Nintendo Switch Games With Small Text: The Worst Offenders - How To Use Zoom On Switch

The text size was so small in Three Houses that I had to squint at my TV frequently. I actually had an easier time in handheld mode, since I could move the unit closer to my face.

@Ralizah I had no problem. Bless my young eyes! Most of Three Houses being voiced makes the small text fine IMO. It’s also my favorite switch game ever so I’m a bit biased.😂

My wife and I started playing The Escapists 2 last night and after a while of craning forward to try to read the text we just went and sat on the floor in front of the TV. Better add that to your list!

Haha awesome article. 👏

I prefer "too small" over "too big" though.*
For example the massive text in Animal Crossing makes it look like one of the children's books with plastic pages so that parents can clean them easier.

*yeah I know: that's what she said

Add Astral Chain to that list, please.

@Ralizah Yep, same for me. I remember actually getting closer to the TV during the character epilogues because they auto scrolled and I had to read fast and the text was too tiny.

I don't understand why so many developers are letting games get published with this problem. It's not a difficult problem to fix and it's a problem that can turn people completely off a game especially if they have a vision issues.

I haven't had this issue with any games on the Switch. It isn't really the issue being discussed here, but the worst offender is Xenoblade X. The fonts in that game were horribly small, and became pretty much unreadable if playing the game on the GamePad (partly because of the lower resolution screen, but mostly because of the ant-size text).

I find Ori And The Blind Forest difficult to play, due to the size of Ori, will the zoom work on that too? I will find out.

Having a 70" does it's job, but I remember sitting at same distance 2 years ago with a 40" tv... yeah that was crap.

With Switch I never had that issue because my Switch is hooked to my PC monitor from day one, but I bet that it would give me issues with our old TV...

Yep, this is the same problem I have with GeforceNOW and Shadow. Do the same thing (pinch to zoom)

Ride home after work when my eyes were done, FE was a pain. Indies do a much better job than most.

They forgot two point hospital. Since my wife took over the regular switch, I use the switch lite to play and it’s not easy.

@Roachant I was about to write the exact same thing, on the TV it is fine but handheld its a nightmare.

Yes, unfortunately it's kind of a design trend. If you work with designers a lot, you'll see quite a few of them love making text as tiny as possible, even on mobile app prototypes. Which is odd, because the whole point of design is that it's functional. That's what distinguishes it from art.

I'm 42 and my eyesight is NOT what it used to be so games like FE3H are hard for me to read

Some on here I’ve personally had no issues with but a game that springs to my mind is Xenoblade Chronicles x on wiiu. I’m sure that was a problem.

This is actually a huge problem, comfort is important and playing a game shouldn't make you physically uncomfortable trying to read tiny text.

The newly released Hades has tiny and borderline unreadable text too, at least on the Switch Lite.

Screwing over your colleague on the same dev team because you think your graphic design matters more than the writers efforts. What kind of jerk does this?

Also, don't all these developers go through multiple screenings of quality assurance? Why even have testers if they overlook extremely BASIC MUNDANE stuff like this?

Having said that, my compliments and thanks to Beamdog, who ported Baldurs Gate to the Switch.

Ys: Lacrimosa of Dana is quite unreadable in portable mode.

And Remothered is horrible to read on TV.

@mjharper

The tiny text was a big reason I put down X for a long time. Even on a 50 inch tv it was frustrating to read, especially when large chunks of the game do not feature voiceover.

I find it very annoying as well how so many of the examples in this post have huge negative spaces in their text boxes on top of the hard to read text. It isn't even very appealing from a graphic design standpoint.

The game that made me realise I needed glasses when I was tired is the Witcher 3 on PS4. I had to get up from the sofa to see anything when my eyes got tired. Not sure how it is on the Switch.

@Clamango @Mathieu_B @Ralizah I'm a huge FE fan, but actually sold FE3H because there was just too much going on in a small space. Don't have a problem with the GBA/DS FE games though. I just put it down to the fact I'm getting older, but reassuring to know it's a common complaint.

Where's saved you a click when you need him

You can add BattleWorld: Kronos to the list as well.

I've had issues with Diablo 3. In fact I've use the double-tap-home zoom so regularly that I don't even think about doing it anymore.

Adventure pals has got very small text that i have to squint to try and read but can't quite manage

As someone who is severely sight impaired, I've been tripped up a few times with tiny text on Switch games in portable mode. Fire Emblem: Three Houses was the worst offender, personally. I absolutely adored the game but had no choice but to play it on TV (43-inch, which I'm literally sat a foot away from) and even then I struggled. I've also steered away from Darkest Dungeon because even though it is absolutely something I would love, after seeing the screenshots on the eShop I was like "what's the point? I'm not going to be able to read any of this".

In fact, looking at this list, I've struggled with a lot of them. Fire Emblem, Skyrim, DQB2, Hollow Knight, Hyrule/Fire Emblem Warriors, MK11, MUA3, Octopath Traveler, Minecraft, Team Sonic Racing and Warframe have all given me real issues; some only in portable, some on my TV.

Picked up Big Pharma the other day as it's got such a big discount at the moment. I can hardly read the text on my 40" TV!

Not Tonight should be added to this list.

Where did I put my GameBoy magnifier?

The zoom feature has been extremely helpful for me since day 1. I'm surprised how many of my friends aren't aware of this feature. (Same with the bonking noise on the lock screen)

Rocket league is fine in handheld mode but the text is tiny on a TV screen and not because you're further away, it's smaller in relation to the screen size.

I absolutely hate this trend of tiny text. I find it almost impossible to play most games even with corrective lenses. Another sore spot is the total lack of colorblindness modes. I can't see a flashing yellow over white text, makes it impossible to navigate most game menus. I can't see blue from yellow, Dr. Mario and Undertale are unplayable not to mention countless others. I just don't get why developers don't implement the most contrast heavy options.

I suggest adding Faeria to the list. The prompts are especially inscrutable in handheld mode. Thank goodness for the zoom feature in the Switch OS.

That said, I really enjoy Faeria despite this issue. And despite the mandatory online connection. The core game appeals to me that much, even as a single-player experience.

This is one of the reasons I found playing Witcher 3 difficult. I really wish that there was more done to enhance the size of fonts in gaming.

I'd add:
Genetic Disaster - virtually impossible to read in handheld, even with my glasses on.
Hand of Fate 2 - the text is not only small, but low contrast which makes it even harder to read than it should be.
Hades - some of the text is fine, but the descriptions of boons can be difficult to read - I have to play this one early in the morning when I'm not tired.

I am visually impaired so the small text in games feels like a middle finger to me.

Thanks for mentioning that feature. I have pretty bad eyes and I was not aware of that.

This problem also plagues other console I do not understand why.

Helpful post, some of the text was requiring me to hold the Switch up to my nose to read it...even more of an argument for why do I need what seems like these 2 inch black bars for frames around my screen.........

Yeah, basically all the games I like have text too tiny for Switch. And the worst part is a third of those are made for Switch!! I don't get it.

But this is why I use a monitor, not a TV, for any console. TVs are too far away. No rest for the myopic!

The Flame in the Flood is a very fun game but I can't keep playing for too long cause of its tiny text. Hopefully, text size calibration ends up being a standard feature from now on, especially on the Switch.

I had some issues with some text in Dragon Quest XI S. It has voice acting but the tutorial text boxes are tiny

Warframe was the biggest offender for me. The game is far from accessible anyway and having to deal with the small text makes it almost impossible to play despite being hugely enjoyable at parts.

EDIT: I take it back. Remembering further Doom 2016 was the worst. I couldn’t even make out the multiplayer options and practically just guessed my way through the menus.

The Escapists 2, Worms W.M.D., Thea 2 the Awakening , For the King, Banner Saga all have super small font as well.
I think it would be easier to make a list of games with a comfortable font size on Switch tbh.

BioShock Infinite. Ugh.

I've never thought about the small text, although I have seen it before.

That's quite a list...

I have serious vision problems and it's been a real struggle on the Switch. FE3H and DQB2 have been the worst offenders. The Zoom function does help a lot, but it's very annoying to have to pause and zoom in.

@mjharper I came to the comments to say exactly that. Xenoblade Chronicles X for the Wii U was the only game I remember that made me struggle with the text size.
No, really, if they ever re-release it on the Switch it's the first thing they should put in the presentation video.

https://i.imgur.com/R5MGdTW.jpg

I realized this was an issue when I went back to replay Xenoblade Chronicles X. The first time I used the gamepad without issue, but the second time I needed the TV. Part of it was my eyes got older and needed a prescription, but there was a lot of text crammed on there.

Outside of classic SNES games and Picross, I am pretty much a TV gamer now. I don’t get why Nintendo especially hasn’t made their games adaptive to which mode the switch is in.

If the text is that small, just get a bigger television!! Switch is a home console, and home consoles are made to be played at HOME, thus on a television, so if you can't see the text, just get a bigger television. Simple solution, don't need to waste time writing an article about needing a bigger television!

Realpolitiks is another

You can add Civilization VI to that list. One of the first games I bought when I got my Switch Lite and, sadly, pretty much unplayable for me.

I’m very surprised that Nintendo didn’t make it a compulsory design feature for games going through QA for Switch to have either font scaling, or automatic switching when in docked or handheld mode. The flip side of this is that some games designed with handheld use in mind don’t look their best when on a big TV.

@Yanina I'm happy to give up some superficial aesthetics if it means people with eyesight not as sharp as my own can comfortably play a game.

@hotgamer77 not everyone has the space or resources to simply 'buy a bigger tv'. They have already forked out hundreds for the switch itself and it's games, it is up to the company to make changes to be sure these games are actually playable to the majority of its customers. And you only need to look at the above comments to see this text issue effects a large number of players.

Crysis Remastered (even with glasses on) is totally unplayable for me!

SteamWorld Dig and SteamWorld Heist are also games I struggle with.

It still surprises me that it's not standard practice to design Switch games with handheld in mind, either with a large enough interface that can be read comfortably on the small screen, or through a feature that automatically detects if the Switch is docked or handheld and adjusts the interface accordingly.

What's really surprising is to open up my 3DS and note how large and easily readable the text is despite the screen being half the size!

This is what made me stop playing Darkest Dungeon. Well, that and just the interface in general. This game was designed clearly for PC-users only.

Yeah this has been a problem for a while due to the way games these days are developed around large high resolution TV's and monitors. A lot of developers fail to enlarge their UI for a small handheld screen. I always avoid buying games where being able to read UI elements is a big deal if they don't make the proper adjustments.

A wild article about games having small text appears, proceeds to name half my switch library as offenders. I never even noticed, because most of the time I play in handheld and now that I've got a new tv I feel like docking my switch places a blue tint on everything (this could just be BoTW though).

I completely disagree with Astral Chain being in that list.
I wear glasses for reading and, even when I forgot them, I never had a problem with text in any play configuration.

Can't say I've had switch issue but Xenoblade X on Wii U was impossible!

So much b*tching... Do what I do... Games got small text or anything that bothers YOU. Return the game and get your money back... There's much better things to do with your time than waste it... Jeez

Since when did Minecraft have text problems? Minecraft dungeons maybe. But not Minecraft itself. The text is fine for me on handheld mode!

58 year old eyes here... Switch has been a huge letdown for me because of small text. I still prefer my 3DS since those games were designed for small screens. On a TV, still, many games are unplayable for me except on my 65" TV in the living room. My 43" in the bedroom doesn't cut it. I don't like the whole tiny text movement on my PC games either. It's ridiculous!

@dartmonkey Late to the party, but Hades is also hard on the eyes in handheld mode.