Hogwarts Legacy on Switch 2 is a transfigurational new port

Hogwarts Legacy on Nintendo Switch was pretty naff, let’s be honest. A remarkable achievement, but one that was inevitably heavily compromised just to get it running at the low level that it managed. By contrast, Hogwarts Legacy on Nintendo Switch 2 is a huge accomplishment that captures so much more of the tone and feel of the game on PS5, Xbox Series X or PC that it feels so much more worth playing.

This is a brand-new port of the game to Nintendo Switch, retaining none of the heavy compromises that were needed to work on Switch, and making its own adjustments to match the new hardware platform’s strengths and weaknesses.

The difference is night and day, though. The often very flat lighting and shading of the interior of Hogwarts on Nintendo Switch is replaced by the rich light and dark of more realistic internal lighting and illumination. This is one of the key areas where the game gets much closer to the game on PS5.

To me, that is one of the most impactful changes, but there’s so many other changes that were made for the game on Switch that have effectively been reverted for Switch 2. It’s everything from how thick the grass looks on the ground with the draw distance, to the variety of fidelity of the trees in the grounds around Hogwarts, the shadows that things cast.

It’s seriously impressive.

Alongside this has come a general gameplay experience that better matches the game on PS5. Where Switch 1 had loading transitions to get into Hogsmeade and to walk into shops, Switch 2 is able to get back to the style of PS5, where the doors all just feel like they’re a bit haunted and slow to respond – most noticeable at major area transitions.

Flying around on a broomstick has also been sped back up, the faster storage and larger amount of RAM in the Switch 2 allowing for dynamic loading to keep up better. It’s one of those things you might notice most in side-by-side comparisons, or if you ever compare your records for time trials.

On a simplistic level, Hogwarts Legacy on Switch 2 is able to hold onto a 30fps target very well, Running through Hogwarts grounds on the path to Hogsmeade is basically just locked to 30fps, and when you reach Hogsmeade itself, you don’t have a loading screen like on Switch 1 and can just run straight into the tight village streets where, once again, performance is great.

Really, the main issues we’ve found have been with instances of loading stutter when coming up to the hidden loading screens at doors between areas – which when Hogwarts itself is a maze of doors and courtyards, does add frequent little blips, in addition to some pop-in and the fade of new lighting conditions. Flying around on a broom also leads to poor frame pacing, so this introductory time trial, for example, is 30fps, but it feels more juddery than it should be.

In any case, this all makes for a much more pleasant experience than the Switch 1, which can pretty much never maintain its 30fps target. Just running through the halls dips to the mid-20s, and the broom flying is seriously taxing for the system, such that this port slowed down the speed of flight to try and keep up.

You can, of course, play the Switch 1 port on Switch 2 via backward compatibility, and this does make it much more palatable. Dynamic resolutions will be better (though I’d argue still not exactly good), and the frame rate does steady up to 30fps, but there’s bad frame pacing here when running to Hogsmeade in particular. I guess Shiver Entertainment who did this Switch 1 port didn’t feel the need to look at this when they had much bigger problems!

Of course, even 30fps is a big step back from what is possible on PS5 and other more powerful platforms. They have graphics performance options, ranging from 30fps fidelity and ray tracing modes, through a standard 60fps performance mode and even a higher frame rate mode.

The main comparison, to my mind, would be from Switch 2 to PS5 performance mode. Not the max fidelity or performance, but the safe middle-ground. With this, you definitely notice some of the compromises still being made for Switch 2. And…. well, honestly you don’t even need to make this comparison to see how the Switch 2 relies on lower resolutions and upscaling to get the job done. The key area that always grabs my attention is when in the dialogue scenes and you can see the low resolution hair with jaggies and floating isolated strands. The diffuse reflections on shiny walls and floors through Hogwarts also have much more of a speckled look at you get to the ends, though intriguingly, it does seem that there are more of these reflections by default on Switch 1, vs. performance mode on PS5.

However, in general, this is an incredibly impressive new port of Hogwarts Legacy for Nintendo Switch 2. Yes, there are of course compromises, but it really captures the look and feel of the original game release that makes it feel of that generation, and not like the necessarily cut down port of the original Switch.

It’s also nice to see that, while this is new work, Warner Bros. is offering upgrade pricing. If you own the game on Switch 1, you can access a DLC from the game’s main menu to enable a discount price for the full Switch 2 game to bring it down to $10 or £8.50. This could have been made more obvious with a Switch 2 Edition style release, but has the major benefit that you won’t need the Switch 1 cartridge to play anymore, if you’re coming from a physical copy. For one of the biggest generational leaps you’ll ever likely see, that’s a bargain, but it’s also just a nice good faith upgrade in general.

Hogwarts Legacy is a great port for Nintendo Switch 2, and another great showcase of how the console can punch above its weight.