Tales of Kenzera’s heart-wrenching story proved tougher than its platforming

Image: Surgent Studios

There’s challenging combat and platforming puzzles, but the hardest portion of the crippled is grappling with its affectional story.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is perchance the hardest platformer I’ve ever played — not due to the fact that the crippled itself is mechanically difficult, but due to the fact that my ain unwillingness to prosecute with its themes of grief and nonaccomplishment made it astir intolerable to play and constitute about.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is simply a Metroidvania developed by Surgent Studios and directed by Abubakar Salim, a dependable and surface histrion turned crippled developer champion known for his enactment arsenic Bayek successful Assassin’s Creed Origins and Father successful Raised by Wolves. The crippled takes spot in, well… Kenzera — a lush and richly elaborate African phantasy satellite wherever shamans shepherd a onshore afloat of magic, spirits, and monsters. According to Kenzeran legend, if 1 is capable to instrumentality 3 wayward and almighty spirits to Kalunga, the genteel and grandfatherly deity of death, helium volition assistance that idiosyncratic immoderate they wish. Enter Zau, a young shaman who is determined to usage that privation to instrumentality his father’s tone from death.

Tales of Kenzera has cemented successful my caput that platformers are my favourite benignant of game. The controls are responsive, truthful it feels bully to determination astir the satellite adjacent if Zau’s question abilities themselves aren’t the astir unique. There’s a treble leap and a dash but besides a lasso that slingshots Zau to large heights, wings that fto you thrust aerial currents, and more. Despite these comparatively basal powers, Kenzera makes precise satisfying usage of them.

The crippled often engaged the “locked-in” feeling I experienced playing Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, challenging maine to execute aggregate abilities successful series truthful I could get to wherever I needed to beryllium without dying. There was a infinitesimal close aft obtaining the wings wherever I needed to thrust aerial currents done a spike-lined cavern. You can’t usage your combat powers portion gliding astatine the aforesaid time, and the way was often blocked by breakable barriers, requiring maine to cancel my helping power, destruct the barrier, but re-engage my helping powers earlier falling into the insta-kill spikes. It was frustrating, requiring an obscene fig of attempts, and I loved each spot of it.

Image: Surgent Studios

Conversely, Kenzera has unsocial combat powers, but combat itself tin get alternatively one-note. Zau has entree to 2 masks that alteration the quality of his attacks. The prima disguise imbues him with the constituent of occurrence and gives him almighty melee attacks, portion the satellite disguise is ice-based with ranged attacks. The astir amusive portion of combat is figuring retired however to marque the 2 powerfulness sets enactment together. My favourite combo is popping an force into the aerial with my occurrence powers, past keeping them there, juggling them with a barrage of crystal bullets.

There’s not a batch of force assortment successful the game, however, with astir combat encounters consisting of being locked successful a country until you decision successive waves of enemies. Kenzera tries to marque up for that simplicity with difficulty. Monsters volition often person reddish oregon bluish wellness bars that tin lone beryllium depleted with occurrence oregon crystal attacks, respectively, which volition regenerate implicit clip if the force is not dispatched accelerated enough. In encounters with aggregate enemies of aggregate elements, it’s hard to absorption connected conscionable 1 force to kill, allowing different enemies’ armor to regenerate, frankincense prolonging the fight. Though fights are trivial aboriginal on, arsenic tougher enemies are introduced with practically unfair powers similar the quality to drain your wellness astatine a distance, it tin get retired of hand.

But portion of the crippled I struggled with the astir was its communicative — it’s excessively real. Hearing Zau, voiced by Salim, conflict with his grief implicit his father, it was hard not to subordinate that to my ain grief, and I gotta archer you — I really didn’t privation to. I rejected the sympathetic memories that welled up whenever Zau spoke astir his memories of his father. I conscionable didn’t wanna spell there, acrophobic of getting mired successful each kinds of messy, achy feelings I didn’t person the clip oregon the inclination to process. It made really playing the crippled tougher arsenic I got deeper into it due to the fact that tamping down connected those small wellsprings of sorrow made them bubble up astatine inopportune times. And it’s hard completing platforming puzzles erstwhile you can’t spot due to the fact that your glasses are splattered with salty water, y’know?

Image: Surgent Studios

I didn’t privation to get excessively maudlin penning astir Tales of Kenzera: Zau. There were already so many good reviews talking astir the grief that birthed the game and however it allowed players to process their ain heartache that I didn’t privation to retread those waters myself. But erstwhile I sat down to constitute this, reasoning astir what I felt astir this game, what I liked and what I didn’t, the ways successful which it near an content connected me, and however champion to stock those details, each that stubborn absorption yet failed me, and I started bawling. All the idiosyncratic stories and feelings I rejected playing the crippled could nary longer beryllium denied, rushing backmost to maine successful a large wave. I won’t stock those stories here. I recognize that, successful this moment, I americium dissimilar Salim. I bash not person the profound graciousness, selflessness, and spot it takes to stock specified idiosyncratic stories — gamified and dressed up arsenic anecdotes of Zau and his begetter — with millions of people.

When my spell of sorrow passed, playing got easier. It felt similar my absorption to conscionable instrumentality a infinitesimal and deal with everything I tried to disregard was what kept maine from doing my job. As Tales of Kenzera and its origins truthful beautifully hammer home, grief manifests successful each kinds of unintended ways, arsenic does healing from that grief. Sometimes, you person to marque a game. Other times, you person to constitute astir one.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is disposable present connected Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC.