When I got Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth on PS5 and Xbox Series X last month for review, I adored my time with the metroidvania. In fact, I liked it enough to not want to wait until the end of this month for the Nintendo Switch version in the West and bought it digitally through the Japanese eShop. Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth felt like a perfect fit for the Switch. This review will focus on the Switch port of Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth which I already covered separately on PS5.
Over the years, I’ve started playing more indie metroidvanias thanks to Switch ports like Hollow Knight and even Dead Cells recently. I get recommended a game releasing on Steam that I usually wait to play on Switch thanks to the pickup and play nature of the system. There are obviously some downsides like Dead Cells’ initial performance issues. With Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, I loved what I played before the console versions but hoped to have a great portable version when the Switch port was announced.
Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth launched in a poor state with multiple performance issues and crashing on Switch last month in Japan with full English support. Considering the Western release was planned for January 28, 2022, I decided to wait to see what gets fixed before that date arrives. As of the most recent update (1.0.2), the major issues I had with the port have been addressed. The crashing I ran into before, and the big slowdowns and freezing are all fixed. There are still a few places with some slowdown, but these pale in comparison to how bad the initial release was. It would be great if the physical release could have this patch included from the start for preservation purposes.
The pickup and play nature of the Switch perfectly suits Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth with its multiple save rooms letting you get in a few minutes of play every now and then on the go. Once the few slowdowns are addressed, I will recommend the Switch version above the other versions to anyone who owns it and another system.
Visually, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth looks excellent on Switch both docked and handheld. I played it on both my Switch and Switch Lite and had no problems with the image quality. When it comes to features specific to the Switch version, Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth has rumble support but no touchscreen support. Beyond that, it doesn’t really do anything special on Switch. The rumble is well-implemented and it even has a good icon which I know some people care about a lot.
While I was initially very disappointed with the Switch port of Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, the patch has fixed the major issues. There is still some slowdown in some areas, but it isn’t a complete mess like it was in parts at launch. If you held off on the Steam, PS5, PS4, or Xbox versions of Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth in the hope of playing it on the go, the Switch version is now excellent. Hopefully the few remaining issues and slightly long load times compared to other platforms can be addressed in future updates.
Switch port review: This review focusses on the Nintendo Switch version and port quality of a game that was either previously released on other platforms or one that simultaneously launched on Nintendo Switch and other platforms.
