Bite Sized Reviews: Sephonie Switch Port
Welcome back to Bite Sized Reviews: my ‘rebranded’ Indie Corner series, so to speak! Still got a lot happening behind the scenes, and I’m playing far too many games. I’m not sure how the Gaming Gods expect me to sleep with the likes of Starfield and Phantom Liberty just around the corner, but I’m sure we’ll manage!
I apologize in advance for no personal screenshots this time: as I was playing on the Switch I was unable to take any in the time allocated, so I’m using press assets instead.
I played a little bit of Sephonie back when it first launched last year — a charming platformer with plenty to offer. Unfortunately, it never made my review lists simply to me running out of time due to gaming backlogs. While it holds very positive reviews, it remains an under-appreciated gem even amongst the indie scene. I expected Sephonie to grab more people. Boasting beautiful graphics, a powerful story and some intelligent puzzles, it’s a great game for any fan of the genre. Made by the wonderful devs who brought us the Anodyne games, they made a banger here.
Fortunately, Sephonie received a port to the Nintendo Switch on July 9th of this year — a move that should go a long way to gather more attention. Big thanks to the PR team at PR Hound for providing me with a review code. I’ve been enjoying a second wind with my Nintendo Switch over the past six months. While I bought the beautiful OLED model early 2022, it wasn’t until the launch of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet later that year when I appreciated how great the Switch is.
Fast forward to this summer, and I’ve put in a ton of time on my Switch. Between Pokemon Scarlet, Tears of the Kingdom, Sephonie, and a slew of random sale pickups, it’s been a wild ride. Fortunately, Sephonie is one of the better Switch ports I’ve played on the console. We’ve seen some real stinker ports, most notably the Pillars of Eternity one. That annoyed me, especially when it was abandoned.
Sephonie has no such problems — and while it might not be as definitive as it is on PC, playing it on the Nintendo Switch has been pleasant enough. The controls are perfect, and the options provide players with several accessibility features. Easy puzzles? Sure thing, that’s possible! While the puzzles are unique and refreshing, I do not have a brain for puzzles, so after the first couple of humiliations, I toggled this setting on and never looked back. I’m playing Sephonie for the story and platforming, not to bang my head against puzzles! It’s nice to have this option available. It’s a title I wish launched on the Nintendo Switch alongside the PC version. It’s the kind of game.
While Sephonie is a great achievement, it does carry over some of the jank from the PC version onto the Nintendo Switch. The framerate was reasonable — you won’t find any major issues on performance, although I hit a few hitches when transitioning into new scenes. This was rare, however, and did not detract from my enjoyment of the game. Smaller things such as clipping into terrain are also present. It’s fine, although I wish this stuff got fixed.
In conclusion, Sephonie is a great addition to the Nintendo Switch. While it could have done with some important bugfixes, this is still a decent port all round, and a fantastic puzzle platformer.