Clair Obscur Switch 2 status reveals the reality of Nintendo's console
Overview & Key Takeaways
Despite the Nintendo Switch 2 getting some miracle ports of huge games, some developers are still struggling to get their games on the console.
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Just one year into the Switch 2’s lifespan, Nintendo’s console feels like a technical miracle. It’s downright shocking that it can run modern games like Resident Evil Requiem and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth with minimal compromises, or that new games like Onimusha: Way of the Sword will launch on it at the same time as on PS5 and Xbox Series X. For Nintendo fans who spent decades pining for third-party games that never came to underpowered machines like the Wii, it feels like the Switch 2 can do it all. Except it can’t.
We got a reality check this week courtesy of Sandfall Interactive, the developer of last year’s Game of the Year winning Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In a new interview with Automaton Media, Sandfall co-founder Tom Guillermin explained that the team wants to bring its hit RPG to Switch 2, but said that it would be a “big technical challenge” to pull off.
The problem? Unreal Engine 5. Clair Obscur heavily relied on the engine’s features to make its game, especially taking advantage of Blueprints (a scripting tool that lets developers plug nodes together to craft gameplay systems). The team said that many of those features simply don’t work on Switch 2 at present. “They’re introducing features like Lumen Lite now, which is easier to run than the standard Lumen,” lead character and concept artist Alan Reynaud explained, “but these things take time to roll out, so we’ll have to consider the updates coming from Unreal Engine to determine what to do.” With some Switch 2 ports, developers are simply at the mercy of Epic for now.
This isn’t the first example of a developer struggling to get its game working on Switch 2. Last year, 2K Games indefinitely delayed the Switch 2 release of Borderlands 4 for “additional development and polish time.” Closing in on one year later, we haven’t heard a peep about it since. (Though Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick told Game File that the project hadn't been cancelled earlier this year.)
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco
Then there’s the long-running saga of Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition. First announced during the Switch 2’s full reveal Direct with a 2025 release window, the port faced a year-long delay after hands-on impressions out of last year’s Gamescom raised some serious red flags. Finally set to release on Aug. 28, Elden Ring will now land as a crucial stress test for Switch 2. FromSoftware’s ability to get the open-world game — one that was released on PS4 and Xbox One — running well on the hardware will tell us a lot about how flexible Nintendo’s dream machine is. (The good news is that it seems to be in much better shape than it was last year.)
The reality is that the Switch 2 still has its limits, even though companies like Capcom and Square Enix have seemingly cracked the console’s code. It takes hard work to get Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth running on the hardware, and that’s a challenge for smaller teams like Sandfall Interactive who may not have the resources to invest in time-consuming ports. We’re still far off from a reality where every third-party game will get a Switch 2 version, and that will only become apparent if a new console generation begins midway through the Switch 2’s lifespan.
Never forget that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild felt like a miracle when fans first played it on the go in 2017. Eight years later, Switch owners were begging for an upgrade. That’s the nature of hardware, and the Switch 2 will not be immune to that cycle in the long run.
eShop game of the week: Moss: The Forgotten Relic
The formerly VR-exclusive Moss series made its way to consoles this month, and it feels right at home on Switch. The pair of games featured in Moss: The Forgotten Relic are both delightful, kind-hearted adventures starring an adorable mouse. (The pint-sized hero melted Austin Manchester’s heart, as you can read in his review.) It doesn’t get much more Nintendo than that.
Nintendo Classics game of the week: Zero Wing
A classic arcade series makes its return this week with Truxton Extreme, so it’s a good weekend to pay some respects to Truxton creator Toplan, the master of the shoot-’em-up genre. The best way to do that is by jumping into one of its most iconic games, Mega Drive classic Zero Wing. Yes, it’s the game that gave us “All your base are belong to us,” but it’s also a tense sci-fi shump with a killer soundtrack to boot.
Nintendo Music track of the week: “Sunset Bay” from Wave Race 64
It feels like summer just began, but we’ve already reached August. Don’t let the last few weeks of heat slip away; toss on the Wave Race 64 soundtrack today. It’s full of sunny beachside anthems, including this radical prog rock jam that feels like it was plucked right out of an 80s movie. (There's a playlist of all of Switchboard's music picks here.)
This week’s most interesting releases
- July 29
- Switch
- Roguelite kingdom builder where you roleplay as a ruthless ruler
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 — Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
- July 30
- Switch 2
- Beloved Switch RPG enhanced with performance boosts and a cool new sword
- July 30
- Switch 2
- White-knuckle shoot-’em-up revives an arcade classic in style
- July 30
- Switch, Switch 2
- Hand-drawn paintbrush Metroidvania gets a 120fps boost
- July 30
- Switch 2
- Intense action roguelike drenched in Norse mythology
