This modder stuffed a Nintendo Switch Lite with 8GB RAM and got Final Fantasy VII Remake running on it

Final Fantasy VII Remake made its Switch 2 debut earlier this year, and it did so with style. For Nintendo Switch owners, though, that was a bitter pill to swallow, since the remake never came to the original handheld. And that would have remained the case had modder Naga not decided to put his skills to work to achieve this impressive feat.

Naga detailed the creation of a Nintendo Switch Lite "Pro" in a new video spotted by Wccftech, showing the PC version of Final Fantasy VII Remake running on the modified handheld. Even with the performance overhead of the Box64 and Wine translation layer required to run a PC game on an ARM system, the results looked plausible.

The modifications behind it are straightforward enough. Naga upgraded the Switch Lite's RAM from 4GB to 8GB, swapped in a 256GB eMMC storage card, and fitted a Super OLED screen. The result is a custom Nintendo Switch Lite that can handle both native and emulated games.

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The Switch Lite Pro ran The Witcher 3 at 45 FPS at native 720p, handled PlayStation 3 emulation with Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX, tackled Wii U emulation with The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, and pulled off PS Vita emulation with Gravity Rush, Ratchet and Clank, and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time.

Final Fantasy VII Remake itself ran in the 20-30 FPS range, which puts it in playable but not pretty territory. Textures failed to load at certain points during the demo, but the fact that it ran at all is an impressive feat, given the hardware limitations and the translation layer it runs through.

While the modded Switch Lite likely can't run Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, this project highlights how hardware tweaks can make seemingly impossible ports work. Luckily, Nintendo Switch 2 players will get the chance to play the second entry in the remake trilogy this June.