Kena: Bridge Of Spirits comes to us from the nice people at Ember Lab, who previously brought you… *checks again* what, no games before? That doesn’t seem quite right. Is this really their first attempt? Well, kinda.
Ember previously dropped the Majora’s Mask fan film “Terrible Fate”, a short, almost wordless mix of CGI and real-world footage that manages to tell a quite emotional take on Nintendo’s “Skull Kid” origin story in its sub-5-minute run time.
It makes sense then, that Kena: Bridge Of Spirits manages grab you by the emotional cojones at various points throughout its 10-hour playtime, dealing as it does with some heavy themes of death and grief through the medium of obscenely gorgeous graphics, mild puzzling and slightly lacklustre combat. It isn’t a perfect game, but as a first outing it’s pretty good, even if it won’t win any prizes for originality.
After a brief introductory tutorial in a cave, we’re introduced to our protagonist: Kena. Kena is a spirit guide who, well, guides spirits who are trapped between worlds to the next plane of existence.
Whilst most spirits go naturally without any hassle, some are trapped by regret, trauma or guilt, infected with a corruption which makes them angry and unreasonable. We, as Kena, help these troubled spirits to move on, through the time-honoured medium of beating the shit out of them. Weird flex perhaps, but these spirits are all tainted with the aforementioned corruption - a decay that is slowly taking over the world that our characters inhabit - and they need to have it forcibly knocked out of them in order to move on.
Leaving the cave, we’re thrust into a beautiful open forest world, split into various villages and areas to explore in our quest to free the tortured spirits from their purgatory, and to free the forest from the corruption that is slowly throttling it to death, which of course is being caused by the final boss.
Very early on in our journey, we’re introduced to Rot. Rot, in a staggering case of whatever the opposite of nominative determinism is, takes the form of a set of ridiculously cutesy Ribena-berry-esque creatures that Kena finds on her travels, who team up to help her in her quest. It’s a useful mechanic, not only giving us a cute set of companions to play with (and dress up, when you find their hat shops later), but also extending Kena’s options for combat, healing and traversal of the world.
In combat, once you’ve deployed a couple of slaps to build up their confidence, the Rot will happily jump in, helping to turn the tide against tougher enemies. In exploration, they’ll help with the mild puzzle aspects of the game, usually in the form of moving conveniently placed object to use as steps. The more Rot you find, the more helpful they become.
Moving through the world to find spirits to help, you learn about their backstory through the well-established process of examining objects and chatting with NPC’s who serve up challenges, hints, and exposition, often leading to little side quests for Kena to go and complete for minor rewards.
Once those little side missions are done and you’re back on the main track, then you get to knock seven bells out of the aforementioned spirits to make them better. I’m not sure that percussive maintenance is an acceptable method of therapy for traumatised people in the real world, but here it works wonders, freeing the spirits of the corruption they’re plagued with, and letting them head off for a well-earned eternal rest.
I’ll go through the main elements of the game shortly, but the key question for most readers is “should I part with my time and money to play this game?”. The answer here is a rather unhelpful “maybe”. And that’s because as I mentioned at the top of the review, you’ve probably played this game before.
Let’s pull it to bits.
Graphics:
As already stated, it’s beautiful. 11/10. Looking like the lovechild of Studio Ghibli and Pixar, it’s faultless. All of the character models and scenery are a delight to behold, and the level of cuteness imparted to the Rot creatures that you encounter early on in the game should probably be illegal.
When I fired it up, I was immediately reminded of the sense of excitement and almost childlike wonder I felt when I first saw the graphics for LittleBigPlanet, waaay back in 2008. I cannot praise the way that this game looks enough. There are no load screens, and it all comes together to give you a seamless experience that really pulls you into the world.
Control scheme:
A solid and responsive feel from the controls, with nothing out of left field that feels awkward or difficult to master. This is well trodden ground, and there are no complaints here.
Combat:
The main focus of the game outside of exploration, this is where things lose a couple of points as it feels pretty unbalanced. Normal enemies drop as quickly as a bride’s nightie, but bosses pack more of a punch, occasionally feeling a touch cheesy until you learn their mechanics and give them a well-earned slap.
Movement in combat is good, and unlike a number of other games I’ve played, I never felt the need to find out who set the camera angles and burn their houses down. Whilst there are upgrades to be had for Kena’s damage-dealing move set, sadly there’s nothing dazzling here.
Platforming and puzzling:
Again, some really rather familiar territory. Accessible ledges are clearly marked with sploshes of paint as in many other games, and for those areas you can’t quite reach, there’s probably a nearby puzzle that you will need to enlist the Rot to help out with. There isn’t anything enormously challenging or new here.
Storytelling:
Ember Labs proved themselves to be very effective story tellers with their short movie and have managed to build on that, creating about 10 hours of content that is often genuinely engaging on an emotional level.
I’ll admit I’m not entirely sure who the intended audience in terms of age is here, but the whole game serves as a nice little lesson that nobody is inherently evil, that “bad” guys are often a product of experience and trauma – and in our troubled times in the real world, that’s perhaps a lesson that doesn’t need to only be told to children.
Again, I’m not sure that the overarching message should be that you and your friends should beat the living daylights out of traumatised people with a staff to make them feel better, but let’s not forget that this would be a very boring game if there wasn’t some action.
SUMMARY
So, how to score this game? Well, I’m conflicted to be entirely honest. Kena: Bridge Of Spirits has a lot of heart and a positive message, and it looks gorgeous. But I struggle with the fact that a lot of the mechanics have been done in a ton of games before.
Is that a reason not to play it? Perhaps not. After all, the likes of FIFA and CoD have been putting literally the same game out for well over a decade and they sell by the boatload. AC/DC have been releasing the same album since 1973, and they’re a household name.
Having said that, all of those examples have at some point both been cited as being the best at what they do, and actively setting the standard, before they settled in to churning the same stuff out over and over.
Kena doesn’t do that, it borrows heavily from other pre-established examples of the genre. It’s entertaining enough, and I think Ember Labs have got the potential to put out a genuinely great game.
I don’t think this first attempt is it, though, this is a good game. It’s solid, and there are plenty of worse options to spend 10 hours of your life on. I’ll watch out for their next outing with interest.
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