Square Enix Details Octopath Traveler 0's Switch 2 Performance And Resolution

More than likely 1080 and 60 fps in docked mode. I doubt it'll hit those numbers in handheld

Those Switch 2 specs are pretty good! Hopefully anyone who plays this game on either system will enjoy their version of the game.

I wish I could buy the actual game on card for Switch 2. Guess this will be a PS purchase yet again.

I so want to support S2 games but I will never buy these game key cards. I hope Nintendo works this out with publishers.

Why does this game get a Switch 1 release but not the Bravely Default remaster? Curiouser and curiouser choices you are making to miss out on money Square Enix...

"Up to" is the important detail here. Hitman was also "up to" 60fps before IO decided it was better to cap it at 30fps for 'improved performance'. And again with no upgrade path being available... Madre mia.

Game key card…no buy

The Game Key Card people are starting to remind me of a dragon hoarding gold and jewels. It isn't about enjoying the games, it's about saying you "own" them.

@krogp Get over it already. Digital is the future.

@OpheliaDynamight They act as if even IF a game's files are fully on a cart that it's the best experience. Almost every game in existence these days requires an update or has DLC. You will rarely if ever, get the full, complete game on the cartridge. The Digital aspect of games cannot be avoided anymore.

Am I getting this game? What do you think? Lol gimme! Gimme! Gimme!

No upgrade path is pretty disgusting for physical collectors. Very anti-consumer. These companies need to do and be better.

@DiamondJim they've let everyone know ahead of time so the customer can be informed. Nothing about this is anti-consumer.

Bad business? Maybe? That's up to each individual, but I don't think it's anti consumer.

@Medic_alert I found myself thinking about this the other day. My most fond gaming memories were with StarCraft and Diablo on a laggy Internet connection. I didn't even know what frames were back then.

i am getting the switch 1 version for the physical release..

Liked the original, but never got past the second chapter as I am old now and couldnt be bothered with the grind as there was a huge difficulty jump

@OpheliaDynamight For a lot of us, it's not about "owning" the game. It's about having to store it on small, very expensive Micro SD Express cards because the publishers want to push that cost and inconvenience onto consumers.

@LastFootnote that's fair and I'll hear someone out on that one.

@Medic_alert Console ports and framerates etc is nothing more than a p*ssing contest to flaunt superiority

@OpheliaDynamight People would think it less of a problem if the price reflected what you're getting.

Full game on cart = full price (because the cart itself costs money, the memory costs money, printing, distribution, etc.)

Digital game only = discounted by $15 (because you didn't have the above)

"Game Key Card Scam" = discounted by $20 (because you don't even have the game and all you're recouping is the physical media costs).

Or even better: You can get the cartridge for $10, lets you play the game for 1 day, no save file capability. You want to save? You want to play longer? Pay the digital game price and it unlocks the full download.

That last suggestion? THAT is how you make money on this otherwise scam.

Again it's about the game-key card and not about the game... sigh.

After playing both Octopath Traveller 1 and 2, I can't wait for this one. I hope the Switch 2 performance is great and it seems to be.

@CasualTalkRadio this would fail terribly in the market place from the sheer confusion alone. You're paying the same price for the game, not the medium that it's delivered on.

People couldn't even keep pricing straight on a single Mario Kart World game. Imagine trying to announce this one?

But what about audio quality? I ended up going PS & Xbox versions for the last 2 Octopath's as the quality of the audio files was inferior on the Switch (more compression, fuzzier music quality, etc..). I wonder if the same is true for the Switch 2.

Looks like a day one buy to me, just like the first two.

@Medic_alert My point still stands

@Medic_alert I agree so much with what you say. Its disheartening to see this is the kind of novelty that we are supposed to be excited at.

But can we really blame it on gaming and console devs when people have been asking for consoles that are the same but stronger? Sadly this gaming generation is all about that, with Nintendo even joining the fray with Switch 1 to Switch 2 "upgrades".

I wonder if the max building numbers not being the same between platforms is something that actually makes a difference in terms of gameplay or if it's just a matter of being able to put less decorations up.

Only 400 buildings - if that isn't the Switch 2 in a nutshell.

So only 1080p in docked..... So much for the 4k system we thought we bought

@TerribleTerabytes ähm, shure not.

Man they are so cheapskate here... Key-Card.....consumers want this choice here.

@Medic_alert Definitely. Maybe I have nostalgia googles and personal bias, but I do remember when N64 would have 3D as part of its uniqueness, the DS the dual screens or the Wii the motion controls. We would be wondering how would the new games utilize these features to provide a new experience rather than asking how good they would look.

Woo this has been such a great year for me as a gamer! My switch 2 put on some Teddy Pendergrass and is singing “come on over to my place”…

Another game to get on Steam instead

I'm loving this new metric for console comparison. I could see Digital Eclipse now rating each game in terms of how many buildings.

Differences are many for switch 1 and switch 2 editions. Since I only buy physical games and the switch 1 is clearly a downgrade I might skip this. Or pirate it on switch 1 since it's absurd square enix refuses a full physical release for switch 2. Their choice in the end.

@Medic_alert When Sony fans and Sony itself turned this into a full on trend, claiming the base Xbox One was trash just because the base PS4 had slightly higher pixel count. That’s where the whole thing really kicked off.

@OpheliaDynamight Giving the physical collectors advance notice that they’re being shafted is ok even though they’re being shafted? Sure.

@SabreLevant That's nice

I feel like this should be 1440p 60fps. BOTW and TOTK runs the in that numbers so I think the game should be able to do it

@Medic_alert because a lot of us over the years have been disappointed with the performance of games we've purchased? Because we just spent 450 dollars on a console that we'd expect some sort of improvement over the last gen model and are curious how a cross platform title performs?

@DiamondJim yes because they can choose not to be. They can not buy the product.

Hey, what gives? Should get double the buildings on Switch 2. Switch 2? More like Switch 1.6

Game key card and no upgrade from the Switch 1 version....

@Medic_alert Sony sometimes pushes the technology envelope at the expense of price, but the PS5 Pro is a bargain compared to the PS3's 60GB launch model (US $599, equivalent to about $960 today.) Though PS3 launched with full hardware backward compatibility with PS2, and was priced lower than many stand-alone Blu-ray players.

Since it's a Game-Key Card on Switch 2 and there's no upgrade path for Switch 1, I'll pick up the Switch 1 physical version on a deep sale. Square Enix needs to do better if they want my full support.

The difference in town size is a rather sad fact. Obviously we don't know enough of what the game will be to know whether double the buildings will mean double the fun or not, but still... Kinda sad.

I don't have the latest gen consoles, and I had my eyes set on the Switch 1 version, if I was going to buy it. Now, with this news, I may decide to forego it. OT1 was my absolute fave game of this past generation (even if I never managed to fully finish it), and OT2 was wonderful too. I liked 1 better, but still, it's a series that I really enjoyed, and I LOVE town building, but now I might decide to not even bother.

Not that I have any time for videogames these days anyways...

@OpheliaDynamight It only confuses you because for years you've been convinced that digital pricing as-is, makes sense. It doesn't and never has.

Physical distribution costs MORE money than digital. Yet the price is the same. Why? Because the price of digital games is inflated artificially, and they're pocketing the rest. Meanwhile brick-and-mortar stores suffer.

The REAL value of "Game Key Card" rather than as a scam, would be to offer it at a significant discount in exchange for 1 day's worth of gameplay; you just can't save progress. But if you're good enough to beat the game without saving and playing for 1 day (which as kids was not hard at all), so be it, $10 is all you paid for the privilege, then you can hand the card to someone else to do the same thing if they can pull it off.

But if you're like the rest of us who are smart and see value in paying $10 to see if a game sucks before forking over more money, you've now just opened up a new avenue for people to get into games that otherwise think $70+ is too steep when you don't know a game sucks yet and can't return it (because it's digital).

Get it? It's not hard.

@CasualTalkRadio I'm a fairly intelligent person, so I'm not sure suggesting otherwise does anything to help with your argument.

I'll just point out again that your pricing strategy would hit the Internet meat grinder and be spit out into 80 billion misinformation videos and headlines almost immediately. Charging multiple different prices for the same product will always be more confusing to consumers than charging one.

Also, once again, you're paying for the game, not the medium it's delivered on.

@Medic_alert thats what you ideally get from a new console generation. Better image, better performance. And yes comparisons like this matter to some people. I remember being really disappointed in 2018 by how muddy looking Octopath was. 60 fps is nice in visual effect heavy games like this cuz there's smoother panning of the camera and backgrounds. Only Nintendo diedhards will make arguments like this stuff not mattering. So odd.

@OpheliaDynamight "you're paying for the game, not the medium it's delivered on."

Now obviously you know that's a lie, since buying the game on PC almost always has a 20% discount on launch unless it's a mainstream (i.e. Square Enix) game.

"At The End Of The Day", you don't like fair pricing, you don't mind getting gouged, you just don't care. We'd respect you more if you just outright said that.

@CasualTalkRadio I'm not sure who you are quoting with "at the end of the day," and I'm not really looking for any respect from anyone here, just talking video games.

And the fact is the price tag is for the game, not the medium it's delivered on.

Personally, I've not been gouged on any games I can think of. I wait for sales.

Don't know if anyone read the article I did regarding the recently released Star Wars Outlaws, but the devs stated very plainly that the engine used to create the game (snowdrop) wasn't running well on the Cart Media versus the micro SD card Express or the internal memory of the switch 2. Just something to think 🤔 about moving forward, not saying that game key cards are great but what if they just don't perform well vs digital copies played from internal memory or the SD express cards 🤷

@Medic_alert the expectation and standard of games running at 60 fps is a big deal to me. I'm really sensitive to frame rates. everything feels more responsive, less blur and stuttering even in RPGs where you're just roaming around a map is so welcome to me. Growing up most games ran in 60 until the N64 and those low frame rates and blurry images turned me off from games for awhile tbh. And as far as image goes I'm more of a "fidelity of image" than high rez. I totally get the diminishing returns on console generation bumps, but ideally those 7.5 years on Switch felt bad sometimes and I just don't want that anymore.

@Medic_alert it's also a pretty fair comparison if you own multiple systems. Might as well get the best version if they all cost the same anyway. I'll grab most games that perform decently on Switch 2 cuz I like the portability, but if the port kinda sucks I can just grab it on PC.

@Ham-n-jam the 'best' version. Games have been reduced to mere numbers. 🙁

@jsty3105 I mean... yeah I think some versions are straight up slightly nicer to play lol. If the ports are otherwise identical (in price, content, gameplay, etc) and you have the hardware to support it (a high res/high refresh rate monitor), I don't see why you wouldn't just buy the port that runs at the highest res/framerate?

Of course, at the end of the day as long as the performance isn't truly abysmal, any port should still be a fun time and the numbers don't matter that much. It's especially diminishing returns in resolutions above 1080p.

@Ham-n-jam maybe I'm just old but I'm so bored with the incessant focus from gaming publications on performance and frame rates.

Personally, and this isn't to slight you, I'd pick the most convenient platform for the game. For games like Civilization, that usually means the PC, for RPGs, it'll be the Switch since I'd never get enough dedicated pc time to properly play it. Frame rates and resolution doesn't factor into that decision process.

@jsty3105 yeah true man, I do agree that convenience and control scheme are more important factors than the specs. I own a decent spec PC, but I got Dragon Quest 11 on switch cuz the portability is great. I was also thinking of buying Resident Evil 4 on switch or the remake on PC, but I've decided to hold off till I can get my hands on the Wii version cuz apparently that control scheme is awesome fun : ]