There isn't really a better way I could describe Hytale, the new survival crafter from some former Minecraft modders, than to say it's basically Minecraft 2. From the block-by-block breaking and building, to the stylized environments and enemies, to the procedural world generation, this feels like the, "What would we change if we had the chance to start over again?" version of the now legendary 2009 classic. Many games have been influenced by Mojang's trendsetter, but this one is more of a cover song than a subgenre. And while developer Hypixel Studios’ lawyers might not love hearing me say that, I honestly don't think it's a bad thing. Even in Early Access, it's a good cover!

All of this will be pretty familiar if you've put any time at all into Minecraft, but with some streamlining here and there. You no longer have to begin your journey punching trees, for instance, since basic tools are made with sticks and rubble that can be collected easily with your bare hands. Also, breaking the trunk of a tree will cause everything above it to collapse and drop its resources, which was almost enough to win me over on its own. I still to this day hate having to chop upwards to hollow out a tree in Minecraft!

Movement is also a lot more modern and fluid. You can jump up to three blocks high and pull yourself up, which feels like such a huge quality-of-life improvement over the one-block jump limit in Minecraft. It's even possible to take a running leap at a ledge, hit the side, and pull yourself up. We've got proper parkour now, and I don't know that I would ever want to give it up.

Building has some welcome additions as well. There are actual roof pieces, for instance, so you don't need to repurpose stairs. Most block types can be rotated using the R key before placing them. Half slabs can even be placed vertically to create thinner, interior walls. However, the way they're aligned on the grid and the lack of corner pieces mean you either end up with oddly offset layouts or missing corners, which is a bit of a shame. I wish they could dynamically snap together the way fences do.

It also just runs better than Minecraft on my Ryzen 7 3700X, 32GB RAM, and RTX 4070 Ti-powered system. Even with the draw distance cranked up, my framerates sit comfortably above 60. I haven't had time to stress test it with anything as elaborate as a 1:1 recreation of Minas Tirith or whatever, but for now it's like butter.

Combat is fine. There are a handful of different weapon types, from swift-slashing double daggers to a classic sword and shield setup with more defensive options. Each one has its own unique charge attack and a special meter that can be filled up to release a devastating finisher. Archery can be exciting, but I feel like arrows drop off too quickly to allow for really impressive long-range shots. And I suspect this has to do with the fact that enemies shot from even the current max range often have a really hard time figuring out where the shot came from, which makes it a bit too exploitable.

I'm quite impressed with the enemy variety already, with everything from goblin bomb-throwers to really terrifying lava toads that can catch you with their tongues and pull you in for a very painful bite attack. There are a handful of new creatures to fight in every biome, like yetis in the cold mountains and flying insects in the desert. The way they spawn can feel strange and off-putting though. Especially when exploring underground, it seems like they'll tend to clump up just on the edge of the small safe zone around a player, so I often turn back to leave the way I came only to find an almost literal wall of enemies behind me.

The biomes themselves have a pretty good variety as well, ranging from a chill fairy tale forest all the way up to intimidating basalt islands that can only be accessed with some intense mountaineering. What's even cooler is that every surface biome has its own associated subterranean environments that can spawn below it. Underneath the desert, you might run into harrowing hives for giant insects. Deeper underground are scorching lava tunnels filled with fire-themed enemies.

As someone who usually plays Minecraft on Large Biomes mode, though, they do feel a bit cramped, and this can't be adjusted yet. If you're standing in the desert and you can see a swamp and a lava island just over the next hill, it gives the impression that the world is more of a theme park patchwork than a real place. Hytale also doesn't support the kinds of extremely deep caverns and monumental mountains that came to Minecraft in the last couple years when they raised both the floor and ceiling for world generation significantly, which contributes to that diorama feeling.

That said, the generated structures scattered around enhance exploration quite a bit. Trork strongholds full of hidden loot chests, often guarded by about a dozen minions and a stronger chieftain, offer exciting targets with worthwhile rewards, at least the first time through. There are even villages of neutral Kweebec, though at this point they only have a limited selection of items to sell. And some of them, like recipes and new seeds for farming, feel a little bit pointless at the moment since there isn't much difference between the dishes you can cook other than the broad tiers of quality.

There's very little direction in the Early Access launch version of Hytale, either. The main hub area, the Forgotten Temple, is a rotunda of literal Under Construction signs. I even stumbled into some dungeons out in the world where I'd be excited to throw the doors open only to find one of these barriers promising there will be something here, some day. It's not clear what the larger, overarching goal is supposed to be. You can progress through the different tiers of materials that are found in increasingly dangerous biomes, but I quickly ran out of things to do after that.

I'm not sure if there will eventually be a story or bigger bosses to find or anything like that. I haven't run into them yet if they exist already. The only really specific endgame activity revolves around craftable Fragment Keys, which teleport you to a smaller challenge map to collect rare resources within a strict time limit. I found the whole system a bit underbaked so far, though they are one of the only efficient ways to acquire certain late game materials.

After watching Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade’s gorgeous opening cutscene on Switch 2, I instinctively reached for the PlayStation 5 controller sitting on my coffee table instead of my Switch 2 Pro Controller. That’s not to say VII Remake looks exactly as good on Switch 2 as it does on the beefier PS5, but this is an impressive port that’s easily up there with the best third-party games we’ve seen so far in the Switch 2’s first year, and I’m still not used to games looking this beautiful on my Nintendo console.

That strong first impression held up as I blasted through the familiar first hours of Cloud’s adventure in Midgar – which remains one of my favorite RPGs of the decade – with solid performance both handheld and docked. Digging through the menus also revealed tons of options to streamline progression for newcomers looking to see what all the hype is, or for returning fans who just want to blast through the epic adventure at a quicker pace on the go. No matter your experience with prior editions of VII Remake, the new Switch 2 version checks pretty much every box you could ask for from a portable version. If you’re a Nintendo-only gamer who’s been waiting for this one for a while, you shouldn’t hesitate to dive in.

FFVII Remake on Switch 2 Looks Great When Docked

When playing on my TV, VII Remake on Switch 2 impressed across all aspects: cutscenes, exploration, and most crucially, its fast-paced combat. It’s a small shame that it runs at 30 fps both handheld and docked, but I didn’t notice a single dropped frame during gameplay. It might’ve occasionally hiccupped during cutscenes, but I only noticed while examining it with a hypercritical eye for the purposes of this evaluation. It’s pretty safe to say that when docked, you can expect extremely consistent performance. It may not be 60 fps like on the other consoles, but it felt perfectly playable and responsive at all times.

I’m impressed with the little details I remember loving in VII Remake back in 2020 that have carried over here: the way the light reflects off Cloud’s Buster Sword as you run around still looks really nice. It targets 1080p while docked, missing out on the Switch 2’s highest capabilities but still looking really good nonetheless, with detailed character models and environments. Some NPCs popped in the distance when I was exploring the Sector 7 slums, but to my memory, that’s how it was on PS4 as well. And whether I was fighting a swarm of Shinra security officers or the hulking Scorpion Sentinel within a Mako reactor, VII Remake always kept up with the action, even when swapping between Cloud, Barrett, and Tifa to perform flashy abilities and Limit Breaks. Pro tip for Pro Controller users: I mapped the left and right d-pad to the GL and GR backpaddles on my controller, using them to conveniently swap between characters in combat.

Handheld Is a Totally Reasonable Way to Play

Playing in handheld is similarly impressive, but all of the minor complaints I noted about docked mode are slightly magnified. It’s still a solid 30 fps for the most part, but I noticed more dips during cutscenes specifically. But that doesn’t impact the combat, which always felt really smooth and totally fun. The resolution also takes a hit as you’d expect, and I noticed certain details like Cloud’s hair looked a lot blurrier. But when everything is in motion, VII Remake still looks nice on the Switch 2’s small screen, and it’s a completely viable way to play through it. It’s eye-catching to see modern AAA games run this well on a handheld device, and I think this era of games that originally came out on PS4 are the best fit for really solid ports to Switch 2. Final Fantasy VII Remake, as well as things like Street Fighter 6 that we saw last year, are third-party games that have dedicated versions on both PS4 and PS5, which have generally seemed to scale well to Switch 2.

Intergrade’s DLC Expansion Is Here, Too

Unlike Nintendo, which is still selling Breath of the Wild’s nine-year-old DLC content separately from its new Nintendo Sw itch 2 Edition, Square Enix has included everything in the Intergrade package for $40. That means you also get Episode INTERmission, an additional bite-sized campaign starring Yuffie, an optional party member from the original Final Fantasy VII who is now a central part of the Remake project. It takes about five hours to reach INTERmission’s credits, and it’s a really solid followup to the main campaign.

Streamlined Options for Casual Players or Double Dippers

There’s a lot here that makes a full replay pretty enticing. First, you can fast-forward through cutscenes at either 1.5- or 2-times speed, making it a snappier revisit for those who already know everything that happens but still want to see it play out. And, the brand-new Streamlined Progression menu adds options you’re probably used to seeing in modern remakes and remasters of old-school RPGs, like the HD-2D Dragon Quest games or even the most recent version of the original Final Fantasy VII itself. Having access to things like constant maximum health and magic points, an infinitely full Limit gauge, or the ability to deal 9999 damage on every hit lets you tailor your playthrough however you’d like, and it’s really cool to see those options come to a modern game. There’s also a nifty Head Start mode that hands you high-level characters and plenty of money, equipment, and abilities right from the beginning. I’d never recommend someone plays with these activated for their first playthrough, but it’s definitely fun to revisit old favorites by way of a frictionless power trip that lets you see all the sights again. It’s worth noting these features aren’t exclusive to Switch 2, Square Enix also updated the PS5 and PC versions with the same options, and everything is included in the new Xbox Series X|S release as well.

This Isn’t the Final Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy VII Remake is just part one of Square Enix’s currently unfinished Remake trilogy, with 2024’s Final Fantasy VII Rebirth representing the middle chapter, and a third and final entry yet to be formally revealed. If you’re worried about starting the series with just one entry on the platform so far, Square Enix has already committed to bringing Rebirth to Switch 2 and Xbox Series X|S, as well as the in-development third game. So you can jump in worry-free: the full story will eventually make it to Switch 2, and this first port is a great way to get things started.