Director of Bayonetta Origins shares insight on technical development and how it relates to Paper Mario’s 30fps framerate

Abebe Tinari, who is the director behind the charming Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon, has posted on X to share insights on the technical development of the game and how it relates to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door‘s final 30fps framerate. Mr. Tinari says that the team found it extremely difficult to get a steady 60fps on Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon and worked hard to try to achieve it stating that he relates to Nintendo developers trying to accomplish the same thing with Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door’s. You can read his thoughts in the various X posts down below.

We were able to maintain 60fps inside the Tír na nÓg stages, but it just wasn’t possible to keep the same visual fidelity and hold 60fps in the forest.

My choice was either to have an unlocked framerate with frequent dips to 30~50 fps, or cap it and hold a stable 30fps. (2/7)

— Abebe Tinari (@Bebetheman) April 28, 2024

CatLD may not look visually complex, but there is actually a ton of post-processing going on under the hood: the colours fading in like ink as you move through the world, the shading patterns on objects, the way the world curves to allow you to see further into the distance (4/7)

— Abebe Tinari (@Bebetheman) April 28, 2024

It would be one thing if this were an enhanced port of the original game (i.e. the version of Pikmin 1/2 for Switch), but this is a full rebuild of the game.

I am sure they wanted to use modern techniques to really make the paper aesthetic shine…and these have a cost. (6/7)

— Abebe Tinari (@Bebetheman) April 28, 2024

All I an say for certain is that the team made the choice that they felt would lead to the best overall experience for players.

I promise you, it was not a decision made lightly or out of “laziness”.

I missed out on the original, so I’m looking forward to playing it on Switch!

— Abebe Tinari (@Bebetheman) April 28, 2024