Games

IGN – Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition on Switch 2 — Gamescom hands-on raises performance concerns

23 August 2025
Nintendo Switch 2
9 min.
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IGN – Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition on Switch 2 — Gamescom hands-on raises performance concerns

Summary:

IGN checked out Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition running on Nintendo Switch 2 at Gamescom 2025, and the verdict in handheld mode isn’t pretty yet. Multiple outlets describe notable frame rate drops, especially when panning the camera through open spaces like Limgrave, alongside a control layout that feels unintuitive at first. The demo was limited to handheld play and recording gameplay wasn’t allowed, which usually hints the build still needs polish. That said, Tarnished Edition bundles the base game with Shadow of the Erdtree and added gear plus Torrent customization, and it’s slated for a 2025 release—leaving time to tighten performance. We unpack what likely caused the dips, how docked mode could change the story, and which fixes can realistically land before launch. If Bandai Namco addresses streaming, shader, and input issues, Switch 2 could still deliver a portable Lands Between worth carrying.

Gamescom 2025: Elden Ring on Switch 2 is a marquee demo with big expectations

Walking the Nintendo booth at Gamescom 2025, it’s impossible to miss the pull of Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition on Switch 2. The original became a cultural milestone and a sales juggernaut, so bringing that sprawling, punishing adventure to a portable form factor naturally draws a crowd. Expectations are high, not just because of the brand, but because Switch 2’s promise is simple: take big-screen epics with you. That promise cuts both ways; the moment-to-moment feel matters more when you’re inches from the screen. Early impressions at the booth focus on handheld mode only, and that context is crucial. Portable silicon has tighter power and thermals than a docked setup, and an open-world like the Lands Between will quickly expose any weak link in streaming, CPU scheduling, or shader handling while you’re spinning the camera or galloping across fields.

What we experienced in handheld mode: impressive ambition, choppy delivery in wide-open spaces

On the handheld unit, the core Elden Ring vibe is intact: ominous skies, rolling plains, and that uneasy calm before a mounted knight erases your health bar. The problem shows up when the camera swings wide outside the tutorial corridor—exactly where the game shines on other platforms. In open areas like Limgrave, turning to take in the horizon triggers visible frame drops, and the judder dulls the combat rhythm. Souls-likes thrive on timing, and when the feedback loop hitches, parries, dodge-rolls, and spacing feel off. Combine that with a layout that doesn’t match muscle memory for many players and exploration becomes work instead of wonder. The booth staff confirmed no direct-feed capture would be permitted, which isn’t unusual for early demos, yet paired with the handheld-only limit it signals a build still finding its footing.

Why open-world scenes stress handheld hardware: the technical bottlenecks to watch

Elden Ring’s magic comes from seeing far, traveling fast, and meeting threats without a loading elevator. That magic is demanding on any system, and portable chips juggle it with less headroom. When you sweep the camera across the landscape, the engine must stream in terrain, foliage, enemy AI, shadows, and effects while maintaining frametime targets. If shader compilation or asset decompression spikes the CPU, frametime spikes with it. Bandwidth matters, cache matters, and so does how gracefully the build handles “just-in-time” work as you sprint into a new biome. In handheld mode, power budgets are capped to keep heat and battery in check, so a build that’s merely okay docked can stumble on portable clocks. That doesn’t mean the port is doomed—it means there’s very obvious low-hanging fruit in streaming strategy, shader caching, and LOD tuning that can be improved.

Camera turns and long sightlines: the classic stress test that exposes streaming hiccups

Veterans know the feeling: you step onto a ridge, flick the camera, and the world shimmers as the GPU and CPU negotiate who gets what slice of time. Limgrave is an early crucible for this because it mixes broad vistas with roaming enemies and lots of alpha effects in grass and foliage. Rapid camera turns force the engine to request geometry and textures across a wide radius, spiking IO and CPU tasks. If those requests pile up, frames get dropped just when you need responsiveness. Souls combat loves commitment—feint, punish, repeat—but stutter steals confidence in your inputs. That’s why handheld stumbles are so noticeable here. The good news is that smarter prefetching, tighter grass density under specific angles, and better occlusion strategies can all reduce the load without gutting the look that makes the Lands Between feel alive.

Shaders and traversal: caching decisions can make or break a portable build

Open-world traversal means you’re constantly encountering new effects—spell particles, weapon trails, ambient fog. If the engine compiles shaders on the fly, each new effect risks a hitch. On powerful desktops those pauses are annoying; on handheld, they cost precious frametime. Prefetching commonly used shaders for early-game areas, seeding caches during boot, and aligning effect variants to reuse pipelines can smooth the curve dramatically. Handheld chips aren’t allergic to ambition—they just need fewer surprises during combat. If Bandai Namco tunes the cache strategy and trims the worst offenders in early zones, the experience can feel instantly more consistent, even if raw resolution or grass density needs to step down a notch in the most demanding vistas.

Recording restrictions and handheld-only access: what that likely says about build maturity

We’ve all seen events where publishers lock down capture for demos that aren’t ready for primetime. On its own, that’s not remarkable. Coupled with a handheld-only setup for a game this large, it suggests a narrow test slice designed to gather player feel and stress specific systems without inviting side-by-side comparison to docked or other platforms. That’s smart triage for a show build. It also tells us where attention is going next. If docked mode were in a better state, you’d expect at least one kiosk on a TV to show it off. Keeping the spotlight on handheld is a deliberate choice; after the show, the work will be about raising the floor for portable play so that first boot at home feels acceptable before any day-one patch lands.

Docked expectations: why the story could look different with a higher power envelope

Switch 2’s docked profile has more thermal and power leeway, which should lift CPU clocks and widen GPU time budgets. That extra headroom can translate into steadier frametimes, higher dynamic resolution, or both. Will it erase every hitch in Limgrave? Probably not without engine-side changes, but docked targets are typically easier to hit. The disappointment at the booth is that nobody could verify this on the spot. Without a TV setup, we can’t say how docked handles the same ridge-and-pan scenario that tanked handheld. Still, if the team is smart about allocating docked budgets to even out traversal dips and give effect-heavy combat a small safety margin, docked mode could feel fine while handheld closes the gap through targeted optimizations over the coming months.

Control layout confusion: when muscle memory meets a different face-button philosophy

Part of the early frustration comes from inputs that clash with years of muscle memory. Nintendo’s face-button labeling and confirm/cancel conventions differ from Xbox and PlayStation, and if prompts or defaults don’t align with player expectations, every dodge roll becomes a mini pop quiz. That’s fixable. Clear on-screen prompts, sensible defaults, and robust remapping can eliminate friction fast. For a game where timing defines survival, getting jump, dodge, and lock-on exactly where your thumbs expect them is worth as much as a few frames of performance. Souls veterans adapt quickly when the inputs feel transparent; the goal here is obvious: make the control philosophy invisible so the only thing players think about is spacing, stamina, and when to risk a charged R2.

What Tarnished Edition includes: the package coming to Switch 2 in 2025

Tarnished Edition on Switch 2 bundles Elden Ring’s base adventure with Shadow of the Erdtree and adds new weapons, armor, and customization options for Torrent’s appearance. That all-in-one approach is perfect for a platform where players often pick up in shorter bursts. It also means the performance target isn’t just the starting graveyard and Stormveil’s corridors—portable play needs to hold together in denser DLC areas as well. Packaging the expansion from day one raises the bar for streaming, enemy density, and effects volume across the full journey. The silver lining is that developers can profile the trickiest zones early and design tweaks around those worst cases, ensuring the broader world benefits from the same optimizations.

Optimization levers before launch: practical wins that can move handheld from choppy to playable

Three areas will likely do the heavy lifting. First, asset streaming: prioritize near-field geometry and enemy logic over distant detail when the camera turns quickly. Intelligent prefetch for common traversal routes can cut spikes. Second, shader caching and effect consolidation: reduce unique permutations and load popular pipelines at boot or during short pauses. Third, LOD and foliage density: dial grass and alpha-heavy elements down subtly in handheld while preserving silhouette and landmark clarity. None of these changes compromise Elden Ring’s identity; they simply trade invisible luxuries for visible consistency. Add input polish and a vibration profile tuned for handheld, and the game’s feel snaps back, letting the combat loop sing—even if resolution or shadows need to flex dynamically to keep frames honest.

Setting expectations: how portable performance stacks up against other ways to play

Portables impose constraints that big living-room boxes dodge. On rival handheld-class hardware, Elden Ring can feel acceptable with careful settings, but it’s never been a flat line even on far beefier systems. That context matters. A stable experience on Switch 2 is achievable if the build chases consistency over maximal image quality in the busiest scenes. Think of handheld as the “always with you” version aimed at exploration, farming, and incremental progress without giving up meaningful boss attempts. Then let docked pull the visual levers a bit harder. As long as handheld feels responsive in open fields and under status-heavy boss sequences, the trade-offs are worth it for players who value portability as much as pixels.

Tips for day-one sanity: how we’ll play smarter if handheld still wobbles

If handheld remains a touch uneven at launch, we’ll make a few pragmatic tweaks. Lock camera sensitivity a notch lower to avoid whipping into worst-case vistas mid-fight. Favor weapons and ashes that reward measured tempo over twitchy combos when traversal hitches are likeliest. Explore with the camera angled slightly downward in dense grass regions to reduce distant draw calls, lifting frametime stability. And remap inputs early so dodge and jump live where your thumbs expect them. These aren’t miracles—just small choices that make stutter less punishing until patches land. Elden Ring’s joy lives in patience and adaptation anyway, and that mindset pays off twice on a portable build that’s improving in real time.

What success looks like post-patch: a clear, achievable target for Switch 2

We don’t need handheld to chase docked visuals to feel great. A clean, consistent frame pacing target with smart dynamic resolution and trimmed alpha effects will make wandering the Lands Between feel right. If early zones like Limgrave hold steady during fast pans and horseback skirmishes, the rest of the adventure will mostly follow. Tie that to frictionless inputs, a battery profile that avoids aggressive throttling during long sessions, and we’ve got a version that earns a permanent slot in the case. Tarnished Edition already nails the content mix; once the build trades a bit of grass shimmer and distant detail for control fidelity and traversal stability, the portable proposition clicks into place. That’s the path from “hmm” to “one more attempt before bed.”

Conclusion

Right now, handheld Elden Ring on Switch 2 is more promise than payoff, but the path to a satisfying portable run is clear. The Gamescom demo exposes fixable pain points—open-area streaming, shader spikes, and a control layout that needs to respect player habits. With months left in the 2025 window, Bandai Namco has time to lift handheld from choppy to dependable while letting docked mode stretch its legs. If those optimizations land, Tarnished Edition can be the always-with-you Elden Ring many of us hoped for: the same sublime loop of discovery and danger, just tucked into a bag instead of tethered to a couch.

FAQs
  • Q: Why was the demo handheld-only at Gamescom?
    • A: Handheld-only access typically indicates the team wants feedback on portable performance and feel while avoiding apples-to-oranges comparisons with docked. It also suggests the docked profile may still be changing, so the focus stays on testing the tighter power budget first.
  • Q: Were attendees allowed to record gameplay?
    • A: No. Recording wasn’t permitted at the booth. That’s common for early builds and, paired with handheld-only access, implies the publisher expects performance and polish to improve substantially before launch.
  • Q: What exactly is in Tarnished Edition for Switch 2?
    • A: The package includes Elden Ring’s base game plus Shadow of the Erdtree, along with new weapons, armor, and customization options for Torrent’s appearance. It’s positioned as an all-in-one entry for new and returning players.
  • Q: Will docked mode fix the frame rate drops seen in handheld?
    • A: Docked has more thermal and power headroom, which should help consistency. Still, the biggest wins will come from streaming, shader caching, and LOD tuning—improvements that benefit both modes. Without a docked demo on the floor, we’ll need to see a later build to be sure.
  • Q: Is the 2025 release window realistic given the demo’s state?
    • A: Yes, provided optimization remains the priority. The issues on display are the kind teams routinely improve between show demos and release. With months left in the window, there’s room to refine performance while finalizing inputs and UX.
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