It’s staggering how out of touch Square Enix can be sometimes. Despite the industry embracing ever-increasing anti-consumer behaviour thanks to the death of physical games, pseudo-$100 releases, and will-they-won’t-they console exclusives, Square has actually done pretty well of late, all things considered.
It had already announced it will be opening up its future catalogue to multi-platform releases, and scored some critical hits with the likes of Octopath Traveler 0, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined, and The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake project is approaching its highly anticipated end, and it has even announced an HD-2D Final Fantasy (at long last) set to arrive later this year.
And then it goes and throws all that goodwill away with the most idiotic, nonsensical Switch 2 strategy imaginable.
Got A Switch 2? Pay Up Or Miss Out
Last week, Square announced three Switch 2 versions of already-released games: the first two Octopath Traveler games, and the excellent Star Ocean: The Second Story R. This follows announcements of Final Fantasy 10/10-2 HD Remaster and Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age. All well and good, I hear you say, we’d love to replay these amazing games on our beefed-up Nintendo console. Well, get ready to open that wallet.
See, what Square has done is decide to ignore anyone who owns the games already on the original Switch. None of these titles come with upgrade paths, even paid, and not one will allow you to transfer your progress. If you want to play these games, you’ll need to buy them at full price and restart from scratch.
Now, they’ve done this before. Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles allowed you to upgrade, but not transfer your save. Octopath Traveler 0 didn’t allow you to upgrade either, but it at least gave you one or two transfers so you could carry on your game. They’ll continue to do it too, with the upcoming Final Fantasy Resonance also not offering an upgrade or transfer.
The wonderful folks over at RPG Site have been keeping track of Square’s shenanigans, should you want to depress yourselves further.
You’re Not Even Getting That Much Of An Upgrade
CloseThis is even more galling when you consider what you’re actually paying for with a Switch 2 version of a Square Enix game. There are no extra bells and whistles, no exclusive content like Nintendo offers in Super Mario Wonder with the Meetup In Bellabel Park multiplayer mode, or mouse controls, co-op and Game Share support in Stardew Valley. Nope, you just get a bump in resolution and frame rate.
The worst part? For a lot of these games, it’s barely a bump! Again, the good ship RPG Site has been crunching the numbers, and they’re pretty damning. Sure, we get 1080p resolution at 60 fps in the Octopath games and Star Ocean, but that was pretty much standard on PC and other consoles anyway. Star Ocean even goes up to 120fps on PC. And with Handheld Boost Mode on Switch 2, the base version of the game appears to get a noticeable bump in performance without needing to pay £50 for the privilege.
Square Being Stupid Is A Choice, Not A Limitation
This strategy beggars belief. It’s almost like the executives are sitting in a Zoom meeting with the world, flipping off the camera and laughing while thinking it’s off so we can’t see them. Not offering upgrades or save transfers can’t be a technology issue, because there are so many games already that offer either free or paid upgrades. Even indie studios have managed it, despite having nowhere near the budgets or personnel at their fingertips.
It’s a choice deeply rooted in extracting as much “value” from players as possible, appeasing shareholders by exploiting the loyalty of fans — something that’s becoming more and more prevalent among big players in the industry. Square Enix is one of the most storied publishers in the RPG space, so to see it do this with almost all of its releases on the Switch 2 is galling.
Offering a game at full price to those who don’t own it already is perfectly fine. A paid upgrade for $5-10, as others have done, is no issue at all. But to punish those who embrace new hardware for no other reason than “number goes up on a spreadsheet” feels like Square Enix cashing in all the goodwill it may have earned in recent years.
We’ve been here before, with all the low-effort “remasters” Square has foisted upon us. With Square clearly building up a head of steam with its HD-2D program, this feels like another reckoning they could do without if they want the inevitable Final Fantasy 1-6 HD-2D Remake series to do well. Saner heads need to prevail here, but rarely are those heads the same as the ones appeasing the moneymen first.
Final Fantasy Resonance Like Follow Followed RPG JRPG Systems Released October 22, 2026 ESRB Everyone 10+ / Alcohol Reference, Fantasy Violence, Language, Suggestive Themes Developer(s) Square Enix, Lancarse Publisher(s) Square Enix Franchise Final Fantasy 11 Images CloseWHERE TO PLAY
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