I took a look at the part of the GamesHub preview talking about the Switch:
My brief time playing Bayonetta 3 really highlighted how much the series stands out as a compelling action game – but in an unfortunate way, it also highlighted an issue that’s been front of mind for many Switch owners as of late – the Nintendo Switch is showing its age.
I admit I'm a bit tired of the 'aging Switch hardware' line - it's almost six years old, that's kind of expected. I'm not sure how necessary commentary about Switch hardware is if the game is meeting its target framerate and resolution. If this game were struggling to run then I'd be curious about the trainwreck, but watching these videos that's not the impression I'm getting. I mean this specific quote is saying it's 'highlighting' the issue of aging hardware, and I don't see how. When I think of hardware showing its age I think of excessively low resolutions, sub 30 frames, lower than low visual setting. Not this great looking game.
While not totally a fault of the game, my brief time with Bayonetta 3 showed that some concessions had to be made to get it running consistently. While the core combat runs at 60 frames per second (FPS), the cutscenes and cinematics are set at 30FPS. The transitions can often come off as jarring, and what’s worse is how the visuals and textures have a blurriness to them.
I don't think switching between 30 and 60 FPS between cutscenes and gameplay is some Switch-exclusive compromise either, I'm pretty sure that's the inevitable result of pushing more visuals where fidelity is important and pushing more frames where input responsiveness is key. Is it jarring? It kind of was at first, in Metroid Dread, but I got used to it. The end result was sharper cutscenes which is nice to see.
During this preview, I was playing exclusively on a monitor with the Nintendo Switch in docked mode. While the gameplay flows incredibly well running at 60FPS, it did look a bit washed in motion. Of course, these issues are increasingly more common with Switch games, which is a bummer to see.
This excerpt doesn't even seem to mention anything about framedrops, either. What does 'washed in motion' mean, washed out contrast? Low res? The complaints about the blurriness are fair, but I'm not sure how much of it is the game itself being low-res (I'm guessing it's a 720p docked target), or just specific edges and textures being blurry as the review mentions.
I didn't watch the other previews yet, I just focused on some gameplay excerpts and it looks like it's frequently hitting its 60 FPS target. No matter what game I play on any platform, I expect compromises for 60 FPS, Switch or not. So blur is unsurprising. Makes me give the stink eye to blurry Switch games that only hit 30, lol.
Obviously a reviewer can say whatever they want in a preview, if they want a soapbox to talk about Switch hardware then the floor is theirs. Likewise I can choose to nitpick what they're saying (as I just did) and question if that commentary has any relevance for a Switch exclusive game that seems to be hitting its performance target. Basically - if I'm reading a preview for a game exclusive to a device I already own, I kind of already know what the capabilities of the device are. I'm not deciding between buying this game on multiple platforms. If the game has bad performance to the point of degrading gameplay then I won't buy it.
I feel a little bad for picking at this when the previews themselves seem off-the-cuff and talking about Switch performance is low-hanging fruit, but my sentiment is more about the conversation in general. I'll complain about Xenoblade 2's resolution and dream about the Switch Ultra any day of the week, but if a game looks good on the current Switch as it is, I'll give due credit.