Hogwarts Legacy first Nintendo Switch gameplay appears online

Hogwarts Legacy is finally set to release on Nintendo Switch on 14 November, and we’ve finally got our first glimpse at some gameplay on the console.

For a while, fans feared the game might never release on Switch. After all, Hogwarts Legacy wasn’t showcased during the most recent Nintendo Direct which focused on games releasing before the end of the year. We also know that the game underwent vast simplifications in order to run on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Loading screens were introduced, and exterior bridges were transformed into internal corridors, to cut down on the need to load environments. It begs the question: What further kind of adjustments might we see on a Switch version of the game? Well, we’ve finally got some idea, as screenshots have surfaced.

Take a look at Hogwarts Legacy’s four house common rooms, captured on PlayStation 5.

The screenshots of the Nintendo Switch port were posted on Japan’s Nintendo eShop, and the graphics are far better than you might be expecting. They were shared to Reddit by user jozefd14. Naturally, the resolution is slightly lowered compared to what you might see on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S but that’s to be expected.

RotenTumato commented, “That looks impressively good for a Switch game. I’m curious to see how it actually runs,” while another joked, “Five minutes to leave the main staircase and load outside, take it or leave it,” in response. It raises a valid point though.

While this suggests that Hogwarts Legacy certainly looks fairly good on Nintendo Switch, we still have no idea how the game actually runs. Devs have delayed the release several times in order to achieve the best possible quality, so hopefully we shouldn’t see too many glaring bugs and glitches. We’ll find out on 14 November.