Today, I’m adding two more games to the list of games that have seen improvements when played on Nintendo Switch 2. Let’s have a look!
Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes
Genre: Turn-Based JRPG
Players: 1
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Review:
I’ll cut to the chase here. The Nintendo Switch release of Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes doesn’t see any noticeable improvement to framerate or resolution on Nintendo Switch 2. But then, that’s not the question that most people will have about this game on Nintendo’s new hardware, is it?
Okay, let’s look at loading times then. And we’ll start with the usual stuff I check for loading time improvement: How long does it take to load the game to the main menu (or in this case, the company logos just before it), and how long does it take to load into a game. For the former, the Nintendo Switch version took 24 seconds to get to the studio logos when loading up the game. On Nintendo Switch 2, it takes 12. Loading up a game file is comparably quick at 5 seconds, but Nintendo Switch 2 shaves it down to 3.
However, that’s not the main question regarding this game on Nintendo Switch 2 either, is it? No, the main question is in regards to all the little delays when doing simple things like exploring in-game menus, buying things from a shop, and going from one location to another. All of these on their own may just take a few seconds, but over time they add up to such a major annoyance that it was one of my biggest problems of the game.
However, it would be difficult for me to test a bunch of little things and see how long each of them takes, especially when each individual thing is over within a few seconds. So I set up a little test course of sorts here. On both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, I stood outside an armor shop to start with. Then, upon starting a timer, I tried to do all of the following actions as quickly as I could: enter the shop, buy a helmet from the shopkeeper, exit the shopkeeper menu, open the character menu, change over to the equipment menu, equip the helmet, exit out of the menu, and leave the shop. As soon as I was back outside, I stopped the timer.
The results? On Nintendo Switch, this took me 38 seconds. On Nintendo Switch 2, it took me 25 seconds. This is… well, honestly not as dramatic an improvement as I could have hoped for. I still noticed pauses here and there, especially when I first tried to speak with the shopkeeper. However, those pauses were now overall shorter. And across the course of the entire 40 hour+ game, even if you’re only saving ten seconds off of every minute of play time, that’s over 6 hours of wasted time you’ll be getting back playing this game on Nintendo Switch 2 instead of Nintendo Switch.
So even though Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes still has issues, and the improvements don’t entirely address the biggest issues, they still make a huge dent in the problems this game had. And this makes it much easier to appreciate the game underneath all of those issues.
tl;dr – Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes is a Turn-Based JRPG created to be a spiritual successor to the Suikoden series, and as such it features a huge roster of 120 recruitable characters. There’s a lot to like here, with good combat, an interesting story, and a great presentation, but the game suffers from massive pacing issues, far too many characters that seem disconnected from the plot, and some performance issues on Nintendo Switch (much-improved but still present on Nintendo Switch 2). I do think the good outweighs the bad here, but this is definitely a far lesser game than it could have been.
Grade: B
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My Time at Portia
Genre: Action-RPG / Management Sim
Players: 1
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Review:
When I tried to think of third-party Nintendo Switch games that could be massively-improved with a performance boost, My Time at Portia was high on the list. This is a messy, buggy game on Nintendo Switch, with all sorts of loading problems, and I really hoped that Nintendo Switch 2 would address some of those issues.
I can say right from the start that the Nintendo Switch 2 does nothing for this game’s resolution, and there’s a lot of the bugs I mentioned before that are still present here. However, I do believe that the framerate is smoother on Nintendo Switch 2, making the game at least feel more stable, though I did still notice the game briefly freeze for a moment, presumably while loading something.
However, let’s talk loading times, because this is where I was most curious to see an improvement in this game. And I will say that what I discovered greatly impressed me… but also disappointed me some.
Loading up the title screen on Nintendo Switch took 57 seconds. This was shortened to 31 seconds on Nintendo Switch 2. However, the major shocker was when I loaded into a game – an absurd two and a half minutes even on the original Nintendo Switch, but only 56 seconds on Nintendo Switch 2. That’s still a lot, but it’s a major improvement. I also noticed improvements when dealing with shorter loading screens, like going through your house’s door.
The disappointment was that the delay in opening and closing your menu in the game seems to have remained the same – it’s apparently baked-in to the game. Given that this was a major frustration for me, I was really hoping that the Nintendo Switch 2 would do something about it.
Still, even though it doesn’t address my biggest problems with My Time at Portia, just the improved loading times are a huge improvement on their own, and the slightly better framerates are also quite nice. This game still feels clunky and at times poorly put-together, but not quite as much so on Nintendo Switch 2.
tl;dr – My Time at Portia is and Action-RPG / Management Sim much like Harvest Moon and Stardew Valley, with more of a focus on gathering resources and crafting than farming (though you can farm as well). There’s plenty of variety and some really great gameplay at the core of this game, but unfortunately the game is plagued with terrible interface problems, loading screens (still present but much-improved on Nintendo Switch 2), and numerous other frustrations that sap much of the fun out of the experience. It’s still good, but it should have been so much better.
Grade: B-
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I hope you enjoyed this latest batch of Nintendo Switch 2 Difference Mini-Reviews, and found them to be helpful! Want to see all Nintendo Switch 2 Difference comparisons? Check out this page for links to every article where I’ve included these comparisons!
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