When I first booted up Hogwarts Legacy on the Switch 2, I half-expected the ghosts of past ports to come haunting me again. We’ve seen what happened on the original Switch, which was a noble effort but one best left in the Pensieve. But this? This isn’t a watered-down version for Nintendo Switch 2. It’s the real deal and runs extremely well compared to the first Switch port. Let’s jump in!
You get the entire castle. Every corridor, common room, and dusty stairwell. The Forbidden Forest, Hogsmeade, the broomstick flights, the whole shebang. And from the moment you step into your dormitory, it feels like Hogwarts. That matters. A lot. Because more than any graphical flourish or next-gen shimmer, this is a game about presence. About being there. Surprisingly, Switch 2 makes that possible and it’s one of the launch games besides Cyberpunk that truly demonstrates the raw power of the new console.
Performance-wise, it holds its ground. The game targets a stable 30fps both docked and in handheld, and mostly gets there, especially indoors. Outdoors, it can dip when there’s too much going on, but nothing game-breaking. The resolution is clean enough in handheld mode to pick out fine details, though character models and some foliage are visibly simplified compared to the PS5 or PC versions. But again, the keyword here is playable. It’s not a tech showcase, and it’s a functioning way better compared to the Switch 1.
The new screen help,s too. While it’s LCD and not OLED, the Switch 2’s improved display still does a solid job. The lighting is crisp, the spell effects pop nicely, and the environments don’t feel washed out like they sometimes do on older hardware. Colors have punch, nighttime scenes keep their atmosphere, and there’s a real sense of warmth in the castle’s glow. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough to get lost in.
Mechanically, everything’s intact. Combat is still fast and reactive; you’re flinging spells, parrying attacks, and chaining abilities like a wizard who skipped the tutorial. There’s a welcome snappiness to controls, and I never felt like I had to fight the handheld form factor to pull off combos. Even on the smaller screen, spell duels feel satisfying. The touchscreen isn’t used for anything, but motion aiming still helps when you need that extra precision.
Where Hogwarts Legacy still stumbles, regardless of platform, is in its mission variety and structure. There’s a lot of running back and forth. A lot of side quests blur together. The open world has its magical moments, but they’re often buried under repetitive tasks. If you’re coming here for deep role-playing or narrative complexity, temper your expectations. This is more about fantasy fulfillment than moral nuance.
Still, that fantasy is potent. You attend classes. You explore secret passageways. You tame magical beasts. You decorate your Room of Requirement. Even hours in, there are moments that catch you off guard and for Harry Potter fans it’s simply a must-have game. Battery life is decent. You’ll get around 3 to 4 hours, depending on brightness and connectivity. Load times exist, but they’re shorter than you’d expect, snappy enough not to break immersion.
So, what are we left with? A handheld port of an ambitious RPG that works so well on Nintendo Switch 2. It’s not the prettiest version. It’s not the fastest. But it may be the coziest. And in a game about finding your place in a magical world, that kind of matters more than ray tracing ever will. Not perfect, not revolutionary, but quietly magical in all the right ways. The Switch 2 gives Hogwarts Legacy new life, and this time, it’s worth the trip.
