I’ve already mentioned that I’m seriously considering picking up a brand-new Nintendo Switch 2. I know myself, and I know that having a major RPG on the horizon will only push me closer to pulling the trigger. So today, I decided to take a look at the biggest RPGs coming to Nintendo’s new handheld console.
In addition to Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, Another Eden Begins, and Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter, three sizeable RPGs will be competing for roughly the same audience on the same day in September.
This is basically absurd, but it does tell us a lot about the direction of the Switch 2 RPG library. The big news doesn’t stop there. September is just the starting point for these games. September is when we see the return of Full Turn-Based Battles from Final Fantasy. Also in September, we get a new monster-collecting game from the long-running Dragon Quest Monsters series.
Brigadine is getting ready to bring its large-scale wars back into focus. And some top-tier RPGs (that were previously inaccessible) are going to finally make the move to Nintendo hardware. Not every title you’ll find listed is brand new; I’ve put in ports and remakes because I felt they represented significant enough additions to Switch 2 to include them in my list.
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave
Release Date: September 17, 2026
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2
Status: New Switch 2 exclusive
I never had much doubt about which game should open this list. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is currently the Switch 2 RPG I am most interested in, partly because it is one of the few major games here designed specifically for Nintendo’s new hardware.
The Heroic Games provide the initial backdrop, bringing warriors to the Dagdan Empire with the promise that the winner will receive one wish. Four protagonists, Cai, Dietrich, Theodora, and Leda, enter for very different reasons, but the story eventually jumps five years forward, when the empire is facing destruction, and the four heroes have disappeared.
The ability to revisit their stories through time travel is probably the element that intrigues me most. You can follow the four routes in parallel, while training units, recruiting characters, developing relationships, exploring Dagsion, and preparing for the next tactical battle.
It still looks unmistakably like Fire Emblem, but not like a game content to simply repeat Three Houses or Engage.
Final Fantasy Resonance
Release Date: October 22, 2026
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC
Status: New multiplatform release
“The first HD-2D Final Fantasy” is already a very easy headline. What interests me more is Square Enix returning to fully turn-based combat.
Final Fantasy Resonance revolves around exploiting weaknesses, staggering enemies, creating additional turns, and setting up stronger Resonance attacks. The Vision system then brings characters from previous Final Fantasy games into the party, with Cloud, Terra, Clive, and others contributing their own abilities.
I am slightly cautious about that part. Filling a new RPG with famous characters can very quickly become fan service for the sake of fan service. If Visions genuinely change how parties are constructed, though, the idea becomes much more interesting.
Either way, seeing a new Final Fantasy openly embrace traditional turn-based combat again is enough to make Resonance one of the biggest games on this list.
Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World
Release Date: December 3, 2026
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC
Status: New multiplatform release
Some players rush through RPG stories. Others spend two hours deciding whether a monster has the correct trait. Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World is clearly for the second group.
Bianca and Nera lead a new monster-taming adventure built around recruiting creatures, developing talents, assembling teams, and, most importantly, synthesis. Combining two monsters produces a new creature capable of inheriting useful characteristics from its parents, so almost everything you catch has the potential to become part of something better later.
One detail I particularly like is that selected monsters physically follow the protagonists while exploring, regardless of their size. It is a small thing, but I have always preferred monster-catching games where the creatures actually feel like companions instead of icons hidden inside a menu. This could become dangerously good at consuming free time.
Another Eden Begins
Release Date: September 17, 2026
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PC
Status: New multiplatform release
Of the three RPGs launching on September 17, Another Eden Begins is probably the easiest one to overlook. That would be a mistake.
The story follows Aldo across three different periods, 20,000 BC, 300 AD, and 1100 AD, and uses traditional command-based battles with a roster of 19 characters. Another Force returns as a gauge-powered mechanic that lets the party unleash a rapid chain of attacks.
What caught my attention, though, is the New Game+ structure. Characters carry over, while subsequent runs can lead toward more than ten different endings depending on previous decisions.
Masato Kato is handling the scenario and direction, while Yasunori Mitsuda is involved with the music. With names connected to Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross attached to another RPG centered on time travel and consequences, the comparisons are inevitable. Whether it can live up to them is another question.
Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter
Release Date: September 17, 2026
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC
Status: Modern reimagining
First, the important part: Do not start Trails here. Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter continues directly from 1st Chapter, picking up after Joshua’s disappearance and following Estelle as she searches for him while becoming increasingly entangled with Ouroboros.
This new version rebuilds the second half of the original Sky storyline around the presentation and mechanics introduced by the 1st Chapter remake. Crafts, S-Crafts, orbments, additional playable characters, Brave Rush attacks, fishing, cooking, and other side activities all return or expand.
The first game establishes the world and characters; 2nd Chapter is where many of those threads finally start paying off. The real challenge will be finishing everything else releasing on September 17.
Brigandine: Abyss
Release Date: August 27, 2026
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, PC
Status: New game
This might be the most TurnBasedLovers game on the entire list. Brigandine: Abyss combines tactical battles with a wider strategy layer in which players control territories, commanders, resources, troops, and monster armies.
There are six primary campaigns, but Mission Mode expands the playable factions to 24. More importantly, they do not all pursue the exact same objective. One nation might want continental domination, another may need to rebuild a city, while someone else could be trying to escape financial collapse.
That immediately makes the different campaigns more interesting to me than simply changing the starting army and map position.
Brigandine will probably receive a fraction of the attention given to Fire Emblem. For players who enjoy managing an actual war instead of a small group of heroes, it could be just as interesting.
DECAPOLICE
Release Window: 2026
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, PC
Status: New game
DECAPOLICE has been on my radar for so long that I mainly want Level-5 to finally put a date on it. The concept remains excellent.
You play as Harvard Marks, a young detective investigating crimes across both the real world and DECASIM, a virtual recreation capable of preserving information about past events. Evidence can be collected and organized on a Case Board before reaching a conclusion and confronting the suspect.
This is exactly where DECAPOLICE could separate itself from RPGs that call their protagonist a detective but reduce investigations to following glowing markers.
Some suspects can apparently be talked into surrendering. Others become Crime Beasts and need to be dealt with more directly. I like almost everything Level-5 has shown. I am simply keeping expectations under control until “2026” turns into an actual date.
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Release Date: November 12, 2026
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2; already available elsewhere
Status: Switch 2 port
No, Metaphor: ReFantazio is not a new game. And no, I would not tell someone who already owns it on another platform to get excited about buying it again.
Its Switch 2 release still belongs here because Nintendo-focused players will finally have access to one of the most important turn-based RPGs of recent years.
Metaphor mixes command-based battles with faster real-time attacks against weaker enemies, while the Archetype system gives party building much of its depth. Outside combat, days are spent traveling, exploring dungeons, improving relationships, raising personal virtues, and deciding which activities deserve limited calendar time.
It is also a very long RPG filled with dialogue, menus, character events, and preparation. In other words, exactly the kind of game I can see working extremely well on a handheld.
Wandering Sword
Release Date: January 21, 2027
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series
Status: Console port
I have a weakness for RPGs that make progression feel slightly excessive, and Wandering Sword certainly seems happy to provide plenty of numbers, techniques, and systems to play with.
Its wuxia adventure follows a young swordsman traveling through a martial-arts world filled with rival schools, potential companions, and branching relationships. Combat takes place on tiled arenas and can be switched between real-time and turn-based modes, meaning the full game can still be played entirely at a slower, tactical pace.
The real attraction is character development. Swords, sabers, spears, hidden weapons, internal disciplines, movement techniques, and meridian cultivation all feed into a huge martial-arts progression system.
Wandering Sword has been available on PC since 2023, so this is another port. For Switch 2 owners who missed it, however, January suddenly has something worth putting on the calendar.
Atelier Karia: The Night Kingdom & the Guide of Memories
Release Window: Early 2027
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Status: New multiplatform release
Atelier Karia: The Night Kingdom & the Guide of Memories has always been a series where crafting is much more than an optional side activity. This time, though, Gust is taking that philosophy in a slightly bizarre direction: Karia can eat almost anything.
Weapons, bombs, ingredients, and other synthesized objects can affect her abilities and even alter her appearance. Alchemy also reaches beyond combat, with crafted items used to destroy obstacles, uncover new paths, prepare meals, and improve bases.
The story takes place two years after Atelier Yumia and returns to Aladiss, where the amnesiac Karia discovers a previously unknown underground world while investigating the spreading Mana Withering phenomenon. Despite sharing the setting, Gust says Karia can be approached as a standalone adventure.
Combat is the one reason I would put an asterisk next to its inclusion here. It is a hybrid system: attacks can be parried in real time, but time can also be frozen to select skills and commands more deliberately. Gust specifically says this option is intended for players who prefer a turn-based approach.
Personally, I like that compromise. I would still prefer a completely turn-based Atelier, but at least Karia does not appear to be abandoning the menu-driven side of the series altogether. And yes, I also want to know what happens when you eat a bomb.
Gravastar
Release Date: TBA
Platforms: Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Status: New multiplatform release
Here is the lesser-known game I would really like you to discover through this list. Gravastar is a sci-fi fantasy JRPG from Seattle-based indie developer Studio Atma, and its battle system immediately caught my attention.
It is turn-based, but instead of simply selecting Attack from a menu, characters have individual movesets and combo inputs inspired by old-school 2D fighting games.
Attacks can be chained together, turns manipulated, and increasingly elaborate combos constructed as you learn what each party member can do. That sounds strange on paper, which is exactly why I want to see more of it.
The story follows Baird, an orphan living on the exoplanet Aethera who discovers that he is a Spectre, a rare individual whose powers are connected to the stars. He eventually travels across Aethera with five playable companions while confronting a fanatic attempting to plunge the universe into darkness. Those companions also possess individual Field Skills used during exploration and puzzle solving.
Studio Atma has been working on the project for years, and there is still no release date. That uncertainty would normally make me hesitate to include a game this early. In this case, I think it deserves the spot.
According to me, these are the top upcoming turn-based RPGs that will be available on Nintendo Switch 2 in 2026 and 2027, but now let me know what you think about it. Wish you the best. Ciao
