Today, I’m adding more games to the list of games that have seen improvements when played on Nintendo Switch 2. Let’s have a look!

Daemon X Machina

Genre: Third-Person Action

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local Wireless, Online)

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Review:

Daemon X Machina never really found the success its creators were surely hoping for, but it apparently did well enough to justify a sequel, and so it seemed fitting to look at how the original game fares on Nintendo Switch 2.

Sadly, I detect no noticeable improvements to resolution or framerate, and this is particularly disappointing given how much this game could have used a resolution boost. No, it looks like this is yet another case where the only improvements to be found are in the loading times.

At the very least, in that respect, Daemon X Machina fares quite well on Nintendo Switch 2. On the original Nintendo Switch, it took 35 seconds to get to the title screen while button-mashing through logos, another 14 seconds to load into a game save, and then another 29 seconds to load a mission once you’ve selected it. On Nintendo Switch 2, those times are cut down to 18, 7, and 18, roughly half of what they are on Nintendo Switch.

It’s not as good as one might hope for a game that was at one time seen as a major exclusive for Nintendo Switch, but it’s still an improvement. Just don’t expect anything different here beyond faster loading times.

tl;dr – Daemon X Machina is a third-person mech Action game with a striking anime look that controls well and has some good customization elements, but it’s brought down somewhat by its incomprehensible story crowding in on the action, a lock-on feature that could do with improvement, and a slow buildup of its customization features. In the end, this is still a good game, but its flaws stand in the way of it being a much better one.

Grade: C+

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Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition

Genre: Open-World RPG

Players: 1, Online Content Sharing

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Review:

Xenoblade Chronicles X already got a graphical boost when it was ported to Nintendo Switch, so the question is whether we see yet another jump on Nintendo Switch 2. Let’s have a look!

First, I can say that the inconsistent framerates are steady here, and the dynamic resolution tops out at the max of 1080, but it’s not always easy to appreciate that when the pop-in is still really bad and the aliasing is still extremely prominent. I wish we got an even bigger resolution bump and some aliasing here, but I suppose this still looks really good, if not a dramatic improvement over what we already had on Nintendo Switch.

No, the real dramatic improvement is the loading times. On Nintendo Switch, it took 27 seconds to load up the game, and an additional 34 to load into a save. On Nintendo Switch 2, those loading times have been cut down to 4 and 8. The difference is nothing short of remarkable.

Is it a transformative difference? No. But this is still a good improvement over what was already a great port on Nintendo Switch, of a game that was already ahead of its time on Wii U. If you were hesitating on whether to pick up Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition to play on your Nintendo Switch 2, know that while this isn’t a major boost over the version we saw on Nintendo Switch, it’s still a solid improvement on a game that already looks quite at home on Nintendo’s new hybrid console.

tl;dr – Xenoblade Chronicles X is an Open-World RPG about the remnants of humanity trying to survive on a distant planet after fleeing an Earth destroyed by a massive battle between alien forces. This is a massive, ambitious game, one with a lot of complex systems at work, and thankfully the Nintendo Switch version of the game adds a wealth of improvements and additional content over the Wii U version. If you’re an RPG fan with a Nintendo Switch, this is definitely a game you should look into, although it is still far from flawless. Despite this, it remains a truly unique and enjoyable game, and one still very much worth playing.

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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