It seems they reworked the combat too and there’s new content actually?
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the original holds up pretty well 
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Yeah, they added character storylines for the three new characters and I think two of the already existing characters. I’m super hyped. Black Flag was a 9.5/10 for me in 2013 but TLOU was my game of the year and game of the generation. This year, nothing through the first half of 2026 is even close to what Black Flag remake will be for me and the only games I see being a contender for my 2026 GOTY will be Fable if it releases. GTA VI is the big one but im not the biggest GTA/Rockstar fan. I miss their PS2 output and era.
I’m super hyped for Black Flag Resynched!!
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It’s nice to see that the devs put in some effort and thus X version in terms of resolution in performance mode is above PS5. I’ll be going with quality mode anyway. Though.
Shamelessly taken from GAF by a Xbox player who’s one of the level headed posters there.
The summary
covers the first 2 chapters of the game.
- DF were able to get an interview with the director which answered questions about how the game was ported to Switch 2.
Switch 2:
- Compared to base PS5, the fundamentals are all there, pushing ‘more than expected’
- AO and SSR are present but running lower quality than PS5’s Quality mode
- Dynamic shadows, object physics, NPC count are matching, though NPC stop animating at a fixed distance
- Most of the cuts are ‘quantitative’, while retaining the overall visual characteristics.
- Texture quality can often be ‘pretty rough’, mushy and pixelated compared to PS5
- Though DF notes the PS5 has rough textures and shadows as well.
- Switch’s shadow cascade draw distance is much lower than PS5
- Animated foliage in Kalm is absent, some world objects have less detail (eg the dinner table), water meshes are lower quality, volumetric lighting also worse in areas
- Per the director, the bigger open world needed more optimization for Switch 2 compared to FF7 Remake, focusing on LoD and mesh shading in the open world exploration
- The cut-backs can be severe but only noticeable when doing direct comparisons, by itself the game is perfectly serviceable.
- Docked: 1080p DRS with lows of 540p. Uses DLSS.
- Portable: 756p to 360p with DLSS.
- No visual setting change between docked and portable other than resolution
- Hair dithering still present like Switch 2’s FF7 Remake port
- IQ in FF7 Remake was ‘quite good’ compared to what’s on offer here
- Performance targets 30fps on Switch 2 but has occasional hitching and small drops in traversal
- Drops are not sustained, likely CPU constraints or when DRS switches
- “Solid playable version of the game”, though Tom from DF says he would give this version a pass as it feels like a game made for the PS5/SX generation
- Oliver was more pleased with FFVII Remake’s Switch 2 version than this one
Xbox Series S:
- Contains two modes, Graphics and Performance
- Relative to Switch 2, it’s a mixed bag.
- Asset and visual features broadly match Switch 2, including shadow cascade distances
- Series S’s graphics mode doesn’t have the NPC stopping animation issue, water shader quality is also higher
- 30fps mode runs at 1080p w/ TAA, results in better hair treatment but can look ‘softer’ at longer distances and TAA banding
- Performance mode is DRS 648p to 540p with no visual differences between the two modes
- The IQ is very soft and smeary in this mode and the TAA method used does not do a good job
- Quality mode targets and runs locked at 30fps and is DF’s recommended method
- Performance targets 60fps with two options “smooth” and “sharp”
- Even though the game targets and runs at 60fps, there’s a judder when doing camera movement
- DF thinks the camera movement is running at a lower frame rate than the world frame rate
- Similar issue was seen in High on Life but was fixed via patch later
Xbox Series X:
- Graphics and Quality mode
- Graphics runs at 4K @ 30fps
- Performance runs DRS 1080p to 1360p, higher than PS5’s 1152p DRS and can show sharper IQ and longer geometry draw on distance objects
- Performance drops a few frames in places where PS5 had none, this would not be an issue for VRR displays
- However, it also suffers the camera movement issue like Series S
Conclusion:
- Switch 2 is cut back in many ways but transfers the experience
- Series consoles’s camera movement issue noted and DF hopes it gets fixed by launch
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Rebirth on S2 is impressive for what it is. That said, it’s funny to me to see people get dogpiled for even suggesting that a Switch port is less than perfect. Nintendo’s fans will tolerate no acknowledgement of any flaws whatsoever.
Personally, I am looking forward to the new consoles coming out and leaving Nintendo in the dust again and leaving the diehards to enjoy their dog food quality ports.
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It’s hard to underestimate what the Switch 2 will entail for game development. It might be too big to skip, so more games will be built around its sepcs instead of just getting out poor quality ports, I wager. Or being forced to optimize down to its capabilities might be a win for every other device too, who knows. Cross-gen gaming is gonna be a whole longer regardless, but Switch 2 might even elongate it more, but maybe not necessarily in all the bad ways.
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Just like the Series S, except it’s a Nintendo product so now that’s a positive thing! 
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If the Series S was expected to sell 100m consoles developers would have been targeting it as the default from day one, and would’ve made for more optimized games imo
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The other tangential comment I’ll make on FF7 is the overexposed, too-bright look of both Remake and Rebirth. I totally see what people are complaining about, but I actually like it? I don’t know, it adds to the dreamy, nostalgic feeling for me. I hope they never “fix” it! 
I didnt suggest skipping it. Its is fairly common practice for switch ports to be farmed out to porting studios.
Me with contrast and brightness. It still can’t turn down the over exposure of the sun but it helped with FF7R.
Me too. I never understand why people like Nintendo or why Nintendo does so well Their games are endless squeals
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Lost interest as soon as he said he was severely underwhelm because of “If you’re familiar with Tokyo” makes it clear he was looking for something to nick pick.
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it just got worse. wish anyone else on the staff would have done this vid.
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John Linnemann is a known Microsoft/Xbox hater. He’s said multiple times that he wishes Microsoft never entered the console gaming market with Xbox.
The only person at Digital Foundry that knows anything is Alex Battaglia. Just watch their PC vs PS5 Pro video. Even I know more about PC than the three guys from DF in that video.
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Seriously? At this point I would prefer if they had just gone through with there no Xbox coverage so that they stop with the weird way they cover things on Xbox.
Like this video as soon as Linnenman got to his underwhelmed comment, I knew he was purposely trying to down play what Playground did.
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He’s pretty complimentary overall. He mentions early in the video that it’s not an accurate or to-scale version of Tokyo, but that’s also not the intention of the game.
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I don’t agree with John’s opinions on, well, pretty much everything but those comments were made probably over 10 years ago, people are allowed to change 
.
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