After Exhaustive Testing, We Confidently Affirm Switch 2 Editions of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are Technically Exceptional and Essential

Enhanced Gameplay on Switch 2: Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom Boast Improved Tech Specs

The Nintendo Switch 2 versions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, introduce substantial technical enhancements. Both titles receive improved resolutions, a consistent 60 frames per second (FPS), enhanced visuals, faster load times, HDR support, and integration with a new Zelda mobile application. Notably, Tears of the Kingdom sees significant improvements on the Switch 2, addressing the frame rate drops below 30 FPS experienced on the original Switch hardware.

Improved Visuals on Switch 2: Zelda Titles Reach Higher Resolutions for Enhanced Gameplay

On the original Switch, both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom in docked mode targeted 1600×900 resolution but often dropped to 1280×720 under heavy GPU load. The Switch 2, powered by its new Tegra T239 chipset, maintains a dynamic resolution configuration with a broader range to support 4K displays. In docked mode, it achieves 2560×1440 resolution at high settings, only dropping to 1440×810 during demanding scenarios, such as exploring dense forests in Ultrahand View mode. This resolution increase makes key landmarks on Hyrule’s horizon more discernible in Breath of the Wild and simplifies the collection of items like fallen arrows. For handheld play, the resolution update also provides significant improvements. Original Switch versions ran at resolutions ranging from 1024×576 to 1280×720. The Switch 2, by contrast, offers a range of 1152×648 to 1920×1080. The resolution reaches its lowest point of 648p when using the Ultrahand ability in complex environments, but the Switch 2 typically maintains native 1080p in less chaotic open-world and sanctuary areas.

Enhanced Dynamic Resolution and Textures in Switch 2’s Zelda Titles

In The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on Switch 2, resolution momentarily dips during cutscenes and camera view changes, shifting to a blurred 810p output for a few frames before returning to the native 1440p. While this can result in a sudden change in image clarity, gameplay remains unaffected. This behavior is a side effect of the game’s Dynamic Resolution Scaling (DRS) system managing camera transitions. Beyond resolution, the Switch 2 versions feature sharper textures throughout both games, resulting from higher-resolution assets. This leads to a noticeable increase in download sizes: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild grows from 14 GB to 24 GB, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom from 16 GB to 20 GB. Details are improved across elements such as grass, bricks, fabrics, tower materials, weapons, and shields. Characters also receive a subtle upgrade, with their cel-shaded aesthetic adapting effectively to 4K screens. While the Switch 2’s 9 GB RAM benefits more textured surfaces, texture filtering remains limited to low anisotropic filtering (AF), which can cause some foreground blurring. Revised materials are crucial for aligning with the Switch 2’s higher resolution capabilities.

Improved Shadows in Switch 2’s Zelda Games: A Mixed Bag of Clarity and Stability

The updated Switch 2 versions implement a day-night cycle with dynamically cast shadows from terrain, trees, and characters. On the original Switch, these shadows were low-resolution and flickered during movement due to the system’s real-time shadow rendering demands. They also employed a filtering method that caused blurring at a distance. The Switch 2 addresses this by rendering nearby shadows cleaner and sharper, particularly noticeable in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s Great Sky Island. However, shadows on the Switch 2 can still exhibit shaking and a visible line of filtering, remaining an inconsistent visual element in both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, even in their updated forms.

Environmental Occlusion and Draw Distances in Switch 2’s Zelda Games: A Comparative Analysis

The Switch 2 versions also introduce a notable change in environmental occlusion, primarily affecting interior shadowing, which now appears more pronounced on walls. While the original Switch utilized Screen Space Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) for scene depth, the Switch 2 renders this effect more densely and comprehensively. Regarding draw distances across Hyrule, the quality of trees and other geometry may show varying levels of detail at identical locations on both systems, indicating a minimal, if any, alteration in the Level of Detail (LOD) configuration for the Switch 2 version. While grass may render slightly further and some geometry may load faster on the Switch 2 in certain instances, critical elements like bushes, trees, and rocks frequently maintain the same draw distance as on the original hardware.

Struggling with Performance: Tears of the Kingdom Pushes Original Switch to Limits

Performance tests highlight The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom as the more demanding title. The game significantly pushed the CPU limits of the original Switch console. Its Ultrahand ability and piece fusion mechanics often resulted in slow frame rates. While open-world areas typically ran at a smooth 30 FPS, engaging these features, even within the initial Sky Island tutorial, could drop performance to around 20 FPS due to double-buffer VSync. Beyond physics-based challenges, battles on the original system also suffered from poor performance, with even simple attacks causing frame drops. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom severely strained the original Switch in 2023, underscoring the need for a generational hardware leap to address these performance issues.

Improved Performance in Tears of the Kingdom on Switch 2: Early Game Smoothness and Later Stability Assessed

When re-evaluating these scenarios on the Switch 2, the performance issues are largely resolved. The frame rate consistently achieves 60 FPS, notably improving early battles and the use of the Ultrahand ability. While the Switch 2’s 60 FPS frame rate remains largely stable, potential drops may occur later in the game due to its vast size and the varied applications of Ultrahand, alongside complex constructs saved in the Zelda mobile application. During the initial five to six hours of gameplay, which involve exploring Hyrule at ground level, the experience feels significantly smoother compared to the original Switch’s dips as low as 30 FPS. Even the demanding Sky Island tutorial, which requires extensive construction of boats and carts, exhibits only brief dips below 60 FPS.

Faster Load Times Boost Gameplay Experience in Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild on Switch 2

Load times are significantly reduced on the Switch 2. With games installed on internal storage, loading the Great Plateau Tower in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild takes only 11 seconds on the Switch 2, roughly half the 23 seconds required on the original Switch. This improvement is also evident when traveling between sanctuaries, which now load in about 11 seconds on the Switch 2 compared to nearly 20 seconds on the original. The reduction in loading times is particularly striking in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: the Lookout Landing Skyview Tower loads in 8 seconds on Switch 2, versus 26 seconds on the original hardware. These faster load times are attributed to the Switch 2’s enhanced RAM and improved texture handling.

Antialiasing Ineffective in Zelda Games on Switch 2 Despite Use of AMD’s FSR1 and Missed Opportunity for DLSS

Despite the improved resolution providing a solid foundation for overall image quality, antialiasing in both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on Switch 2 can be ineffective or nearly nonexistent, often resulting in pixelation. The Intellectual Property Notices page for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom indicates that the Switch 2 version continues to utilize AMD’s FSR1 upscaling technology, consistent with its implementation on the original Switch. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s notes do not mention FSR1, as the game launched prior to its availability. Consequently, the Switch 2 version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild appears to use generic bilinear upscaling carried over from the original Switch. While AMD’s FSR1 provides spatial upscaling and some visual enhancements in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, it is less effective at mitigating aliasing issues such as pixel crawl and visual noise. Neither game shows any indication of Nvidia’s DLSS or more recent upscaling technologies, which represents a missed opportunity given the Switch 2’s hardware capabilities. Furthermore, sudden resolution drops occur during certain scenes in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Enhanced Switch 2 Zelda Games Offer Smoother, Visually Improved Experience with HDR and Mobile App Integration

These enhanced Switch 2 versions require a purchase: either an upgrade from the original Switch version or the acquisition of a specific Switch 2 edition, both priced at 108. The updates also bring HDR support and integration with the Zelda mobile application. Overall, the Switch 2 delivers a significantly smoother and visually enhanced experience for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, particularly benefiting The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s previously inconsistent performance. While improvements like consistent 60 FPS gameplay, higher resolutions, and faster loading times are notable, some persistent issues remain, including suboptimal antialiasing and occasional shadow inconsistencies. These Zelda titles, considered Game of the Year picks for their respective release years, highlight the technical capabilities of Nintendo’s latest hardware.

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Carlos Mendoza

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