Yeah the cutscenes are definitely not cheap and a cut above pretty much any Nintendo project to date in terms of fidelity.

Same goes for the in-game graphics, so while its a fairly simple title in terms of gameplay, I'd expect it cost more than a lot of their work in recent years like Mario vs Donkey Kong, Emio, Tomodachi Life, etc. 

Also, James' new design is epic, he looks like such a badass.

I think the character design started of with the Avatar functionality. Then engineered into the game.

Would be a great callback with having an Avatar being a digital version of a Puppet.

DF have taken a look; they concur the game is the first Nintendo game that's really a full fledged Switch 2 title rather than an enhanced Switch 1 game technically.

Apparently the gameplay portion is 1080p/60fps without DLSS, while the cinematics are 30fps but do employ DLSS and TAA.

I still can't get over how pretty it looks. If Ocarina Remake is at the same level, I'll be one happy Zelda fan.

I'd put those games in amongst the "etc" but regarding cutscenes, the graphics are good but the cutscenes are quite limited in assets so far. Mostly a select few characters talking whilst mostly static. Environmental assets are also limited, mostly reusing game assets. I'd be surprised if they used full mo-cap and instead of AI facial tracking (your phone can record the footage for example).

Complex game systems can cost more than AA cutscenes (limited complexity), or pretty but distant, static and sparse background assets. Tamadochi life example was in development for like 7 years (Although I'm sure a small team) whereas a game like this could be made in 2 years from "scratch" IMO (Of course it being a remake shaves even more costs in terms of gameplay design and iteration). 

https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/News/2026/April/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-21-Tomodachi-Life-Living-the-Dream-Chapter-2-3063511.html

"We ended up spending six or seven years on it. (Laughs)

......

Anyway, was just thinking out loud. Its because I presume its so cheap that Nintendo doubled down on the cutscenes, they would indeed increase the cost notably. Would be good to get some actual insights on the developer of this game. 

DF says it looks like cutscenes use DLSS but gameplay uses no AA and is a flat 1080p. Weird and could imply that the cutscenes are outsourced

I can't figure out why Nintendo seems to avoid DLSS. Very odd.

They're just weird like that sometimes, like how they avoided using anti-aliasing on Wii U and Switch 1, and also tend to avoid anisotropic filtering.

Damned if I can figure out why, it's just how they are.

Yeah, just annoying.  Feels like they could use DLSS to get a 1440p like image.  

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