Dragon Quest XI S Switch tech analysis

Posted on October 23, 2019 by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Switch, Videos

It took much longer than expected, but Dragon Quest XI S finally landed on Switch last month. Digital Foundry shared a video today that delves into finer detail regarding how the RPG holds up from a technical perspective and makes a number of comparisons to the original release.

Here are the highlights:

– Dynamic resolution
– Usually seems to hang between 792p and 720p when docked
– Occasional jumps to 810p
– Around 540p in portable mode; sometimes lower/higher
– Overall polygon count reduced on Switch compared to PS4
– Scene geometry slightly reduced on Switch
– Same also goes for texture quality
– Shadow quality dialed back
– Ambient occlusion reduced in quality
– Screen-space reflections removed entirely
– Changes in distant object rendering
– Grass reduced in density and draw distance
– Objects appear in closer proximity on Switch compared to the PS4 version
– Loading times not an issue on Switch
– Lighting modified on Switch
– Despite the changes, everything was implemented in a way to not be distracting and doesn’t make as many sacrifices as other games
– Most of the game runs smoothly and runs at 30 frames per second

Hit up the video below for Digital Foundry’s full Dragon Quest XI S analysis.