After spending around eight years in development, Replaced has finally arrived on PC and Xbox, and first impressions are looking pretty good, at least if you are playing anywhere other than Xbox Series S.
The stylish 2.5D action-platformer, published by Thunderful and developed by Sad Cat Studio, drops players into an alt-1980s dystopian world filled with retro-cyberpunk vibes, side-scrolling action, and environmental puzzle-solving. It is also already earning a warm reception on PC, where early reviews have pushed it to an 81 on Metacritic, backed mostly by 8s and 9s.
But the launch story is much messier on Microsoft’s lower-spec current-gen console.
According to comments Sad Cat Studio gave to IGN, the Xbox Series S version can run into a memory-related hang between Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 if players have stayed in the same play session the whole way through. In plain terms, some players may see the game freeze right at a major transition.
That is not the only problem. The game’s ending cinematics are also not functioning properly on Series S, which is a rough blow for anyone waiting years to finally see the full experience play out on launch day.
For now, there is at least a temporary workaround for one of the issues. The studio says players can quit and restart the game before that Chapter 4 to Chapter 5 transition, which should help avoid the RAM-related crash. Unfortunately, that does not solve the broken ending cinematics, so Series S users are still getting an incomplete version of the game right now.
The good news is that a fix may not be far off. A patch is reportedly set to enter Microsoft certification on April 15, with the hope that it can go live as soon as approval is done.
What makes this more frustrating is that the problem does not appear to affect PC or Xbox Series X. Those versions are said to be running fine, which makes the Series S situation stand out even more. There has been growing talk across the industry about how difficult it can be to maintain full parity between the Series X and Series S, especially when teams are trying to ship on both machines at the same time.
Still, this case feels a bit surprising. Replaced is not a giant open-world blockbuster. It is a 2.5D pixel-art game, albeit an especially gorgeous one. That visual style may look simpler at a glance, but clearly there is still enough happening under the hood for memory limits on the Series S version to become a real problem.
For Malaysian and wider SEA players, this matters more than it might seem. The Xbox Series S is often the more realistic entry point for players here who want current-gen hardware without paying Series X or high-end PC prices. So when a new release lands with major issues on that specific console, it is not a small footnote, it directly affects the budget-conscious crowd most likely to be interested.
If you have been waiting for Replaced, the safest move right now looks pretty simple: play on PC or Xbox Series X if you can, and if you are on Series S, it may be worth holding out for the incoming patch unless you do not mind restarting before the late-game transition and potentially missing a proper final cinematic.
That is a frustrating way for one of the year’s most eye-catching indie launches to arrive, especially when the game itself seems to be landing well almost everywhere else.
Source: Kotaku