Tales of Kenzera: Zau is probably the toughest platformer I’ve ever performed — not as a result of the sport itself is mechanically tough, however as a result of my very own unwillingness to have interaction with its themes of grief and loss made it practically unimaginable to play and write about.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a Metroidvania developed by Surgent Studios and directed by Abubakar Salim, a voice and display actor turned recreation developer finest identified for his work as Bayek in Assassin’s Creed Origins and Father in Raised by Wolves. The sport takes place in, properly… Kenzera — a lush and richly detailed African fantasy world the place shamans shepherd a land stuffed with magic, spirits, and monsters. In line with Kenzeran legend, if one is ready to return three wayward and highly effective spirits to Kalunga, the genteel and grandfatherly god of loss of life, he’ll grant that particular person no matter they need. Enter Zau, a younger shaman who is decided to make use of that want to return his father’s spirit from loss of life.
Tales of Kenzera has cemented in my thoughts that platformers are my favourite type of recreation. The controls are responsive, so it feels good to maneuver concerning the world even when Zau’s motion talents themselves aren’t essentially the most distinctive. There’s a double leap and a touch but additionally a lasso that slingshots Zau to nice heights, wings that allow you to experience air currents, and extra. Regardless of these comparatively primary powers, Kenzera makes very satisfying use of them.
The sport ceaselessly engaged the “locked-in” feeling I skilled taking part in Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, difficult me to execute a number of talents in sequence so I may get to the place I wanted to be with out dying. There was a second proper after acquiring the wings the place I wanted to experience air currents by a spike-lined cavern. You may’t use your fight powers whereas gliding on the similar time, and the trail was usually blocked by breakable limitations, requiring me to cancel my wing energy, destroy the barrier, however re-engage my wing powers earlier than falling into the insta-kill spikes. It was irritating, requiring an obscene variety of makes an attempt, and I cherished each little bit of it.
Conversely, Kenzera has distinctive fight powers, however fight itself can get somewhat one-note. Zau has entry to 2 masks that change the character of his assaults. The solar masks imbues him with the factor of fireside and offers him highly effective melee assaults, whereas the moon masks is ice-based with ranged assaults. Essentially the most enjoyable a part of fight is determining tips on how to make the 2 energy units work collectively. My favourite combo is popping an enemy into the air with my fireplace powers, then conserving them there, juggling them with a barrage of ice bullets.
There’s not a whole lot of enemy selection within the recreation, nevertheless, with most fight encounters consisting of being locked in a room till you defeat successive waves of enemies. Kenzera tries to make up for that simplicity with problem. Monsters will usually have pink or blue well being bars that may solely be depleted with fireplace or ice assaults, respectively, which can regenerate over time if the enemy isn’t dispatched quick sufficient. In encounters with a number of enemies of a number of parts, it’s exhausting to give attention to only one enemy to kill, permitting different enemies’ armor to regenerate, thus prolonging the combat. Although fights are trivial early on, as harder enemies are launched with virtually unfair powers like the flexibility to empty your well being at a distance, it will possibly get out of hand.
However a part of the sport I struggled with essentially the most was its story — it’s too actual. Listening to Zau, voiced by Salim, wrestle together with his grief over his father, it was exhausting to not relate that to my very own grief, and I gotta inform you — I actually didn’t need to. I rejected the sympathetic reminiscences that welled up every time Zau spoke about his reminiscences of his father. I simply didn’t wanna go there, afraid of getting mired in every kind of messy, painful emotions I didn’t have the time or the inclination to course of. It made truly taking part in the sport harder as I received deeper into it as a result of tamping down on these little wellsprings of sorrow made them bubble up at inopportune instances. And it’s exhausting finishing platforming puzzles when you may’t see as a result of your glasses are splattered with salty water, y’know?
I didn’t need to get too maudlin writing about Tales of Kenzera: Zau. There have been already so many good reviews speaking about the grief that birthed the game and the way it allowed players to process their own heartache that I didn’t need to retread these waters myself. However once I sat down to write down this, eager about what I felt about this recreation, what I favored and what I didn’t, the methods through which it left an impression on me, and the way finest to share these particulars, all that cussed resistance lastly failed me, and I began bawling. All the private tales and emotions I rejected taking part in the sport may now not be denied, dashing again to me in an incredible wave. I received’t share these tales right here. I notice that, on this second, I’m in contrast to Salim. I don’t possess the profound graciousness, selflessness, and power it takes to share such private tales — gamified and dressed up as anecdotes of Zau and his father — with tens of millions of individuals.
When my spell of sorrow handed, taking part in received simpler. It felt like my resistance to simply take a second and deal with the whole lot I attempted to disregard was what saved me from doing my job. As Tales of Kenzera and its origins so superbly hammer dwelling, grief manifests in every kind of unintended methods, as does therapeutic from that grief. Generally, you need to make a recreation. Different instances, you need to write about one.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is offered now on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Change, and PC.