Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition is coming to Nintendo Switch

Final Fantasy XV’s cut-down mobile version has been announced for release on the Nintendo Switch as Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition HD, marking the series’ first appearance on the platform. It’s also coming to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, despite both the existence of regular Final Fantasy XV and the difficulty of fitting either system in your pocket, and has in fact gone live on both stores already.

The Switch version isn’t available yet, however — it may have been planned for announcement on the Nintendo Direct broadcast that was scheduled for today but got postponed due to the powerful earthquake that hit Hokkaido, Japan this week. The game is priced at $29.99 on PS4 and Xbox, with a 40-percent launch sale bringing it down to $17.99.

Pocket Edition plays as an abridged version of Final Fantasy XV, which was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2016. The game is played from a fixed camera angle, and similar to other touch screen role playing games, the character can be moved by selecting the location for the character to walk to, rather than with a D-pad control scheme. Additional sidequests unique to the game were added, including treasure hunting and fetch quests.

The game follows the same plot as the original game, although it eliminates the open world of the original, in addition to many sidequests in favor of a more focused experience. Exploration and combat shifted from a behind the back view to an overhead perspective with simplified controls more suitable for playing on a touchscreen. Music and voice acting was mostly kept intact, while the graphics were given a makeover with "chibified" character designs.

The game is divided into ten chapters; the first chapter is available for free, with the remaining nine being able to be purchased individually or as a whole with discounted pricing.

Final Fantasy XV: Pocket Edition received "generally favorable" reception from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Mike Fahey of Kotaku called it an "outstanding" abridgment of the original, praising it for allowing players to experience the story without much time commitment. Shaun Musgrave from TouchArcade scored the game at five stars, commenting on the game's faithful recreation of the game's abridged narrative; with the "voice acting, sound effects, and music" being retained from the console version of Final Fantasy XV being of particular merit.

By February 2018, the game had exceeded three million downloads worldwide.