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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

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Digital Foundry finally released their analysis of Dragon Quest XI S : Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition recently released on the Nintendo Switch family of systems. Will update OP as I watch the video along.

What were your thoughts on *breathe in* Dragon Quest XI S : Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition on the Nintendo Switch family of systems?

- PS4 was running at 900p while Pro was at 1728p using checkerboard rendering. Switch uses a dynamic resolution. Docked goes from 720p to 810p. Handheld has an average resolution of 540p although its also dynamic.
- Most of the game runs very smoothly, at 30fps (like the other versions).
- Overall polygon count has been reduced on the Switch.
- The file size went from over 30gb on PS4 to just under 14gb on Switch. All content is included though, including dual audio. Videos were compressed through an UE4 codec that wasn't available at the time.
- Reduced texture filtering, shadow draw distance, ambiant occlusion.
- Loading times are the same

- The 2D mode runs at 60fps except for cutscenes that are, for some reason, running at 30fps.
 
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metsallica

metsallica

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Oct 27, 2017
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I just imported the ultra-cute joycon... maybe I should try the game at some point! Looks really cool and seems to be a rock-solid port.
 
ShinobiBk

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I've really been enjoying playing Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition on my Nintendo Switch with Neon Blue and Neon Red Joy‑Con - HAC-001(-01) and feel it's a fantastic port.
Yes compromises are clear but there are also clear improvements for once. Lower quality visuals traded for higher quality music is the main thing. It still looks really good imo
 
Prophet Five

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It took me some getting used to the visuals as I watched my husband play the PS4 version but I do better with handheld RPGs so I waited for the Switch one and love it. I've already adjusted to it and I love the world and artstyle (which is saying a lot bc I don't like DBZ/DQ art usually). I'm enjoying it a lot.
 
Comic Obsessed

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One of the best ports the Switch received and one that works immensely better on a portable.

40 hours in that wouldn't have managed otherwise.
 
werezompire

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Does the video mention load times? The loads on Switch feel faster than I remember them on PS4 (though obviously slower than on a PC w/SSD).
 
jett

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It looks like a very impressive and thoughtful port.
 
Oregano

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I finished Act 2 last night and I noticed there were Nintendo, Epic Japan and Nvidia people directly credited. I wonder how much help they had with the technical aspect.
 
Kingpin Rogers

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I personally was thoroughly disappointed by the dq11 demo, it looked simply awful. Blurry and rough at the same time somehow with miles worse lighting and texture quality, the only positive was performance which seemed solid.

I understand the switch is a handheld which is why it had to be cut back by so much but for me it was just too much. Surprised there's so much positivity, they got it on the switch sure, but they didn't get it looking good unfortunately.
 
Deku_o4a

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I was really surprised by the rather smooth framerate of the port. No hiccups on my end. Visuals are still fine, espacially undocked.
 
Mars People

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Forcing the Switch to output the docked resolution in portable mode looks amazing.
 

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They made it sound like not huge difference ,but tosh switch version is huge downgrade ,but not complaining I still love every bit of it on handheld and I play it everyday since launch none stop. Square enix have won me over the series for the first time.
 
ShadowFox08

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Will probably get it next year. I'll give the demo another chance. The first hour I played didn't impress me all that much.
 
LavaBadger

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The resolution in handheld mode isn't good. Some of the open world elements particularly look really rough in the resolution department. But, the performance is good, and at times in smaller environments or in battles, it even looks quite nice (The art style certainly helps). Presentation docked is nice most of the time.

That said, I've learned to look beyond the resolution the vast majority of the time as there's no way I could fit this game into my schedule if not for handheld play. And I'm glad I'm playing it; it's a great game.
 
OP
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It does make you wonder about how a Kingdom Hearts 3 port would fare on the system tho.
Probably won't happen because the relation between Nintendo systems and KH isn't the same as with DQ, but still.
 
CloseTalker

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Honestly might be my favorite AAA port to the Switch. I know the visuals are technically worse, but it's all done so smartly, and the game's art style is so flexible, that it feels like such a minuscule compromise. Visuals aside, everything else is a massive upgrade.
 
OmegaDL50

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900p on PS4 and the docked Switch version going from 720p to 810p is fairly close. Both versions of the game are targeting 30 FPS as well.

Keep in mind in that other thread you had folks saying the difference was "worlds apart" and the Switch version was "atrocious", it's always about hyperbole and egregious exaggerations with nothing in between and it really shouldn't be like this.
 
WestEgg

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Woo, been waiting for this one. Maybe it's because I've just gotten used to how it looks on Switch, but in some of the side by sides, I actually kind of liked he more simplistic textures and lighting on the Swich version more, because it felt like a better fit for the more cartoonish aesthetic. Also, holy cow at that soundtrack upgrade.
 
OmegaDL50

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mazi said:
just checked the credits on youtube, it was localization coordination, product testing and quality check.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Well I suppose they had to do additional localization work for the additional scenes added in the Switch release. Considering they had to bring back all of the same voice cast to reprise their roles for the individual character arcs after Act 1. Not to mention the text portion for the Classic DQ and Topple Village stuff.
 

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OmegaDL50 said:
Well I suppose they had to do additional localization work for the additional scenes added in the Switch release. Considering they had to bring back all of the same voice cast to reprise their roles for the individual character arcs after Act 1. Not to mention the text portion for the Classic DQ and Topple Village stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
true. there's quite a lot of new material to localize.
 

Hermii

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Oct 27, 2017
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The "family of systems" in the op made me think there were actual differences between models, so disappointed.
 
SPRidley

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The game looks absolutely insane on the switch. If this game looks bad to some folk, then any switch game looks bad for them.

When you compare you can clearly see the visual drop, but when you are just playing on the switcg screen the game looks stellar and you completely forget is a downgrade.

And i was seriously impressed of the loading times after the atrocious ones of South Park Fractured But Whole, the game i played just before i staterd DQ11. !0 seconds at most, less than i minute from booting up the game to be inside the church and ready to play,
Same with the FPS, holy shit, its impressive. Wouldnt mind this team actually getting its hand on the graphics and programming of the next Fire Emblem if Nintendo or Intelligent Systems asked.

About the video, love DF doing the Batman joke, now I cant think of anything else when i entered a battle lol
 
Bomblord

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It's really cool to see them using a bunch of rendering tricks that have fallen out of favor on modern systems to make a conversion that's so perfect. It goes to nearly the base PS4 res in some cases at the same framerate.

Billboard trees that fade into full models, reduced polygon counts that retain all the visual detail while only reducing roundness, simpler more stylized lighting models, baked light maps, swapping out pregenerated blueprints code for optimized native code. Great stuff!
 
MoogleWizard

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I've never played it docked but it looks beautiful handheld, I guess the art style helps a lot with the lower resolution. I couldn't imagine playing the vanilla version with that horrendous midi music, and without the QOL additions like ultra fast battles or forge/call the horse anywhere. There are so many small things like party members following you in the field or cosmetic outfits that don't change stats that add a lot to the experience.
 
Storminormin

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60 hours in, I've been very impressed with this port.
Can't watch the video now, but personally I was pretty impressed by all of the different LoD models used in the switch version.To me it looks like a lot of effort went in to making this game work on switch.
 
RampagingSoul

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That Batman moment. Haha! Great analysis as always. It was amazing seeing all the little tricks the dev team made to get this to run as well as it does on Switch. Definitely one of the better conversions from PS4 to Switch that I have seen and played.
 
LittleAlchemist

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I can't believe they almost skipped this. It's the most impressive port on the system thus far!

Also that "nip and tuck" analogy works really well. Sure, it isn't as pretty as the PS4 version, but the smart design of the port makes it look very similar when you aren't doing a 1 by 1 comparison!
 
ss_lemonade

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Kingpin Rogers said:
I personally was thoroughly disappointed by the dq11 demo, it looked simply awful. Blurry and rough at the same time somehow with miles worse lighting and texture quality, the only positive was performance which seemed solid.

I understand the switch is a handheld which is why it had to be cut back by so much but for me it was just too much. Surprised there's so much positivity, they got it on the switch sure, but they didn't get it looking good unfortunately.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's blurry yeah, but it doesn't really affect me especially when I've never played the PS4 or PC versions before.
 
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