A game that struggled on PS4 and Xbox One transitions well to the Nintendo hybrid.
The typical run of play was 40-60fps, with combat and open-world traversal causing issues.
So what kind of compromises are we seeing here?
Across the board, textures are degraded, with lower resolutions not to mention simplified layers and material properties.
Foliage is pared back and altered to better fit the Switch.
Lighting has been simplified to some degree too.
In particular, most of the point lights in background areas have been removed.
Volumetric lighting also comes off as absent on Switch, or at least significantly scaled back.
There are also some pretty stark differences in ambient lighting at times.
Elsewhere, some of the geometric detail in the environments has been lost.
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On the whole, though, the Switch release generally looks very comparable to the last-gen console versions.
There is one major controls advantage that the Switch release does have, however.
Switch comes packaged with anti-aliasing.
Some shots do look substantially softer though, which comes down to the Switch’s resolution setup.
The portable mode adopts a similar setup, but this time the target resolution is 720p.
Outside of resolution, it seems to be a match for the docked mode in terms of visual options.
So how does performance shake out?
Virtuos has sensibly cut the frame-rate target here from 60fps on last-gen home consoles to 30fps here.
Given that 60fps was a challenge on exponentially more powerful hardware, the reduced frame-rate was probably inevitable.
At first, I was very impressed with the performance level.
I did notice a drop or two while playing but these were very minor.
However, as I continued to prorgress, the picture became less rosy.
Small frame-rate hitches became more common, particularly when traversing sections of the open world and when fighting enemies.
It was still quite consistent but these small interruptions were definitely noticeable.
As I closed up my time with Nier Automata, however, more pronounced frame-rate issues became fairly common.
Some of the larger fights mostly played out in sub-30fps territory, hanging in the low-to-mid 20s at worst.
A handful of environments also caused extended frame-rate issues.
30fps is the norm, with momentary dips that don’t detract too much from the experience.
Portable mode seems to acquit itself about as well, with good performance overall with occasional sub-30fps moments.
Clearly, a lot of time and effort was invested into making this port shine.
Performance isn’t perfect but it is quite good and manages to maintain 30fps through most gameplay.
