Even as a big advocate for handheld gaming, the announcement of FFXIV‘s Switch 2 port had me a little nervous. How well would this game run on the Switch 2, really? How bad is the battery drain going to be? And more importantly, how much damn space is it going to eat up?
The answers are pretty well, not that bad, and a whole lot of space. Like just over 100GB in terms of space. It’s not great.
After spending a couple nights with FFXIV on Switch 2, I came away pleasantly surprised by how smooth everything felt. After waiting literal hours for the download to complete, I hopped into the game, linked my Square Enix account, and everything was there just the way I left it on PC. Pro tip for returning players: remember to upload your game and system settings to the server on PC so you don’t have to spend too much time redoing all your hotbars on Switch 2. You’re already going to be doing a lot of tweaking and retooling especially if you’ve never played this game with a controller.
The first thing I did was head to highly populated areas like Limsa Lominsa and Ul’dah, just to see how the game would run with so many other players wandering around. The Switch 2 handled it like a champ. I’ll point out here that the game runs at a very solid but locked 30fps, no matter what you’re doing. This may come as a disappointment to some players, but as someone who’s never cared that much for framerate, I’d take the consistency over higher framerates with the possibility of frame drops here and there.
Seriously, though, I was impressed with how smoothly the game ran no matter what I did. I ran around in Limsa Lominsa, I knocked out all of my duty roulettes including Normal Raids and Alliance Raids, I did a little bit of crafting… No issues. And I did all of this from the comfort of my couch. My experience with the game so far has entirely been in handheld mode, as that’s the main way I’m planning on enjoying this Switch 2 port. After about an hour of play, the battery dropped by around 25%, which isn’t fantastic to be clear, but the battery drain wasn’t quite as terrible as I was expecting. It certainly performs better than Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth, both of which are huge battery eaters.
Well, I say there are no issues, but the truth is, having spent my entire FFXIV career playing it with mouse and keyboard, making the jump to a gamepad was significantly harder than I expected. Coming in as a Level 100 Dancer, it was overwhelming trying to figure out how the cross hotbars work and how I should map the 50 things I need to be pressing at all times in combat. I recommend watching some video tutorials to get an idea of how cross hotbars work and what the best settings are for you. Even after I did all that, I still needed a fair bit of time to get used to the controls and actually be useful in duties. Now, my main concern is going back to mouse and keyboard and feeling lost again…
Of course, we have to address the elephant in the room, which is the additional subscription fee you have to pay for the Switch 2 version even if you’re already subbed on other platforms. Here’s how it works: if you have an existing sub, you get a 50% discount for the Switch 2 subscription. However, the Switch 2 subscription can only be paid for in a currency called FFXIV Coins, which you’ll buy on the eShop.
Here’s the annoying thing. Aside from the Standard subscription option, which costs 1,500 Coins, all other options require you to buy more Coins than you actually need. FFXIV Coin bundles come in 500, 1,000, and 1,500 variants and above, while the Entry subscription costs 1,300 Coins, and the discounted versions of both subscriptions cost 650 and 750 Coins. This means you’ll need to buy more Coins than you actually need, resulting in you paying more than the actual asking price. The FFXIV Coins don’t expire, so you can use them for future subscriptions, but it’s annoying nonetheless.
That’s to say nothing of the fact that you still need to go to the Mog Station website to register and process your subscription, then boot up the game on your Switch 2 for it to take effect. It’s all a bit of a hassle and I can see this turning off a lot of veteran players, and maybe even new players too, who might not be used to service game shenanigans.
Personally, I’m coming from a place of privilege in that my copy of the game was provided to me by Square Enix, which cuts down my buy-in costs significantly. And because of that, I’m a lot more amenable to paying for a discounted subscription for the ability to play FFXIV on the go, especially since I don’t have a Steam Deck and am not planning on getting one or any of its equivalent machines in the foreseeable future.
Even from my short-term experience with it so far, I can see FFXIV becoming a staple install on my Switch 2 going forward. As a somewhat lapsed player who only comes back for story updates and then boots up the game and feels a tremendous amount of guilt and regret for not keeping up with my dailies and leveling up my other jobs, the Switch 2 port helps to fill that gap. Being able to get those dailies done on the go, without me having to be glued to my desk, is a big deal. Ideally, I’d enjoy all upcoming expansions and high-level content on PC, then do the normal grindy stuff on Switch 2. With how well the game runs on the Switch 2, I’d say that’s the perfect setup.
A review code for the game was provided by the publisher. You can check out our review policy here.
