The biggest fix Marvel's Midnight Suns could use won’t come out until 2023. The game is almost screaming for a Switch port which has been announced for an unknown time in 2023. The game, graphically, already looks like it is set up as a Switch game with PS5 and Xbox Series X players seemingly jamming on an enhanced port.
It’s great to play any strategy game on the Switch as the genre is perfect for portable sessions. Marvel's Midnight Suns is still fun on consoles but there are other aspects of the experience that need addressing beyond the cries for a Switch port now. Hopefully, these ideas can make it into the next patch.
6 Take Off Subtitles
It’s hard to believe but Marvel’s Midnight Suns doesn’t allow players to remove text whether they are watching cutscenes or talking to teammates back at the Abbey. The latter of the two examples isn’t that bothersome as most RPGs with dialogue choices present players with text. It comes with the territory as presenting text is the only way players can choose options.
While some may like subtitles in cutscenes, the way they are presented in this game is not good. It’s hard to take some scenes seriously when the Caretaker is going on about the end of the world with the subtitles being the way they are. Also, subtitles aren’t needed for combat but they are there anyway. Players should get some options to fix this dilemma. Subtitles have existed in games for decades now and one would have figured that by 2022, this wouldn’t be such an issue.
5 Add Simple Battle Animations
Marvel’s Midnight Suns is one of the flashier tactical RPGs of 2022. Every card, from attacks to supports, has a rich animation dedicated to it. With tons of heroes, one can imagine there are well over a hundred card animations in the game. While this is impressive, it is also a bit cumbersome to those that want battles to be as efficient as possible.
Some RPGs allow players to simplify animations or to get rid of them completely. There is a sliding scale in most Fire Emblem games, to present another popular tactical RPG series, that allows players to turn off battle animations completely. Battles in Marvel’s Midnight Suns don’t take nearly as long as they do in a Fire Emblem game, but any way to save time for players is always appreciated. What’s the harm in giving players the option?
4 Fast-Forward Options
As a tactical RPG, it would be nice to fast-forward through battles. Another strategy RPG from 2022, Triangle Strategy, allowed players to increase the speed of battle. An adjustable speed dial would be a good thing to add to Marvel’s Midnight Suns as well.
Alternatively, the developers could add a way to skip through enemy turns. Some strategy RPGs give players the option to counterattack during enemy turns, like the recently re-released Front Mission 1st: Remake. That could be why that game, and others, don’t allow enemy turns to be skipped. Since that isn’t a problem in Marvel’s Midnight Suns, there should be an option to skip enemy turns.
3 Remove Motion Blur
Not having subtitles in the options menu is a strange thing indeed. Not having the option to turn off motion blur isn’t as weird since that feature isn’t as common in games. It’s an option that should be more common if the game contains a blur effect like Marvel’s Midnight Suns though.
To the naked eye, the motion blur is not going to look different. However, for players that like capturing screenshots of their gameplay sessions, it can be distracting. Motion blur will ruin action shots as everything will blend together. Hopefully, adding an option in the menu to turn motion blur off will be a quick fix in the next patch.
2 Fix Photo Mode
This next problem could be a glitch in certain copies of the game or it could be a phenomenon that all players are facing. There is a photo mode in the game, but it strangely bleaches the game out as if someone turned the brightness on all the way in the game settings. This is on the normal settings for photo mode as well.
Of the complicated settings present in photo mode, there is no way to completely get rid of this bleached effect either. It’s odd because it is completely different than how the game looks normally. This issue, combined with the motion blur effect, makes Marvel’s Midnight Suns not an enjoyable game to take screenshots in. The one plus side to photo mode is a separate feature that allows players to create comic book covers with their favorite Marvel heroes like Nico Minoru and Blade.
1 Simplify Travel
Exploring the Abbey is a nice mechanic that players can enjoy outside of battle. They can look around the grounds, talk to heroes, forge new cards, and the list goes on. There are ways to fast travel around this small compound, but not everywhere is accessible. While it would be nice to have these fast travel limitations lifted, there is a bigger issue to tackle.
When players initiate a mission from the board, they will have to manually leave the Abbey halls, run over to the portal that Magik has opened up, go through it, and then they must run down a small path to another portal wherein the game will finally load into the mission area. Why are these extra steps needed? Couldn’t the game just launch the mission right there from the mission board?
Marvel's Midnight Suns was released on December 2, 2022, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.