Death end re;Quest on Switch is a Great Game With Performance Issues

The last couple of days, I have been playing through Death end re;Quest on the Nintendo Switch. Part of the Galapagos RPG series, the game stands out from the usual Compile Heart fare. After playing it I can attribute most of this success to the story and narrative written by Makoto Kedouin, who is also the creator of the Corpse Party franchise.

However, playing Death end re;Quest on Switch only further spotlights that Compile Heart really needs to improve these Switch ports as decent experiences suffer due to a lack of performance.

Death end re;Quest follows Shina Ninomiya, a game developer trapped in the unreleased VRMMORPG known as World’s Odyssey with no recollection of who she is and what happened. As she ventures out into the world, she slowly remembers that she is an adventurer who wants to reach the mystical sky capital known as Odyssia. She soon figures out that not everything is quite as it should be after it went through significant changes due to the “Entoma Scourge,” which is told to be a curse plaguing the fantasy world Shina is trapped in

Simultaneously, in the real world, you play Arata Mizunashi, a colleague of Shina, who worked on World’s Odyssey before the project got shelved after Shina went missing. However, he soon finds an email that reveals that she is active in the game. On top of that, a cyberterrorist attack occurs, and the company he works for is the prime suspect due to a screenshot of World’s Odyssey being shown around during the hack. It’s up to both Arata and Shina to fix the game world and solve the mystery behind the crazy occurrences in the real world and the game world simultaneously.

Death end re;Quest on Switch allows this JRPG adventure to be taken on the go, but there are a few caveats with this version. The graphics take a hit, which is in line with other Compile Heart-developed games ported to the platform. Still, the anime-like character design doesn’t require much to look decent, but the sharp edge of the characters gives the game a more dated appearance. Further, loading times become a tad bit longer, which leads me to general performance issues. This version does contain frequent framerate dips that occur in many areas.

Previous ports such as Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force and Megadimension Neptunia VII are also games that suffered in this area. During my time playing, the framerate went as low as 10 FPS to moments where it would shoot up to 60 FPS. This led me to believe that these games have an uncapped framerate across the board, and it can be annoying and distracting.

I realize that certain compromises have to be made to get games to run well on Switch, but I would have appreciated a more optimized experience where these games have a capped framerate. I strongly believe these games can run on the Switch acceptably as they aren’t exactly graphical powerhouses in the technical department. Of course, with a bit more care and attention.

Death end re;Quest is completely worth your time through its engaging narrative and solid JRPG systems. Given this was my first time playing that game, I genuinely became hooked on each of its offerings. This speaks testament to the gameplay, given that the Switch version might be the worst way to play it. I would really like to see Idea Factory International take these Switch ports more seriously if they continue to bring their titles to the platform. This is a great game held back by performance issues. Still, all of the DLC is included in the Switch release, so that’s cool.