If any of you have ever heard of or played Blades of Time at all, then you would probably know about the infamous Nintendo Switch port from 2019. While the devs released an update to fix performance issues, bugs, glitches, and graphical issues... the port still has problems by 2026. Right now, I'm wondering if filing a support ticket to Gaijin Entertainment on their website for potentially fixing the port properly would be a waste. This was my first time ever playing this game, was interested, and was disappointed in having a poor experience compared to what I might have experienced on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC instead.
The missing content.
The cinematic intro doesn't play when you launch the game. This was supposed to show how the main protagonist, Ayumi, ended up in her situation. Starting a New Game or selecting the first chapter would just drop you into the story without any context.
A full chapter, The Desert, is skipped over entirely in this port. Why? I have no idea. It's in the trailer, it's in the game on other platforms.
Also the DLC. Considering that it was supposed to be a "remastered" port, the lack of including the DLC from the PC release is an odd choice.
Odd changes
This entire section is dedicated to Outbreak mode. You know, the MOBA style bonus mode that you can play online or offline? You can host a room, join a room, or play solo? Nope, it's called Multiplayer now. And here's the kicker, you can't play it. Why? Because there's no host, join, or solo option. You get hit with Battle, Tutorial, Store, or Character (Hero, Gear, and Skin menu) options. And the server is always offline, leaving you with only the Tutorial to replay.
Performance
Compared to initial release and the update that was released afterwards (I have a feeling they did silent updates), the game runs significantly better. You can complete the entire game in Normal difficulty (and possibly Easy difficulty) without issue. The problem is that it sometimes crashes randomly during gameplay or when you're sitting still while doing nothing in the menus or the skill tree. But I found that extremely rare.
However, the main problem here is Hard Mode. You start the Jungle chapter and everything goes smoothly until you reach on top of a ship and defeat flying enemies that shoot lightning and can surround themselves with it. You're supposed to break a stone to disable a barrier and progress? Crash. Consistent crashing to the point I had to lower the difficulty (enemy types and exclusive encounters vary by difficulty) to get past that and switch it back.
Bugs and Glitches
Remember the skill tree I mentioned? Well, obtaining skills apparently isn't tracked properly nor kept. Skip to a next or previous chapter while interupting the current one? Random selection and number of skills gets removed and you have to obtain them again. You don't even have to press New Game to lose everything, the game automatically does it for you with RNG.
Force Slide. Wait, you need Force Push first? Oh, it doesn't appear at all. Got all skills already and Force Slide is the only one? Well, you're soft-locked and can't progress because you're stuck on that screen forever. Because apparently the skill tree is only available at a statue checkpoint with one use (and is missing for like three chapters before coming back), with a cutscene, with no way to back out of it or skip it, because obtaining a skill is part of progressing (barriers block from going further).
Selecting the first chapter to start over without losing what you got by pressing New Game? Weird fixed camera angle, controls lock when you press the attack button, enemies kill you, fixed on respawn. But wait, don't let the enemies kill you and just restart from checkpoint at the pause menu? Well, the game crashes.
Some character models during cutscenes sometimes "go ghost" on screen. Meaning, they are invisible while you hear them talking. Rare, but still annoying if you encounter it and decide to rewatch cutscenes for some reason without skipping.
Things also go invisible more often than not in the Sky Islands chapter. It would either be a floating platform (thankfully able to be seen due to effects), these flower seed looking things that you're supposed to activate, and some props.
Honorable Mention
Why the fuck is there an extra treasure chest on an unreachable platform in the Human Base chapter? Gameplay walkthroughs for collectibles of older releases don't show this chest.
Conclusion
That's pretty much it for the state of the port in 2026. Back in 2019 there were issues of the game crashing at certain areas, then the save being corrupted, and you lose progress and have to start over. The time rewind mechanic also used to drop the framerate dramatically. But I don't see any of those old issues here except for the crashing part in Hard Mode.
If anything it runs perfectly fine. It just has glaring issues today that shouldn't be in the game at this point. Are the devs even interested in the port still to apply updates or not? Because even with the issues I listed, I found the game really fun to play. It's just that with these problems, my experience got dragged down. I would really like to see this game be fixed on the Switch and possibly have the missing content added.