Blasphemous for Switch Has Very High Input Lag
I downloaded the demo for the Switch game Blasphemous to try it out, but I immediately found it very frustrating to play due to high input latency. The character doesn’t react to button presses immediately, making for sluggish and very imprecise controls.
I had to test it out to make sure it’s not just my imagination, and here’s what I found.
I used my Canon PowerShot S100 to record 240 frames per second slow motion video. 240fps equals 0.00416̅ of a second. By counting the number of frames between a button press and on-screen action and multiplying it by this number, you’ll get the milliseconds of input lag.
Blasphemous takes 30 frames to react to my input, which equals 125 milliseconds of input lag.
For reference, I also checked Axiom Verge 2.
Axiom Verge 2 takes 21 frames to react to my input, which equals 87 milliseconds of input lag.
When it comes to response to user input, the difference between 87 milliseconds and 125 is vast. I had a great time playing Axiom Verge 2 and never noticed any input lag. But the 125 milliseconds it takes Blasphemous to respond to my button presses was instantly noticeable to me and severely affected my ability to play enjoyably. For a game that requires fast reactions for difficult battles, this is really unacceptable. It’s a good thing I tried the demo before purchasing this game.