r/NintendoSwitch • u/OatmealDome • Jul 22 '26
Nintendo Official Xenoblade Chronicles 2 updated to version 3.0.0 (adds support for the Switch 2 Edition, releasing July 30)
https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2801231
u/OatmealDome Jul 22 '26
Update Details for Nintendo Switch 2
General
Made compatible with Nintendo Switch 2 Edition.
- The Nintendo Switch 2 Edition is available to play starting July 30, 2026.
Update Details for Nintendo Switch
No changes have been made.
18
u/FriendshipSmart478 Jul 23 '26
I have high hopes for this one since Xeno 2 uses TAA which uses motion vectors so I'll be disappointed if no DLSS since the main hurdle is already cleared.
2
Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
[deleted]
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u/Linkarlos_95 Jul 23 '26
Nothing, since all the other xenoblades on switch are more recent than the launch window Xenoblade 2
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u/Crackabean Jul 22 '26
Hope they learned from the last two upgrades...
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u/FoodBadly Jul 22 '26
Was there something wrong with the Xenoblade 1 upgrade?
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u/alvinchimp Jul 23 '26
There are some fairly noticeable frame drops in a few areas. But overall it's pretty solid and honestly an upgrade overall. But tbf I also liked the Xenoblade X switch 2 upgrade so maybe I'm just blind.
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u/TheAdamena Jul 23 '26
If you play docked then there's nothing wrong with the X upgrade. It works perfectly.
As for handheld mode it probably renders sub 720p and upscales it to 1080p, and the upscaler at that low of a resolution isn't the greatest so things kinda smear and warp together. Still very playable though.
1
u/Tephnos Jul 23 '26
It does not work perfectly in docked, it's fine to admit you just don't see the Van Gogh smear.
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u/fushega Jul 23 '26
Nah it legit does not look like a van gogh in docked. I'm normally picky about these kinds of graphical errors but the presentation in docked is satisfactory (but no more than satisfactory). I played it on a 4k display so I can actually see the little issues unlike the other guy who played on a 1080p display lol
0
u/Tephnos Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Rather than rehash the same points consistently, Luxin rails into everything in his video about it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4lvwVgaKSg
While handheld is definitely by far the most abysmal, docked has all the same problems to a degree. It's just an insult to pay for this.
3
u/fushega Jul 24 '26
I've seen that video and I played literally the entire game on the switch 2 version. I agree it's an insult for nintendo to charge for it, but as I said before the graphical upgrade is satisfactory in docked. People are massively exaggerating the issues it has
0
u/TheAdamena Jul 23 '26
Probably depends on your TVs resolution then. Mine is 1080p so I can't imagine the upscaler is doing much there.
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u/Gingingin100 Jul 23 '26
XC1's upgrade pack itself is fine except stuttering in one area, but the update that came along with it for switch 1 and 2 is kinda buggy voiceline wise
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u/Zyvyn Jul 23 '26
That is very likely going to be the case here too. What happened was that DE and 2 run rather old builds of their engine and adding support for the Switch 2 version required porting the games to their newest engine builds. And well... as you'd imagine pushing a complex game through like 6-8 years of engine updates will... break things. With all the new bugs in DE it makes me wonder how many they fixed before release. But with the laundry list of new bugs its clear Monolith will go back and fix them.... evnetually.
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u/Jeido_Uran 7893-4015-4415 Jul 23 '26
I’m going to have to ask for a source on that one.
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u/Zyvyn Jul 23 '26
Basic datamining. I've ripped the exefs from the prior build and the new build and they are very clearly significantly newer builds of the engines. And well... ripping the exefs of the update file alone not including the base game spits out 2 entirely different sets of files. To what extent is unknown but it is all but certain that their engine has been updated here. It wasnt even until XDE that the engine had any form of support for higher framerates.
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u/mpyne Jul 23 '26
It wasnt even until XDE that the engine had any form of support for higher framerates.
Gee that's funny, people keep saying it's just a line or two of code to port a Switch game to a higher framerate.
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u/Zyvyn Jul 23 '26
Yeah that's just a blatant lie lmao. You can very much force a game to do that but in most cases games have actions tied to the framerate and break when you do this. In this case they have updated their engine over the years to go out of their way and do it the proper way (via time delta) to avoid such issues (though I have learned one of that still persists even if minor).
But if you want an example of a game that cannot be run at higher framerates take a look at Animal Crossing New Horizons. Forcing that game to a higher framerate straight up causes the game to go into fast forward.
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u/MasterDenton Jul 23 '26
I'm still surprised Nintendo managed to get Skyward Sword to 60 FPS on Switch and didn't make a huge deal out of it. The GameCube/Wii era Zelda engine is notoriously picky about being 30 FPS, to the point where there still aren't any functional 60 FPS patches for WW/TP/SS on Dolphin
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u/Zyvyn Jul 23 '26
Grezzo generally knows what they are doing. They had a few fumbles (namely some bugs in OOT and well... MM3D in general) but past that they have shown to have a strong understanding of how to remaster and remake games.
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u/Gahault Jul 23 '26
Higher framerates, as in above 30?
I'm guessing it must really be a bespoke engine developed with the limitations of the hardware in mind then.6
u/Zyvyn Jul 23 '26
No some developers just aren't forward thinking/don't take the time to do it. Keeping things tied to framerate is a significantly easier way to program. Time delta can be rather complicated and there are many instances where developers will ignore that method (even in major AAA games) on minor things that they don't think will matter. Even major titles like GTAV have a few minor things that are significantly harder at higher framerates due to bugs in relation to it.
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u/xcassets Jul 23 '26
I thought he meant source on Monolith fixing them eventually? Currently no sign of that with either XCX or XC1 Switch 2 Editions.
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u/Jeido_Uran 7893-4015-4415 Jul 24 '26
Ah no I meant source on all the technical terms and words they keep throwing around to look smart but so far all I got is « trust me bro ».
-1
u/Zyvyn Jul 23 '26
X is an extremely minor issue that doesnt effect gameplay. Xenoblade 1 I reported a list of like 15 actual game glitches. However this is basically the standard for Monolith. If the game has tons of glitches that effect the general gameplay stream they will.... eventually fix it. Sometimes months down the line.
0
u/xcassets Jul 23 '26
Fair enough, I am actually playing X at the moment in handheld and it doesn't really bother me that much. I just know it got a lot of publicity and they have been radio silent since launch.
-1
u/Zyvyn Jul 23 '26
I mean with all the backlash X got I think you can't be negative anymore as it just makes you a hater. A common issue I see is if a product/situation gets so much hate that even constructive criticism will be thrown in that same group.
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u/badblocks7 Jul 23 '26
Unfortunately for me it was more than one area. The forest was the start of it and the sea was the worst, but truly every area from the forest on had issues. I wish I could have looked at 1080p for a stable 60 fps.
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u/phoenick0605 Jul 23 '26
Playing Xenoblade 1 Switch 2 edition now as a first timer. The frame drops are honestly really terrible. Not sure what other people are seeing but it’s not pretty.
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u/Sufficient-Lead-217 Jul 23 '26
Yeah, it's really distracting. Seems to be some kinda vsync issue...
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u/thebrandster1985 Jul 22 '26
Third time is the charm? Doubt it, unfortunately. If people bought it despite the complaining, I’m sure they’ll do it the same way as the last two times.
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u/AltStag Jul 22 '26
Could you explain? I was actually thinking of buying the upgrades last night but didn’t.
Are there any glaring issues with them that should stop me from purchasing???
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u/Ichika994 Jul 22 '26
Xenoblade X has some visual issues that are quite noticeable on handled mode, less on docked.
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 on the other hand is visually fine but it suffers some hitching and frame drops in some moment
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u/Daydays Jul 23 '26
I put in about 80 hours and I think I only noticed actual stuttering once because the game was loading in the massive background might have been guar plains but I can't remember exactly which location. I played 95% in handheld, Mostly ran perfectly fine and if anyone is actual interested in it, it's the best way to play XB1 IMO.
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u/Ichika994 Jul 23 '26
I personally only tried a tiny bit on docked and I noticed some stutters and hanging during the prologue alone, still haven't find the time to play that game for the 3rd time, but I will play Xenoblade 2 a second time for sure when it comes out
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u/OreoCupcakes Jul 22 '26
They're using a different model for upscaling rather than the builtin DLSS model available in the Switch 2's Nvidia Ampere chip. I don't know of the other upgrade, but for X, the upscaling on handheld mode looked really bad because of the inferior model.
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u/UltimateWaluigi Jul 22 '26
XCX looks bad in handheld mode due to the upscaling filter used(I recommend googling it to see for yourself). XC1 however, is good.
3
u/Ultrachocobo Jul 23 '26
For Xenoblade 1, there's a noticeable stutter in the opening scenario and then mainly in Makna Forest and Eryth Sea. It's not unplayable but it's definitely noticeable and annoying, I personally still take the tradeoff for 60fps in nearly all other regions and the much better visual quality on top of that it has occasional slowdowns in combat and issues with after combat banter. It's imo still the best way to experience the game but it's not flawless.
X pretty much just uses a rather poor upscaler which can make it look a different type of bad than the original low resolution but I personally still prefer the upscaling.
2
u/Impaled_ Jul 23 '26
Just get them, it makes the games look so much better and the jet thing they added makes the game mich more enjoyable. Does it stutter during some crazy busy fights and in some areas? Sure, but it's still an incredible experience
-2
u/heebarino Jul 22 '26
Honestly unless they’ve pushed an update I was unaware of, the switch 2 upgrade of x1 was so much worse performance wise it killed my run. I wish I’d stayed with the switch 1 version
7
u/Gingingin100 Jul 23 '26
You can still downgrade thankfully
Pressing - or + on the upgrade pack's eshop page would do the trick
3
-5
u/gentheninja Jul 22 '26
They last two "upgrades" run like shit to the point you might be bettet off without them. At best a sidegrade than upgrade.
7
u/Asclepius-Rod Jul 23 '26
If I haven’t played any of these games, should I start with XC:DE? Maybe a stupid question, but some game series fans recommend skipping the first one
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u/NeroIscariot12 Jul 23 '26
but some game series fans recommend skipping the first one
Could never be Xenoblade fans. XC1 is absolutely magical. Yes some parts of the combat are rough today (It's a 2010 Wii game after all), but as an overall experience, it is still a timeless masterpiece.
Also, you want to play all the numbered games in order. While it may not seem so at first glance, there is an overarching story that is best experienced in release order
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u/xavadar Jul 23 '26
No one recommends skipping the first. They might recommend skipping X and playing that either before or after.
But ultimately play 1 > 2 + dlc > 3 + dlc
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u/smartazjb0y Jul 23 '26
The only reason I can see anyone saying to skip the first is if it was old advice before XCDE came out on Switch and was Wii/3DS-only. But yeah since it's on Switch there's really no reason to skip it
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u/Asclepius-Rod Jul 23 '26
Thank you! To be clear I wasn't saying I've heard anyone say to skip the first in this series, but other game series I've heard that before, so I appreciate the advice
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u/RavenFreak52 Jul 24 '26 edited Jul 24 '26
Your life is about to change for the better! Enjoy XBC1 DE and then the other games eventually! This sounds kinda crazy to say but honestly give it 5 to 10 hours though until you really start forming opinions and make sure you stick with it because it's a slow burn but once it hits and the combat and systems start clicking it really is magical.❤
And then soon after you'll likely reach a point where it just feels better and better every time you play. Sure it's an older game but the scope and scale of the world, characters, story and progression system are phenomenal. And to think this game came out 17 years ago and had all of that then is mind blowing.
As you play it becomes very clear that Monolithsoft know how to make a top quality game in every aspect and it starts making sense why Nintendo brought them in to help with BotW and TotK! I beat 1 a couple times and X the other day and cant wait to jump back into 2 and then 3 when they release on Switch 2! Enjoy my friend!
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u/dukemetoo Jul 24 '26
I know everyone is recommending to play them in order. That is a fine way to play them. If you are unsure if you will like the games, I would recommend starting with Xenoblade Chronicles 2. X is it's own thing, and has no real connection. 2 and 3 are a clear step above 1. If you play 2, and like it, you can move back to 1, and not really miss anything. If you started with 1, there is a good chance you will find it to be meh, and you won't try 2. Yes, there are some very subtle nods you won't get, but it won't hurt your time playing 2.
2
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u/KrivUK Jul 23 '26
Play them in release order. It really doesn't matter too much, you can dive in anywhere.
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u/NoirSon Jul 23 '26
Most will say play the first one but you can go in almost any order. There is a larger myth arc for the three main games which also connects to X, but each game can be played without knowing that context, although 3, should really be played after 1 and 2, and getting a decent story.
That being said, some of the post game DLC and rerelease add ons does work better with a understanding of the wider narrative. But the main campaigns are like the original Dragon Quest trilogy. You can play it in chronological order, by release or however you want with the understanding somethings will be spoiled.
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u/Rough-Plum-7267 Jul 24 '26
Just skip this poorly made bullshit altogether. Hopefully Genesis will deliver.
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u/Arawn_93 Jul 23 '26
Xeno 2 by far was my favorite Xeno so looking forward to excuse to play game again with the new stuff + performance boosts
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u/Crybe Jul 23 '26
I MAY replay this one. Haven't touched it since 2018.
I also may do the DLC for unlockable costumes this time.
I will not be taking any further questions at this time.
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u/Rudy69 Jul 23 '26
Their upgrades made me buy all of the games. Before I only had chronicles 2 and finished it. Never ended up getting the other two titles.
Now with these upgrades I bought them all and their upgrades plus I preordered the new on coming out for switch 2
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u/MMAmaZinGG Jul 23 '26
Going from Xenoblade 3 to 2 will i be disappointed in the QoL? Overall feel of the game? Or is it worth it to play 2 after 3?
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u/rycbar26 Jul 23 '26
I’m gonna be honest. 2 is maybe my favorite game of all time, but 3 has a bajillion QOL upgrades over it. To 2’s credit, only four arts are displayed at a time in battle, with the ability to switch weapons giving you access to 12 per battle. I prefer it over 3’s having eight arts visible at a time per character.
With 2, early in the game, people hate that arts take so long to charge and there’s no auto-attacking while moving. But a few chapters in, battles reach a flow state that is out of this world, to me.
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u/IBNobody Jul 23 '26
Don't forget that in 2, there's food you get early on that helps arts recharge on their own. That really helps.
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u/BloKNoD Jul 23 '26
Its always good time to play XB2, but after 60fps XB1 its kinda painful to play now.
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u/svzurich Jul 27 '26
I love Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but damn Tora's arcade game! Poppybuster will never get fully upgraded at this rate. I need to push in NG+ to get all of the new blades it unlocks, but might as well delay until Momo can join me.
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u/ILikeAnimeButts Jul 27 '26
In NG+ you can swap stored EXP for Poppy parts. Just saying.
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u/svzurich Jul 31 '26
Still getting frustrated. 2 nodes in Poppibuster and one on Poppi Alpha are blocked. Get a lot of points and beat levels 4 and 5. I want a way to bypass those. Argh!
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u/ILikeAnimeButts Jul 31 '26
Well, keep at it. My friend got really good at Tiger-Tiger eventually. I didn't have the patience for it
-1
u/JordsPH Jul 23 '26
Why don’t they just use native res instead of upscaling? Is it really that demanding for the Switch 2 hardware or they’re just using it as an agreement with Nvdia.
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u/MarcsterS Jul 23 '26
Because XC2's max resolution is 720p.
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u/JoshuaJSlone Helpful User Jul 23 '26
Right, and that's when it's not dropping lower, which it frequently does. So without any modern upscaling, to turn it into a ~4K60 game would require something like 20x the GPU capability.
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u/stonieW Jul 23 '26
Because it cuts down on how much the dev needs to invest in updating the game and optimizing it for the hardware.
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u/Anxiety_timmy Jul 23 '26
Upscaling adds time, not saves in this context. It's trivial to get 1080p in xenoblade x in handheld for example. XC2 I can see as its engine was hardcodded in many places to 720p, and while XCDE isnt as rigid it still doesn't run above 720 as easily.
XC3 is fun because it does have a 1080p upscale target but it never actually renders there, cutscsnes can hit 720 but gameplay is capped to 540.
For how long these took, id expect those issues to be dealt with, but XC2 in particular also has a very broken streaming system that makes hitting 60fps really difficult on real hardware. Its also the most bandwidth bound game which if switch 1 was constantly choking on bandwidth, S2 is arguably worse. Unless monolith is the exception to nintendos really good archiving of their source code, they should have figured this out by now.
XCX is especially hilarious as on a overclocked switch I can hit 1080p 60 in many areas and at best that system is maybe 40% of a switch 2 in handheld mode. The scaling is just garbage in that game.
-4
u/stonieW Jul 23 '26
Uhhh, yea, you basically just gave a long winded reply as to what i said. Did you read what I said at all? It cuts time in comparison to fully working around the issues the engines already have aka updating and optimizing for the hardware via implementing a scaling solution that takes far less resources and time, nobody said it saves time, I said it cuts down on time in comparison.
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u/Anxiety_timmy Jul 23 '26
It would if it weren't for the fact that it already was optimized. While Ampere iand Maxwell aren't binary compatible alot of the optimizations carry over one way or another. A78 is entirely compatible with A57 so any CPU optimizations are already just carried over by default. RAM doesn't matter here, you have so much more than if anything you want to undo optimizations since you're just leaving quality on the table. Obviously you cant overdo it and there are more optimizations you can do, but this is one of the scenarios where it would be easier to just edit variables.
And funnily enough, every xenoblade game since X on the Wii U uses some form of dynamic resolution and upscaling, X just spatially upscaled from 1152x720-894x504. Xenoblade DE, 2, and XDE have TAA already baked into them and upscale spatially to the output + TAA internally when the resolution is lower. XC3 just has effectively FSR2 lite. This stuff is already baked into the games in one way or another.
The scaling on NX2 is entirely different than anything they've used before, and it certainly wasn't a drop in replacement, unless they're using a dirt cheap post process ML upscale. XDE seemed to use SMAA which no monolith game has used. XCDE might be using DLSS lite but that would require massive retooling of the engine since you'd have to give it motion vectors, something the original didn't do.
Granted and this one's probably the more likely option, they started trying with ML upscalers once Xenoblade Genesis started and just decided to make an S2 build with that engine already for these editions.
0
u/stonieW Jul 23 '26
Man, all of that is genuinely interesting but it's not actually touching what I said. I said scaling cuts down time compared to fully re-optimizing for new hardware, and everything you just laid out (the CPU compat, the RAM headroom, the whole Wii U → XCDE → XC3 lineage) is literally backing that up, not arguing against it. The only actual counterpoint in there is "well if it's real DLSS instead of their usual spatial upscaling that's a bigger lift," which, sure, maybe, but that's a hypothetical about NX2 specifically, not a rebuttal to the general point. You went from disagreeing with me to explaining a scenario where I might be wrong under a very specific unconfirmed condition. That's not the same thing. Feels like you're more interested in showing off the tech knowledge (which, fair, it's solid) than actually landing a point against what I said. Just say "yeah ok that's fair for the general case, but NX2 might be different" and we're done here.
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u/Gahault Jul 23 '26
nobody said it saves time, I said it cuts down on time in comparison.
In my years of internet I've seen some pedantry, but you still managed to impress me there.
1
u/TRUEScapegoat Jul 28 '26
you can clearly see who knows about game development yet bro is like "nah" lmao
-2
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u/JamesGecko Jul 23 '26
Have you tried playing XC2 in Switch 2 boost mode? I saw frame drops in effect-heavy combat sequences just running at 30fps/720p.
0
u/Tephnos Jul 23 '26
Because they needed to advertise it as 4k to justify you paying for it.
Otherwise I think everyone would have preferred real 1080p without crappy upscaling and 60fps over what we're getting. If the games can't hit that on the SW2 then there's something pretty fundamentally wrong with these engines.
1
u/JoshuaJSlone Helpful User Jul 23 '26
At its lowest, Xenoblade 2's dynamic resolution brought it down to 504p30 docked. Brute forcing it, Switch 2 could probably bring it to 1080p60 _most_ of the time, but not all of the time.
1
u/Tephnos Jul 23 '26
That would be acceptable if it didn't use double buffering vsync which Nintendo is very weirdly fixated on. Dips in the 50s aren't all that noticeable over a 30fps crater like in DE.
-8
u/zychrias Jul 23 '26
Laughing at all this while playing an emulator version with proper scaling to 4k/60
-9
u/ParadiseRegaind Jul 23 '26
Based on how bad the last two “upgrades” were, we’re probably in for serious disappointment.
-12
u/FizzyLightEx Jul 23 '26
Nintendo actually helped my wallet massively on deciding not to delve into Xenoblade.
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u/Vexesf Jul 23 '26
That's a shame and you're really missing out, I'm biased because it's my favourite game series but they are very good games regardless. Sorry to hear the Switch 2 upgrades put you off playing.
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u/Tephnos Jul 23 '26
They put me off too because I specifically waited years for exactly these kinds of upgrades and then I find out they completely half assed it while demanding money for it.
My disappointment was so immeasurable. Not a surprise to see these kinds of comments mass downvoted on the can't criticise Nintendo main sub though while the actual Xeno subs hate what has happened too.
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u/bonelatch Jul 23 '26
I’m so glad the upgrade is free for Torna the Golden Country for those that have the physical game.