Final Fantasy 14 Fans Slam Horrible Switch 2 Loading Times

Final Fantasy 14's Switch 2 Loading Times Are Causing Problems In PvP And Dungeons Published Aug 5, 2026, 10:08 AM EDT Joshua Robertson is an editor for TheGamer, having working in news, guides, features, and reviews since 2022. They have written thousands of news stories, ranging from industry-breaking events, to smaller, more personal community pieces, and have covered several high-profile showcases such as The Game Awards and Nintendo Directs. Joshua is considered an expert in soulslikes, horror, JRPGs and everything Final Fantasy, having written extensive coverage for massively popular online titles like Final Fantasy 14. Earlier this week, Final Fantasy 14 released on Nintendo Switch 2, and while there were concerns about the game's performance, especially when it comes to high-end content where a lot of special effects are flying around, things have been relatively smooth. However, there does appear to be one major issue that the Nintendo Switch 2 version of the game has that the PS5, Xbox Series X, and PC versions of the game don't and that's horrendous loading times. Final Fantasy 14's Loading Times On Switch 2 Are Abysmal Over the past 24 hours, there have been numerous reports of Final Fantasy 14 players struggling to actually load their games in an acceptable time. This is especially bad when it comes to dying and respawning, as the black screen between being resurrected and respawning is painfully long in some instances. For example, a Twitter user called EazyAsPiezzz shared their experience in a raid on the Occult Crescent. From the time they accept the resurrection, to the time the black screen actually fades, and they're brought back in, a full 20 seconds pass. If you like to do high-level raids or PvP, then you'll know just how crucial it can be sometimes to resurrect as quickly as possible, and how disastrous staying down in a fight for 20 seconds can actually be. Even simply loading into a city area takes almost twice as long as it does on PC, as shared by another Twitter user called Game8_News, so the loading times are pretty abysmal all round. Some are reporting that the issue is worse if you're using external memory such as an SD card, and using internal memory is slightly better, but it may not be an option for some given the game's file size is huge. Thankfully, Square Enix does seem to already be aware of the problem, and has already promised that it's working on an update that should hopefully address that problem. In an update via the FF14 Lodestone, Square has confirmed that loading issues will occur more frequently in dungeons and in the midst of battle, and that the reason is "the data reloading and cache clearing processes required for safe rendering are taking an extended amount of time." This is something that can be fine-tuned and fixed though, and it has been explained that the devs are currently working on an update to address the loading time problems as well as a few other issues. There's no mention of exactly when this update will arrive, so if yo plan on doing any raiding or PvP soon, you might want to avoid Nintendo Switch 2 for now. Released August 27, 2013 ESRB Teen / Blood, Language, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, Violence, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact Developer(s) Square Enix Publisher(s) Square Enix Engine Originally the Crystal Tools engine, but currently it's a custom engine using parts of the Luminous Engine. Genre(s) MMORPG, Adventure, Open-World