ELDEN RING Tarnished Edition Review

A massive open-world adventure, brutal but rewarding combat, and Shadow of the Erdtree all come together to make Elden Ring surprisingly comfortable to take on the go.

At this point, Elden Ring hardly needs an introduction. FromSoftware's massive action RPG became one of the most influential games of its generation upon release, taking the developer's familiar Soulslike design philosophy and placing it in a vast open world. 

Instead of simply making another game built around difficult enemies and carefully designed levels, FromSoftware created an adventure that changed expectations for how exploration, difficulty, progression, and player freedom could work together. Years after its original release, players still regard the game as one of the defining RPGs of its era.

Now, Elden Ring arrives on Nintendo Switch 2 as the ELDEN RING Tarnished Edition.

This version brings together the original game, the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion, additional content, and several quality-of-life improvements. More importantly, it lets you experience the entire adventure in a portable format. 

The story remains one of Elden Ring's more unusual elements. If you want a straightforward narrative that clearly explains its characters and conflicts, you may find the presentation frustrating. The destruction of the Elden Ring has left the Lands Between fractured, with its pieces becoming the source of conflict between powerful demigods and royal figures. 

You play as a Tarnished, a warrior who was banished from the Lands Between and eventually returned. A mysterious divine force guides you toward the remaining pieces of the Elden Ring, with the ultimate goal of becoming Elden Lord. The basic objective sounds simple enough, but FromSoftware intentionally leaves much of the story unexplained. 

NPC conversations, item descriptions, environmental details, enemy designs, locations, and small pieces of dialogue all contribute to the bigger picture. You have to connect those pieces yourself, which can make the story feel more like an archaeological discovery than a traditional RPG narrative. 

The world is just as fragmented as the story, since you can encounter characters and locations in different orders depending on how you explore. A detail you discover several hours into the game can entirely change how you understand something you encountered earlier.

The most significant change ELDEN RING Tarnished Edition made to FromSoftware's usual formula is the open world. After a relatively short introduction, you are released into the enormous Lands Between with very few restrictions. Sites of Grace act as checkpoints and can sometimes point you toward potential objectives, but you are rarely forced to follow one specific route.

That freedom can be intimidating at first. 

You can wander into an area filled with enemies that are far stronger than you, encounter a boss you clearly are not prepared to fight, or spend hours exploring without knowing whether you are actually following the intended path. However, that uncertainty is also one of the game's most significant strengths. 

You can leave, explore another region, find a new weapon, collect runes, upgrade your equipment, discover useful items, or simply become more comfortable with the combat system before returning. That makes the difficulty feel more manageable without actually making the game feel too simple.

Exploration itself is also one of the main reasons the game remains so engaging. You can notice an unusual structure in the distance and simply ride toward it on Torrent to see what is waiting there. Sometimes you will discover a small ruin or an interesting piece of scenery, while other discoveries can lead to entire underground areas, new quest lines, powerful equipment, or unexpected encounters. 

The smaller dungeons that are spread out across the world add to that exploration. They usually offer compact challenges filled with enemies, hidden paths, collectibles, environmental tricks, and a boss at the end. These locations are usually short enough not to be draining while still giving you useful rewards. 

The larger legacy dungeons are closer to the traditional Souls experience. Their layouts are more complicated, enemy encounters are denser, and they contain secrets, environmental storytelling, and major bosses. These areas provide the kind of carefully constructed level design that longtime FromSoftware fans expect, while the open world around them gives the entire adventure a much greater sense of scale.

Combat continues to follow the familiar Soulslike foundation. 

You lock on to enemies, manage your stamina, dodge attacks, think about the weight of your equipment, and learn the patterns of enemy attacks through repeated encounters. The weight of your gear can play a major role in your mobility, with heavier builds slowing you down and lighter setups allowing you to move more quickly and dodge more easily. 

Progression is centered around runes. You earn runes by defeating enemies, which you can then spend on attributes like strength, agility, magic, and faith. This lets you gradually shape your character to match your preferred playstyle. You can develop a focused build or combine various attributes to create something more versatile.

Weapons and equipment provide another level of customization. You can find new weapons all around the world and upgrade your current ones. Ashes of War further expand the system's flexibility, allowing weapons to obtain new skills and scaling properties. This means you are not necessarily forced to use a weapon in one particular way. 

The game also gives you summons that can help during particularly difficult encounters. If a boss is giving you trouble, you have several ways to make the situation more manageable. This is one of the reasons ELDEN RING Tarnished Edition feels more approachable than some earlier Soulslike games.

Boss battles are still the natural centerpiece of the experience. Some encounters are primarily tests of your build, equipment, timing, and ability to recognize attack patterns. Others are huge set pieces that showcase the world's scale. Overworld bosses are especially engaging because you can fight them while riding Torrent.

Mounted combat changes the rhythm of these encounters. You can attack from horseback, quickly reposition yourself, or simply ride away when you realize you are not ready. That ability to disengage is surprisingly important. In a traditional Souls encounter, entering a boss arena usually means committing yourself to the fight. 

That approach also makes progression feel more natural. 

You can choose not to see every loss as a wall to be immediately climbed but as information. You learn what an enemy can do, figure out what you need to improve, and then go on exploring. When you return, finally, whether you are stronger or you understand the fight better, the victory feels like the result of your own decisions.

Tarnished Edition also includes Shadow of the Erdtree, which is substantial enough to feel like another adventure rather than a small expansion. The DLC introduces a new realm filled with enemies, bosses, weapons, and a much more vertically designed environment. It takes the foundation of the base game and pushes its exploration and difficulty further.

The expansion is designed as endgame content, so the challenge is noticeably higher. To help balance that, Shadow of the Erdtree introduces its own progression system through Scadutree Fragments. These provide additional strength within the expansion and encourage you to explore rather than simply rushing toward major encounters.

The new map is particularly impressive because of its vertical design. Areas can exist above, below, and around one another, creating a world where looking beyond the obvious path often pays off. The expansion therefore feels like a major continuation of Elden Ring rather than a separate side activity that you can quickly finish and forget.

Progression is one of the areas where ELDEN RING Tarnished Edition remains especially strong. You are constantly finding something that can influence your character, whether that is a new weapon, an Ash of War, armor, an upgrade material, or another useful item. Runes also give almost every encounter a practical purpose because defeating enemies can directly contribute toward improving your character.

There is a risk involved because losing your runes after dying can make exploration stressful, particularly when you have accumulated a large amount. At the same time, that system makes every decision feel more meaningful. You have to decide whether to keep pushing deeper into an area or return to somewhere safer before risking everything. 

The Lands Between remains one of the game's most visually impressive feats. 

Its dark fairy-tale atmosphere is built around ruined castles, vast landscapes, strange creatures, mysterious architecture, and unsettling environments. The game doesn’t need bright colors or constant visual spectacle to make an impression. Its art direction consistently gives you something memorable to look at.

Some of the best visual moments come out of unexpected discoveries. Underground areas can open into enormous spaces where constellations appear above you, creating the illusion that the ceiling has disappeared and you are standing beneath an endless night sky. These moments work because they come naturally through exploration rather than being handed to us in a conventional cinematic way.

The Switch 2 version does make some visual compromises. Compared with the more powerful hardware, the Switch 2 version reduces vegetation density and draw distance, making distant objects more noticeable when they pop in. 

Some environmental textures can also look softer. However, these differences are much harder to notice when you are simply playing rather than when you are comparing the versions side by side. Character models remain detailed, enemy designs retain their impact, and armor and cloth physics still look convincing.

Performance is arguably the most important part of this release, and the results are encouraging. The game targets 30 frames per second in both handheld and docked modes. You will still get the odd drop and stutter in more demanding sections of the open world or when battling enormous bosses, but the overall experience is stable enough that these issues don't detract from the game.

Handheld play is where the port becomes especially appealing. The smaller screen can make some of the reductions in environmental detail less obvious, while variable refresh rate support helps make fluctuations in frame pacing less distracting. 

The controls remain responsive, although extended handheld sessions can become uncomfortable during particularly long boss fights. 

The smaller Joy-Con sticks are also not necessarily ideal for a game that demands precise movement and camera control. A Pro Controller is a more comfortable option if you plan to spend several hours fighting difficult bosses.

Tarnished Edition also provides an enormous amount of content in one package. The base game and Shadow of the Erdtree together can easily keep you playing for dozens of hours, while players who explore thoroughly can spend well over 100 hours in the Lands Between. 

The new starting options allow you to approach the early game with different ideas, including heavier strength-focused combat or faster and more agile playstyles. Quality-of-life improvements also make the enormous world slightly easier to navigate, including clearer indications for newly acquired items and changes that help you keep track of certain discoveries.

The main drawback is the price. At around $79.99 in the United States, Tarnished Edition is expensive, particularly if you already own Elden Ring elsewhere. The physical package also does not feel quite as complete as a traditional full-game card release might. 

For newcomers, however, the value is easier to grasp because the package includes the base game, Shadow of the Erdtree, additional content, and the convenience of playing the full adventure on the go.

Ultimately, Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition does not need to reinvent FromSoftware's open-world RPG. Its purpose is to bring one of the defining games of its generation to Nintendo Switch 2, and it does so remarkably well. The game itself remains as compelling as ever, with its mixture of exploration, difficult combat, flexible progression, strange storytelling, and player freedom.

The Switch 2 version is not technically the strongest way to experience Elden Ring. 

The 30fps target and reduced visual detail are real compromises, and the occasional performance issues prevent it from being completely flawless. Still, those sacrifices are reasonable when you consider the scale of what this portable platform brings.

The biggest strength of this edition is simply that you can carry the Lands Between with you. You can explore a massive open world, take on giant bosses, experiment with builds, and eventually move into Shadow of the Erdtree without being tied to a television. 

For newcomers, Tarnished Edition offers an enormous amount of content in one package. For returning players, the decision is more complicated because of the price and the fact that the technical experience is still limited to 30 fps. But if portability matters to you, the Switch 2 version makes a strong case for revisiting the game.

ELDEN RING Tarnished Edition remains difficult, mysterious, enormous, and occasionally frustrating, but those qualities are still part of what makes it special. You are given a world that does not always explain itself, enemies that can punish mistakes, and a progression system that offers you countless ways to respond. 

ELDEN RING Tarnished Edition successfully carries that philosophy onto Nintendo's new hardware. It is not perfect, and the compromises are noticeable in some situations, but it is impressive that such a huge adventure can run in handheld mode. This version is one of the fullest ways to enjoy the entire ELDEN RING Tarnished Edition adventure in a portable form, with Shadow of the Erdtree included.