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Despite its huge launch, there’s been a few issues with The First Descendant across all platforms. For one, the microtransactions have launched absolutely busted, and the latest issue we’re bringing to light related to the PlayStation editions of the game. Specifically, the PS5.
Players are saying that performance is pretty sketchy and that “graphically it’s super grainy,” as one commenter on Reddit has said, while others have said that they have been experiencing “huge FPS dips.” It’s interesting as the PS5 Beta didn’t see any of these issues, and in-between now and then something drastic must have changed.
The only solution that seems to offer up a workaround is pretty extreme, and it involved deleting the game and installing the PS4 version instead. Here, you’re going to experience a much better frame-rate, at the “cost of some visual fidelity.” Luckily if you do this, any progress will carry over between versions. If you’re worried about this meaning that you won’t be able to reach a stable 60-FPS, it will.
It’s an odd phenomena. Especially since none of the other versions of the game are experiencing such disruptive performance issues. Some have said they thought they were playing a Nintendo Switch version – that’s how bad it is. Performance mode and frame generation both enabled, and the game is hardly beating 15-20FPS, say some players.
Others have noted that disabling motion blur and frame generation is a quick fix to balance out the performance issues, and that this is the first game to make use of frame gen on PS5, painting that as the likely culprit.
A similar issue plagued Elden Ring’s launch back in 2022, though patches eventually balanced the game’s performance. Since The First Descendant is a free-to-play game, it’s not surprising that it’s experiencing any issues to do with its optimisation. The microtransaction issue is a little more surprising, especially considering it’s one of the main and only ways for monetisation of the game.