Kena Bridge Of Spirits Nintendo Switch 2 Review – Rot & Rebuilding
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a gorgeous story-driven adventure where you play as a young Spirit Guide trying to heal a corrupted village. You’ll explore a massive, colourful 3D world, solving puzzles and battling dark spirits with the help of tiny, cute creatures called the Rot. The presentation is top-tier, making the world feel alive as you work to restore colour to the land.
Developer: Ember Lab
Publisher: Ember Lab
Genre: Action-Adventure
Release Date: March 26, 2026
Website: emberlab.com
UK Store: Nintendo eShop UK
Quick Nav: Specs & HUD |
Gameplay Review |
Performance & Fidelity |
Settings & Controls
Kena Bridge Of Spirits Nintendo Switch 2 Review: Specs & HUD
- 13.2GB Download size.
- Tutorial pop-ups as you play, and you get button prompts.
- Spirit masks are used to show objectives, interactive points, and Rot.
- Ledges are highlighted to help with grabbing and climbing around the world.
- The map fills in with collectables and points of interest as you explore. You have a clear checklist of collectables and secrets to find on the map.
- Pulse is used to highlight the way, show up, and icons and lettering in the world and also activate any Rot actions.
- UI scaling slider, subtitle size, and subtitle background opacity options.
Gameplay Review & Mechanics Breakdown
Adventure gameplay is the core here. Unlock new abilities with karma earned from rebuilding the world, playing the story, and using the Rot. The combat is hack and slash, but having the lock on makes it a lot easier, and it does flow well; you can dodge and cast a bubble to block. Combat allows you to lock on, dodge, and do heavy and light attacks. Rot are the little creatures you collect and follow you around. You can interact with them and use them to interact with the environment. Honestly, to me, the Rot is a mix of Tamagotchi and Pikmin.
When enemies spawn, they cause the Rot to run away. Attacking enemies will raise their courage and allow you to use Rot actions. Courage can drop and charge up the meter faster. Build courage by fighting for the Rot, and they then, in turn, help you by allowing you to use one of their powers. Rot can be used quickly or by aiming and firing. Karma is earned from killing enemies and is used like EXP, level up, and getting new abilities. Puzzle elements throughout. Rots can be customised with collected/bought hats/outfits, etc. Gems are the currency of the game.
Watching in real time how the rot cleanses the darkness of the world and brings colour into the light, along with changing the layout, is such a joy to behold. As you take out the hearts, you will restore life and colour to the land. Forest tears temporarily restore your Rot to their original form, and it’s cool, as in this form, they can clear corruption and fight enemies for you. Forest Tears will temporarily bring all the Rot together, and you control them with the right stick, doing attacks to clear thorns and corruption. Every location has a checklist of Collectables. Find warp points to enable fast travel around the world. Cursed chests can be found, and these trigger little combat sequences.
Includes all the DLC. Spirit Guide Trials is a new game mode challenging players’ skills with a variety of replayable challenges across three different categories: Obstacle Courses, Wave Defences, and Boss Reflects. Completing the Spirit Guide Trials unlocks outfits, and doing the bonus objectives within each trial can unlock colour variations of each outfit. New game plus allows you to start again, but with all your abilities intact. You can interact with the robot and get it to sneeze, kiss, stand up, and dance if you like. I lost so much time to the game as I just got absorbed all over again, despite finishing it before, I can never say no to another run through. The game is so vibrant and engaging to play, and being able to whack headphones on and escape is the true experience.
Kena Bridge Of Spirits Nintendo Switch 2 Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Gorgeous graphics and a beautiful, colourful 3D game world full of beautiful locations.
- Film-quality cutscenes mixed with some in-game character interactions.
- Excellent voice work and music that plays apart with little sound effects to indicate when a Rot or danger is nearby.
- The game runs and performs really well, so much so that I forgot it was a Nintendo Switch 2 game; it rivals all versions.
- Full photo mode.
- There aren’t loads of blood and gore in the game; the presentation is like a Disney film.
- The slowdown is in places, but it’s generally in built-up areas or when fire or water is plentiful.
- You can see the change in quality between the rendered cutscenes and the in-game cutscenes.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- Graphics settings – motion blur intensity slider and gamma.
- Accessibility: follow camera, combat camera assist, attack camera assist, automatically lock on, automatically sprint, toggle aim, toggle held ability inputs, automatically focus aimed arrow, and hold input to skip cutscenes.
- Controller settings – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders, rebind controls for both the keyboard and the controller buttons.
- Five difficulties: story, apprentice spirit, spirit, expert spirit, and master spirit.
- Audio sliders for cutscenes, dialogue, music, sound effects, and master volume.
- Third-person view, and you have full 360-degree camera controls.
- Save and load when you want from the pause menu.
- Health heals automatically outside of combat; heal in combat by getting your Rot to hit plants.
- Unskippable opening intro and cutscenes.
- Managing the Rot and getting them to do actions is fiddly and not something you can do quickly.
- When using the spirit mask, you cannot move around and swapping between the mask and the game is just slow enough to be a pain.
- Controlling the rot for sighting is generally awkward; the camera goes all over the place, judging hits is tricky, and altogether it can get messy.
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Kena Bridge Of Spirits Nintendo Switch 2 Review
Summary
THRILLS & HIGHLIGHTS:
Gorgeous graphics and a beautiful, colourful 3D game world full of beautiful locations make this a joy. Rebuilding the world and watching in real time how the rot cleanses the darkness of the world and brings colour into the light, along with changing the layout, is such a joy to behold. The combat is hack and slash, but having the lock on makes it a lot easier, and it does flow well, and those film-quality cutscenes are top-tier. Excellent voice work, and the Rot being a mix of Tamagotchi and Pikmin really hits the spot. The game runs and performs really well, so much so that I forgot it was a Nintendo Switch 2 game; it rivals all versions. Being able to whack headphones on and escape is the true experience.
KEY NEGATIVES:
Unskippable opening intro and cutscenes start things off on the wrong foot. The first hour is slow-paced and it takes a while to become familiar. The slowdown in places, generally in built-up areas or when fire or water is plentiful, is a bit of a drag. Not always clear where to go or what to do, and it’s slow to open chests and barrels. At times, it feels scripted, and you have no control over it and any sort of choice doesn’t matter. Managing the Rot and getting them to do actions is fiddly and not something you can do quickly. When using the spirit mask, you cannot move around and swapping between the mask and the game is just slow enough to be a pain. Controlling the rot for sighting is generally awkward; the camera goes all over the place, judging hits is tricky, and altogether it can get messy. No in-game achievements system either.
OVERALL VERDICT:
Kena: Bridge of Spirits on the Switch 2 is a total cracker despite the few technical niggles and fiddly controls. Its presentation and general atmosphere are that of a Disney film in many ways, and I lost so much time to the game as I just got absorbed all over again. Despite finishing it before, I can never say no to another run through. It’s a vibrant, engaging adventure that looks and plays brilliantly on the new hardware. If you want to see the land restore life and colour while playing with your customisable Rot squad, this is a must-play. Just be prepared for a slow start and some awkward camera moments when the action gets heavy.
