Elden Ring on Switch 2 leaves fans ‘heartbroken’ but Final Fantasy 7 delivers

Fans have been left disappointed by Elden Ring’s performance on the Nintendo Switch 2, as Bandai Namco stops anyone from recording footage in handheld mode.

One of the looming questions hanging over the NIntendo Switch 2 is whether, with the increased power, third party support will fare better on the system.

We’ve already seen some encouraging examples with Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition, but there have been some signs of old problems from the original Switch era – with the upcoming Borderlands 4 missing features present in other versions.

While some downgrades are to be expected for games targeting current gen hardware, early reports suggest there’s some significant problems with the Switch 2 port for Elden Ring – a game which was released on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and not just PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.

These hands-on impressions have come from players at both Gamescom 2025 in Cologne, Germany, and a Fan Expo event in Toronto, Canada, where Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition is playable.

In a post on X sharing his impressions from Gamescom, user NintenDaan wrote: ‘Not sure who needs to hear this still… but man, I played Elden Ring in handheld mode on Nintendo Switch 2. I’m a little heartbroken. The frame rate isn’t great, not even in the slightest.’

The same sentiment has been shared by several outlets, with reports claiming Bandai Namco is stopping Gamescom attendees from recording footage of the title in handheld mode – presumably because of its poor performance.

The publisher, however, has shared some footage of the title running in handheld mode on its social media (available below), albeit when the character is barely moving.

According to fans, the frame rate issues crop up when roaming the open world, which is a problem considering Elden Ring is an open world game.

However, there seems to be less of an issue in docked mode. ‘Just played 20 minutes of Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on Nintendo Switch 2 at Fan Expo,’ games podcaster Hunter wrote on X. ‘Performance was stable, did not see any fps issues like what’s being reported at Gamescom… My demo was docked, and it ran fine.’

‘Elden Ring Tarnished Edition on the Switch 2 actually runs fine in docked mode despite how badly it runs in handheld mode,’ another added.

You can check out footage of Elden Ring running in docked mode at Fan Expo via MDee14 below, and while there are some frame rate hiccups (notably when rolling), it doesn’t seem too alarming.

Elden Ring wasn’t the only third-party Switch 2 game available at Gamescom. We went hands-on with Final Fantasy 7 Remake on the new format, and while it obviously didn’t run as well as the current gen versions, it seemed like a solid port.

GameCentral’s Michael Beckwith noted: ‘I played in handheld and I think it ran perfectly well. Wasn’t 60fps but not 30fps, somewhere in the middle.’

Neither title has a release date yet on the Switch 2, although Elden Ring is slated to launch at some point this year. As such, there’s still time to iron out kinks in both games.

As for the Switch 2’s third party slate in the coming weeks, Star Wars Outlaws, Cronos: The New Dawn, and EA Sports FC 26 are all set to hit the system next month.

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