DLSS at 30 FPS, Zero XP Grinding, and Enemies That Stay Dead: How The Relic: First Guardian Plays on Nintendo Switch 2
After debuting on PC and PlayStation 5 in late July followed by Xbox Series X|S in September, the dark fantasy Action-RPG from South Korean indie studio Project Cloud Games and publisher Perp Games is now testing its mettle on hybrid hardware. Following The Relic: First Guardian launch on Nintendo Switch 2 at $34.99 (weighing 11.2 GB on version 1.0.1), the port highlights a fascinating clash between bold genre-breaking mechanics and handheld technical concessions.
A 30-Hour Soulslike With Zero XP Grinding Where Defeated Enemies Never Respawn
Set across the ruined lands of Arsilthus after the shattering of the Great Relic unleashes the Void, players step into the armor of the last Guardian to hunt down more than 80 bosses and mutated elite foes known as Brutals. Rather than blindly copying every punishing trope of the genre across its 30-hour campaign, Project Cloud Games rewires three core rules of combat and progression.
First, swinging any of the five weapon classes (dual daggers, longsword, colossal greatsword, sword and shield, or battle staff) costs zero stamina. The stamina bar is strictly reserved for defensive dodges, blocks, and parries, while magical abilities ditch traditional mana bars in favor of lengthy cooldown timers and crystal-unlocked weapon skill trees.
Second, resting at saving stones restores health without ever resurrecting defeated enemies across the semi-open world. Dying also leaves no corpse run behind: players immediately keep all their gear and currency upon respawning, losing only the consumable items spent during the failed attempt.
However, that mercy comes with a sharp catch: traditional experience points and character level-ups do not exist. Because enemies stay dead and grant no XP, players cannot brute-force a tough boss by grinding stats; character growth relies entirely on equipping over 70 collectible Relic shards that grant passive effects such as health recovery on kills.
DLSS Upscaling at 30 FPS, Scaled-Back Particles, and Tiny Handheld Text on Switch 2
Under the hood on Nintendo Switch 2, the port leans heavily on DLSS upscaling to preserve armor detail and dense foliage, a recurring technical balancing act across recent Action-RPG ports on Nintendo Switch 2. While the build targets a 30 FPS cap, uneven frame pacing still introduces occasional input sluggishness during tight boss evasions.
To keep the game running on Nintendo's hybrid hardware, combat particle effects have been pared down noticeably and several environmental textures exhibit an unnatural metallic sheen across Arsilthus's gray-and-red palette. Character models during NPC dialogues also show their indie budget with static facial expressions juxtaposed against exaggerated arm gestures, even though every tragic side story inspired by Korean folklore features full voice acting.
In handheld mode, one interface oversight stands out immediately: menu descriptions and lore notes use tiny fonts with no accessibility slider to scale up text size on the portable screen. Combined with cramped boss arenas where the camera can get pinned against walls and environmental hazards like explosive barrels fail to reset after death, the Switch 2 edition would greatly benefit from a targeted quality-of-life patch from Project Cloud Games.
My Take
I genuinely admire how Project Cloud Games dared to strip out XP grinding and enemy respawns in a 30-hour dark fantasy Action-RPG. Removing the safety net of over-leveling forces you to actually engage with the 70+ Relic shards and respect magic cooldowns, while cutting out tedious corpse runs makes exploring Arsilthus far more respectful of your time.
At the same time, playing on Nintendo Switch 2 makes it clear that this $34.99 port needs a dedicated polish pass. Fixing the tiny handheld text size, smoothing out the 30 FPS frame pacing, and tightening the camera inside enclosed Brutal arenas would go a long way toward letting its Korean folklore tales shine on the go.
Based on the outskirts of New York City, Chaya 'Chayane' spent five years studying software engineering in Montreal before returning to her home state. A Full-Stack developer and Deep Learning AI architecture researcher, she explores neural networks and algorithmic optimization while engineering data pipelines for Retrocharting and Gamescharting alongside Grimtag. A gamer for over 20 years and an avid collector of Nintendo history and The Legend of Zelda, she explored World of Warcraft's Azeroth before bringing her deep technical background to video game analysis.
