After three short years, the amount of quality games available on Switch is simply staggering. Nintendo's system has quite literally thousands of titles to enjoy, many of them absolutely free to download and play, and many of the others with free demos available on the Switch eShop, so you can try before you buy.
Below we've collected together some of the best demos on the eShop. It's a genre-spanning, motley mixture of AAA releases, indie gems, undeniably brilliant titles and others that may be more of an acquired taste — and therefore perfect fodder for a gameplay demo to see if you like what's on the menu before placing your order.
The length of the demos below varies (the first RPG on the list is one of the most generous demos in living memory), and some of them handily carry over your progress should you decide to purchase the full game. Regardless, each of them gives you an excellent idea of the larger experience, all for the princely sum of nada.
So, let's take a look at the best demos on the Nintendo Switch eShop...
Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition (Switch)
Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition has a heartwarming, well-paced narrative supported by a cast of fantastic characters, a dense and interesting overworld packed with dozens of hours of content, and one of the finest soundtracks we’ve heard in a JRPG. It's an unforgettable modern classic, but if effusive critical praise doesn't sway you, perhaps a chunky 10-hour demo might. Your progress transfers to the full game if you decide to take the plunge (and you really should).
And while we're on the subject of Dragon Quest, the Dragon Quest Builders games both have lengthy demos, too, and are worth checking out once you've finished this epic.
Just Shapes & Beats (Switch eShop)
One of our favourite indie gems on the Switch, the energy and verve of Just Shapes & Beats is utterly infectious. True to its name, the elements are simple, but Berzerk Studio explores and executes on its modest premise with an exceptional level of polish in this self-described ‘musical bullet hell’. The demo features the first four tracks of the Story Mode, plus the first Boss level and local multiplayer support, so plenty to help you decide if it's for you. Which it is.
Trials of Mana (Switch)
Trials of Mana proves itself to be a successful revival of a lost classic, smartly infusing new design and content where necessary while still maintaining the spirit of the original. Multi-threaded storylines, an enjoyable combat system and flexible character progression combine to make this one a fantastic experience from start to finish, even if occasional performance problems hinder the experience somewhat. The demo provides a couple of hours of gameplay and gives you an introduction to the six main characters. Your save data will also carry over to the full game.
Please note that some external links on this page are affiliate links, which means if you click them and make a purchase we may receive a small percentage of the sale. Please read our FTC Disclosure for more information.
Cadence of Hyrule: Crypt of the NecroDancer Featuring The Legend of Zelda (Switch eShop)
Brace Yourself Games crafted a unique Zelda game which fit in perfectly with the rest of the family. A transfusion from Crypt of the NecroDancer gave the old top-down template a fresh spin but it still manages to feel like Zelda. Cadence of Hyrule is not just a brilliant game, it's a brilliant Zelda game, but its beat-based gameplay can take some getting used to. Handy, then, that there's a demo available to download.
Daemon X Machina (Switch)
Daemon X Machina is a solid mech action game that controls well and gives the player a generous helping of customisation options. Its mission structure can get repetitive, and its plot is so difficult to grasp it may as well be soaked in grease, but as long as you’re willing to put up with these and get through its initially bewildering array of gauges and icons you should have a good time with it. Given its divisive status, the eShop demo is a godsend for anybody sitting on the fence.
Moving Out (Switch)
Moving Out can be great fun, but in our view it's just too slight to be a lasting classic. Still, if you're a sucker for crazy co-op mayhem, the four-level demo available on the eShop will let you know if the game's for you. What have you got to lose? Besides close personal friendships, of course.
Yoshi's Crafted World (Switch)
Yoshi’s Crafted World is a delightful side-on platformer overflowing with colour and charm that does exactly what it says on the tin. For Yoshi fans, it contains few genuine surprises, which is perhaps the worst thing we can say about it. Still, if you're new to the series, or just want to sample the light-hearted gameplay before investing the full RRP, the demo gives a great taster of Yoshi's irresistible world.
Octopath Traveler (Switch)
The Octopath Traveler Prologue demo showcases the game's dazzling art style and mechanics with a 3-hour opening section of the game. You can choose any of the eight characters and your save data carries over to the full game.
Bravely Default II (Switch)
The only demo on this list for a currently unreleased game, this gives us a taste of what to expect when Bravely Default II releases later this year. Fans of the original 3DS titles will feel immediately at home, although the Switch entry obviously looks significantly prettier than its predecessors. One word of warning, though: it's a tough one, so be prepared to do some grinding.
Comments (54)
I never find myself trying out demos. I have a pretty good feel for what I like and what I don't at this point and there's usually enough information available online to be able to tell if I'll like a game or not without needing to try it for myself. Plus it just annoys me having anything that isn't a full game in my play activity.
ARMS is only demo you'll ever need in life.
@mesome713
pretty sure it isn`t
Vostok Inc. was a demo I liked, I found the retail version real cheap and spent 25+ hours on it. I also bought Disgaea 5 Complete, Yoshi's Crafted World, Dragon Quest Builders 2 and Jacob Jazz's Baobabs Mausoleum after playing the demos.
Recently, I enjoyed the demos to Infini, Tangle Tower, Wunderling, Kunai, The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel III, Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, and Dandy Dungeon: Legend of Brave Yamada.
Demos are great for selling me on a game, and I wish there were more of them. There are some I still need to get to as well, like Mr. Driller, Dragon Quest XI S, and Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair.
I think every game should have a demo. I have been burnt on good looking and well received games which I have hated while playing, so a demo is always welcome. Good article!
Aren't demo's just free to play games with immovable pay walls though? And game without demo's just pay to play gambling with real money on whether you'd enjoy them or not? (these aren't necessarily my opinions of them, just another way to see it)
@mesome713 I'd argue against that as well, I've played demo's ofgames I was pretty sure I'd get, to find out I didn't want them, and the exact opposite as well. So that's money saved on the games I wouldn't have liked that could go to the games I wouldn't have considered without a demo but enjoyed a lot. Also, on 3DS, I got a lot of play time in the early days playing the different demo's / pilot versions of Resident Evil Revelations.
@BenAV
So you clicked on a link which portends to be a showcase of demos just to tell us your extra niche opinion on how they don't suit you? A curious cat that; most people aren't swift to delve into niche games based on a review of someone else's subjective taste. The demo is positioned in such a way as to bridge the gap between our expectations and the developers mission to deliver on them. It's actually one of the most pro consumer tools shy of piracy, to determine whether the game's premise was actually a marketing ploy. So I think they are a necessary and inescapable part of the space. Whether you use them or not is kind of beside the point, especially for such an innocuous thing as free software.
Wait what!? There’s a demo for bravely default 2! 🤯 well I didn’t know that
@BenAV I loved demo's back on PS1 and PC win95/98 era. but now I don't care.. i want the full experience
Huge obvious miss is Super Mega Baseball 3.
You can play unlimited online games with the demo!
Unlimited games of what many feel is the best baseball game on any platform!
It's definitely a high value for a free demo.
@San_D @mesome713 I wish the yooka laylee Impossible lair demo was available at launch because I wouldn’t have bought it otherwise ( I didn’t like it)
I regularly play the Puyo Puyo Tetris demo. Have been for three years. Never felt the need to buy the game though!
Other than the obvious picks, Hob, Yoku’s Island Express, and Fitness Boxing are tremendous games you will wind up buying. The latter was a complete pandemic lifesaver until I finally got Ring Fit last week.
Dragon Quest Builders 2 should be on here. Another large demo where progress carries over.
@sandman89 Thankfully I waited, and didn't like the demo of Impossible Lair. Money saved. How I wish Hollow Knight had a demo - it may be unpopular opinion, but it didn't click with me at all.
@San_D 😱🥰 I don’t like hollow knight either! I also wasted money on that! 😆
The Forgotton Anne demo is great. Bought it & loved the game.
https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/switch-eshop/forgotton_anne
Not on Switch, but the most generous demo I’ve encountered was Pocket Card Jockey on 3DS. I don’t think there was a limit in how long you could play your horse, and there wasn’t that much more to the full game beyond what was in the demo. I eventually bought the full game after enjoying the demo for a good 12 hours. It is a fantastic game
"and one of the finest soundtracks we’ve heard in a JRPG"
What? Dragon Quest XI's soundtrack is absolutely atrocious. I love the game, it's my favourite game on switch, but that soundtrack is just awful. And the composer is a homophobic piece of *****, too.
Pretty much every game from Square Enix has the best demos you´ll find on the Switch XD. Dragon Quest XI, Trials of Mana, Octopath Traveler, Bravely Default 2, Dragon Quest Builders 2... Many hours you can add to the main game once you get it (except Bravely, obviously).
Also, try out the Ori and the Blind Forest demo, guys!
I loved the Dragon Quest XI demo. It convinced me to get the game. It didn't look that great in the trailers but the demo showed me how good it is. If you haven't played Dragon Quest XI but are interested, try the demo!
@mesome713 I tried it and didn´t like it at all XD. ARMS is not for me, definitely, and it´s weird, because I enjoy nearly every Nintendo game out there.
I recommend Trials of mana and Dragon quest xi. Both outstanding games
I am so thankful for the Dragon Quest demo. I hated it so much and it saved me $60!
Strangely, I never thought of looking for demos on the Switch... There are a bunch of games on this list I should really try - Ori, Hob, Puyo Puyo Tetris, Cadence. Looks like I’ll be busy for the next few hours (providing my joy-con drift ain’t too bad)
Captain Toad and Bad North are so damn good!!! So are the other games on this page, but those two are just amazingly fun and beautiful games.
I loved Yoshi's Crafted World so much. One of the best 50 bucks I ever spent. Also, I didn't know Trials of Mana had a demo. I might need to give that one a go!
@sandman89 I am going to have to download it as well!
I vaguely remember trying the original Bravely Default demo on 3DS, and it was kicking my a** right out of the chute, so I passed. Probably would have passed on BD 2 without a demo, but really enjoyed and finished the demo (except for 'extra' boss at end), and look forward to it's release.
For anyone enjoying Trials of Mana demo, be warned that some of the later boss battles in full game get tough and frustrating trying to keep AI party members alive, depending on the makeup of your party. I was playing on third highest difficulty ('normal' I think) and didn't want to turn it down just to compensate for sketchy AI (IMO).
The Dragon Quest XI S demo sold me on the game, what a massive demo that was, I enjoyed the Hob demo too. I downloaded the Trials of Mana one but didn't really get started on it properly - Bravely Default 2 I wasn't really feeling at all.
Forgot to mention earlier - while not exactly demos, game jam builds of games have also led me to buy the full release of Celeste and Baba is You specifically, and some games, such as Bug Fables, have demos on PC. Hopefully in the future, more demos come to the eShop and Nintendo remembers NSO game trials are a thing outside of Japan...
It’s not mentioned in the article, but my son and I enjoyed the Cat Quest II demo, and bought the full game after playing.
@OptometristLime Uh, okay? It's not like I said that they shouldn't exist or anything.
Dragon Quest 11 is one of my favorite DQ games.
01001010 01101111 01100101 01101100 00100000 01000100 01101001 01100101 01110011 00100000 01001100 01001111 01010101 00110010
i would also add :
Ai: the somnium files
Oninaki
@BenAV - Outside the play activity, I am the same. However, I do muddy my own waters sometimes cause I have a pension to intentionally play aweful games.
They should have also put down MHGU too
I remember being a kid and replaying the same demos over and over on a PS1 demo disk I had. Good memories.
@mesome713 well said.
@Heavyarms55 same.
Touryst is one of the best games on switch.
I'd throw in there snipperclips, cat quest 2, invisigun, ninjin and 99 vidas
@BenAV
Yeah I totally got carried away there, wasn't in the best mood tbh and I shouldn't have posted like that. Next time will be sure to consider the context fully and not jump to any conclusions.
@OptometristLime All good.
@San_D Me too on Hollow Knight. My last attempt at a metroidvania and unfortunately I found it dull. Glad I'm not the only one!
@SoManyHaveDied I tried the Invisigun demo on a whim and absolutely loved it. Good example of demos working to get you to try games you'd otherwise not go for. Bought the full version (and joined the Discord) - it's so underrated, and full of content.
@Milton_Burle @sandman89 I too had given up on metroidvanias after Hollow Knight, but then I got Dead Cells, it's just too good. It's exactly what I felt Hollow Knight wasn't - fun. And you don't really need to go looking for a random line of lore and fight some boring monsters en route and die and fight your ghost and those same monsters and so on...
I loved the dragon quest demo but I really need to be fully briefed on turn based combat and how to get the best out of it, I never played any of those back in the day, so I was really just guessing and hoping for the best and couldn't get past that annoying gargoyle near the broken bridge.
@Milton_Burle Ironically I bought the game on an eshop sale without even knowing it had a demo. but i ended up loving it. some characters are kinda hard to use tho
You can skip getting the Blaster Master Zero demo and just buy it, it and its sequel are gaming perfection (well IMHO anyway 😉).
I usually try out the demos for JRPGs and not much else, I usually have a good idea of what I want and get those games — the Touryst is a good example where I skipped the demo cuz I knew I’d love the game
@SoManyHaveDied Agreed re: some characters. Chronos FTW.
@San_D Was considering Dead Cells as a lot of people rave about it. That might just tempt me.
@Milton_Burle Dead Cells is many games in one. The movement/platforming is like Prince of Persia lite, the character's stomp is like Donkey Kong, gears are immensely varied - I can literally play it like semi-Chess, where I deploy traps and run away while the monsters have no way to escape those or I can blast through enemies using heavy weapons. The combinations are so interesting and unique, it's a shame that this game doesn't have a demo - I believe a lot of people on the fence would buy it after minutes. Heavily recommended!
Tap here to load 54 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...