Elden Ring is arguably one of the finest soulslike games ever released by FromSoftware. The game has been showered with countless awards and accolades, earning its place among the greatest games ever made. Years after its initial release, it continues to sit proudly upon a pedestal of praise and admiration.
Now, the Lands Between has finally made its way onto Nintendo’s latest hardware. Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition for the Nintendo Switch 2 bundles the base game, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion and several new additions. When the game was initially announced, many Nintendo players were thrilled at the prospect of finally experiencing Elden Ring for the first time. Long-time fans, meanwhile, were equally excited by the opportunity to experience the vast world of Elden Ring portably and on the go.
However, the announcement also came with its fair share of concerns. Could the Nintendo Switch 2 handle a game as technically demanding as Elden Ring? With considerably less hardware power than a gaming PC or PlayStation console, questions surrounding performance, visuals and overall stability quickly became a topic of discussion among the community, but there was little we could do except wait for the official release.
Today, we’ve finally gotten our hands on Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition for the Nintendo Switch 2. After spending time exploring the Lands Between once again, we’re here to share our hands-on experience, what you can expect from the Switch 2 version and, ultimately, whether it’s worth picking up.
Returning to the Lands Between
Hopping back into the Lands Between, we were already familiar with the game’s mechanics, combat and overall storyline. Having experienced Elden Ring before, our focus this time wasn’t on rediscovering the game itself, but rather on seeing how well it translates to Nintendo’s new hardware.
Our main areas of focus were performance, visuals and the new content introduced with Tarnished Edition.
Performance
Starting with performance, we were pleasantly surprised by how well the game ran. We went through the entire starting tutorial before venturing into the open world, putting the game through its paces in both handheld and docked modes.
For the most part, the experience felt remarkably close to what we have come to expect from Elden Ring. The vast landscapes of the Lands Between remain impressive, with distant structures, environmental details and enemy encounters retaining much of the atmosphere that made the original release so memorable.
Of course, it is important to manage expectations. This is still Elden Ring running on a console that is considerably less powerful than a gaming PC or current-generation PlayStation hardware. There are moments where compromises become noticeable, particularly when looking closely at environmental details or moving rapidly through the open world. Certain areas can also appear less visually crisp compared to the game’s more powerful console and PC counterparts.
However, these compromises did not significantly affect our overall experience. What impressed us most was how quickly we stopped thinking about the hardware and simply started playing.
Once we were wandering through Limgrave, fighting enemies and stumbling across locations we had completely forgotten about, the Switch 2 version began to feel less like a technical experiment and more like a legitimate way to experience Elden Ring. And then there’s the portability.
Elden Ring, Anywhere
The ability to pick up the Switch 2 and explore the Lands Between without being tied to a television or desktop setup changes the experience more than we initially expected. Whether you have 20 minutes to clear a small dungeon or several hours to dedicate to exploration, being able to play Elden Ring wherever you are is arguably the biggest selling point of Tarnished Edition.
For a game built around exploration, discovery and the freedom to wander wherever you want, the portable format feels surprisingly natural. But of course, performance isn’t the only thing worth discussing.
Visuals
Visually, Tarnished Edition does come with some compromises. When compared directly with the PC, PlayStation and Xbox versions, it is clear that the Switch 2 version has had to make certain sacrifices to run such a technically demanding open-world game on Nintendo’s hardware.
Texture quality, environmental details and overall image clarity can appear softer, particularly in handheld mode. These differences become more noticeable when you deliberately look for them, but during normal gameplay, they are surprisingly easy to overlook.
The game’s art direction also deserves a lot of credit here. Elden Ring has always relied heavily on its distinctive art direction rather than pure graphical fidelity. The towering Erdtree, ruined castles, sprawling fields and bizarre creatures of the Lands Between still manage to create the same sense of scale and mystery, even with the visual compromises.
In other words, the Switch 2 version may not be the prettiest version of Elden Ring available, but it still looks unmistakably like Elden Ring, and that’s what matters.
What’s New?
Alongside the base game and Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, Tarnished Edition introduces several new additions for players to discover. These additions will be particularly interesting for veteran players who have already spent hundreds of hours exploring the original game.
However, we would recommend approaching them with the right expectations. They aren’t designed to completely reinvent Elden Ring. Instead, they complement the existing experience and give returning players another reason to revisit areas they thought they already knew inside and out.
We started our playthrough with the brand-new Idus Knight, and we daresay it is a solid starting class. Its strong stance-breaking potential makes it particularly effective during the early game, giving players a fresh way to approach some of the encounters they’ve already experienced before.
The new Torrent cosmetics are another welcome addition. While they don’t fundamentally change the gameplay, they give players more ways to customise their trusty spectral steed and ride through the Lands Between in style. After spending countless hours travelling across the world on Torrent, having a few new looks is a small but enjoyable touch for both newcomers and returning players.
For veteran players, these additions may not be enough to completely transform a second playthrough, but they do provide some fresh flavour to an adventure that many of us have already experienced multiple times. For newcomers, meanwhile, these additions are simply extra content on top of what is already an enormous adventure, and that’s where Tarnished Edition becomes particularly appealing.
If you’ve somehow managed to avoid Elden Ring until now, you’re essentially getting the complete experience in one package: the original game, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion and the additional content introduced with this edition. That’s a lot of game.
Should You Get It?
If you’ve never experienced Elden Ring, Tarnished Edition is an easy recommendation. You’re getting one of the most celebrated action RPGs of the past decade, its substantial Shadow of the Erdtree expansion and additional content, all in a portable format.
For returning players, the decision is slightly more complicated. If you already own the game on another platform and have no particular interest in playing it portably, there may not be enough here to justify purchasing the game again. But if the idea of carrying the Lands Between with you has always been appealing, Tarnished Edition makes a surprisingly compelling case.
The performance isn’t perfect. The visuals have clearly been compromised in certain areas, and this version isn’t going to replace the experience of playing Elden Ring on a powerful PC or current-generation console.
But perhaps it doesn’t need to. The biggest achievement of Tarnished Edition is that it manages to bring Elden Ring’s enormous world onto a portable Nintendo platform without stripping away the fundamental experience that made the game so beloved in the first place.
After all these years, stepping out into Limgrave still feels magical. Only this time, you can do it almost anywhere.
This article was contributed by Butterfly, a gamer and cosplayer who’s worked with Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Flash Vision Esports, and more. You can find more of her work over on Instagram.
