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!

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Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition

Genre: Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1

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Review:

Without a doubt one of the best ports of a modern release the Nintendo Switch ever saw, Dragon Quest XI S looked great on Nintendo Switch, so going into this look at the game on Nintendo Switch 2 I was skeptical that it would see much improvement. But you never know until you look, so here goes!

As it turns out, my views on the game’s visuals have evolved somewhat since my original review. The lower resolution of the Nintendo Switch compared to other modern platforms definitely feels more noticeable now than it did when the game released years ago. And all of that remains the case here – the way the game plays on the Nintendo Switch 2 looks identical to the way it plays on the original Nintendo Switch.

In fact, the only real change I’m seeing here is to the loading times… and even that isn’t a very dramatic change. On Nintendo Switch, it takes this game 25 seconds to get to the title screen and another 16 seconds to load a save file. On Nintendo Switch 2, those times are only shaved down to 15 and 12. That’s not bad, but it’s hardly a dramatic change.

Dragon Quest XI S is a game that I think really needs a full Nintendo Switch 2 Edition to truly take advantage of the more powerful hardware, because on its own this game is mostly identical to the original. Which is still fine, but it’s definitely not what you’d hope for here. Still, none of this changes that the core game is still wonderful.

tl;dr – Dragon Quest XI S has aged somewhat since its release on Nintendo Switch, and the Nintendo Switch 2 does little to improve it. Also, the JRPG gameplay remains firmly-rooted in the past, and feels long in the tooth. This game is still a must-play for JRPG fans, but the wow factor isn’t quite where it once was.

Grade: A-

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Dragon Quest Builders

Genre: Action-RPG / Open-World Sandbox

Players: 1

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Review:

The original Dragon Quest Builders isn’t as wide in scope as its sequel, nor as detailed as Dragon Quest XI S. By today’s standards, it looks outright archaic. Surely that means there’s more room for improvement, right? Right?

As it happens, Dragon Quest Builders may be the least-improved game I have yet tested on Nintendo Switch 2. The relatively low resolution and massive amounts of aliasing the Nintendo Switch version had are still present here, the framerates were decent enough in the original and seem unchanged here. In fact, the only change I see here is to the loading times… and even that is pretty pitiful. Starting up the game takes 17 seconds to get to the title screen on Nintendo Switch, and 14 seconds on Nintendo Switch 2. And loading up a game save takes 4 seconds on Nintendo Switch… and also 4 seconds on Nintendo Switch 2.

So that’s it, your big difference- you save a whole three seconds when playing this game on Nintendo Switch 2. This would be disappointing even if this game didn’t look woefully outdated, but given how much improvement this game needed… well, it’s kinda’ embarrassing.

tl;dr – Dragon Quest Builders is an Action-RPG with an open world and creation elements to it that are very comparable to Minecraft, and an anime style and story that are very much a Dragon Quest thing. That said, this game is much more linear and focused than Minecraft, and although it doesn’t have many of the improvements made in Builders 2, it still has a lot to offer, and it’s a fantastic game well worth playing for fans of Action-RPGs and Open-World games alike.

Grade: B

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Dragon Quest Builders 2

Genre: Action-RPG / Open-World Sandbox

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

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Review:

After seeing less-than-impressive improvements on the Nintendo Switch 2 with Dragon Quest XI S and the first Dragon Quest Builders game, I didn’t hold out high hopes that this sequel would fare much better. Dragon Quest Builders 2 really needed the boost too – its framerate issues are well-known. So… is this yet another disappointment on Nintendo Switch 2?

I am happy to say, quite the contrary! Right from the start, we see a significant reduction in loading times – starting the game and getting to the menu screen on Nintendo Switch took 1 minute 22 seconds, and loading up a game save took an additional 25 seconds. On Nintendo Switch 2, this time is chopped nearly in half to 43 seconds and 17 seconds.

However, the truly wonderful thing about playing this game on Nintendo Switch 2 is that the framerates are noticeably better. Even in areas where the game doesn’t have framerate issues, you can see an immediate difference in how smooth the game is running, and in user-created islands that were such a choppy slide show they were painful to look at on Nintendo Switch, they now run at much more acceptable framerates. I also feel like the game overall looks cleaner, and maybe that’s a higher resolution, but honestly it could just be that the framerates are so drastically improved that the game overall just looks much better.

I adore Dragon Quest Builders 2, and it is a joy to see it running as well as it does on Nintendo Switch 2. If you missed out on this game when it first released on Nintendo Switch, I highly recommend you give it another look – it runs and plays better than ever now on Nintendo’ Switch 2’s new hardware!

tl;dr – Dragon Quest Builders 2 is an Action-RPG with an open world and creation elements to it that are very comparable to Minecraft, and an anime style and story that are very much a Dragon Quest thing. That said, this game is much more linear and focused than Minecraft, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Regardless, it is an absolutely superb Action-RPG, and an absolutely superb Open-World game, and fans of either type of game should consider this a must-have. Plus, Nintendo Switch 2 greatly improves the game’s performance! Yet another reason to check this game out if you’ve somehow missed it before now.

Grade: A

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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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