Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition Switch 2 Impression

Returning to the game world of Erdrea on the Nintendo Switch 2 finally bridges the gap between portability and home-console fidelity.

Dragon Quest XI is a highly regarded JRPG here at RPGamer. When it originally released in 2018 on the PS4, it reviewed as a 4.5/5 and was praised for being “a rich tapestry of individual stories woven together” with “a wealth of content even beyond the first credit roll” and having a “gorgeous aesthetic.” A year later, a Switch version was released as Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition. Some small content was cut, and the graphic fidelity was slightly diminished, but an entire 2D mode was added in from the Japanese 3DS version of the game, along with some bonus mid-game story sections. This time, it reviewed as a 5/5, with much praise heaped on most every gameplay and artistic element. Fast forward yet another year and we here at RPGamer were crowning it our #1 RPG of the Decade. 

Having played both the original PS4 version and the Switch release extensively over the past eight years, I was anxious to see how the newest port handled. Returning to the game world of Erdrea on the Nintendo Switch 2 finally bridges the gap between portability and home-console fidelity. After spending some time in the early chapters of Dragon Quest XI S — from the quiet paths of Cobblestone to the sprawling streets of Heliodor — the performance upgrades are immediately apparent. The graphic resolutions that occasionally muddied the original Switch release are gone, replacing blurry foliage and washed-out character models with crisp, vibrant visuals. The iconic character designs of Akira Toriyama pop with an impressive level of sharpness, particularly during close-up dialogue scenes and dramatic cuts in battle.

The slimes are more shimmery, and every blade of grass is clearly defined.

From a purely technical standpoint, the game offers two modes for exploring all DQXI has to offer. Performance Mode offers a steady 60fps with a resolution of 1080p while Quality Mode drops the frame rate to 30fps but allows the resolution to increase to 1440p when docked. Practically speaking, what that translates to is stable frame rates, eliminating the minor stutters that previously occurred when sprinting through densely populated areas like Heliodor’s lower ward or galloping across the open fields of the Emerald Coast. Environmental pop-in, while still present in minor capacities far in the distance, is drastically reduced. Grassy plains feel fuller, textures on cobblestone roads and castle walls are noticeably cleaner, and lighting effects appear much richer during sunset transitions. Playing the game docked on a large 85” LED television was a most visually impressive Dragon Quest experience.

Equally impressive are the improved load times. Transitioning between the overworld, city districts, and battle arenas now takes only a brief second or two. This near-seamless pacing makes random encounters and sidequest backtracking feel significantly less tedious, maintaining a swift momentum throughout the opening hours.

Every part of the adventure seems to pop with crisper details all around, including that protagonist’s mop-top hairdo.

It should be noted that the Switch 2 version of the game does not feature any new content; it is purely an increased graphical port of the original Switch version. There is also sadly no upgrade path for previous Switch version owners nor a method for importing one’s save from the previous version to the new Switch 2 version. Despite all that, no one had to twist my arm into starting a fresh playthrough of one of RPGamer’s and my personal favorite games. While they’re not necessarily busy adding features to a bunch of older games, it’s commendable that Square Enix is seemingly committed to porting many older Switch titles forward, as evidenced by their recent Switch 2 versions of multiple Final Fantasies, Kingdom Hearts, Octopath Travelers, and Star Ocean Second Story R ports.

Whether played docked on a large screen or in handheld mode, the Switch 2 presentation delivers the newest, excellent way to experience the Luminary’s journey throughout Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition. For players who skipped the original Switch release due to visual trade-offs, or those looking for a reason to revisit Erdrea, this upgraded performance brings the title much closer to its PlayStation 4 and PC counterparts while keeping all the expanded content of the Definitive Edition intact.

Disclosure: This article is based on a build/copy of the game provided by the publisher.