Back when it was released in 2024, I gave Elden Ring a score of 98. Four years later, and considering I have well over 1000 hours of play time on PC and PS5, I still wonder if my score was too low. For me, Elden Ring is the absolute pinnacle of FromSoftware’s design philosophy and the gold standard for open world action games. It’s now hard to put myself in the shoes of someone playing Elden Ring for the first time. Considering that around 30-40% of Switch 2 owners don’t have a gaming PC or other high-end console, there’s a good chance that gamers picking up the Tarnished Edition will be dropping in for the first time. Lucky them.
The Tarnished Edition brings together the base game and Shadow of the Erdtree DLC, itself maybe the best DLC ever released for a game. It also includes a handful of new weapons, two new classes, and skins for Torrent, the player’s mount. These add-ons are also available for $4.99 for PC and console games who already own the game. Accessing the game’s co-op and PvP features means having a subscription to Nintendo Switch Online.
If you’ve already played Elden Ring on PC or another console, you’re probably just wondering how it fares on Nintendo Switch 2. Elden Ring on the go sounds like a dream come true. The good news is that it runs just fine, if you’re willing to accept some limitations. Frame rates are capped at 30fps. Textures and ray tracing are a little simplified and a bit blurry, especially in handheld mode. On the other hand, the beauty of Elden Ring is in its art, character and environmental designs. It doesn’t depend on photorealism. In combat, the 30fps throttle is a little more frustrating, and framerates dip a little in the more intense boss battles. Bottom line, the Switch 2 is powerful enough to run Elden Ring and players will have the full experience.
If you’ve never played a FromSoftware game, be prepared for some narrative confusion. The developer is known for stories that are opaque, dense with lore and full of sadness, darkness, and fading hope. With an assist by George R.R. Martin, Elden Ring’s narrative tells of a shattered world. The demigod children of Queen Marika have torn the realm apart. The player takes on the role of a Tarnished, tasked with slaying the corrupt demigods and claiming the title of Elden Lord.
It should be noted that with any FromSoft game, there are fans who dive deep into the lore. At the other end, there are even more players who simply ignore most of the narrative and focus on exploration and combat. Elden Ring rewards either approach. For anyone who’s confused, there’s an immense amount of material online about the characters and their complex relationships.
When it comes to action and combat, Elden Ring represents a major step forward and brings together mechanics explored in other games from the developer. There are few — if any — action RPGs with boss battles as finely tuned as those in Elden Ring. The number of weapons, armor sets, and ways to use magic is staggering in its variety. Like most RPGs, Elden Ring has starting classes but these are largely ignored by players past the first few hours. That said, the Tarnished Edition adds two extremely viable classes in the form of the Heavy Knight and Idus Knight.
Souls games have a well-earned reputation for difficulty, and FromSoftware has resisted adding difficulty options. That’s because they’re built in. Especially in Elden Ring, if players are struggling there are always areas to visit and lower level enemies to kill. There are other weapons or spells to try. The game’s system for summoning Spirit Ashes allows players to call on extremely competent AI companions to help out. Compared to exacting platformers where there is no margin for error, FromSoft’s games feel, if not forgiving, at least balanced and fair.
Outside of combat, exploration is extremely rewarding thanks to a fast travel system and Torrent, your mount. While Elden Ring’s map isn’t the biggest open world it feels immense due to layers of verticality and subterranean areas to explore. No area feels too empty and between the labyrinthine Legacy Dungeons and open landscapes, there’s always something to discover or fight. The Shadow of the Erdtree DLC added a significant amount of new content to an already massive game.
If you haven’t played Elden Ring, and the Tarnished Edition on the Switch 2 has enticed you, please make the leap. I envy you seeing it all for the first time. If you have the game on other consoles or PC and don’t own something like a Steam deck or ROG Ally, the Elden Ring you love is there and intact, but with the visual downgrade that you probably expect. In the end, more Elden Ring is a very good thing.
***Switch 2 code provided by the publisher for review***
