Hogwarts Legacy was finally released for Nintendo Switch on Nov. 14 and although the port deserves some praise, players have found out that the loading times between changing scenes can take up to 50 seconds.
The load screens were first covered by the YouTube channel SwitchUP, and the topic has been reported by VGC. Long loading times are not that usual in gaming nowadays because hardware gets better every year, but the Nintendo Switch port might make you feel you’re playing Hogwarts Legacy on the PlayStation 2.
Making matters worse, the core of Hogwarts Legacy‘s gameplay is wandering around Hogwarts and its surroundings. The game offers a fairly decent experience for fans of the Harry Potter franchise as they have an open world to explore, which works perfectly on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X as there are no loading times whatsoever. I played the game on PC, and I could walk as far as I wanted without getting a single loading screen.
SwitchUP, though, showed that when entering Hogsmeade in Hogwarts Legacy‘s Nintendo Switch port, players are hit with a loading screen that lasts between 30 and 50 seconds.
Although I haven’t played the Nintendo Switch version, this would be enough to ruin my experience, and I agree with what SwitchUP said.
“One of the most appealing things for me when I first played the game [on PC] was just being able to look into shops and walk in through the door,” the video says. “That, unfortunately, is no longer the case.”
While the loading screens will negatively impact the experience for players, especially those who played Hogwarts Legacy on other platforms, the Nintendo Switch port seems better than players were expecting. The game is running well in handheld mode and the graphics weren’t torn apart as people predicted.
