Highlights
- The Nintendo Switch is designed for single-player gaming experiences, offering both handheld and docked modes for solo gameplay.
- Ten standout single-player games on the Switch include Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Octopath Traveler 2, Shin Megami Tensei V, Metroid Dread, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Hades, Super Mario Odyssey, Persona 5 Royal, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and its sequel Tears of the Kingdom.
- These games offer diverse gameplay experiences, from open-world exploration and turn-based combat to strategic decision-making and immersive storytelling.
The Nintendo Switch seems to be made for single players. In handheld mode, the Switch can accompany players on solo trips and long commutes, and when docked, it becomes a home console displayed on a TV or another screen.
While there is no shortage of local and online multiplayer games from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate to Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the hybrid console curates a mobile single-player gaming experience as well. Nintendo and other developers have made a wide selection of single-player titles compatible with the Switch. But of all the single-player Switch games, ten stand out from the rest.
10 Pokemon Legends: Arceus
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is one of the best Pokemon games to date. It has the classic components of the mainline series: battle, capturing Pokemon, and an explorable world. At the same time, Arceus diverges from prior titles with its sizeable map divided into areas called biomes and the Pokedex, which functions as a compendium recording the different Pokemon species you come across.
Other open-world games on this list surpass Arceus’s buggy setting in terms of graphics and playability, but the Pokemon animations and freedom to roam make Arceus worth playing.
9 Octopath Traveler 2
In the HD-2D art style, Octopath Traveler 2 is a stunning game on the Switch. The 2D graphics transform falling snow and sun glitter into mesmerizing, nearly realistic details.
Octopath Traveler 2 improves upon its predecessor, Octopath Traveler. Both are JRPGs with excellent traditional turn-based battle systems, but the sequel improves upon the first game’s towns and storytelling.
As the title suggests, there are eight distinct character stories with a few crossed paths. Octopath Traveler 2 limits you to a four-party system, but you can customize the party composition and the members’ equipment and abilities to your liking.
8 Shin Megami Tensei V
Before Persona, Atlus developed Shin Megami Tensei. The fifth entry in the series, Shin Megami Tensei V is set in an apocalyptic modern Tokyo. Demons overtake the protagonist’s high school, prompting him to embark on an adventure to rescue his classmates.
Shin Megami Tensei V is popular for its demon-fusing mechanic, which allows you to combine two or more demons and produce a new demon. As a result, you get access to new abilities to use in the turn-based combat, keeping gameplay fresh and strategy-based.
7 Metroid Dread
Metroid Dread is a side-scrolling game where you explore as Samus Aran, a cosmic bounty hunter. The setting of Planet ZDR is filled with weapons, items, and upgrades. You can use your Phantom Cloak to hide from enemy machines called the E.M.M.I., who will attack if they detect you. It can be difficult to master the stealth aspect, but once you do, exploring and reaching the boss fights will go by more smoothly.
The map and combination of stealth, combat, and abilities work to create an entertaining, challenging action-adventure game set in space.
6 Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (XC3) is the third entry in the Xenoblade Chronicles series. Though featuring a brand-new cast of characters and an open world to explore, XC3 builds on the real-time combat system and universe origin stories from the first two games.
XC3 shines in its party system and extensive single-player campaign. The main story follows six main characters and takes place in a sci-fi, fantasy setting that is easy to become immersed in once you have learned the basics of combat. As a JRPG, XC3 also features side quests, as well as an array of unlockable classes and skills.
5 Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Fire Emblem: Three Houses is unlike any Fire Emblem game that came before it. Like other entries in the mainline series, Three Houses is a tactical RPG with turn-based combat and relationship-building. Three Houses greatly expands on the social simulation elements with a cast of dynamic characters. You play as a mercenary-turned-professor, and you can invite your students to tea and return lost items to them.
At the start of the game, you pick a class with students from one of the three nations in power. This choice affects how you experience the story and the characters you start with. In every route, the game balances story-focused battles with RPG activities and social simulation.
4 Hades
Hades tells an engaging story for single players. There are multiple routes that you can take as Zagreus, Hades’s son and the Prince of the Underworld. From Zeus to Achilles, the characters are all based on Greek mythology; some are even romanceable. The gods respond uniquely depending on the path you are on, welcoming multiple playthroughs of the game.
Along with ample dialogue and a beautiful indie art style from a top-down perspective, the roguelike gameplay incorporates hack-and-slash combat and dungeon crawling as you try to escape the Underworld. In between dungeon runs, you can relax by petting Cerberus, Hades’s three-headed dog.
3 Super Mario Odyssey
Super Mario Odyssey is a part of the well-known Super Mario series. Like the Wii game Super Mario Galaxy, Super Mario Odyssey follows the formula of visiting new locations, except you travel to kingdoms instead of planets in an aircraft called the Odyssey. Mario can also use his new friend Cappy to defeat enemies, capture them, collect coins, and jump to new heights.
Each kingdom has a unique theme, and you explore with the goal of gathering Power Moons to fuel the Odyssey. The lively kingdoms and their often upbeat soundtrack foster an enjoyable, family-friendly gaming experience. However, the controls can be frustrating, as you might miss the mark and fall on several occasions.
2 Persona 5 Royal
A newcomer to the Switch, Persona 5 Royal updates the original Persona 5 and introduces brand-new animation and gameplay with an unlockable third semester and the characters Kasumi Yoshizawa and Kauto Maruki.
In this JRPG, you play as a high school student who has moved to Tokyo after being falsely accused of assault and subsequently expelled from his last school. As the protagonist, you awaken the power to change people’s hearts and make them confess their crimes through combat in an alternate realm known as the Metaverse. Back in the real world, you study for exams, make friends, and maybe work a part-time job or two.
Persona 5 Royal has an average main story playthrough time of 101 hours, so you might go offline for weeks as you exercise, do laundry, play video games, and read a good book – all in the game, of course.
1 The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild And Tears Of The Kingdom
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was Nintendo’s five-year-long passion project. The game debuted on the same day as the Switch, making the two inseparable. The creators of Zelda finally gave Switch-owning players an open world to traverse.
With endless freedom and new abilities for Link, the sequel Tears of the Kingdom is just as good – or perhaps even better than – its predecessor. Both action-adventure games, however, encourage you to be creative, solve puzzles, and independently explore at your own pace.
The Switch has added many games to its library, but aside from Tears of the Kingdom, no other single-player game initially launched on the platform has rivaled Breath of the Wild.
