and never noticed anything besides loading screen stuff. Certainly nothing to impact my enjoyment (just starting chapter 3). Maybe its a lot worse docked? The loading is a total pain though (in all versions presumably). Considering the art style and gameplay its bizarre to me there is so much loading between relatively small areas of the town and it does hamper it (although still loving it so far would be soooo much better if the loading was relatively seamless)