Final Fantasy XIV Switch 2 Graphics & Performance Tested
Final Fantasy XIV Online is finally on Switch 2, and despite the system fitting in the palm of your hand, there’s an incredibly large world in the form of Eorzea waiting to be explored. The big question on many an adventurer’s lips is… can Square Enix pull it off, and does Final Fantasy XIV actually run well on Switch 2? Fear not, adventurer, because I’ve been putting it through its paces with dungeons, crafting, quests, and plenty of exploration to see how this massive MMO handles on Nintendo’s latest hardware. So, let’s take a closer look at Final Fantasy XIV on Switch 2 and see just how well Eorzea runs.
First, I have to say, as someone who’s been playing Final Fantasy XIV since the PS4 days, I’m really impressed with the visual fidelity here. To say it’s completely without compromise wouldn’t be truthful, but it is very well optimised for Switch 2. Square Enix hasn’t officially stated the game’s internal rendering resolution on Switch 2, so rather than throwing around a 1080p figure, we’re going to focus on what we can actually measure: image quality and performance. The game does exhibit some light pixelation, but it’s hardly anything that detracts from the experience, and in handheld mode, that’s even less noticeable.
While travelling around the world, mining and working on various professions, the dynamic lighting and shadows, spell and ability effects, and character detail have all made the transition intact. There’s also a decent level of detail pop-in, although this was something evident in the other console versions, too. Overall, I think Square Enix has managed to strike a very impressive balance between visual fidelity and performance, especially considering just how large and busy Eorzea can become.
What I do find interesting is that Yoshi-P, the game’s director, seems to have under-promised and over-delivered when it comes to performance. Ahead of launch, he explained that towns could experience framerate drops because of the sheer number of players being rendered on screen, while Duty content was expected to be much less of a concern. So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at the actual performance with some FPS counters, and I’ll let the footage do the talking.
Our first clip takes us to Ul’dah, which is a relatively quiet city, but it’s also a fairly large area. Here, the framerate sticks close to that 40 FPS mark. There are some dips in busier areas, but they’re not quite as noticeable as you might expect from a game running with a variable framerate.
Moving over to New Gridania, we have a more populated area, and surprisingly, the framerate stays above the 35 FPS line for the most part, generally aiming for somewhere between 35 and 45 FPS.
Finally, I decided to visit Limsa Lominsa, which is probably the most popular of the three capital cities. As you can see from the footage, the closer I get to the Aetheryte Plaza and its crowds of players, the framerate drops towards 30 FPS. What’s interesting, though, is that it doesn’t constantly jolt between different framerates. Instead, it settles around that 30 FPS mark. If you prefer consistency over a higher but variable framerate, you can actually lock the game to 30 FPS in towns. Personally, though, I found the variable performance here to be quite pleasant.
Finally, I wanted to see how the game handles group content, so I jumped into a duty with a group of players to take on Ifrit. Duties are essentially Final Fantasy XIV’s instanced group content, similar to dungeons in other MMOs. Interestingly, performance is actually higher here. With a smaller environment and fewer players on screen, the game aims for that 60 FPS target, making these dungeon and light-party activities feel particularly smooth.
Moving around Eorzea involves loading between different sections of the world, with blue dots marking the transition points between areas. Thankfully, these loading screens are surprisingly quick on Switch 2. In my testing, they’re comparable to what I’ve experienced on the Xbox version, and importantly, they don’t really interrupt the flow of exploration. Whether you’re travelling between zones or moving through the world on a mount, the transition is quick enough that you can get straight back to exploring without feeling like you’re constantly waiting for the next area to load. For a massive MMO like Final Fantasy XIV, that’s a pretty important win for Switch 2.
Of course, Final Fantasy XIV is a Switch game, so I couldn’t leave out some handheld footage. Here are a couple of clips I captured while playing on the go: one taking a fishing expedition, another exploring the beach, and finally riding through the desert on a Chocobo. Across all three, the game performed really well and, honestly, looked great on the Switch 2’s screen. The smaller display also helps hide some of the minor visual compromises, making this feel like a really impressive way to experience Eorzea handheld.
After a few hours with Final Fantasy XIV, happily fishing, taking on Duties, crafting and generally getting lost in Eorzea, I have to say I’m genuinely impressed with how well all of this comes together on Switch 2. The transition to Nintendo’s hardware feels remarkably well handled, and there are some nice additions here too, including mouse mode support for navigating the game’s menus and UI. There’s also a free first month for new players while Square Enix implements the subscription format, giving you plenty of time to see if Eorzea is somewhere you want to call home. I’m blown away by it so far. This is an enormous MMO, and the fact that I can pick up my Switch 2, jump into Eorzea and have this experience running so well is pretty impressive.
Naturally, we can’t score Final Fantasy XIV after just a few hours, so this is only the beginning. I’ll be spending the rest of the week in Eorzea, checking everything out, putting the different systems through their paces and, most importantly, working my way through those expansion packs. There’s still a lot for me to see, but I’m already very excited about this one. So, stay tuned for the full review, and until then… I’ve got an awful lot of Eorzea to explore.
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