If you picked up Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness on Switch 2 and noticed something felt off about your saves, you weren't imagining things. A significant bug was causing players to lose substantial progress, with some reporting losses of five hours or more - and in worst-case scenarios, people were reportedly at risk of losing over ten hours of playtime.
The issue has since been fixed, according to a report from GamesRadar, bringing some much-needed relief to players who had jumped back into this GameCube-era spinoff. Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness originally launched in 2005 and follows on from Pokemon Colosseum, centering on the Shadow Pokemon mechanic where you purify corrupted Pokemon rather than catching wild ones.
Community reaction was exactly what you'd expect
The bug hit the community hard, with players venting frustration across forums and social media. Responses like "This happened to me! 5 hours gone!" summed up the mood pretty well - nobody wants to replay hours of content they already cleared, especially in an RPG where progression is the whole point.
Losing save data is one of the most demoralizing things that can happen to a player mid-playthrough. For a re-release of a nearly 20-year-old game, running into a critical save bug like this isn't a great look, particularly when players are specifically returning to experience nostalgia or discover the title for the first time.
Re-releases need to get the basics right
This situation highlights a recurring problem with classic game ports and re-releases - technical issues that wouldn't have existed in the original hardware environment can slip through QA when titles are moved to new platforms. The Switch 2 is still a relatively new ecosystem, and developers are still ironing out platform-specific quirks.
The good news is the fix is out, so anyone who held off on diving in can now do so with more confidence. If you did lose progress before the patch dropped, that's a tough break - but at least the path forward is clear. Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness remains one of the more underappreciated entries in the franchise, and it deserves to be experienced without save-wiping anxiety hanging over the whole run.
