You know that millennial meme about how the bigger the task you’re tackling, the bigger the screen it demands? Apply that to video games. The more complex the game—strategy RPGs, 4X games, MMOs—the bigger the system I need to play it on. So the idea that I can now play Final Fantasy XIV on my teeny, tiny little Switch 2, no matter how much Nintendo has beefed up its specs from the original, feels patently wrong and yet…it’s pretty cool.
Let me be clear: Technically, the game works like a dream. It’s a big-ass game, requiring roughly 120 gigs of storage to download, and I had to delete a few games to make space. But once I downloaded it, I had no issues logging in or playing. Graphically, I had no issues either. Water, fire, and fabric flow pleasingly and particle effects from my spells look exactly as I expect them to.
My character is on the Gilgamesh world in the Aether data server. It’s not the most congested world in the data center, but it’s my understanding that all worlds in the Aether server are pretty full. Yet in the multiple occasions I logged in, I had single-digit and low double-digit queues and waited maybe a few minutes at most to get in.
The real test came when I portaled into Limsa Lominsa, the hub-city where everyone hangs out. I teleported in smooth as butter, and it was the same for Ul’dah. Though my experience hasn’t suffered any technical issues, that’s not true for others. Across social media, players have been sharing videos of the screen fading to black and not coming back.
this raise time on switch 2 is a big no no 😭😭😭 #FFXIV #FinalFantasyXIV pic.twitter.com/pHpbq5y2xt
— EazyAsPiez is replaying ffxiv (@EazyAsPiezzz) August 4, 2026
According to Square Enix, this is a known glitch that happens:
When the screen fades to black during a battle phase transition or when teleporting to a different map in an instanced duty
When the screen fades to black upon reviving after being K.O.’d in an instanced duty
When the screen fades to black upon using Return or a shortcut in an instanced duty
They’re working on an update to get that fixed. I have the habit of putting my Switch to sleep every time I put it down so I know that when I come back, I can pick up seamlessly where I left off. That does not work for Final Fantasy XIV, and every time you do that you’ll be forced to sign in again. It’ll be hard shutting that bit of muscle memory off. (You can make quick trips to the home screen, though, and your game will remain connected.)
Beyond hanging around in the place that’s known for causing slow-downs on every device because it’s always just that crowded, I had no connection issues, even playing in handheld mode on a home wifi connection that’s frustrated me greatly in the past. However, I do not recommend extended play sessions in handheld mode for two reasons.
- Game drains the absolute shit outta the battery. I went from fully charged to low battery warnings in a couple of hours.
- The smaller screen is way too cluttered.
There are settings to declutter your UI so it’s streamlined for the smaller screen. But I’m an old-school MMO player who wants all my info in front of me at all times, which makes it really hard for me to play this game on the Switch 2. That elder millennial gripe aside, I’m seriously impressed at how well this resource-intensive game works on this console. I know people have been playing big games on mobile for a long time now, especially with the advent of cloud streaming, but I feel like I’m getting away with something by playing an MMO as pretty and beefy as Final Fantasy 14 on a Switch 2.
