Last week in a really brief trailer, we were given our first look at Stellar Blade running on Nintendo Switch 2, and it looked pretty impressive. Hitting 60 fps and utilizing DLSS to produce a clean image, it seemed that developer Shift Up was able to utilize some of the unique features of the Switch 2 to good effect. Seeking to clarify some of the technical details, Nintendo Everything spoke to Shift Up CTO DongKi Lee and learned that this new port will be utilizing a mixture of DLSS and AMD FSR 3.1 to create the final image output, which fills me with some doubt.
Speaking about how the Switch 2’s implementation of DLSS doesn’t feature frame generation support, Lee said, “What we did was we take AMD’s FSR 3.1 for PC and used the feature called frame interpolation to achieve the target for 60 frames per second. We use DLSS for upscaling, and then took the result we got and used frame interpolation from FSR 3.1 to be able to target 60 frames per second.” Essentially, Stellar Blade is running at 30 fps, but then uses frame interpolation to create a 60 fps look.
As someone who has access to Nvidia’s RTX 5080 card, I can tell you that AMD’s version of frame generation doesn’t work great. In practice, it’s basically like applying the motion smoothing technology your TV has to an image, meaning you still get the feel of 30 fps, but the image looks smoother. That means input latency will still be heavy, and the game will feel laggy despite running smoother. Nvidia was able to get around that by including bespoke hardware to create additional frames, though the newer “multi-frame generation” tech is basically the same thing as AMD’s implementation and feels awful.
There was likely nothing Shift Up could do to get 60 fps, though. The Switch 2 isn’t supremely powerful, but it can punch above its weight thanks to upscaling tech. We’ll just have to wait and see how Stellar Blade feels when it finally releases later this year.
When will Stellar Blade release on Switch 2?
Shift Up hasn’t revealed when Stellar Blade will be hitting Switch 2, but it’s on track for a late 2026 release. Dubbed “Complete Edition,” it will include both the Nier Automata and Nikke collaboration packs, which mostly add new costumes and a single boss fight. Joy-Con 2 support is said to bring an “extra layer of immersion” to the experience, though I’m not sure how that will be implemented.
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New Switch 2 footage of Stellar Blade shows an impressive conversion for Nintendo’s handheld
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
