If you haven’t heard of Final Fantasy XIV by now, where have you been? This hugely popular MMO has been around for more than ten years now and is currently awaiting its sixth expansion, Evercold, in January 2027. Another development that you might have missed, but one that I was feverishly excited about, was the release of the fan-favourite game on the Nintendo Switch 2.
I’ve had some time with the game on Switch 2 recently; in fact, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV exclusively on the platform for the last couple of weeks for my daily level grinds. I have developed thoughts about it.
Let’s get the bad things out of the way first. Yes, it does suck quite considerably that you must get a separate subscription alongside your main one (if you have one). Sure, this is at a reduced price if you have another subscription, but it does feel very cheeky. If Switch 2 is going to be your only means of playing FFXIV, however, this is an irrelevant criticism. I will pay for both, but I’m like this.
Also, this is a chunky game, as you would expect from 100s of hours of gameplay. Even if you only do the Free Trial, which runs from A Realm Reborn up to Shadowbringers, that totals around 170 hours for just the main content. As such, it totals a whopping 117GB, which is a VERY large amount of the Switch 2’s system storage. I’ve got into the habit of removing things from the console, but if you don’t, you might want to get deleting if you’re considering diving into Eorzea.
Outside of these general critiques, I did initially have problems with the keybindings when playing the game. The A button on Switch is “confirm” on Switch 2, which is conveniently in the same place as the “cancel” button on PlayStation. So, my dumb ass kept deselecting the boss and/or party members as I was trying to do the Arcadion. But a quick switch of those in the system settings has helped my muscle memory not flare up continually.
Additionally, I must admit that things can be a little small on the Switch 2’s screen in handheld mode. This is easily remedied – of course – by altering the size of the UI details in the settings. But just a heads up that, if you copy across your settings from other platforms, like I did, you will have to spend some time changing things before you can legibly see what’s on the screen.
Believe it or not, that’s it for negatives. The short story is that it runs astonishingly well on the Switch 2. Across a variety of content, except Savage Raids as I am currently in search of a new static, there was no noticeable difference for me in performance between PlayStation 5 and Switch 2. The only issue was with the load times on occasion, but the delay with loading after revival in combat has already been repaired in a hot fix.
This is the case in both handheld and docked too, with few noticeable differences in performance between the two. The only times I saw anything close to struggling was loading into busy areas such as Limsa Lominsa in handheld mode, but even then, the drops in performance were barely noticeable. This does make sense, of course, because the game originally ran on the PlayStation 3. But it’s nonetheless impressive.
Also, if different control methods are your thing (no judgement here), the Switch 2 version of the game supports the mouse mode for easy clicking around targets. This eases up one of the biggest problems with playing on a controller, which is being able to select things outside of the key cyclable options. This is not a problem in most instances. But if you’re a Healer in an Alliance Raid with some – ahem – lacklustre Healers in other parties, you will know the struggle.
As are the visuals too. These have been brought down a touch to fit onto the platform, resulting in a graphical downgrade from PlayStation 5 to Switch 2, just not one that’s as severe as I was expecting. The soft purple hues of the trees near the Crystarium, the colourful lanterns of Kugane, and the tragic beauty of Ultima Thule are all present and accounted for. The game is just as beautiful as it’s ever been, just on a smaller screen.