We've got a soft spot for Kena: Bridge of Spirits - it's a visually lavish game with meticulous animation, dense foliage, beguiling characters and some of the best real-time cutscenes we've seen. Developer Ember Lab used to operate in the movie business - and it shows. With all of this in mind, we put our own money down to check out the quality of the recently released Switch 2 version. We were expecting or hoping for an accomplished port that sits between PS4 and PS5 visuals, but the end result is a touch disappointing.

For example, we would have hoped to have seen a 60 frames per second performance, Kena remains a 30fps endeavour in both docked and handheld modes. That's a bit of a problem as combat and traversal have a timing-driven feel and there's the sense that the game even feels heavy compared to the PS5's 30fps quality mode. Of course you adjust to it, but it never feels quite right.

The pill would be easier to swallow if the port retained more of the visual charm of the PlayStation 5 version, but again, Kena comes up short. When playing docked, Switch 2 runs internally with an 864p resolution, seemingly using the "tiny" DLSS upscaler. Compare and contrast with the base PS4 running at 1080p with TAA, with PS5 pushing higher still. It's unrealistic to expect PS5 quality visuals, but the surprise here is that there are cutbacks compared to the PS4 version, with foliage density the most obvious compromise.

Image quality is a bit of a mixed bag - an observation that can be applied to the "lite" version of DLSS more generally. It can produce a reasonably sharp, readable image and in those scenarios, the game can look cleaner than PS4. However, the compromises are more obvious in motion: camera pans, character motion and areas with fine detail reveal instability and break-up that isn't visible on the last-gen Sony console.

The characteristic "fang"-like artefacts seen on several "tiny" DLSS games present here as well. It's not disastrous by any stretch, but it's clearly not as robust as the DLSS CNN model seen in Cyberpunk 2077 and Resident Evil Requiem.

There can be other oddities. An early cutscene reveals noticeably different exposure and stripped back effects on Switch 2 compared to the PlayStation games. However, later sequences are much closer to the reference material - so more a case of an inconsistent implementation as opposed to a "downgrade". That said, when the game isn't looking quite right, those off-looking moments do stand out.

docked
Handheld mode is cutback from the docked experience - but playing the game on the go is this version's unique selling point.

Handheld mode is Switch 2's unique selling point and it's generally fine - albeit conceptually as opposed to technically. A native 540p is fed into DLSS Lite with further cuts to foliage. The 30fps play, traversal hitches and temporal instability remain but they're less noticeable on a smaller screen. A game of this visual calibre running on a handheld is compelling - so if you are set on the Switch 2 port, portable play makes the most sense.

Many of the Switch 2 conversions we've seen have been very successful, with intelligent nips and tucks to gracefully bring current-gen and cross-gen titles to Nintendo's latest console hybrid. Kena: Bridge of Spirits doesn't convincingly out-class the PS4 version, there's no support for a 40fps mode, while the DLSS Lite implementation reveals more weaknesses than strengths.

The core art, animation, and direction still shine through - Ember Lab’s work is too strong for that to be lost - but what could have been a Switch 2 "moment" is instead a slightly disappointing, serviceable conversion that feels like a missed opportunity.