Surgent Studios and Abukabar Salim are putting their all intoTales of Kenzera: Zau.Not only does it have the makings of a prime metroidvania game being released through EA Originals, but they even worked with the Ridley Scott Creative Group on a whole short film about why Abukabar made the game in the first place, and it’s made clear that this is a true passion project for him. This, however, always means that it’s a bit nervewracking when it comes time to judge the finished product. Sure it’s a labor of love, but criticisms still need to be applied when valid. But is there anything to criticize or did this passion project truly achieve perfection?
A Unique Grieving Process
Seeing as how we’ve alreadytaken a look at the first hourofTales of Kenzera: Zau,we’ll try not to be repetitive and by going into detail about the initial setup again. But to expand upon it a little, our hero Zau has to find a way into the Realm of the Dead to finally see his dad again and doing so requires him to bring peace to the three Great Spirits in the land of Kenzera. And so aided by god of death Kalunga, Zau finds himself wall-jumping, dashing, gliding and generally just finding his way around each area of Kenzera needed to find these spirits, defeating several restless spirits along the way. Bringing peace to these spirits, though, naturally requires Zau to confront his own issues with the recent passing of his father.
The story is naturally the highlight ofTales of Kenzera: Zau,being an epic story about grief and loss, especially that of a parent or a close figure. While we learn more about Zau’s relationship with his dad Baba along the way, typically through various anecdotes about memories Zau has of him or advice given to him, each of the game’s three acts has its own little story centered around one of the Great Spirits in one way or another, all with their own unique twists and turns, being well-written. Of course, it helps that the game has stellar voice acting to help sell each part of this story, getting across a great deal of emotion with every bit of dialogue and helping to truly bring their characters to life.
Myths and Legends
It helps, though, that the game has an amazing world that already has a ton of great writing backing it up, as discussed in our aforementioned first impressions.Tales of Kenzera: Zaudoes indeed boast astonishing visuals, with even the harshest areas popping out with vibrant colors and a ton of detail, and as mentioned prior, each of these areas is designed in unique ways in order to reflect parts of the grieving process, as if the world itself is reacting to Zau’s struggles. Backing this all up is a stellar score by Nainita Desai, putting a nice spin on traditional African music in order to create the perfect tunes for every scenario, be it calm reflection or intense battles.
But what really stands out when it comes to the world of Kenzera is just how much work was put into crafting its mythology. Bantu cultures and tales from them are the main source of inspiration forTales of Kenzera: Zau,and they do an astonishing job at replicating the kinds of stories from those mythologies that you would swear some of them were real.The codex goes into detail about everything you encounter as you progress, taking the opportunity to give an epic tale to every land, creature and even the previous shamans behind the powers you unlock, and they end up being impressive stuff that does Bantu culture justice. It does everything it can to bring Kenzera to life, right down to one notable optional moment in the afro-futurist framing device that reveals several key components in a creative way that happens to tie things together.
The creativity extends to the enemies as well, all with epic and inspired designs, which makes it a slight shame that you have to beat the crap out of them. With the push of a button, Zau can perform the Dance of the Shaman and switch between using the Mask of the Sun, focusing on melee attacks and fiery damage, and the Mask of the Moon, focusing on long-range attacks and more ice-based defenses. Switching between them and using their respective abilities is nice and smooth, be it in battle or using said abilities to traverse areas and solve various puzzles. The unlockable Shaman abilities like being able to freeze water or performing air dashes that can smash through certain walls are fun to try out as well, and benefit from well-done movement and controls, as dashing through entire sections while avoiding certain obstacles can be a thrill, heading into a bit of parkour territory as you chain together quick movements. Overall, there are a lot of well-done and interesting gameplay elements on display here.
WithTales of Kenzera: Zaubeing Surgent Studios' debut, however, the rookie mistakes start to creep in after a while, with the difficulty in balancing the challenge level being the most prominent. When the core combat gameplay is good, the actual battles are a mixed bag. Regular enemies barely pose a challenge, since you can melee them constantly and they won’t fight back, but then you have enemies enhanced with color-coded Spiritual Shields that can only be taken out by the respective mask’s attacks, and which can regenerate if you don’t focus on taking them out. Notably, these enemies are way more aggressive. What makes this a pain is when you fight groups of enemies all at once, which tends to happen in obvious arenas that lock you in, where all it takes is few enemies piling on you to prevent you from moving away, fighting back or healing.
Sudden Death
Still, most of the enemies outside of those arenas aren’t a pain, but what is a pain is the fact that a lot of areas inTales of Kenzera: Zaulove their instant death hazards. Crystal spikes, lava, floors that shoot out spears, and much more abound, and if you so much as graze some of them slightly, you’re dead. It gets annoying the deeper you get into the game, especially as you unlock more abilities that involve precision movements through the air and across large distances, and even the game itself seems to be aware of this, since it auto-saves after seemingly every obstacle (save for the optional challenge rooms that you may discover, where the challenge and lack of checkpoints is naturally justified).
The worst offender may be the bosses, who all fight you in arenas with bottomless pits on each side (except for one that just threatens to fill the area with a jet-black dark fog of death). The rage-breaking point for this was the third act’s boss, who I whittled down to one final hit point, but then after one lucky strike from them, and I had fallen over the edge and had to start over, with the boss having all six bars of their health back. And for a bonus, immediately after fighting them came an escape sequence where Zau has to keep moving, and the entire area is basically lined with either spikes or lava. One slip and it was back to the start of that sequence as well. Grand, the short fourth act meant that this was basically the climax when it came to the platforming, but still, it was a pain. And then the final boss also had bottomless pits on the side as wellandcaused a fatal error upon beating their phases, twice.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau Has One Impressive World So Far
The early moments of Tales of Kenzera: Zau already shows promise, but there’s one particular part of it that stands out as the highlight so far.
It all feels like there was trouble trying to figure out how to make everything difficult enough in order to pad out the game to a substantial enough run time of ten to twelve hours, but a shorter metroidvania game still would have been just as enjoyable. After a while, one begins to question whyTales of Kenzera: Zauis even a metroidvania game to begin with. Unlike most games in the genre where you travel back to previous areas/biomes and use new abilities to progress or unlock shortcuts, this game is linear, requiring you to just go to the next main area. By the end, I had unlocked practically everything in the skill trees (either via experience gained via finding hidden Trinkets and Echoes or defeating enemies) and close to all the Trinkets from challenge rooms that provide buffs, and I had only used fast travel to backtrack all of once or twice. Then again, the game is shockingly stingy with fast travel points and their placements, not to mention that I can count on one hand the number of them that had workbenches close by, where you actually equip Trinkets.
I know those last parts may sound excessively negative, but I do genuinely thinkTales of Kenzera: Zauhas the makings of a good game, as do future entries in the series. Just apply more fine-tuning to the difficulty, don’t go nuts with the hazards and work on integrating the metroidvania elements better, or just consider a more traditional platformer with selectable stages.
Closing Comments:
Despite issues with its difficulty balance and some of the elements of the metroidvania genre,Tales of Kenzera: Zauis still a promising start for Surgent Studios, with its smooth, fast gameplay, astounding world, engrossing story and jaw-dropping visuals. Hopefully we’ll be returning to Kenzera sometime in the future, because no matter what form any future tales may take, there’s a ton of potential here and a lot of fun to be had.
