Arena of Valor (AoV) - Arena of Valor Nintendo Switch Review

Arena of Valor recently started a beta test for their upcoming Switch version. We managed to get our hands on a copy and discuss what we both liked and didn't like about the beta version.

Features (Good and Bad)

Touchscreen

The biggest question we had after watching other non-experienced Arena of Valor players participate in the first beta was: how much, if at all, was the Nintendo Switch team going to incorporate the touch screen into the gameplay? After all, there were obvious benefits from having both buttons and a touch screen to use. First, by removing buttons from the screen, it cleared up real estate and allowed parts of the interface to be in more optimal positions – in particular, the minimap could be right next to the right thumb and thus easily accessed. Second, not having to use the screen for abilities all the time meant that it would be easier to see, especially when aiming down for skill shots and scanning the map for enemies.

Look at all that juicy real estate!

The good news is that you can touch and scan around the minimap the same way you would on a mobile device. In addition, toggling the larger minimap and pinging directions for your team is infinitely easier on the Switch as both the directional button (left thumb) and minimap (right thumb) are well within normal reach.

The bad news is that there was no other way to use the touchscreen, including when it came to targeting minions, towers, or specific heroes. In fact, there were no settings for that either: targeting specific heroes is impossible, and while there exists an option to hit minions/towers, there’s no way to differentiate between the two.

As for scanning the map (by swiping in the top right quadrant in the mobile version), it can be done using the right joystick, but 1) it doesn’t scan fast enough – and there’s no setting to change the speed – and 2) the camera is restricted to keeping your hero in the frame, meaning you can’t check too far beyond where your hero currently is.

While we understand the need for players to be able to competently play in docked/TV mode, we would like to see more settings that enable enhanced touchscreen controls when in handheld mode.

The Buttons

Having physical buttons at our disposal turned out to have a few frustrating quirks that we hadn’t expected. For one, you typically had to consciously stop auto-attacking if you wanted to use an ability or else the ability wouldn’t register.

Abilities are unable to be assigned to buttons other than L, R, ZL, and ZR. Because of the way the settings menu is set up, ability buttons can be switched with each other, and “feature” buttons like Heal and Mini Map can be flipped, but ability buttons and feature buttons could not be switched for each other because they were in different lists.

Our head writer DTwo’s first take on the Switch version, transition pains and all.

Finally, when aiming with the right joystick, the tracking could be a bit sluggish, even at 100% sensitivity. Abilities used to chase or escape like Slimz’ Leap of Vitality, for instance, are difficult because you have to patiently wait for the aiming reticle to move while you’re hopelessly taking damage from the enemy.

That all said, playing with an actual joystick and not having to deal with touch controls, or fingers covering the entire screen, was very welcome. Overall, there weren’t any obvious bugs or issues, so adding settings to the finished product to cover our admittedly nit-picky concerns should be a simple endeavor.

Graphics

The general graphics while in a match are stunning; the overall landscape looks very polished and the difference between the mobile and Switch versions when it comes to individual rocks, shrubs, walls, etc. is striking.

Because the game was rebuilt from the ground up to take advantage of the new hardware, many of the ability animations were redone as well. There were a few we could live without – Veera’s Hell Bat, for instance – while some were simply amazing, like Lu Bu‘s Conqueror.

The character portraits seem a bit blurry, but our theory is that it’s an artistic decision to mask the character models’ harsh lines and give a more realistic look to the characters.

Check it out for yourself in IGN’s Switch version impressions.

Game Play

The game runs on an older version of Arena of Valor, with items like Scorching Wind and Arctic Orb unavailable. The available roster of heroes is as follows: Valhein, Zanis, Fennik, Lu Bu, Veera, Zill, Alice, Violet, Thane, Krixi, Ormarr, Mina, Mganga, Raz, Peura, Taara, Jinnar, Nakroth, Slimz, Butterfly, Toro, Omega, Yorn, Maloch, Gildur, Lumburr, Wukong, Diao Chan, Ilumia, Kahlii, Grakk, Zephys, Azzen’ka, and Chaugnar.

Heroes could be bought for anywhere from 2,888 to 18,888 gold. Arcana, which are available from level 1, could be bought for 2 to 400 gems. Obviously, the prices will go up with the official release, but it was nice to actually have full sets of arcana for once.

Though the loading screens took significantly longer than the mobile version and none of the menus could be accessed while queuing, these are likely more cases of simply needing to work out the kinks as part of any beta.

Overall

The game has a bit of a learning curve, especially when transitioning over from mobile devices. Players might find themselves motivated to deal with it, however, given the impressive visuals offered by the Nintendo console. The game is not without quirks we’d like to see ironed out like the sluggish targeting and long loading times, but Tencent and Timi Group still have plenty of time to straighten everything out. All in all, we were quite pleased with the Switch beta, able to attribute many of our gripes with transitioning to new hardware and the fact that the game is still in beta. We look forward to seeing the version develop and seeing it reach its full release this fall.

Past Arena of Valor Nintendo Switch News

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1 Comment

  1. Straight bs, i keep getting kicked, only to show up three mins in the gMe and get penalized, this’s a joke f this game, i like it bit it continuously fucks me over