Kingdom Come 2 Is About to Put Nintendo Switch 2’s Open-World RPG Ambitions Under a Microscope

I’ll say up front that I’m probably about as big a Kingdom Come: Deliverance fan as you’ll find, and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has become one of my favorite games of all time. So, naturally, the announcement that Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Royal Edition is coming to Nintendo Switch 2 in 2027 immediately had my attention. I’m already imagining how dangerous it will be for my free time to have a portable version of KCD2 sitting within arm’s reach, but there’s another part of this announcement I’m almost more interested in seeing play out.

Nintendo has confirmed that Switch 2 is getting the Royal Edition, which includes the base game and all of its premium story expansions. Right now, though, we don’t know how the game is actually going to perform there. Considering the kind of game Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is, I have a feeling this port is going to tell us quite a bit about how far Switch 2 can really go with the massive open-world RPGs that have traditionally called PlayStation, Xbox, and PC home.

Kingdom Come 2 Is Going to Put Switch 2 Through Its Paces

I’m not going to pretend I expect Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 on Switch 2 to look or run exactly like it does on more powerful hardware. It shouldn’t have to. Switch 2 is considerably more capable than its predecessor, and Nintendo has made faster loading and improved graphical performance two of the system’s biggest selling points. Even so, KCD2 is a pretty serious game to throw at it.

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The first thing I’m going to be watching is the frame rate, simply because Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 can put quite a lot on the screen at once. Kuttenberg immediately comes to mind here. It’s a huge city where simply walking through the streets can have Henry surrounded by NPCs going about their routines, while the city itself is considerably denser than most other areas in the game. I’ve spent more time than I’d like to admit wandering around Kuttenberg doing absolutely nothing productive, so I know just how busy that place can get.

Image via Deep Silver

Things can obviously become much more chaotic once combat starts. KCD2 isn’t necessarily a game that needs an absurdly high frame rate for me to enjoy it, but stability is another story. If I’m walking through Kuttenberg or fighting several enemies and the frame rate is constantly dropping, that’s going to be considerably harder for me to ignore than simply playing the game at 30 FPS.

Then there’s the open countryside, where image quality becomes much more interesting. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has some gorgeous landscapes, and a lot of its exploration has you looking pretty far into the distance as you’re traveling between towns. I don’t expect the Switch 2 version to preserve every bit of visual detail I would see elsewhere, but I am curious to see how much resolution Warhorse has to give up to keep everything running smoothly.

Draw distance could also become one of those things that stands out more than expected. One of my favorite parts of traveling through Bohemia is seeing some town or landmark sitting way off in the distance and eventually realizing that’s exactly where I’m heading. If distant scenery starts popping into existence too aggressively, it could make the compromises behind the port much more obvious.

Loading is another area I’m curious about, especially since Switch 2 should have a considerable advantage over its predecessor there. KCD2 gives Henry a lot of world to move through, and the less I have to think about what’s happening behind the scenes while traveling through it, the better. What I’m really looking for is a version that doesn’t constantly remind me of what Warhorse had to sacrifice to get the game running. If the frame rate holds up and the image stays clean enough that I’m not distracted by it, I’ll probably be perfectly happy disappearing into Bohemia all over again.

Kingdom Come Already Pulled Off an Impressive Switch Port Once

There is at least some precedent here, because the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance Royal Edition made its way to Switch in 2024. Even now, I still find it pretty wild that the port happened at all, considering how demanding the first game had already proven to be elsewhere. By that point, Nintendo’s hardware wasn’t exactly young either, so getting the entire game running on Switch was already quite an accomplishment.

Switch 2 obviously gives Warhorse considerably more to work with this time around, but KCD2 has also raised the bar since then. Anyone who has spent a substantial amount of time with both games can see how much further the sequel goes, and Kuttenberg alone should make this a much more interesting technical challenge. The world gets much busier there, which is exactly where I’m going to be paying the most attention once we finally see the Switch 2 version in action.

I’m especially curious to see what Warhorse decides to target when it comes to frame rate. Personally, I’d rather see a locked 30 FPS than something aiming higher and constantly struggling to stay there. KCD2 can get hectic, but it also spends a lot of time letting you slowly move through the world, so consistency would matter much more to me than chasing a bigger number just because the hardware technically allows it.

The timing of this port also makes it much more interesting. Switch 2 is already building an RPG lineup that includes Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, Persona 6, Monster Hunter Wilds, and The Witcher 3 Remastered. At this point, Nintendo clearly wants major RPGs to feel normal on its new system rather than like some surprising exception every time one gets announced.

Being the Kingdom Come fan that I am, though, KCD2 is probably going to be the one I scrutinize the most. I already know the game well enough that I’ll notice pretty quickly if Kuttenberg sends the frame rate into a nosedive or the image gets rough every time Henry heads into the countryside. I don’t need the Switch 2 version to match what I can get on more powerful hardware, because expecting that would be ridiculous. But if I can spend hours with Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 on Switch 2 without constantly noticing what had to be sacrificed to put it there, Nintendo’s open-world RPG ambitions are going to look a whole lot more convincing.

Released

February 4, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Use of Alcohol, Blood and Gore, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity

Developer(s)

Warhorse Studios