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Final Fantasy XIV Online is out now for the Switch 2, and like all good MMO launches, it seems there are some teething issues.
Square Enix has identified a prolonged loading bug in this version of the game, with a notice on the official game website detailing how it "may take longer than usual" when the screen fades to black in instanced duties.
Here's part of the official notice and what Switch 2 players may experience:
[Nintendo Switch 2] Regarding Prolonged Transition Screens (Aug. 4)
Our investigation has confirmed that, when a player enters an instanced duty while surrounded by many characters, loading data will take longer than usual, which lasts until the player leaves the instance. The delay is especially noticeable in the following situations:
・When the screen fades to black during a battle phase transition or when teleporting to a different map in an instanced duty
・When the screen fades to black upon reviving after being K.O.'d in an instanced duty
・When the screen fades to black upon using Return or a shortcut in an instanced duty
We have identified certain cases in which the data reloading and cache clearing processes required for safe rendering are taking an extended amount of time. As such, these processes have been optimised to ensure faster data loading even under similar conditions, and the updated version is currently in testing.
Fortunately, as mentioned, an updated version is already in the works, and the team is aiming to release it as "soon as possible" to address this problem, as well as "several other issues".
Have you encountered this loading issue? How has your experience been with FFXIV on the Switch 2 so far? Let us know in the comments.
[source eu.finalfantasyxiv.com]
Comments 8
Well least it didn't take that long for a patch.
That's good to hear! A big reason I stopped playing on my PS4 Pro is because the loading was so much worse than friends on their PS5s. In that case it was probably due to the HDD in the PS4 though.
Pretty sure the Series X version had a similar issue when it launched. Switch 2 isn’t left out of the growing pains!
@charliecarrot
For sure. Although one good thing about the PS4 Pro that is really under appreciated at large is that its hard drive controller is SATA III. You install a SATA SSD in it and the loading times are DRAMATICALLY improved. Way different than the same thing with a base PS4. That was SATA II so it couldn’t really take advantage of the read write speeds SSDs offered. But the PS4 Pro can.
Matter of fact, I’m of the opinion that with the way prices are with current game consoles, if someone wants to get into gaming relatively affordably (PS4 physical games are generally dirt cheap still and the physicals you can’t find or are inflated for whatever reason the digital store is still fully operational and will be for a long time) there is no better option than a used PS4 Pro with a used SATA SSD upgrade. I mean it’s not PS5 crazy with load times but it’s a world faster than the stock HDD. So you get a good bit of the modern gaming experience but at a much cheaper overall price when you include the price of the games themselves.
Glad they're already testing the updated version to fix this and so it should come sooner rather than later - anyway, hope those already playing FF14 on Switch 2 are overall enjoying it despite this (looking forward to giving it a try myself at some point although not anytime soon)!
Ah yeah the loading times were noticeably slower than my PC launching off an NVMe when I was playing last night. For me the biggest bug was how the game would use my inverted camera options upon loading in but as soon as I changed zoned it uninverted. Then if I wanted to get it back I had to go into the settings everytime I changed and toggle the option again.
@JohnnyMind I jumped into this late last night after getting all the weekly stuff done on my main character on PC (yes I know I have an addiction) and it was pleasantly impressive. It doesn’t look as good as it does on my PC and the 30fps didn’t bother me (as an aside I currently have my PC capped at 30 since there’s a 4090 in there and using it unlimited in the summer makes me want to die), as soon as I had rearranged the HUD to my liking I was of and away on a new character having a grand old time.
It was my brother’s birthday yesterday and he bought the game with the eshop credit I got for him and we were on game chat for his entire session. Once again I was pleasantly surprised at how competent it was, he was sharing his screen and beside not being bow to read very fine text I could help him get around and stuff since he is very new to it. Definitely not going to replace discord for me but still much better than I expected gamechat to be before launch.
@Glassneedles Thanks for telling me, even happier that it's now also on Switch 2 then and further looking forward to playing it myself at some point - glad you got to play it together with your brother and that GameChat worked well for that (not the first time I've heard positive experiences with it here on Nintendo Life and elsewhere, but still)!
This month-long server testing experience should help tackle all sorts of potential issues so I am excited to see FFXIV polished up as time goes on. I'm also happy to contribute to that testing.
That being said, I've been really enjoying FFXIV on Switch 2 so far as someone coming from a great PC setup.
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