Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition tech analysis

With Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition quickly coming up on its release, Digital Foundry has gone hands-on to examine how it holds up from a technical perspective. Aside from going over details like resolution and frame rate, we also are able to better understand what’s been changed from the Wii version.

Below are the main highlights:

– Maxes out at 720p when docked
– Can drop to 504p in certain cases
– Maxes out at 540p when in portable mode
– Can drop to 378p in certain cases
– Sharpening filter adjusted from Xenoblade Chronicles 2
– Seems to hold a higher resolution more often than Xenoblade Chronicles 2
– Some visual tweaks in docked vs. portable
– Screen space reflections used on water eliminated in portable mode
– Distant point lights are drawn further out when docked
– Shadow resolution paired back in portable mode
– Textures have been reworked/touched up from the Wii version
– In some cases normal maps are now used
– Specular highlights now play off the surface in a more realistic manner
– Updated polygon models, mainly for faces and hands
– Overall character detail elsewhere only updated slightly
– Proper shadow maps for rendering
– Attempt at simulating light shafts and volumetric lighting
– Now has per-pixel motion blur for dramatic action
– Trees are much more static on Switch compared to Wii, but tree models on Switch were updated
– Foliage pops into view on Switch
– Holds 30 frames per second most of the time

You can watch Digital Foundry’s full analysis on Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition below.