‘Final Fantasy 14’ Developers Working on a Fix for Switch 2’s ‘Unacceptable’ Load Times

Square Enix has officially brought Final Fantasy 14 to the Nintendo Switch 2 this week. While the MMORPG’s initial one-month early access phase on the new hardware has been relatively smooth overall, it hasn’t been completely free of turbulence. Frustrated users have pointed to sluggish loading screens as a prominent pain point, though developers confirmed a targeted patch is already underway just a day after launch.

Complaints began surfacing mere hours after the title went live on the console. A widely discussed Reddit thread highlighted instances where gamers were stranded on black screens for nearly 20 seconds following a resurrection in eight-person activities, such as standard trials and raids. This delay poses a severe challenge during high-end encounters governed by strict enrage timers—mechanics that instantly wipe the party if a boss isn’t defeated within a specific window—leading one frustrated fan to label the performance “unacceptable.”

To its credit, the development team acted swiftly to diagnose the root cause. An official announcement on the Lodestone portal clarified that the hitch specifically affects instanced duties, triggering primarily “when a player enters an instanced duty while surrounded by many characters.” Because adventurers naturally queue up for content in densely populated social hubs like Aetheryte plazas, the glitch has the potential to impact a vast segment of the community. Compounding the frustration, once the loading anomaly is triggered, it persists continuously until the active duty concludes.

Square Enix has pinpointed data-reloading sequences and cache-clearing operations as the core factors behind the friction, and engineers are actively constructing a solution. The upcoming patch aims to streamline these backend routines to drastically cut down wait times. Rigorous testing is already underway, with publishers promising a prompt rollout as soon as verification wraps up. In the interim, players can monitor the Lodestone for real-time announcements or sidestep the bug proactively by initiating queue requests away from crowded zones.

Chocobo in the dungeon

Source: Polygon