Kena: Bridge of Spirits is the first game from Ember Lab, a team that specializes in creating stunning digital art. With a background in digital art, it comes as no surprise that Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an extremely beautiful game to play, but is it fun too?
Guide them home
The story of Kena: Bridge of Spirits isn’t groundbreaking but offers more than enough motivation to keep you going. As a young spirit guide named Kena, you travel to a deserted village where spirits are kept hostage by corruption. As a spirit guide, it’s your task to guide those spirits safely to the afterlife but this won’t go without a fight. The corrupted spirits are ready to fight and it won’t always be easy to overcome all your challenges. Luckily, Kena is assisted by the adorable creatures called Rot. Together with these fluffy blobs, Kena has to conquer the corrupted spirits and guide the captured ones safely towards everlasting peace.
Although the story presents itself as a traditional, rather straightforward, story, there is a deeper meaning to it; which I certainly can appreciate. In order to progress in the story and set the spirits free, Kena has to look for the corrupted spirits that got trapped in their own emotions. Being trapped in their emotion, they lose all grip of reality and transform everything around them into a dead zone. Plants can’t grow there and people who got too close are captured until the tormented spirit is finally set free. The way this is visually created in this game is absolutely stunning. The world of Kena is gorgeous but it’s as impressive to see all the black and red goo stripping the world from its glory. If you want to restore it, you better prepare for some oldskool combat.
Oldskool
The gameplay mechanics are a bit old-school compared to the hyper-modern graphics. At its core, Kena: Bridge of Spirits reminded me a lot of the games I used to play on my Nintendo GameCube or PlayStation 2 back when I was still a kid. The world is divided into several areas and in order to reach those, you’ll need to battle and defeat one of the bosses. Getting to these bosses isn’t just jumping from one to another, you’ll need to clear certain segments before you’re able to face off with the boss of that area. The segments prior to a boss fight are rather traditional and combine traditional platforming fun with combat. During your first couple of hours, Kena attacks mostly with her staff, which can inflict a light or heavy attack. The more you progress, the more upgrades you’ll unlock, giving you access to a lot more weapons such as a bow and arrow, and more of course. The progression is all very classic but it certainly does the trick. Exploration and platforming can feel rather repetitive for some but thanks to the gorgeous world you’re in, I never really got bored of doing the same kind of task over and over again. The variation in boss fights and abilities of the Rot helped tremendously.
During combat, you can command the Rot to deliver a devastating attack on your enemies but that’s not all. You can also use them to distract the enemies or to regain a portion of your health. Since the Rot are small and vulnerable, they’ll need to get motivated before they dive into the action. By fighting off your enemies on your own and dropping certain items, you’ll motivate the Rot to fight by your side. I really love the use of these little creatures both in combat and in the explorative platforming. It’s fun to have these cute little guys by your side at all times and they really add something special to the gameplay. Nothing groundbreaking but adorably fun nevertheless.
Although the game looks cute and beautiful, don’t be mistaken by its level of difficulty. Defeating bosses won’t come easy and even on the normal level of difficulty, I often struggled in bringing down the bosses. Similar to other games in the genre, you’ll need to learn and understand the attack pattern and weaknesses of the boss you’re fighting. Only by timing your attacks right, you’ll be able to take them down without having to restart. The level of difficulty is a bit surprising but it elevates the game a bit in my opinion. You can clear the story in around ten hours but after that, you’ll unlock an even harder level of difficulty which can easily hook you onto your screen for a double amount of time.
Conclusion:
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a gorgeous game that plays like an oldskool game. It’s not something that everyone will appreciate as much as I did but I certainly had a lot of fun playing this one. It’s crazy to think this is Ember Lab’s first real game, I can’t wait to see what they’ll have in store for us in the future! If you’re a proud PlayStation 5 owner, be sure to give this one a go!
