Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Maxes at 720p; Handheld Performance Much Lower

While some might be excited for Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition releasing later this week, a new leak might kill some excitement. According to MasaGratoR, leaked configure files reveal the resolution in both handheld and docked.

A later tweet corrected the initial one clarifying 540 is actually 504, which makes this news all the more interesting. For those not as well versed in resolution, 720 is the absolute minimum required to call anything high definition, with standard definition being 480. As a result, Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition will often run at or near that level on a handheld device. Fortunately, pixel density, along with handheld performance capping at 720p means you might not notice a massive difference in quality when compared to docked performance.

Since we’re looking at a cap of 720p for docked performance, this means a 4K television will need to upscale it to 1080 and then again to 4K, making it look rather rough. This will look even worse as size increases, due to the pixel density being lower. Not only is this bad news for some, especially those expecting a Wii port to perform much better on a newer console, it doesn’t paint the most optimistic picture.

Along with reports of resolution, we also have an idea of frame rate. Initial tests show it, thankfully, has fairly stable frame rate, with the instances where it drops skipping frames over slowing down. Even if this isn’t what fans were hoping for, ideally it will be a worthwhile tradeoff. We will find out when it releases later this week.