Due to its older technology, the Kingdom Hearts collection may encounter some issues on Nintendo hardware.

Kingdom Hearts 3 and the rest of the series will be released on Nintendo Switch 2 as part of Kingdom Hearts Collection [I~III], ahead of Kingdom Hearts 4, which may arrive in 2027, finally giving Big N fans the chance to play these games natively on the go, rather than via the cloud. Square Enix has already released a playable demo of the third installment in the series. While this is not a problem, ElAnalistaDeBits’s video shows that Nvidia DLSS is necessary for Nintendo Switch 2 to achieve PlayStation 4-level performance in certain games.

The game uses dynamic resolution scaling on Nintendo Switch 2, running at dynamic 1080p in handheld mode and dynamic 1224p when docked. However, the differences in image quality compared to the PlayStation 4 version running in backward compatibility mode on PlayStation 5 are minimal. Only lower resolution and altered reflections are visible in handheld mode. What is truly striking, however, is the difference in performance. Despite running at a similar resolution with the same level of detail and possessing some specification advantages – more modern architecture and more RAM -, Nintendo Switch 2 runs Kingdom Hearts 3 significantly worse than PlayStation 5 via backward compatibility. Nintendo Switch 2 often drops into the 30 FPS range, while Sony’s console maintains a stable 60 FPS.

The reason is simple. Kingdom Hearts 3 does not support Nvidia DLSS on any platform because it uses an older version of Unreal Engine 4. Therefore, it always renders at native resolution. This significantly impacts the Nintendo Switch 2 version because the console often punches above its weight and delivers very stable ports for games like Cyberpunk 2077, Star Wars Outlaws, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth thanks to its hardware upscaler.

While the performance of the Kingdom Hearts 3 demo on Nintendo Switch 2 may be concerning for those expecting a stable 60 FPS experience, there is a good chance that the final game will perform much better. Square Enix recently released the final version of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth in much better shape than the demo, so there is a fresh example for this. This means more optimization work can still be done before launch to ensure the gameplay experience is on par with that of previous-generation systems.

Source: WCCFTech