Just in time for its 25th anniversary, Final Fantasy X and its sequel, Final Fantasy X-2, have received Nintendo Switch 2-native ports. Whether this is a good thing or not will depend heavily on your history with these crowning classics of the PlayStation 2 era.
For the most part, this release is the same as the HD Remasters released on the original Nintendo Switch in 2019, with slight modifications to run natively on the Switch 2. It’s also a separate release, not a simple Switch 2 upgrade—and if you already own the Switch 1 version, that’s a very important distinction. So given the timing, I’m going to approach this review from two separate fronts: looking at Final Fantasy X/X-2 25 years later, and then at the specific qualities of the Switch 2 version.
Final Fantasy X originally came out in 2001 and became an instant classic; it’s one of the last titans of the “golden age of JRPGs” at the turn of the century, and the last blockbuster SquareSoft released before merging with Enix. As the first Final Fantasy on the PS2, it represented a huge technological leap forward, introducing voice acting and harnessing a new level of visual expression.
I remember waiting eagerly for its arrival right before Christmas that year, fresh off my first playthrough of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The PS2 was a year old then, and finally hitting its stride as my favourite series from the previous console made the next-gen leap. Long after I rolled credits on its tremendous story, I spent months mopping up every corner of the game for secrets and then replaying the whole thing. It wasn’t my favourite in the series, but it was such a grand feast.
“Simply put, if you call yourself an RPG fan, but you’ve never played Final Fantasy X and its sequel, it’s absolutely worth correcting that now.”
I last played it when this Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster pack originally dropped on the PlayStation 4 in 2015. By then its age was showing—voice acting had come a long way, and the controls felt a little loose—but the quality of the story and gameplay had not changed. Now, in 2026, that halcyon shine has continued to slip just a little further.
Final Fantasy X is still a masterpiece of its era, but I could feel the years weighing on the earlier hours of the adventure. There are a lot of camera tricks that the game uses to imply certain actions instead of fully animating them, and up until the Mi’ihen Highroad the journey felt herky-jerky, pulled from cutscene to cutscene with too-brief gameplay segments interspersed. Voiceover technology has come a long, long way since this nascent utilization, too.
However, from that point on the engine was in gear, and I remembered exactly why I lost so many hours to this game as a teenager. I wish I could experience it again for the first time, but replaying it is both rewarding and deliciously, heartbreakingly ironic. The main story is a satisfying length, with a rich character growth system to pull you along, and there’s a wealth of solid endgame content as well.
Final Fantasy X-2 is a similar case. Most people who bought these HD Remasters did so for the original game and likely never played the sequel, and that is a damn shame. Though the story can be incredibly corny or campy at times (and some would say that’s a big part of its appeal), the core gameplay is one of the best job systems and Active Time Battle systems that the series has ever produced.
You can blaze through the main story in short order, but it’s worth it to explore all of Spira in each chapter, developing those jobs (or rather, Dresspheres). Despite what it did for her wardrobe, this unprecedented successor cemented Yuna as one of the best characters in the franchise, and dare I say, the genre.
Simply put, if you call yourself an RPG fan, but you’ve never played Final Fantasy X and its sequel, it’s absolutely worth correcting that now. If that’s the case, and you’ve never bought the game before, the Switch 2 version is one of the best ways you can cross this item off your bucket list. You can stop reading here and go straight to the Nintendo Store—to quote the opening cinematic, “an otherworld awaits you.”
Where the matter gets complicated is with longtime fans. If you do already own Final Fantasy X/X-2 on Switch 1, Square Enix has not extended you an olive branch with this edition. There is no “Switch 2 upgrade for $5-10” option, and your save data is not compatible between the Nintendo versions; you’ll need to buy the game in full again, and there’s not even a physical version to make it feel more worthwhile (unless you import a copy from Japan). So what does the Switch 2 version add to make it worthwhile for repeat customers? Well… not as much as most other Switch 2 upgrades.
It does get the boosters from the PC version, which previously haven’t been available on console versions. These are accessed by holding down the L2 button and pressing the D-pad buttons: altering gameplay speed (normal, 2x, or 4x) or encounter rate (normal, double, off), auto battle mode, and a supercharge mode where the party is fully healed and put in Overdrive on every turn. If you’re playing in handheld, you can also swipe the touchscreen for a quick heal mode. These may be handy if you’re grinding, but otherwise they break the spirit of the game’s balance, and I wouldn’t recommend them.
Visually, this is still the same Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster that launched over a decade ago. The rearranged soundtrack is hit-or-miss (I actually played with the original audio this time and preferred it greatly), the prerendered cutscenes are jarring compared to the in-engine scenes, and the characters’ faces run the risk of being too perfect and shiny. It’s a rare case where PS2 character models actually look more expressive and nuanced. The environments look amazing, however, and Spira pops in handheld mode. Plus, the load times are markedly faster than other console editions.
Technically, the boosters and load times make this the most thorough console version available, but at the end of the day, Final Fantasy X and X-2 deserved a more nuanced and careful update to the Switch 2. As solid as this package is, if you’ve already bought it on multiple other platforms (especially the Switch 1), you may not need to double, triple, or quadruple down again. I would have had zero qualms about recommending it if it had been a simple upgrade, or even if save data was compatible, but alas…
