With Final Fantasy 7 Remake now out in the wild on Xbox consoles for the very first time, the folks over at Digital Foundry have taken a look at how the game is shaping up on both current-gen machines - and the team seems genuinely surprised at how well the Series S version holds up in comparison to other consoles.
Yep, with significantly less RAM than Series X and PS5 — and less than Nintendo Switch 2 as well — Xbox Series S delivers a consistent experience, with texture detail that beats Switch 2 and far outshines the last-gen PS4 version. Here's what the outlet said about how the Series S version looks and performs:
"What's fascinating about Final Fantasy 7's arrival on Xbox Series S is that you get the full asset range and quality of the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions, despite the steep deficit in available memory. It's understood that the junior Xbox has a little over 8GB of available RAM for games, up against 12.5GB on PS5, 13GB on Series X and - crucially - 9GB on Switch 2. The bottom line is that Series S presents full asset quality in a way that the Nintendo console does not, despite having less memory. Switch 2 often defaults to lower resolution texture variants, leading to a muddier and more uneven look.
Looking at the game's overall visual make-up, Series S sits at a midpoint of sorts between PS4 and PS5. Shadow quality on Series S is significantly higher than the PS4 version, but not quite up to PS5/Series X quality. NPC draw distance is a match, however. In resolution terms, the Series S performance mode runs at 1080p, targeting 60 frames per second, with Unreal Engine 4's TAA solution on anti-aliasing duties. Graphics mode increases the pixel count to 1440p with a 30fps cap. Both pixel counts and frame-rates seem consistent across the duration of play."
So, that's the Series S version given the reliable stamp of approval from DF, but what about Series X? Well, perhaps to no-one's surprise, Xbox Series X handles the game pretty much the exact same way as PS5 - including a match with the Sony system across performance and graphics modes.
"It'll likely come as no surprise to discover that the Xbox Series X version of the game is a ringer for PlayStation 5, with the same 1512p resolution in the 60fps mode, with a native 4K at 30fps as the alternative - both delivered with consistent performance and a matching visual feature set."
The site sums things up by saying that Xbox Series X "delivers exactly what we were expecting" and Xbox Series S is "still a great experience". That sounds like a successful FF7 port to us, then! You can watch some footage alongside accompanying commentary from the DF folks in the video up above, and we'll link to the full story down below as well.