In a month you can set foot in your very own version of Skyrim for the Nintendo Switch. We had a quick look at some extra features and technical field data collected at the FACTS convention from what will probably be the last demo before release! So where are the dragons in this one?
The first thing I noticed after playing Skyrim on Switch at nearly every Nintendo booth for the past months was that it ran as smooth as a baby’s cheeks dipped in Johnson & Johnson. And that being said I can already hear the master race banter echoing that the Switch is not on par graphically with the latest 4K mods and that I can’t change the moon into a DeathStar…
But I don’t want that and neither do you, because if you’re reading this article you only want one thing: The first true portable Skyrim experience in your back pocket! If you’re not wearing skinny jeans of course!
Now on with the good stuff; The demo I’ve been playing did not include the Amiibo functionality but you could already see that this extra has been placed under the spells menu. Just pair with with the “shout” button, go back to the game, shout (in game) and a yellow circle of “merchandise” will light up in front of you. Just place the “Breath of The wild” enabled Amiibo on the analog stick of the Joy-Con and voilà, Nothing happened… I was assured that this will work in the final product but I was glad to see it was an “easy on the go” procedure to use this functionality. A well tailored addition to the Switch version of this Elder Scrolls legend!
What else has been added? Motion controls! But wait! Don’t run off and cancel your pre-order just yet! They’re actually good and can be switched off if you’re not into this Wii heritage stuff. Where you can press and hold the left shoulder trigger you can also flick your left Joy-Con and it will lock the defense position during combat. When in this defensive stance you can use the right trigger on your right Joy-Con to do a fast stabbing movement with your equipped sword. When you’re not locked into the defense stance you can also flick your right Joy-Con to deal a strong vertical blow but this will drain your stamina too so beware of flicking at the wrong moment. While playing I never accidentally activated either flicks so this extra control choice has been tuned correctly in my humble opinion.
We all know Skyrim is an open world RPG that’s heavily relying on its combat with well… Dragons and somehow during all my play sessions I haven’t encountered a single dragon… Not even in my 1 hour long session you can find on Youtube?! So I went online and searched for Dragon slaying footage on the Nintendo Switch by other members of the press. That’s when I noticed that this crucial element, which made Skyrim a legend, was missing from this demo. Please correct me if I’m wrong but I haven’t found a single dragon and I have been running around like crazy!
I am of course very aware that they will be in the final product but still, why aren’t they in the demo everyone plays now at conventions? Maybe Charles Martinet is re-dubbing all the dragon voices to sound more like Mario and Luigi? Who knows?
Last thing I did was to get the old chronograph out of my pocket to time the loading times when booting up a save file and the fast travel times. Since this is a demo I’m not sure how they will compare to the final product but I don’t think they’ll be too far off. Loading a save file takes about 22-23 seconds which is not bad at all since this is a portable rendition of Skyrim!
I never thought that I would plunge into yet another port of TES Skyrim but playing this on the go between work and home seems like a good excuse to get back into this game and to FUS RO DAH!
