Venture Beat has interviewed lead designer Rob Gallerani and lead graphics engineer Kevin Todisco from Vicarious Visions who have been working on the Nintendo Switch port of Diablo II: Resurrected. The duo were asked how well the Switch version performs compared to the other platforms. Gallerani replied that the game is currently running like butter in handheld mode and that the biggest issues were working out how to make everything legible in portable mode. He and Todisco explained that they spent a lot of time ensuring that the Switch version of Diablo II: Resurrected wasn’t just a simple port of the PC version.
GamesBeat: With all these different versions coming out, and because we’ve seen some other games with multiplatform releases where the Switch version is maybe struggling, how is the Switch version of Diablo II running right now? How is the performance?
Gallerani: I think it’s running like butter. I like playing it in the undocked portable mode. But yeah, with all of our consoles, we built them for that experience. We didn’t want it to feel like we just ported a PC game to the console. We wanted it to be what was right for that console. We’ve taken a lot of things into consideration with the Switch, especially if you play it in portable mode. Everything is a lot tinier. Just the overall attention to things like, how big is the font? How are things laid out on the screen? Those are all things that had to cater to that device to play up its strengths.
Todisco: Same goes for a lot of the 3D visuals. It’s tailoring the experience for that smaller screen, the handheld screen that can be swapped out for a larger screen if you dock the console. With every platform we make sure that we tailor the technology to give the best experience on that particular platform. The Switch version is very good. I think people are going to enjoy it, being able to take it on the go for the first time.
I find it suspicious when they half-ass their quotes. It’s supposed to be “running as smooth as butter” not “running like butter”, which may or may not even mean anything. Which begs the question: is this their “lying, not lying” attempt at misdirection? Guess we shall see…
I’m pretty sure those mean the same thing…
Yup it is because after playing d2 long enough (on the switch) the game starts slowing down and crashes (which reminds me when you crashes you also lose all the items and money you earned which is what happened to me)
The server problem solving is very good and allows me to play the game better. I’ve put a lot of time into the game and hope it’s better.