Final Fantasy XIV (Switch 2) Review – Great Combat, Brutal Typing

Final Fantasy XIV (Switch 2) Review

Some ports are more ambitious than others. An MMO is a tall order for any platform without a keyboard, and on a tiny, handheld screen? We’re entering Sisyphean territory for sure. Final Fantasy XIV is just, so much game to try and play on the Nintendo Switch 2. But you know what? It kind of works!

There are so many systems at work here, and all of them were clearly meant for a mouse and keyboard. You can use a controller for 95% of them, which is great. But, it took a long time to get used to the controls. Nothing feels intuitive at first. Even closing a pop-up window took me a while to figure out. Selling items, accepting quests, accessing the map, all of this was a trial at first. Thankfully, the combat was by far the easiest to decipher.

Combat Hums Along Nicely

You can access a gigantic selection of skills through a combination of the shoulder buttons and the face buttons while in battle. It’s enough to accurately reproduce the PC’s massive amount of inputs with very little friction. Changing targets is still clumsy work, but firing off skills and spells is dead easy. Most importantly, you can avoid major attacks with a little bit of practice. And if using the traditional controller setup sounds too clunky, there is the Switch 2’s mouse mode.

Final Fantasy XIV prefers a mouse and keyboard for sure. So a mouse, even a crude one, feels like a breath of fresh air. I found using it both intuitive and cumbersome. When it works, using the mouse is the clearly superior control scheme. But there are a couple of snags. First, it’s shockingly hard to find a position for the mouse that’s both comfortable and viable for long-term use. Most players don’t have desk-height tables and mouse pads about. Also, there still isn’t a keyboard of any kind. So using a mouse means you’re using nothing else. Attacks have to be hovered over and clicked on, same with every window, menu, character, and item. In theory, enough practice could make this the superior control scheme. But it definitely won’t feel that way at first.

Mouse Mode Makes a Difference 

Since the base game is a little older, it’s light work getting Final Fantasy XIV to run on the Switch 2. I didn’t get beyond the base game during my playthrough, so I can’t speak with authority on how the expansions look on the console. But this is a shockingly powerful device. I didn’t notice any slowdown, and the load times were all pretty brief. If nothing else, the Switch 2 is easily up to the task of running this game. Whether or not it’s meant for consoles at all is a separate matter.

Without a doubt, my biggest problem was talking to other players. There is no keyboard, and so sending messages is a murderous slog. You’re hunting and pecking for every letter, while their messages are flying at you non-stop. Maybe if you were playing in handheld mode, you could touchscreen your way to comprehension? Either way, the whole setup makes you feel approximately one thousand years old. And it’s not like you can realistically get away with never chatting with people while you play. Final Fantasy XIV is an MMO, after all. Some words will need to be exchanged. Without some kind of third-party workaround, this part of the whole experience is pretty awful.

Typing is Brutal Though

Handheld mode is fine, depending on how much reading you need to do. I don’t wear glasses, but playing in portable mode made me feel like I should start. Not only is the text quite small, but there are oceans of it smashing into you at every opportunity. On the other hand, if you’re just burning through quests and level grinding, handheld mode is great. You might not know why you’re slaying this herd of horned beasts, but you can do so with practiced ease.

The Switch 2 can do a lot, but it has its limits. All consoles do, really. Cramming a gigantic MMO like Final Fantasy XIV into a handheld console is a messy business. The lack of a keyboard definitely hurts, for example. And using a controller to play has its drawbacks. But combat still runs pretty well like you need it to, and the mouse mode can fill in certain gaps. Handheld mode runs surprisingly well, though it does crush the text into illegible territory at times. Overall, the game is shockingly playable, given the adverse conditions in place. If you must play Final Fantasy XIV, and you can’t do so on PC, the Switch 2 is a rock solid choice.

***A Nintendo Switch 2 code was provided by the publisher***