Best Nintendo Switch Demos - Try Before You Buy On Switch eShop

ARMS is only demo you'll ever need in life.

@mesome713
pretty sure it isn`t

Vostok Inc. was a demo I liked, I found the retail version real cheap and spent 25+ hours on it. I also bought Disgaea 5 Complete, Yoshi's Crafted World, Dragon Quest Builders 2 and Jacob Jazz's Baobabs Mausoleum after playing the demos.

Recently, I enjoyed the demos to Infini, Tangle Tower, Wunderling, Kunai, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, and Dandy Dungeon: Legend of Brave Yamada.

Demos are great for selling me on a game, and I wish there were more of them. There are some I still need to get to as well, like Mr. Driller, Dragon Quest XI S, and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.

I think every game should have a demo. I have been burnt on good looking and well received games which I have hated while playing, so a demo is always welcome. Good article!

Aren't demo's just free to play games with immovable pay walls though? And game without demo's just pay to play gambling with real money on whether you'd enjoy them or not? (these aren't necessarily my opinions of them, just another way to see it)

@mesome713 I'd argue against that as well, I've played demo's ofgames I was pretty sure I'd get, to find out I didn't want them, and the exact opposite as well. So that's money saved on the games I wouldn't have liked that could go to the games I wouldn't have considered without a demo but enjoyed a lot. Also, on 3DS, I got a lot of play time in the early days playing the different demo's / pilot versions of Resident Evil Revelations.

@BenAV

So you clicked on a link which portends to be a showcase of demos just to tell us your extra niche opinion on how they don't suit you? A curious cat that; most people aren't swift to delve into niche games based on a review of someone else's subjective taste. The demo is positioned in such a way as to bridge the gap between our expectations and the developers mission to deliver on them. It's actually one of the most pro consumer tools shy of piracy, to determine whether the game's premise was actually a marketing ploy. So I think they are a necessary and inescapable part of the space. Whether you use them or not is kind of beside the point, especially for such an innocuous thing as free software.

Wait what!? There’s a demo for bravely default 2! 🤯 well I didn’t know that

@BenAV I loved demo's back on PS1 and PC win95/98 era. but now I don't care.. i want the full experience

Huge obvious miss is Super Mega Baseball 3.

You can play unlimited online games with the demo!

Unlimited games of what many feel is the best baseball game on any platform!

It's definitely a high value for a free demo.

@San_D @mesome713 I wish the yooka laylee Impossible lair demo was available at launch because I wouldn’t have bought it otherwise ( I didn’t like it)

I regularly play the Puyo Puyo Tetris demo. Have been for three years. Never felt the need to buy the game though!

Other than the obvious picks, Hob, Yoku’s Island Express, and Fitness Boxing are tremendous games you will wind up buying. The latter was a complete pandemic lifesaver until I finally got Ring Fit last week.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 should be on here. Another large demo where progress carries over.

@sandman89 Thankfully I waited, and didn't like the demo of Impossible Lair. Money saved. How I wish Hollow Knight had a demo - it may be unpopular opinion, but it didn't click with me at all.

@San_D 😱🥰 I don’t like hollow knight either! I also wasted money on that! 😆

The Forgotton Anne demo is great. Bought it & loved the game.
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/forgotton_anne

"and one of the finest soundtracks we’ve heard in a JRPG"
What? Dragon Quest XI's soundtrack is absolutely atrocious. I love the game, it's my favourite game on switch, but that soundtrack is just awful. And the composer is a homophobic piece of *****, too.

Pretty much every game from Square Enix has the best demos you´ll find on the Switch XD. Dragon Quest XI, Trials of Mana, Octopath Traveler, Bravely Default 2, Dragon Quest Builders 2... Many hours you can add to the main game once you get it (except Bravely, obviously).

Also, try out the Ori and the Blind Forest demo, guys!

I loved the Dragon Quest XI demo. It convinced me to get the game. It didn't look that great in the trailers but the demo showed me how good it is. If you haven't played Dragon Quest XI but are interested, try the demo!

@mesome713 I tried it and didn´t like it at all XD. ARMS is not for me, definitely, and it´s weird, because I enjoy nearly every Nintendo game out there.

I recommend Trials of mana and Dragon quest xi. Both outstanding games

I am so thankful for the Dragon Quest demo. I hated it so much and it saved me $60!

Strangely, I never thought of looking for demos on the Switch... There are a bunch of games on this list I should really try - Ori, Hob, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Cadence. Looks like I’ll be busy for the next few hours (providing my joy-con drift ain’t too bad)

Captain Toad and Bad North are so damn good!!! So are the other games on this page, but those two are just amazingly fun and beautiful games.

I loved Yoshi's Crafted World so much. One of the best 50 bucks I ever spent. Also, I didn't know Trials of Mana had a demo. I might need to give that one a go!

@sandman89 I am going to have to download it as well!

I vaguely remember trying the original Bravely Default demo on 3DS, and it was kicking my a** right out of the chute, so I passed. Probably would have passed on BD 2 without a demo, but really enjoyed and finished the demo (except for 'extra' boss at end), and look forward to it's release.
For anyone enjoying Trials of Mana demo, be warned that some of the later boss battles in full game get tough and frustrating trying to keep AI party members alive, depending on the makeup of your party. I was playing on third highest difficulty ('normal' I think) and didn't want to turn it down just to compensate for sketchy AI (IMO).

The Dragon Quest XI S demo sold me on the game, what a massive demo that was, I enjoyed the Hob demo too. I downloaded the Trials of Mana one but didn't really get started on it properly - Bravely Default 2 I wasn't really feeling at all.

Forgot to mention earlier - while not exactly demos, game jam builds of games have also led me to buy the full release of Celeste and Baba is You specifically, and some games, such as Bug Fables, have demos on PC. Hopefully in the future, more demos come to the eShop and Nintendo remembers NSO game trials are a thing outside of Japan...

It’s not mentioned in the article, but my son and I enjoyed the Cat Quest II demo, and bought the full game after playing.

i would also add :
Ai: the somnium files
Oninaki

@BenAV - Outside the play activity, I am the same. However, I do muddy my own waters sometimes cause I have a pension to intentionally play aweful games.

They should have also put down MHGU too

I remember being a kid and replaying the same demos over and over on a PS1 demo disk I had. Good memories.

@mesome713 well said.

@Heavyarms55 same.

Touryst is one of the best games on switch.

I'd throw in there snipperclips, cat quest 2, invisigun, ninjin and 99 vidas

@BenAV

Yeah I totally got carried away there, wasn't in the best mood tbh and I shouldn't have posted like that. Next time will be sure to consider the context fully and not jump to any conclusions.

@San_D Me too on Hollow Knight. My last attempt at a metroidvania and unfortunately I found it dull. Glad I'm not the only one!
@SoManyHaveDied I tried the Invisigun demo on a whim and absolutely loved it. Good example of demos working to get you to try games you'd otherwise not go for. Bought the full version (and joined the Discord) - it's so underrated, and full of content.

@Milton_Burle @sandman89 I too had given up on metroidvanias after Hollow Knight, but then I got Dead Cells, it's just too good. It's exactly what I felt Hollow Knight wasn't - fun. And you don't really need to go looking for a random line of lore and fight some boring monsters en route and die and fight your ghost and those same monsters and so on...

I loved the dragon quest demo but I really need to be fully briefed on turn based combat and how to get the best out of it, I never played any of those back in the day, so I was really just guessing and hoping for the best and couldn't get past that annoying gargoyle near the broken bridge.

@Milton_Burle Ironically I bought the game on an eshop sale without even knowing it had a demo. but i ended up loving it. some characters are kinda hard to use tho

You can skip getting the Blaster Master Zero demo and just buy it, it and its sequel are gaming perfection (well IMHO anyway 😉).

I usually try out the demos for JRPGs and not much else, I usually have a good idea of what I want and get those games — the Touryst is a good example where I skipped the demo cuz I knew I’d love the game

@SoManyHaveDied Agreed re: some characters. Chronos FTW.

@San_D Was considering Dead Cells as a lot of people rave about it. That might just tempt me.

@Milton_Burle Dead Cells is many games in one. The movement/platforming is like Prince of Persia lite, the character's stomp is like Donkey Kong, gears are immensely varied - I can literally play it like semi-Chess, where I deploy traps and run away while the monsters have no way to escape those or I can blast through enemies using heavy weapons. The combinations are so interesting and unique, it's a shame that this game doesn't have a demo - I believe a lot of people on the fence would buy it after minutes. Heavily recommended!

I'm quite glad that demos have become so much more common than they used to be. I'm not really into playing demos of games which I know for sure I would like, but sometimes there's stuff like the recent Diofield Chronicles or Harvestella demos which I never would have even tried if not for the demo, and for the latter I actually enjoyed it to the point where I do want to get it.

Imo a game should have a demo to qualify getting onto the eshop

Deltarune chapters 1+2 is a demo..

There's quite a few games on that list that I never would have purchased but ended up getting after trying the demo.

If more games had a demo or a refund option within the first hour of play, I'd definitely buy more.

@OptometristLime well said, I really like demos. I just tried the Youropa demo and saved money. I liked the look, I like the game play feel, but... the mechanics I don't like. I was dying in ways I didn't understand, and I wouldn't have known it until I bought it.

For a gamer like me who has limited time and money, demos are so worthwhile.

@Ironcore Part of me agrees with you, but another part wonders how hard it is for developers to create a demo. I imagine it takes considerable work to take a portion of the game and deliver it in that format. So, I am appreciative when they do provide a demo.

@WoomyNNYes its been a while since I played and loved Forgotton Anne! I thought it was great. My only sore spot was after game when I wasn't able to get most of the songs by going back and finding secret things. But overall it was fantastic!

I think I played through the Just Shapes & Beats demo at least three times before I caved and bought it full price, which I almost never do for indies. And the Dragon Quest XI demo really gives you a ridiculous amount of content for free. I ended up not liking the full game as much as I thought I would, but the demo still left quite an impression.

There are plenty of other demos worth checking out, too. I'd throw in Moonlighter, Monster Hunter Rise, Boxboy+Boxgirl, Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, Foregone, Snipperclips, Blossom Tales, Flat Heroes, and Nine Parchments. I'd also like to shout out The Rusty Sword, since it's technically a demo for a full game that may or may not ever exist, even though it costs $1.

Best demos on Switch in my experience so far have been:

• WarioWare: Get It Together
• Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (wish they had one for the original too)
• Octopath Traveler
• Trials Of Mana
• Clubhouse Games- Guest Pass
  *Honourable Mention: the Game Trial for Captain Toad Treasure Tracker (I was actually able to finish that game in a week, just before the trial expired by committing to doing 5 or so levels a night)

.. Hope Nintendo and others continue to put out substantial demos of AAA games where progress carries over into the actual release.

... Wun can only hope.

There are so many games that I’m interested in on sale. I’m really wanting to play Xenoblade 2 though, so I might hold off. Moonlighter is really tempting, but I’m not sure

More and more games need demos, I've been burned to many times with games I thought I'd like but then realized they were garbage or clunky messes with fantastic concepts. Saying that I simply adored the Tinykin demo and never bought that 🤷‍♂️🤣 but still, ALL games to have demos!

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition and Trials of Mana are both amazing games!

I'd recommend these and currently playing DQXI again now

@Rudra42 Woah there, chill.

Any chance we get this sale in EU? Would love to buy some of those game

What I quite like is that the earlier article on demos was like a demo for this piece.

Demos typically convince me NOT to buy a game that I'm on the fence about. The two big exceptions have been Pikmin 3 (on Wii U) and Tinykin (on Switch).

In fact, I avoided Pikmin since the series began because I had zero interest. But once the demo for P3 came to Wii U, it convinced me to buy Pikmin 3 for Wii U and later Switch, plus Pikmin 1&2 for Wii, plus Pikmin 1&2 on Wii U. That was the most effective demo ever 😄

More games should have demos, just let us have a wee try to see what it's like, some games may get more sales from people that aren't sure if they'll like it or not. It might've stopped me buying a few games that I thought I'd like too 🤣

Worth mentioning that Dragon Quest Builders 2's current "Jumbo" demo lets you play until just before the end of the game's first major island/story arc, roughly the first 15-20 hours of the game. And like most of SE's demos on Switch, that progress carries over into the full game.

A good demo is surely the one that prevented you from buying a bad game!

If a good demo is ultimately a good game... just buy the game?

With the free games and demos alone on Switch, + 1 or 2 big titles like Mario Kart and BOTW, you really can get along just fine. Don't need much more than that.

Lunistice has my fluffy baby seal of approval

I own 15 of the games on this list and with at least half of them, there's no way I would have bought them if I hadn't got to try them first.

Demos do occasionally put me off a game I was going to buy: Age of Calamity, Pikmin 3 and Mario Strikers but for the most part, they encourage me to spend more money.

The other thing that would make me purchase more games is if Nintendo followed Microsofts lead and allowed gamers to get a refund on digital games they don't like if played less than 2 hours.

My son recommended Arise to me. It is on sale quite often and is a really great game. Money well spent.

It might be time to update the blurb on Bravely Default II - that game has been out for some time now. I typically only download and play a demo for a game I have on my wish list already, but that's more an issue with lack of free time than lack of desire to try these games out. I recently downloaded and played the demo for OT2, and that was fantastic. I also recall playing the Yoshi demo and taking it off of my wishlist as a result.

@OctoAmbush
Yes but it’s a demo I have 200+ hours in
(I have a problem)

@Heavyarms55 wow, I suddenly get a flashback playing Pandemonium with my brother some 25 years ago, and I think I remember it was just a couple of levels then we would switch to another game on that same CD.
Demos are for sure cool!

I absolutely adored Hollow Knight and while I tried Dead Cells in the NSO trials at some point, I did not enjoy it. Funny, how you like one or the other, not both.

I also played one of the demos of Daemon x Machina and remember thinking how there was no feedback whatsoever in that game, such a shame, barely would you see when the enemies were finished. And trying to make sense of all the talks, that was painful. I didn't get the game in the end.

Check out the auralux demo

For demos that release before the game, they could give players who finish the demo the opportunity to buy the game early.
They could even make it clear that it was only from the demo completion screen that you can purchase early, and induce that FOMO.
Not sure how it would work technologically, I'd let the boffins figure that out.

Puyo Puyo Tetris is such a good demo that I never needed to buy the game. Live A Life is definitely a good insight into a curious game, and I actually played the Metroid Dread demo after playing the game. I wanted to quickly relive the start again. Pikmin 4 is another demo to try before committing to a game purchase, which is good, because many game purchases do become glorified demos. Play them a few hours, put them aside, never to play them again.

Boomarang Fu is a great game, with a demo that showcases exactly how crazy it can be

Nice to see Blasphemous get mentioned. That was a perfect example for me of 'hey let's play this demo' and once I reached the end I was set on buying it. Good job blasphemous demo.

Tinykin, Cadence of Hyrule, New Super Lucky's Tale and Yoku's Island Express all have demos that convinced me to pick up the full game. I was also on the fence with Pikmin 4 but I loved the demo.

I would also add Jack Move to the list. I enjoyed the game when I tried the demo.

Certainly the most effective demo i've ever played was Dragon Quest 11. Was so engrossed with the game, and as soon as I got to that cut-off point I was straight into that eShop

Does anyone know if the resolution in Yoshi's Crafted World looks the same in the actual game as in the demo? I tried it and handheld mode looks rather blurry at times.

I would add the demo for Dredge.

Played the demo of Dave the Diver after a bunch of folks recommended it to me on Reddit.. I didn’t even finish the demo before I bought it.. such a fun little game.. already have 15 hours in it since Friday night.. I don’t play restaurant sims ever and didn’t like the idea of managing a restaurant AND fishing.. but it does it so well that I cannot recommend this game enough!

Chants of Senaar is a lovely game with a perfect demo I reckon

This list, like many others, is still in desperate need of more BoxBoy. And I can understand the others I suggested a while back getting passed over, but how is Monster Hunter still missing?

At least you guys got Moonlighter on there at some point. It's a great little dungeon crawler, and those are hard to find with roguelikes practically swallowing the entire genre.

Try the Pocket Card Jockey demo and you'll get hooked.

I can never recommend enough Super Lucky's Tale for anybody craving a polished 3D collection platformer. Tight controls, low-medium difficult that eventually gets to medium and then slightly higher with the extra levels. It's not gonna stress you out, which is sometimes a nice thing when it comes to gaming lol

I tried to like the lunistice demo but I just couldn't not get used to the controls and gameplay feel and it's a darn shame because the visuals of that game look absolutely amazing....