by Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth has already landed on PC (with some issues), PS5 (inconsistently excellent) and PS5 Pro (a significant upgrade) over the last few years, so how do the Switch 2 and Xbox Series X/S versions fare in comparison? The full game is yet to arrive, but a large-scale demo has been released for the new platforms, giving us a good chance to get a sense of how the first two chapters of the game run.
Expectations for Switch 2 and Series S fidelity need to be kept in check here, given that this is a current-gen game built around a large and at times dense open world, but our interview with trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi suggests that the challenge of shrinking down a game designed for PS5 onto less powerful hardware has not been taken lightly.
Let's start with the Switch 2 release, where the demo is impressively complete. The world layout, core content and mission flow all match the original PS5 release, and the overall blueprint of the environments remains intact. Ambient occlusion and screen-space reflections are present, albeit at lower quality than PS5's quality mode.
Puddles, varnished surfaces and large bodies of water still benefit from screen-space reflections (SSR), while distant elements such as airships, waterfalls and windmills animate correctly and cast appropriate dynamic shadows - something even recent Pokémon games developed with Switch 2 as the lead platform don't manage. Object physics are also maintained and NPC density remains convincing. At range, however, NPC animations decimate and characters can freeze into static poses, mirroring behaviour seen both in the earlier Switch 2 release of the remake and in the performance modes on PS5 and Series X.
The compromises become more obvious at close range. Texture quality is frequently poor, with ground surfaces and many assets appearing mushy and heavily compressed in cutscenes and gameplay close-ups. These textures could already appear poor at times in the PS5 version, so it's a shame to see this get even worse on the more storage/VRAM-limited Switch 2 build. Shadow handling follows a similar pattern. Even on PS5, interior and character-cast shadows can appear low resolution and jagged; on Switch 2, shadow draw distance is notably reduced, and cascades transition much closer to the camera, producing visible fizzing, speckling and breakup as shadows resolve. In Kalm and similar locations, foliage is often static and interior environments have been stripped of detail, with fewer books, props and decorative objects. Still, the spaces remain recognisable rather than being completely gutted.
The open grasslands expose further cutbacks. Water rendering uses a lower quality mesh with simpler ripple simulation, while volumetric effects are heavily pared back, often presenting with obvious dithering in tunnels and transitional areas. Geometry is simplified and foliage density is reduced, while pop-in issues that already existed on PS5 are intensified. LOD transitions and asset appearance occur closer to the camera, and certain props, such as angular, low-poly fruit and vegetables, stand out starkly when viewed on a large 4K screen.
Hamaguchi's interview underlines why these decisions were necessary. Rebirth's open world produces a far higher mesh count than the more constrained Intergrade, so achieving a stable 30fps couldn't be done just by making simple adjustments to post-processing effects and fog. For Switch 2, background models are rebuilt specifically for this hardware, with redesigned LOD stages and reworked materials that previously carried high rendering costs. LOD transition distances have also been tuned to prevent sudden spikes in system load as draw distance increases. Mesh shading plays a crucial role in making the port feasible at all, giving the renderer more efficient control over how geometry is processed across the scene. The result is a world that still feels like Rebirth, but with clear compromises in pop-in behaviour, asset detail and overall material richness.
Image quality is generally acceptable, but not as sharp as Intergrade, with a fairly aggressive dynamic resolution scaling used with DLSS. Docked play targets 1080p, but internal resolution can drop to quarter-res (540p), while handheld play targets 756p, with a softer internal minimum of 380p. Beyond resolution, docked and portable modes share the same visual settings. Docked presentation remains reasonable, but handheld output is clearly softer and less stable. Hair and other fine detail, such as Cloud's hair and chocobo feathers suffer from noticeable dithering and reconstruction artefacts. A slight blur behind these elements aims to tame the worst of the artefacts, but the gap to the near-4K image quality on PS5 is stark.
As mentioned earlier, the Switch 2 release targets a 30fps frame-rate, and this is largely hit - though short hitches and one-frame traversal stutters can intrude at times. These issues suggest CPU or memory constraints, rather than a deficiency of raw GPU grunt. It's also likely that the DRS system causes some of these slow-downs when the change in GPU load is too high. Despite these flaws, the performance level is broadly in line with expectations for a current-generation title adapted to portable hardware.
On Xbox Series S, the 30fps graphics mode provides a natural comparison point to Switch 2. Visual settings broadly fall into the same category: similarly weak texture quality, static trees even in the higher fidelity mode, comparable shadow roughness and low-grade volumetric effects. Foliage placement occasionally appears more favourable on Switch 2, though random variation plays a role. Custom LOD work on Nintendo's console can confer small geometric advantages in isolated scenes. Series S does, however, secure some meaningful wins. NPCs retain full animation at range in the graphics mode, taking advantage of the stronger CPU, and water rendering uses the higher quality variant with more detailed ripple work. Image quality is based on a 1080p output with a traditional TAA solution. This generally pushes more pixels per frame than Switch 2, but produces a softer, more smeared look with visible banding, especially across distant detail. The 60fps performance mode is much lower resolution, often around 540p with some counts closer to 648p, and looks extremely rough, making it hard to recommend despite the higher frame-rate target.
Xbox Series X delivers a more premium experience, with the 30fps graphics mode offering a 4K-class image in line with PS5. The performance mode often resolves between 1080p and 1368p, higher than typical counts on base PS5, and can exhibit slightly superior LOD behaviour and tree geometry in matching shots. However, this comes at the expense of performance stability. In the demo build, the 60fps mode on Series X drops into the 50s and high 40s in grasslands and city areas where PS5 holds closer to a locked 60fps. VRR can mask a large share of these fluctuations, though it's frustrating to lean on that capability given that not all players will have a VRR-capable display. A more serious problem emerges in the form of camera judder in the 60fps modes on both Xbox consoles, a UE5 quirk we've spotted in other titles. Even with frame-time graphs reporting a flat 60fps, camera motion can appear uneven, as though per-frame travel distances are inconsistent. The effect is that the game looks like it is running at a lower frame-rate than it actually is, which is an unfortunate own goal.
Based on the demo then, Rebirth on Switch 2 is a credible, content-complete port of a current-generation title, retaining the fundamental look, structure and feel of the PS5 release - despite deep cuts in resolution, asset quality and certain rendering features. Visual issues present on the original like pop-in are accentuated and textures can look rough close up, but the game remains recognisable at least. On Xbox, the 30fps modes on Series S and Series X are generally solid and visually attractive within their respective power envelopes, while the 60fps modes suffer from a combination of low resolution, frame-rate instability and detrimental camera stutter. As a first public showing, there ought to be enough time for these issues to be resolved or at least improved in time for the final release in early June. There's also room for features like cross-platform saves, which would make the sum total even better, but what's already here is impressive enough.