In an ocean of recent action-platformers, it’d be straightforward to miss Tales of Kenzera: Zau, however casting it away with out a second thought can be a mistake. It is a brief, candy side-scrolling motion sport impressed by the numerous, many youngsters of Metroid and Castlevania. It’s stuffed with crunchy fight and springy platforming, all of which is enjoyable if not groundbreaking in a style the place others appear to boost the bar regularly. However most significantly, its the touching love letter from a grieving son to their deceased father, informed in intelligent and shifting allegories about sending stressed spirits to the afterlife, that helps it stand out within the pack.
The largest first impression Tales of Kenzera makes is how nice it appears to be like. With a daring coloration palette and dynamic environments like lush jungles and rolling hills, discovering a screenshot of this sport that appears something lower than stunning would take an act from a spiteful god. Although a few of the human characters have clunky or stilted animations, the monsters you’ll combat transfer with a supernatural gait that’s becoming for stressed spirits, but in addition helpful for clearly figuring out when to assault and when to dodge.
Tales of Kenzera’s African inspirations don’t cease at its appears to be like. Its story of a shaman named Zau that should usher stressed spirits into the after life – itself being informed as a narrative inside a narrative concerning the lack of a beloved one – is wealthy with parables about surviving by grief. It is a widespread chorus in a lot of the ancestor-worshiping mythology of Central and East African folks, the place demise, although painful, is usually a ceremony of passage. Moreover being a strong illustration of a tradition that goes under-represented in fiction exterior of royal cats preventing over house rocks, it is also a particularly private story a couple of son shedding his dad, impressed by director Abubakar Salim’s personal relationship along with his late father. The easy, delicate, and poignant manner Tales of Kenzera speaks to loss is one that can stick with me lengthy after any particular platforming sections or enemies fade from reminiscence.
That is partially due to how effectively every of its three large sections entwine the precise sport mechanics with these bigger themes – for example, the important thing capacity gained throughout a bit that entails climbing a volcanically energetic mountain to chase the Nice Spirit of Humanity is one which lets your indomitable human will run by partitions like a charging bull. However its additionally efficient due to how effectively written and acted the sparse forged of characters is, particularly Zau himself and Kalunga, the God of Loss of life who’s extra sensible uncle than Grim Reaper.
Alternatively, the motion of this roughly six-hour journey by the unique land of Kenzera meets fashionable Metroidvania requirements, however hardly ever exceeds them. Every zone is jam filled with platforming sequences that don’t actually check your reflexes or talents, except some non-obligatory sections that restrict checkpoints and push the tempo for some form of reward. I loved all the dashing, diving, and wall leaping in Tales of Kenzera, particularly a mid-game chase by a shadowy pocket dimension – however there are only a few moments that stand out like this, not to mention when in comparison with the spectacular areas of contemporaries like Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown.
There’s a definite lack of collectible chasing in Tales of Kenzera, too. That may bum out people who benefit from the treasure looking side of Metroidvanias, however I fairly loved the commerce off of getting to do a lot much less backtracking by winding paths I’ve already explored. And a few findables do exist like Echoes, that are voice notes for unexplored lore bits, I simply didn’t really feel a lot incentive to stay round any explicit place merely to seek out them. Approachability appears to be the primary focus right here, and I believe Tales of Kenzera succeeds in that regard.
Fight is easy however satisfyingly fast and impactful. Zau’s shaman masks grant him powers of the moon and the solar, which have ranged and melee focuses, respectively. You possibly can swap forwards and backwards between them immediately to adapt to no matter an encounter requires, often breaking color-coded shields to open monsters up for large injury. As a fan of Housemarque’s Outland from 2014, I used to be completely happy to see this mechanic return in an advanced and extra refined type. The moon and solar additionally produce other distinctive utilities, be it taking pictures hovering enemies or speeding down ground-based baddies.
Enemy selection is moderately small, however the monsters are all fairly totally different from each other, and they’re launched at a gradual tempo. That features issues just like the tanky Ngao thats close to invulnerable head on, or the bug-like Adze that drains life from all creatures within the space, good friend or foe. Within the later half of the marketing campaign, the synergies between these enemies add an additional problem that’s not at all controller-breaking, however nonetheless intelligent sufficient to power tactical pondering and prioritization.
Zau doesn’t have many abilities to select from, and the ability tree itself is proscribed, however after the primary tier of upgrades I didn’t really feel like I used to be really lacking out on a lot. You get all of his important abilities by progressing the story, comparable to Kabili, which helps you to hover throughout gaps, or the Zawadi grappling hook, and some of them have some worth each out and in of fights. For instance, the identical cerulean spear that may freeze waterfalls into partitions to kick off of can even freeze enemies and open them as much as free injury.
That stated, freezing enemies after which nailing them with Zau’s large spirit assaults actually trivialized some encounters towards the endgame. This consists of a few of the bosses, who’re excessive in spectacle however low in problem, with fights that find yourself being fairly just like each other. I want there have been extra of the Spirit Journey trials, that are units of enemy gauntlets that had been persistently essentially the most demanding fights obtainable, forcing me to combine all of my abilities and know how you can survive.
