Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition Switch 2 Review — The Lands Between in the palm of your hand, compromises included

Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition on Switch 2 — finally in the Lands Between, anywhere

In February 2022, FromSoftware once again changed the rules of the game with Elden Ring, bringing the Souls philosophy into a massive open world where exploration, combat, and discovery became part of a single experience. Originally released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, the title captivated audiences and critics alike, becoming one of the most awarded and acclaimed video games of recent years, winning, among other accolades, the Game of the Year at The Game Awards 2022.

Four years later, after the arrival of the acclaimed expansion Shadow of the Erdtree in 2024, the Lands Between finally arrives on Nintendo Switch 2 with Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition.

This isn't simply taking the original game and porting it to the Nintendo console, because this edition brings together the complete adventure and its enormous expansion in a single package, also adding new content designed to make a new playthrough even more interesting. New classes, new armor sets, and, above all, the ability to customize Torrent expand an experience that, even in its original version, seemed almost impossible to make even richer. 

The question, however, is inevitable: how does Elden Ring perform on Nintendo Switch 2?

Because bringing such a technically and structurally ambitious game to Nintendo hardware inevitably means making some compromises. And after trying it, I can say that the answer is quite clear: the Lands Between remains an extraordinary place to experience, even on Nintendo Switch 2. 

Gameplay hasn't changed: why Elden Ring still works after four years

If you've already played Elden Ring, you know exactly what to expect.

If, on the other hand, you are among those who, in the last four years, have observed the Lands Between from afar without ever entering it, prepare for a gigantic, challenging, and above all, free adventure. The core of the experience has not changed.

You explore a huge open world, discovering villages, castles, catacombs, caves, hidden areas, and often completely optional bosses. You collect weapons, spells, summons, talismans, and materials, progressively building your character.

And it is precisely this freedom that remains one of the aspects that still convinces me the most today.

Elden Ring doesn't hold your hand. It lets you go.

You can face an enemy and discover you are completely unprepared, change your path, explore for hours, return stronger, and finally get your revenge. Or you can ignore everything and continue riding Torrent towards another area of the map.

It's a system that continues to work because it's not just based on difficulty. It's based on curiosity and exploration.

And this, even today, is one of the game's greatest qualities. 

Tarnished Edition novelties: new classes, armor, and Torrent customization

The Tarnished Edition doesn't revolutionize the original experience, and perhaps that's its strength: it takes everything that made Elden Ring a masterpiece, includes Shadow of the Erdtree, and adds some interesting reasons to return to exploring the Lands Between. The real novelties are primarily designed for those who want to start from scratch, with two new classes, the Heavy Knight and the Eidos Knight, four new armor sets to collect during the adventure, and greater freedom in building your Tarnished.

These aren't revolutions, but in a game where changing builds, equipment, and combat style can completely transform a playthrough, even these additions gain a certain weight. Personally, I find the new sets particularly interesting, because in Elden Ring, armor is never just a matter of stats, but is part of the character we want to give our protagonist.

The most pleasant surprise, however, comes from Torrent. Finally, we can also customize our faithful spectral steed with new aesthetic variants. An apparently small novelty, but one I found surprisingly apt: after hundreds of kilometers spent together, he certainly deserved a little more attention. And being able to see him with a different appearance during exploration makes the adventure, even just visually, a bit more personal.

In short, no revolutions, but many small details that enrich an already gigantic experience and provide an extra reason to set foot in the Lands Between again. 

Technical compartment on Switch 2: frame rate, portable mode, and the leap from the Gamescom 2025 demo

We come to the gameplay, which simultaneously represents the strength and limitation of this edition.

The combat is the same as ever: precise, challenging, technical, spectacular.

Attacking, dodging, parrying, using spells, changing weapons, utilizing summons, studying enemy behavior, and above all, learning from your mistakes: everything that made Elden Ring fantastic in 2022 is still here. No revolutions have been made, and, honestly, none were even needed.

The Tarnished Edition doesn't aim to be Elden Ring 2, it doesn't want to rewrite the game, but simply wants to bring the complete experience to Nintendo Switch 2 and add some elements to make a new playthrough more interesting.

The problem is that, for those who already own Elden Ring and Shadow of the Erdtree on another platform, there isn't a huge reason to start over just for the new content.

For those who have never played Elden Ring, however, the situation changes completely.

Here we are faced with one of the most complete packages possible. 

A technical compromise, but much more solid than expected 

The technical aspect is probably what deserves the most attention in this version of Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition. It's useless to hide it, compared to the versions available on other platforms, here the game inevitably has to make compromises.

That said, one must also be objective and acknowledge the enormous work done by FromSoftware compared to the demo shown about a year ago at Gamescom. That version had left many doubts about performance, with evident drops, stuttering, and a far from convincing frame rate management. The final version, however, is a decisive step forward: the game has been optimized much more accurately and, considering the hardware it has to run on, the final result is decidedly more solid than one might have imagined after that first test.

The frame rate remains the most evident compromise, especially for those coming from other versions, but personally, I prefer a stable frame rate and an overall balanced rendering rather than a race for 60 fps achieved by further sacrificing the quality of the experience.

In docked mode, some drops and stability issues can still appear, especially in the most crowded situations or during the most demanding encounters, but the leap from a year ago is enormous and evident and deserves to be highlighted. FromSoftware listened to the criticisms and worked concretely to improve the product.

Even more convincing, for me, is the portable mode. Here Elden Ring finds an almost perfect dimension for Switch 2: vibrant colors, spectacular environments, and a visual rendering that on the console's screen beautifully enhances the atmosphere of the Lands Between. Finally having such a huge world literally in your hands remains one of the greatest satisfactions of this version.

The controls have also been very well adapted, both with the Joy-Cons and with the Nintendo Switch 2 controller, never giving the feeling of being faced with a sacrificed conversion.

It's not the most performant version of Elden Ring, that's evident, but compared to what we saw a year ago, the optimization work done by FromSoftware is enormous and the final result is decidedly more convincing. 

From an artistic point of view, however, Elden Ring continues to be Elden Ring, and that's a blessing.

Despite the technical compromises, the Lands Between retains all its atmosphere.

Gigantic castles, swamps, forests, mountains, ruins, golden skies, and deformed creatures continue to create that dark fantasy imagery that made the game immediately recognizable. The art direction is still one of its strengths today.

And then there's the soundtrack: solemn, dark, epic at the right moments, and capable of perfectly accompanying boss fights.

Even from this point of view, there's no need for revolutions: what worked then still works today. 

Is it worth €79.99? The Tarnished Edition is a good deal — but it depends on who you are

This is probably the most difficult question: Is Elden Ring worth the price of 79.99 euros?

On the one hand, and one must be honest, the price is not absurd if we consider what it contains, because we have the complete game, we have Shadow of the Erdtree, we have four new armor sets, two new starting classes, Torrent customizations, and a quantity of content that can easily keep a player busy for over a hundred hours.

On the other hand, however, we are talking about a title released four years ago and a version that, at least from a technical point of view, is inevitably inferior to more powerful platforms.

Let's be clear, Elden Ring as a game is worth every penny, but it's this specific version that, in my opinion, would have deserved a slightly less aggressive price.

Especially considering that complete versions already exist on other platforms and that the new Tarnished Pack is offered separately at a decidedly lower price for those who already own the game.

For a new player, however, the situation changes, and if you have never played Elden Ring and only have Nintendo Switch 2, this is finally the opportunity to catch up on one of the most important games of recent years with all its main content already included.