Xenoblade Chronicles 2 arrived recently, pretty much the last major retail release on the Switch for this year. It's another triumph for Monolith Soft and Nintendo, and is sure to keep fans busy into 2018. That said, one thing we said in our review was that, although it's a handsome game in various ways, it has one of the "biggest docked / portable gulfs yet on the Switch". It looks pretty nice on a TV, but detail and resolution are rather different on the portable.
Now our chums at Digital Foundry have done their thing and given a tech analysis on the Switch title. It's an interesting watch and puts some more detail and numbers on the resolution, framerate and so on. Check it out below.
We think anyone playing the game will accept that it has some technical flaws - on the other hand it's a sizeable and ambitious title, so it's unsurprising. Perhaps, like with the year's other massive adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, there'll be some updates and patches to smooth out some issues.
Let us know how you're getting on with the game, or if you're planning to pick it up for the festive period.
Comments 63
I enjoy DF videos and pretty much watch them all but this stuff usually doesn't bother me unless there is MAJOR slowdown (like with RIME). That said, FPS in the low 20's is rough. Whatever though, I'm having fun with the game and have not been put off by the tech issues so far.
Xenoblade's amazing story allows me to overlook any technical shortcomings the game may have.
It got worse in portable mode as I played.
When I first fired up the game I was confused because it looked hardly any different then docked. I had guessed it was running around 600p (seems I wasn't too far off the mark). But after about 10 hours in, I noticed that the dynamic resolution really dropped in the open areas. There was a point in the game where I fell into the clouds in that one city you come to, and it dropped so bad that it honestly kind of shocked me.
So my opinion on this has kind of been evolving as I've played more of the game. It definitely looks pretty good and sharp when you're not in an open area. Especially if you zoom in more (maybe it's that type of anti-aliasing they use but it looks pretty good). But once you get to an open area, all bets are off.
With that said I played for about seven hours yesterday in tabletop when I was at work (I know, I know, they basically pay me to come in and measure a part every 4 hours). And I thoroughly enjoyed the game the entire time, so it wasn't to a point where it affected my enjoyment.
But being 15 hours in now, I think I have a much fuller picture of what's going on here, which wasn't really evident when I started playing. But as I'm playing on the TV today. I'm noticing some similar drops as well in the open areas. Not nearly as egregious but, it's noticeable.
All that being said now, I am absolutely loving this game (which was to be expected). I remember the horrible pop-in in Xenoblade X and complete lack of collision detection. This game has its shortcomings too, but overall it looks great on the TV and good enough to enjoy in handheld. And I'm grateful for that. Not only my favorite JRPG gets a new entry, but I'm binging out at work playing it too. That's pretty awesome.
Maybe Nintendo should've delayed it into next year after all. They sure didn't need it to come out this year. Late January would've been nice as I probably would've picked it up then. Now is still too crowded.
I have see lots of ppl online saying that the game isn't good.
The game is amazing, but its most certainly a game to play in docked mode.
To me, it's just amazing we're playing games like this on tablet hardware.
Really interested in this game, and I want to love it. But I'm not purchasing it until I hear about a patch that addresses some of these issues.
@Spoony_Tech Good point. Beginning of the year looks kinda poor when it comes to Switch and now people are buying Mario bundles, Mario Kart or Breath of the Wild for Christmas rather than "100 hours anime jRPG".
I'm finding the game Amazing! I'm 44 hours in - Story is fantastic! not doing too many side quests - haven't noticed any technical issues except the odd frame rate drop - the battles had been getting very very busy too! Love this game!
@QwertyQwerty and BotW as well, believe it or not.
Technical issues like this usually forecast something cloudy with a chance of patches nowadays. I prefer to judge the actual experience for myself, but I'm on zero hurry with XBC2 despite my general eagerness to play it since I'm only still hoping to get and play XBC3D this winter. And then Monolith Soft is apparently interested on doing an XBCX port as well.
Played some time in handheld mode, it often looked like in 480p or so. I'm not "4k 60 FPS" person but X on Wii U's Gamepad looked better than this, so it's a bummer.
Docked is completely different story - the game looks beautiful on the TV screen.
Mega Man X, you guys! You guuuuys!
Honestly, I survived Xenoblade Chronicles on the Wii and that is one of my favorite games of all time. It looks good enough for me.
368p in 2017 is not excusable. End of. Especially with the terrible sharpening they use.
I've come to terms with the game's portable performance. It can drop pretty low at times, so it's definitely not a game I'd want to play fully in handheld mode, but the portability is useful for grinding and side quests.
I'm surprised it stays around 720p when docked, though. The Switch is much more capable than what this game is turning out. Perhaps it really was rushed out the door before further optimization could take place.
You guys!! Mega Man 11!!!
368p is really bad.
I expect some performance patches in the future. Can't understand why the resolution is so low on portable mode.
I’ve noticed the lower resolution, but it’s fine. Honestly, it’s worth it to be able to play a game like this portably. Besides, it still looks better than Xenoblade Chronicles 3D!
Just like big massive games on PS4. Playing it on a big TV with an audio system (as long as it is family room friendly) is the way to go for XC2.
It looks and sounds amazing!... a few slow downs? sure - but it takes nothing away. Game mechanics have problems but the world is stunning.
Mor Ardain is where you start to see tons of jaggies - and gets a bit ugly and distracting.
Digital Foundry: "It would've run better on a PS4 Pro but whadda you gonna do?"
Still curious how many actually know what the techy stuff is and how many are pretending because they are behind their computers.
Couldn't care less about performance or whatever.
It's not great, but I can accept it. It's kind of a shame, because some of the locations are so beautiful. But it's easy enough to get over. Maybe they'll fix it up a bit with a patch. That'd be a bonus.
I set RGB to full on my Switch and dropped the sharpness on my TV down a bit to tidy up the jaggies and it looks nicer.
Not great, but not as bad as all the unnecesary hate he Switch gets from DF suscribers.
368p is the lowest they recorded, but from what is understood, it doesn't happen often. In all honestly though, I think there is still more polishing they could do, because it seems weird that portable mode has dynamic scaling but docked mode does not. Plus there is the frame drops that can temporarily be relieved through a system restart (which has happened with some Switch games lately prior to patches). They should also allow user-adjustable settings, like toggling the filters.
I have the game, but have yet to play it because I just haven't had the time (started work at a new Amazon Fulfillment Center, and they had us doing 12hr shifts at the start of peak season. This week is 10hr hopefully).
I'm only a few hours in but all of those are on the TV where it looks great and this is one game I suspect that I'll play almost exclusively on the TV as there seems to be quite a bit to keep track of in the battles. So far the game is everything I could hope for and the story already has me hooked, normally I'd be bored during long cut scenes but in this I want to see more. I'd expect the frame drops to be patched out as it doesn't seem linked to what is actually happening on screen but I can't see myself playing in portable mode
@Yorumi Yeah Im honesrly getting pretty annoyed with enemies constantly repeating the same line over and over. It really starts to kill the immersion to the point of iritating.
I’m 36 hours in and I’ve played nothing but handheld. I’ve had the occasional frame drop and it looks blurry at some times, but it’s so fun I don’t really care. If anything now I’m just more excited to play it in TV mode when I get some time.
@Jeronan Great news, you can turn in-game voice acting off, while keeping cutscene voice acting on.
Problem solved.
I haven't watched the video, but I played a fair bit in both modes, and I found the technical issues quite obvious, meaning the drops in framerate as well as the drops in resolution. Esp. the drops in resolution were particularly grating in handheld mode, as the whole thing really at times looked like XC1 ... still, those were only a few moments out of a two dozen hours, and the actual game is overall very well made and great fun. Still, it's disappointing to see this kind of issues arise with a first party games only months after release. The Switch is obvious at his limit when Xenoblades combat with multiple enemies and effects is out in full force. Not surprising, but still a bit worrying.
I don't mind if it gets a bit fuzzy on the go. So long as it runs well. I have noticed a distinct pattern with what games I play portable and docked. I knew from the start this would be a docked game for me most of the time.
@Ralek85 Well, it's an exclusive, but it isn't really a first party game. Monolift Soft is owned by Nintendo, but it's not the same as a game made by their main Nintendo devs.
It seems that this game needed a few more months to devote to fine tuning and all. I don’t see why this needed to be releoin December...
I want to watch it but I'm currently playing through it. I don't want spoilers if any. I'm only on chapter 3. I am enjoying what I am playing but them slow downs. I must be feeling it too much.
Seems there is always something wrong if its not a direct First Party game from Nintendo Themselves. I play this game in dock mode at all time. I feel bad for those who play in handheld and have to experience all the inconsistencies. Of course to each their own but its 2017 some people may expect way more bang for their buck ~
@Heavyarms55 Yeah, well, I guess that might be technically true, but on the other hand, I think it's a fair assumption that there was about as much cooperation and assistance provided by Nintendo as there could have been (at least I for one would be surprised if anything else were true). Also, this is not exactly the first 'first-party' game that had at least some issues. Zelda was obviously not only running at 30fps but it also dropped some frames here and there (and more in some areas than others). The issues with Xenoblade are pronounced though, certainly in terms of the actual resolution taking a severe hit in addition to the framerate - from what I could tell while playing. There was an instant early on for me, fighting some kind of 'helicopter' enemy on board of that giant battleship, where the game really slowed down noticebly while also looking very pixelated on the Switch screen (playing in handheld mode). I actually never managed to finish the fight, since the enemy was pushed off the ship, dropped down and never managed to came back up, but for a moment, it really felt like the game was about to die on me.
Gladly, that was a singular instance in the ~22h I played so far, but it was a bit disappointing for a non-third-party game, that on the surface of things, is not exactly a visual showpiece (artistically it's great though for the most part).
Again though, don't get me wrong, I'm used to this from other platforms and developers, so in that regard it was not that big a deal, but it kinda .. well, I dunno, I'm just more critical about stuff like this with Nintendo than with any other company, because they've had a tendency to put performance over visuals, just as they normally put gameplay over presentation in general.
I hope maybe some of this can still be patched, and if not, that Monolith at least learned how to work the Tegra to fullest potential, so that the next game on the system (sure hope it'll be around long enough to see another Monolith game, I for one will be rooting for another Baten Kaitos ^^) will be at least on the same visual level, but without those technical drawbacks. At least with other consoles, there have always been these first about 2 years, where dev slowly learned to deal with the new hardware before the real leaps in performance, or more often visuals really set in.
Anyways, there is no denying that there are limits to Tegra, and without a doubt those will rear it's ugly head at some point, definitely when the the PS5 and Xboxwhateveritllbecalled see the light of day. I still love the Switch and frankly, it'd be totally okay with upgrading to a mid-gen "New Switch" 2-3 years down the line, equipped with a newer Tegra chip. I normally don't go for these kind of mid-gen (more 2-years-to-next-gen) updates, but the Switch is special to me already, hence in this case, I'd be willing to reconsider my position. Certainly if it is a substantial enough upgrade, there is full BW-compability and there are actual uses for the plus of power (not jut like a mere handful of new games like on the DSi or N3DS).
Long story short, Xenoblade has the biggest issues in terms of performance and fidelty I've seen out of the Switch games I own yet, with portable definitely being compromised in some instance, but it's still so good and those instances not nearly frequent or severe enough to be considered a deal breaker (assuming the next 40 hours will be roughly the same as the first 20 hours).
PS: Sorry for the wall of text, I got carried away and was to lazy to go back and edit my stuff ^^
I just played it for the first time. It certainly lacks the polish of Nintendo level games but it still seems solid. I think this was somewhat expected as it was done quickly and with a smaller team.
On a bigger budget game you would see better assets used on cutscenes vs in-game assets, etc. I still think it looks like a solid game however.
With the dock issues it feels like they lead development docked and not handheld or something. Just seems surprising there is such a difference or that they didn’t cut back on other things before dropping g the resolution so low.
I’m sure most of this is simply a byproduct of a lower budget but I do hope we can expect a patch or two.
Zelda had performance patches that improved things a lot, i expect this game to have some as well
@JaxonH
Played...at work...for 7 hours...
Where do I send my resume?
@Ralizah
This can only mean one thing. They had to rush it out before they announce all the awesome things coming out that would totally preclude any meaningful sales for xenoblade!!!
@MjekuMati
😁
Sunday's are unique. Double time to come in and measure one part on the CMM every 4 hours. Which takes about 5 minutes of actual work. But they have to pay someone to be there and do it because they can't afford to ship a bad part.
So, I get to come in a make $40 an hour while playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Tough to beat that!
@JaxonH I'm taking it you got a good amount of years in before you got that laid back job? Not saying it isn't important as usually you need to work some long hard crazy schedules before getting something like that.
@JaxonH wow.. just WOW. You made 80$ in 2 hours and that’s sufficient for any game on any platform. While prices for games are still the same here in Croatia, you must actually work 2 whole days for a game. Actually my wife work for 500$ a month and I spent about 200$ this month for games. That’s just not fair. No wonder you got so many games.
@Ralek85 I haven't been able to pick it up yet but I know I will enjoy it when I do regardless of resolution or fps. The next real test that we know of is Wolfenstein 2. Curious how it will turn out. Oh and the real reason I commented was baten kaitos.... God I love that game to pieces. I'll even take a 2 pack remixed version(if they redo the combat in origens to match the original I'd die)
I'm enjoying it. Only thing that bothers me are the NPC models. They look awful.
@CroRock
Well, mind you its not all the time. They eliminated weekends for like 3-4 months at one point. They really don't like paying for Sunday's if they do that have to. Although I guess in my case I'm just one person in the lab whereas most of the expense comes from paying 20 dudes on the floor.
@Spoony_Tech
Oh yeah. When I started at this job it was on the floor working in 120° heat for $10 an hour. It was one of the hardest and dirtiest and most underpaid jobs... but I was thankful for because it was full-time.
I started doing really well and finally, years later, made my way into the quality department, then I learned how to program and became a CMM programmer and now I am in training to be the senior CMM programmer/metrologist and pretty much run the lab there.
There's couple other guys who work in the lab (basically one per shift but they're just CMM operators, I suppose they are fortunate enough to have a pretty good job on weekends too). I just cover every other weekend so our dayshift guy can get some time off. Besides, it's not exactly taxing work on the weekend so lol... usually gives me time to do some programming if I'm behind.
i just hope that Monolith Soft will be patching the game since in the handheld mode the game looks really weird as if you set the sharpness at the highest possible level
I did notice that the game looks less pretty on the go. But this kind of game, I don't really care. Same as with Xenoblade 1, which looked poop compared to the graphics the competition delivered, I extremely enjoy the Xenoblade titles.
So far (except for the extremely sexist character designs) I think Xenoblade 2 might overall be my favourite of the series.
The difference is notable but not a deal breaker for me.
My biggest concern is this may be a sign where that which Nintendo has been fighting against may be coming to pass. That is where game's are not held back to ensure their polishing but rather rushed out to meet a deadline and patched later.
Modern gaming trends, modern day gamers I guess.
@alasdair91 Considering they still make 3ds games in 2017 which are close to 240p on handheld your statement about 368p not excusable in 2017 seems a bit off. Good thing no one forces you to buy games that don't meet your resolution demands tho, right?
@misfitpierce The 3DS cannot handle anything more than 240p, so it's excusable. The switch however can handle 1080p at 60fps when pushed. It'd be like a PS4 churning out 368p.
It's not on. And I'm not a graphics gamer. But we all need to admit this is poor programming and optimisation.
Let's be honest. If this was capcom, EA, Ubisoft etc etc putting out a game that hit 368p resolution undocked people would be asking for them to be hanged from the rafters.
480p should be the lowest any game really goes. Ideally 540p though.
Monolith have got some balls if they don't improve the resolution undocked. I said in the review thread that it seems they only concerned themselves with docked performance when in development stage.
@alasdair91 it can handle 1080p 60fps? Like Zelda which actually stays at 900p 30fps with occasional drops in dock and fps drop off? Or Zelda in handheld which goes below 720p 30fps? Mario kart that drops to 720 in handheld, where's this 1080 60fps handheld mode. Xenoblade stays around 720 in docked which I would have liked 900p like odyssey but it is what it is. In handheld it's a mess but maybe they could take out some specular highlights etc to trade for resolution to bump it up. Either way it'll be smoothed a bit over time I'm sure but if your thinking large games are gonna be 1080 60fps your on the wrong system bud unless they leave out all lighting and shadow effects.
@kobashi100 but that wasnt the best solution ...Xenoblade Chronicles X looks amazing on the Wii U gamepad, ...i dont care, I just want to play the game in the handheld mode at better quality
@misfitpierce BOTW looks awful in the TV mode
A first/second-party game should have higher resolution in handheld mode, agreed, but even with dynamic resolution scaling the frame rate goes low near the 20s. The video explains that this happens in both modes. The field of view is big and Switch is not the most powerful system, but this is not a port, it's an exclusive Switch game!
@Robohock I'm totally with you on that. I recently read that Monolith was looking to bring Xenoblade X to the Switch, and I thought to myself that I would definitely prefer a HD port of the Original XC, but what I would really love to see ported would be Baten Kaitos and BK Origins.
Reading today that Nintendo is bringing Wii games to the Nvidia Shield in China, we basically have the next best thing to a confirmation that the Switch will most likely also see Wii ports down the line (once that infernal VC finally launches), and seeing as the Wii is really just an enhanced Gamecube from what I understand, Baten Kaitos should by all accounts at least be POSSIBLE without any reservations or much extra effort.
Also, seeing how big the push for X and Chronicles 2 was in terms of marketing by Nintendo (in stark contrast to Chronicles 1 which only made it west after people literally begged Nintendo for months on end), I get the sense that Nintendo sees Monolith's worth now more than ... well, probably any time before.
Finally, Nintendo has shown some willingness in the last years to engage in the business of porting and re-releasing. They did it with WW and TP for example to bolster the lackluster WiiU line-up, they certainly had no issue porting MK8 to the Switch right away and I think we all feel like this will only be the start of much more ports to come in 2018 (hint: Super Smash Brothers and Donkey Kong).
Plus, I'd also wager that maybe, just maybe Monolith is a bit tired of Xeno right now, and will want to either do something else entirely next or possibly return to an old niche cult hit of theirs, aka Baten Kaitos. What would be better to prime an audience to that end than to ride the tails of Chronicles 2 good reception and eventually release a Baten Kaitos HD collection which in turn could lay the groundworks for a broad'ish audience for an eventual Baten Kaitos "3".
I'm still not willing to make any bets on this, but going by all of that, I'd say the chances are probably better than ever before to see some kind of revival for Baten Kaitos. Sure, if the collection were to flop, they might hold off on any sequel, but at least we would have those two games on the Switch then. Like I said though, I'd definitely would pick-up barebones VC releases as well at this point. It might be a pipe-dream, but it's seems far less like one today than it might have been even 2 or 3 years ago.
As for Chronicles, I wager you'll enjoy if you enjoyed previous games in the franchise. Though I have to say, I am a bit torn about the combat system right now. The thing is that the story missions are just way too easy to take full advantage of it, and there is also a general lack of immediacy to it.
What I mean is that so far, I've never felt once that my decision were marking a crucial turning point in a battle, as all they seem to do is decide how fast I'll win any given fight. Sure, some enemies just one-hit me, but virtually everything I can beat, I will beat, it's only a matter of time. There is no immediate feedback for "right" choices, plus many choices - seeing as you can control only one out of three drivers - are not really yours to make. Also, many of the information you need to make a conscious decision as to what strategy to employ are not really known to you - at least not without some good old fashioned memorization and some guess work.
I feel like there are whole layers of system here (like the whole thing about effects like break, topple, launch, smash etc.) that for a long time are bearly useable at all, because you lack good Blades with those skills, but they also hardly matter. As long as your tanking and healing holds up (which you have only limited influence on as many effects like blocking are entirely passive), you will not loose - simple as that. I just leave tanking and healing to the NPCs and focus on optimizing damage, but I already feel like this will not be entirely satisfying in the long run.
I wish there was more need and more chance to make use of all the aspects of the combat system. Unfortunately, like I said, this is only possible in a limited way, and only rarely if at all necessary.
Not to sound overly negative though, as the combat is fun in it's own frenetic way, and there is gratification to things like pulling off a complete combo, plus there is great art direction, excellent music, good voice acting (for the main cast), very likeable characters, a fair deal of customization and an interesting story.
It doesn't bother me in the slightest. Especially after coming off Mario Odyssey which was practically unplayable in portable mode thanks to the motion controls.
The underlying problem is that Nintendo decided this is a "niche" title and gave Monolithsoft a much smaller budget than for Nintendo's other franchises. If Nintendo decided they were going to make a serious push to compete with Final Fantasy and gave Monolithsoft the sort of money Square Enix wasted on Final Fantasy XV they would have been able to put a lot more engineering talent on hardware optimization.
Was actually planning to pick this one up but now seeing how poorly it looks in portable mode I’m going to pass. I almost never play my Switch docked and this one looks pretty rough undocked.
@th3r3ds0x Same with me. Not paying the equivalent of $60 for 3 6 0, especially for 2017. All the people saying "Portable mode doesn't matter" are just Damage controlling.
@QwertyQwerty yeah ppl are crazy.
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