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RolStoppable said:
curl-6 said:

I'm not buying the game, and 720p doesn't bother me, but I am a little bothered that a team that once pushed the hardware of the Wii and Wii U to astounding heights can't seem to get good results out of the Switch so far.

Granted, it could just be the fact that Xenoblade DE and 2 were developed by smaller teams in shorter timeframes, but it's a shame Monolith have declined a lot in the technical standard of their releases. Hopefully their next game breaks the slump and delivers the wow factor they used to be known for.

I don't see a decline, just a shift in focus on what's most important.

The original XC had low quality character models in order to afford the geometry of its world. Not even the highest LoD character models were meeting the average of what was possible on the Wii.

XCX forewent the implementation of hit detection between allies and enemies and even cars in New Los Angeles which obviously frees up CPU resources for something else. The character models still weren't anything to write home about. The game had trouble loading enemies fast enough even with its optional install providing assistance.

XC2 provided a tremendous upgrade to character models and foliage. The draw distance for grass is notably higher than in previous games while being actual 3D. The tradeoff for this are resolution and framerate drops in areas with dense population or foliage (hence why Gormott shows struggles both inside and outside of its town). The Torna expansion was a step forward with none of the detail lost while maintaining higher resolution and framerate.

XC:DE swapped all the grass sprites of the original for 3D grass like in XC2. That among other things is the reason why its resolution target didn't get bumped up to 1080p.

Lastly, much of the wow factor of XC and XCX was owed to clueless people telling Nintendo fans that Nintendo hardware is shit, so an artificial shift for expectations manifested. It's very similar on Switch when a few Nintendo fans marvel at the accomplishment of a Doom port when there was never a good reason to doubt that it would be possible. XC2 arrived so early on Switch that it was never up for discussion if a game like it is even doable on Switch, nevermind that Breath of the Wild was a launch title of gigantic scope.

It's not that Monolith Soft has declined, rather it's that Switch is the first Nintendo console with Xenoblade games on it where it's more than just Nintendo investing in getting something done.

Character models in 2 and DE are still simplistic while textures are nothing special and resolution is low. In the first two games the scope and detail of the worlds were both great by hardware standards, while there's really nothing in the latter two that's impressive for the Switch.