The very best factor we are able to say about Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is that it’s an honest gateway sport into the Metroidvania style. The Change is so chock stuffed with unbelievable titles at this level that it could actually typically be tough to know the place to start out (we might help with that too, by the way in which), however Kenzera supplies a comparatively breezy 6-7-hour expertise that ought to offer you a sign as as to whether or to not dip your toes in a bit additional. For style veterans, nevertheless, whereas the gameplay is actually adequate to see you thru to the top, there’s little right here that hasn’t already been executed elsewhere… and higher, too.
What elevates the sport, nevertheless, is its setting and story. Should you’ve been following Tales of Kenzera’s improvement in any respect, you’ll know that an excessive amount of the plot takes inspiration from Sugent Studio’s artistic lead, Abubakar Salim, and his private expertise coping with parental loss. By the way, Salim (a stage and display actor and the voice of Bayek in Murderer’s Creed Origins) additionally supplies the voice for protagonist Zau, and now we have to commend the voiceover work as a complete; it’s brilliantly executed all through and helps the plot resonate much more than if we have been merely studying strains of dialogue.
Zau himself is on a journey to revive his deceased father by capturing the spirits of three monsters and providing them to Kalunga, the God of Loss of life. Kalunga accompanies Zau in his quest and supplies recommendation each sensible and philosophical, and now we have to confess that we relished each second that the sagely spectre confirmed up. Total, Kenzera’s story is a touching, heartfelt story elevated by the performances of the voice actors, and have been it not for this, we concern the sport would have slipped from our reminiscence virtually instantly.
Now, we must always stress that Kenzera’s gameplay is strong. Motion feels fluid, you’ve acquired a splash skill that’s virtually all the time satisfying to tug off, and the fight, whereas actually not deep or difficult, feels impactful and enjoyable. The difficulty now we have is that you would be able to actually inform that that is the studio’s first crack at a Metroidvania sport; there’s little or no problem concerned, exploration is saved at an absolute minimal, and the unlockable talents don’t add an excessive amount of selection or depth.
The largest disappointment for us comes with that lack of exploration. The easiest Metroidvanias boast stunning, interconnected worlds stuffed with secrets and techniques that make you need to go off the crushed monitor, and though Kenzera’s world is actually stunning, the branching paths quantity to little greater than linear corridors that result in a selected objective. When you’ve collected the required merchandise or crushed the boss, you need to backtrack by means of the identical corridors till you attain what we’d describe as a mini hub space. It’s solely right here that you would be able to then unlock a brand new door or attain a brand new space to progress additional.
Fight encounters are sprinkled all through the expertise. You’ll come throughout just a few enemies on the fly as you make your manner by means of the sport, however most fight segments are restricted to particular areas wherein the exits are blocked off; form of like Bayonetta or Satan Might Cry.
You’ve acquired the choice to take out your foes with melee assaults and long-range projectiles, and you’ll toggle between these with a faucet of ‘L’, swapping out Zau’s solar and moon masks and thus altering his look and moveset. Some enemies are colour-coded to point their strengths and weaknesses, so the sport does a superb job of guaranteeing you’re not simply sticking to 1 technique of assault. Nicely, in principle at the very least.
Sadly, each enemy selection and the arenas the place you battle them are restricted. We just like the fight, however when the twentieth encounter feels precisely the identical as the first, it will get awfully repetitive. You may attempt to combine up your technique as a lot as you want, however when the sport throws the identical enemies at you in the identical patterns over and over, it’s onerous to not simply utilise the identical offensive ways each single time.
Fortunately, there are ability bushes tied to every masks, so you possibly can increase each your melee and long-range talents independently. So for instance, you possibly can unlock a transfer wherein you leap up and slam down into the bottom to deal harm, or you possibly can add an additional hit to your fundamental assault combo. Unlocking every new skill feels welcome, but it surely doesn’t add an awesome deal or depth or selection to the general fight gameplay. Truthfully, we form of want it have been all simply out there proper from the beginning.
When it comes to its total aesthetic, Kenzera is a vibrant journey that’s in all probability greatest described as a cross between Ori and the Blind Forest and Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown. The map display particularly seems to be prefer it was swiped straight from an Ori sport, and to be clear, that’s actually no unhealthy factor. Sadly, like many multiplatform video games nowadays, Kenzera does endure from muddy visuals and stuttering body charges on the Change (although that is reportedly beneath investigation). It’s admittedly not as unhealthy as we’d initially feared, however that is positively a kind of instances the place when you’ve got beefier {hardware} out there, then we’d advocate enjoying it elsewhere.
Conclusion
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is an honest sport, but it surely sits within the shadow of significantly better Metroidvanias on the Change. We love the setting and storyline, however as Surgent Studios’ first stab at what has confirmed to be a wildly common style over time, it struggles to set itself aside with fairly bland exploration and repetitive fight. Coupled with compromised visuals and efficiency on Change, veterans of the style might need to give this one a miss. For newcomers, nevertheless, the breezy gameplay would possibly make for a pleasant introduction to Metroidvanias.