Square Enix has acknowledged that the newly launched Switch 2 version of Final Fantasy 14 suffers from unusually long loading times in certain situations, and says a fix is in testing.

The Switch 2 edition of the long-running MMORPG — a massively multiplayer online game played in a shared, persistent world — launched on Tuesday, 5 August 2026, bringing the title to Nintendo hardware for the first time. But players quickly noticed that certain transitions, particularly within instanced duties (private combat encounters separate from the open world), triggered extended black-screen loading.

In a statement on the official Final Fantasy 14 site, Square Enix confirmed the issue and listed the specific situations affected VGC. Long loading times occur when the screen fades to black during a battle phase transition, when teleporting to a different map inside an instanced duty, when reviving after being knocked out, and when using a Return or shortcut command within an instance.

The publisher's investigation traced the slowdown to a specific trigger: when a player enters an instanced duty while surrounded by many characters, loading data takes longer than usual — and the effect persists until the player leaves that instance. Square Enix said it pinpointed the cause in cases where data-reloading and cache-clearing processes required for safe rendering were taking an extended amount of time, and that it has since optimised those processes to speed up data loading.

The updated version is currently in testing. Square Enix said it aims to release the fix as soon as it is able, alongside patches for several other unspecified issues in the Switch 2 version Nintendo Life.

For players weighing whether to jump in now or wait, the Switch 2 version comes in three forms. A free trial — roughly 117 GB in size — includes the entire base game, A Realm Reborn, plus three full story expansions: Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers. That is a substantial amount of content at no subscription cost. The free trial does carry restrictions: a level cap of 80 instead of the full level 100, limits on how much in-game currency a player can hold, and constraints on interacting with other players. Paid Starter Edition and Complete Edition versions are also available for those wanting fewer limitations.

For a game that has built its reputation on regular updates and a responsive development team, a day-one technical hiccup addressed within the launch week fits a familiar pattern. The fix is coming; Square Enix has named the cause, described the solution, and said it is testing. Players in affected duties just need to wait a beat — or a black screen — while that update moves through the pipeline.