Final Fantasy 13 on Xbox One X is a back-compat masterpiece
The recent arrival of Final Fantasy 13 on Xbox One is a simply brilliant addition to the backwards compatible library. And for X owners at least, the transformation is astonishing: what was originally the least preferable version of the game is now by far and away the best way to play it. Better still, it also sees Microsoft going the extra mile to bring an enhanced experience to users, to the point where the line blurs significantly between backwards compatibility and a bespoke remastering effort.
First of all, let's tick off the basics. There's an established baseline with improvements to the X-enhanced back-compat line-up - specifically, a 3x resolution increase in both X and Y axis, for a 9x boost to pixel-count overall. Final Fantasy 13 originally ran at a somewhat disappointing 1024x576 on Xbox 360 with 2x MSAA, but Microsoft's vGPU delivers a vastly improved 3072x1728 native resolution on Xbox One X, retaining the same AA technique. For pseudo-sequels Final Fantasy 13-2 and Lightning Returns - also backwards compatible and X-enhanced - that increases from the original 720p to full native 4K, again with 2x MSAA.
What's important here isn't just the number of pixels but also the quality of Square Enix's original artwork. There are several X-enhanced titles out there where the resolution boost - although welcome - can also highlight the shortcomings of the original textures. However, the design choices and style of the art, combined with Microsoft's use of negative LOD bias to push higher quality mipmaps to the fore, ensures that what we get here is a viable, beautiful presentation for 4K screens. On top of that, 2D bitmaps - seen on the HUD - get upscaled via a nearest neighbour technique for crisp, non-blurry representations for lower quality assets. Higher resolution versions would be preferable of course, but this is the best way to handle those assets otherwise.
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