One of the most acclaimed and successful games of the last few years, was announced earlier this year to be making its way over to Switch 2, in the form of Elden Ring Tarnished Edition. This version of the game comes with new cosmetics, classes and the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.
However, recently, reporters had a chance to go hands-on with the game during Gamescom, but their impressions all tell the same story.
It seems as though the game is struggling with optimisation issues that could severely impact the game, and what’s more, it seems as though publishers Bandai Namco might be aware of these problems.
Elden Ring Tarnished Edition Problems
It wouldn’t be the first time that a game on a Switch console has seen a stark difference in performance quality between docked and handheld versions. Areas like the Lost Woods in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild were notorious for this, though that was later improved on the Switch 2 release.
In the impressions released by IGN, it was reported that the performance slowdown was noticeable in the first tutorial area with the Grafted Scion boss, and became much worse when entering the open-world area of Limgrave, especially when using Torrent, the game’s mount.
Button Layout Concerns
While the bulk of the problem seemed to be confined to how the game performed — a problem that might be remedied by the console being docked — that wasn’t necessarily all there was to it.
In that same IGN report, attention was drawn to how the button layout was quite different to what could be found on the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, leading to a sense of confusion that made the game more difficult to play.
It is, however, unclear whether these can be mapped differently or how that might just be something that players become accustomed to over time.
No Recording Footage Allowed
One of the most curious pieces of reporting from this incident came in regards to how no recording of gameplay was allowed, even in terms of over-the-shoulder camera footage.
While it’s unlikely that developers and publishers would be unaware of these problems prior to the hands-on event, the effort to keep it under wraps has some thinking that it likely needs more time before its 2025 release date.
