Is this a great deal? No, definitely not.
That being said, it's $20 for the upgrade pass, which makes buying this along with the upgrade pass $5 cheaper than the alternative and this way it's usable on both Switch 1 and 2.
If you have the Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass, you can get the upgrade pass for free.
CamelCamelCamel.
Likely forever, but who knows in reality.
Forever whilst subscribed - I’d rather just buy it once personally.
The Zelda BotW/TotK NS2 edition cartridge is physical through and through, but won't be playable on NS1; While their NS1 cartridge can be upgraded to NS2 edition either through NSO+ or upgrade pack, those addons are digital-only. Not exactly a good news for hard-core physical game fans.
Pretty sure the NS2 Edition physical cartridges play on the original Switch without the Switch 2 enhanced.
Not according to the Nintendo website. But cannot rule out they’re talking about digital purchase only or something similar, as they do mention the NS2 edition includes “Nintendo Switch game”
The downer is that NS2 edition does not include BotW DLCs. There are complete edition cartridges sold in Asian markets. So even NS2 edition is playable on the original Switch, there’s no one cartridge rules all situation here.
Yeah, that makes it sound pretty ambiguous. I'm going off this info I saw a few days ago. Not necessarily from this site, but this was just the first result I found when I searched for it again:
https://mynintendonews.com/2025/05/29/there-are-3-types-of-n…
@lint: Yup. NS1 cartridges are LA-initialled.
Also I saw reports that claim Zelda NS2 edition cartridges are actually black, LA cartridges in box, and will download the included NS2 upgrade pack on demand like key cards. If that’s the case then the game would be playable on NS1 for sure 😂.
Or maybe it’s just a pre-order side effect like many 3rd party day one games would supply key cards only or even download codes in box, where red cartridges will become available when time goes by.
Will find out in 4 days or more leaks coming up.
Yeah worth it to get the original. Still doesn't emulate properly from what I hear so original is best.
While the shader compilation stutter isn't very satisfying to experience, it at least goes away after you have compiled each shader once and you are left to a nice smooth 60+fps experience. On Switch you are stuck with a poorly performing 30fps for the entirety of the game which often drops into the teens, which is an extremely ugly thing to witness. I would say that either emulating the game, or modchipping your Switch to enable overclocking to get a more stable experience is best.
Just a fair warning to those who may want to purchase for their Switch 2.
Games are not region-locked, but DLC can be.
So if you buy a Japanese Switch game, your Australian Nintendo eShop won't be able to download DLC for it.
If you doubt me, I had this exact thing happen to me. I was in the US and bought a Switch game, but then I couldn't download DLC for it.
That is all pretty ridiculous for Nintendo to do.
Also, the Switch 2 edition of BOTW does not come with the DLC. You would think, for an 8 year old game, with only slight upgrades for NS2, they could at least throw in the DLC as a bit of a bonus, but no.
Why? Because Nintendo!
Same goes on PSN. Xbox I doubt solely because I've region swapped more times than I remember.
Not the case for this.
Game's aren't region locked, but there are regional variants for some games. If you have a regional variant of a game that doesn't match with your eShop region, that's when there can be problems.
TOTK does not have any regional variants, and most games don't any more.
As an example, Splatoon 2 has an NTSC-U, NTSC-J and PAL variant. Splatoon 3 does not. TOTK does not. BOTW also does not and any copy can get the upgrade pass from any region.
All copies of TOTK are 0100F2C0115B6000
I understand that you're warning of the potential problem, but there is no potential problem in this case.
At least for BotW that’s not the case. In fact most first party games are shared title ID globally, means DLCs are region-free. My BotW was purchased in US store and DLC from AU(equivalent to EU).
But there are certain other games that distribute different title ID by region, even if the game contents are exactly the same.
This is correct, if you want to buy the Switch 2 Edition upgrade for this, you'll need to buy it from the Japanese eShop otherwise it won't work. The same is true for DLC on the PlayStation Store, so it's not unique to Nintendo, unsure about how Microsoft does it on Xbox.
I think the issue is the DLC is tied to the internal game ID, but each region has a different code assigned even to the same game. It seems bad for consumers but I guess they're covering the fact that the same game can sometimes have differences between regions that could make them not compatible so they differentiate it by default.
As I noted in my comment above, no it isn't.
Please don't spread misinformation. That is an issue that affects a small number of games and this is not one of those affected.
This is news to me. Thanks for the correction.
Heaps of copies on FB marketplace if you're so inclined
$60-$70 in my region, so it's the same price as a new copy delivered.
Man that $36 afterpay hack with Big W last year was so good. Doubt that price ever comes
$5 cheaper than the alternative
The alternative stacks with the 10 dollar newsletter signup code, to be 5 dollars cheaper than you.
Just loving Nintendo's transparent communication that best benefits the consumer
![[Switch] The Legend of Zelda: Tears of The Kingdom $65.75 Delivered @ Amazon JP via AU](https://files.ozbargain.com.au/n/39/908339.jpg?h=61a5600e)
Is the expansion pass forever with NSO?