Kena: Bridge of Spirits interview: dev talks Nintendo Switch 2 port, frame rate, more

March was a pretty big month for new Nintendo Switch 2 releases, and that included a port of Kena: Bridge of Spirits. This was the first time that the action adventure game was made available on a Nintendo system.

We were recently given the opportunity to speak with Josh Grier, chief operating officer at Ember Lab, to learn more about what it was like bringing the title over to Nintendo Switch 2. Grier touched on the technical process as well as other topics like the game’s frame rate, the possibility of a physical release, and more.

Our full discussion can be found below.

Something we’re curious about: did Ember Lab ever consider a port of the game during the Switch 1 era or was that something the studio deemed wouldn’t be technically possible?

We experimented a bit with the original Switch, but at the time we didn’t have the bandwidth to pursue a full port. Once the Switch 2 was announced, we felt that was a great opportunity to bring Kena to an exciting new platform.

This was Ember Lab’s first time working on a game for Nintendo hardware. How was the experience overall? Were there any hurdles the team needed to overcome?

Overall it was a great experience! Our partners at Nintendo were very supportive and helpful in getting us set up with development hardware. Every platform has their own way of doing things and it was great to have guidance along the way. The biggest challenge was optimizing for the platform while still maintaining as much of the artistic direction of the game as possible.

Can you touch on what the porting process was like from a technical standpoint? What sort of changes did you make to get the game to a point you were happy with on the system?

From a technical standpoint a lot of our effort was around pushing the optimization of our content pipelines. We revisited and fine-tuning our LOD thresholds and optimizing texture memory usage. HLODs were another area we spent time refining further to reduce draw calls and improve rendering performance.

We also increased our use of billboards, particularly for distant environmental elements, to reduce geometry costs and streaming overhead without noticeable visual impact.

Since there are a lot of them on the screen we also optimized the Rot characters and animations. It was a detailed process because we had to preserve their personality and charm while minimizing the complexity of the assets.

How do you feel about Nintendo Switch 2 from a hardware perspective? As a developer who has a lot of experience to the PS5, how do you feel Nintendo’s system holds up / compares?

The Switch 2 is great because it gives players the flexibility to enjoy games on the go in handheld mode. It was a pleasure working with the platform, and we learned a lot throughout the process. We’re excited about the opportunity to create more experiences on the Switch 2 in the future!

Can you clarify how the game uses DLSS? There’s been speculation that the Nintendo Switch 2 version uses a “lighter” version of the tech.

The game does use DLSS for upscaling. There are a variety of presets that are available for developers to use. In our case we chose settings that best achieved our visual goals while still maintaining our performance target.

Other Nintendo Switch 2 games have been offering a 40 FPS mode. Would that be at all possible at all for this one, and if so, could that happen with an update?

It might be possible but would have some compromises on visual quality. In this case we felt the additional frame rate was not worth the sacrifices we would have to make on the overall presentation of the experience.

On the topic of updates, are there any plans for patches? Could we see any further graphical improvements or additions such as gyro aiming?

We’re keeping an eye on the player experiences now that the game has launched on Switch 2. We want to make sure the experience is satisfying for all players. We will definitely take player feedback into account for any future patches that are within our scope.

Many of our readers are big on collecting, so we have to ask: are there any plans to offer a physical version of the game in the future?

We’ve definitely heard there’s an interest in a physical release and we were very happy to do that for the initial PlayStation launch. We’re still weighing out our future efforts, but it’s always good to hear what fans are excited about!

Now that Kena is on Nintendo Switch 2, some fans are wondering if we’ll be seeing the sequel on the system at some point as well. Could this end up happening at some point?

We’re focused on developing the sequel for PS5 and PC.

Back in 2016, Ember Lab created the Zelda: Majora’s Mask Terrible Fate fan film. Given the studio’s origins, would you be interested in working on the series if Nintendo granted the team access to the Zelda IP? Do you have any ideas that you’d implement for a new game?

We love the Zelda series at the studio. It was a major inspiration for so many of us when we were kids, and each installment continues to inspire us now that we’re making games ourselves. Making the Terrible Fate fan film was truly a labor of love, and we’re so glad we could share it with so many other Zelda fans. We’ve currently got our hands full with the sequel to our Spirit Guide’s adventure in Kena: Scars of Kosmora, releasing later this year, but if an opportunity came along to create something in the Zelda world, I have to say that would be quite exciting.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is currently available on the Nintendo eShop. We have a trailer for the game here.