Last week, 2020's Final Fantasy VII Remake was finally launched on Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch 2 by developer and publisher Square Enix.
Early user impressions based on the demo were very positive about the Nintendo Switch 2 version. However, the folks at Digital Foundry have now published their detailed analysis, and it seems like the most impressive version of the bunch is actually the one running on the Xbox Series S.
Over the course of this console generation, Microsoft's cheaper Xbox Series console was often criticized by developers for its hardware deficiencies, especially in the RAM department. Indeed, even the Nintendo Switch 2 console has more RAM (9GB versus 8 GB) dedicated to its games, and yet Final Fantasy VII Remake shows better texture quality on Microsoft's console (which developers used to complain about, adding that it would have been a lot easier with just the Xbox Series X SKU).
While the Switch 2 version appears to mix up assets from the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions, the Xbox Series S deploys the full asset quality seen on its bigger sister, the Xbox Series X, and on the PS5. Digital Foundry postulates that, despite having less available RAM, the Series S achieves this result thanks to texture streaming powered by its CPU, a custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 chip which is nearly identical to the Series X's, except for a slightly lower clock speed. By contrast, the Nintendo Switch 2 has a noticeably less powerful CPU, the ARM Cortex-A78C. It has the advantage of NVIDIA DLSS support on the GPU, but it can't help it here.
That said, the graphics settings used for the Series S version, such as shadow quality, are somewhere in the middle between the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions. When it comes to resolution and frame rate, Xbox Series S owners can choose between running the game at 1080P resolution and 60 frames per second or 1440P resolution and 30 frames per second. The Xbox Series X, on the other hand, uses the same targets as the PS5 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake: 1512P at 60 frames per second in Performance Mode, and 2160P (native 4K) at 30 frames per second in Quality Mode.
Looking ahead, the next chapter in the remake trilogy, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, is also rumored to be launching this year on Xbox Series S|X and Nintendo Switch 2. However, it's a much more taxing game than the first installment due to its vast open areas. Even on PlayStation 5, it was known to be blurry because the developers had to reduce the resolution to keep the frame rate smooth. It'll be interesting to see whether the developers can strike a good balance between visuals and performance on the Xbox Series S and Nintendo Switch 2.
In other Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy news, Square Enix has confirmed that even the third part will be made with Unreal Engine 4, rather than switching to the newest Unreal Engine 5, as the team is more familiar with it.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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