Spirited Away…
There is a visual elegance to what developer Ember Lab has crafted here with Kena: Bridge of Spirits, a studio normally staffed to create commercials, and other smaller-scale animated projects as opposed to creating and releasing a fully-featured video game. If you take a look at their Hisense ULED trailer via their Youtube Channel, you can see the seeds of the vision that Kena would eventually sow, and it is the playful nature of that very commercial where you get an idea of the talent behind this insanely gifted studio and their love for animation.
When Kena was first announced, its visuals and tone set the stage for a game that felt like it was ripped directly from the likes of Studio Ghibli and the more modern films of both Disney and Pixar. And while it certainly struggles in a few areas to match those comparisons head-on, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is nonetheless the closest I’ve seen a studio achieve something that literally looks like a big-budget animated feature.
Because of their history with such a craft, there is a lot here with Kena that solidifies that portfolio; stunning set pieces that are well framed and directed with an appropriately trained eye, stunning animations that impress with every jump and attack, to the swelling of music in pivotal moments to drive home the offered emotion it’s trying to convey. Nearly every cutscene or introduction to a new character is wonderfully shot, filled to the brim with personality, and beautifully staged in a manner befitting of an animated film. In fact, Maya and the Last Dragon is a movie that I kept thinking back to when playing this, mostly because of how similar some visual choices are and how often lighting is used to make the air around most scenes just seem like a character in itself. The lighting and fog in any given moment is equally as impressive, often allowing the art direction here to absolutely sing. If there was ever a studio built to make movie-licensed videogames, Ember Lab might just be that studio.
Now, granted, while the visual aesthetics and direction here is top-notch, it’s another thing entirely to take those skills and adapt them into an interactive experience; AKA, a video game. Thankfully, Ember Lab absolutely nails the assignment and takes a less is more approach to what Kena offers, giving us a fleshed out and polished experience that uses its few parts in enough interesting ways where the team doesn’t reach beyond their grasp and unnecessarily throw a dozen mechanics at the wall in hopes that something sticks. Here, every single jump, ability, or mechanic is beautifully harmonized with one another to serve the gameplay first, something that Experiment 101 failed to do with Biomutant.
Kena may also look the part for being a kids game, hell, the adorable little Rot creatures are something a marketing team would be flooding to stores in time for Christmas, but Kena’s themes and stark difficulty don’t quite lean into being necessarily a kid-friendly title. This isn’t to say kids shouldn’t play this, as there is an easy difficulty called Story Mode, but as the game deals with plenty of death and loss, as well as some moments that can get incredibly dark, I would certainly look to it as something you could play with your kids, possibly taking the reigns on some of the more challenging encounters, as well as explaining some of its themes in ways where they can understand the story alongside you, and maybe some of the puzzles that can be a bit obtuse for their own good. To balance out its darker themes, the Rot themselves are adorable, and discovering each one is a joy as they join your little pack, following you around like your own personal army. You can outfit them in hats, and even take a moment to sit with them, making them dance, or giving one a kiss on the cheek.
The game’s story sees Kena traveling to a far-off land, one that has been beset by tragedy. While she too has seen her fair share of pain and grief, a constant reminder as she holds tight her father’s Spirit Staff, she has taken up the mantle of being a Spirit Guide herself, following in his footsteps and hoping to do some good. What then follows is Kena discovering a series of events that led to the state this land is in, told to us through a few characters that have yet to fully pass on, some occupied with so much unfinished business that it has tainted and poisoned the land around them. As a Spirit Guide, she will help them deal with those issues, their own pain, and loss, and also look to heal that of which is inside her as well.
Along this journey, Kena will not be alone. While she will have the assistance of various spirits that are tied to each of the individual narratives, Kena will be joined by the Rot, a collective of small little creatures, cute as a button, but can bring the pain when merged together to aid in puzzles and combat. Their use is like that of Pikmin, sometimes steering them around and targeting objects in the environment to have them aid in purifying the darkness that has appeared everywhere, infecting once occupied homes and that of a thriving community. These patches of infection will often be protected by equally infected creatures and hostiles that are comprised of the very trees and ground around her. Upon their defeat, Kena and the Rot will target corrupted hearts that when exposed to spirit energy from Kena's staff, and that of the Rot themselves, will pulse this sickness away, purifying the surrounding area and allowing it to return the beautiful lush color it once had.
This process is the game's core gameplay loop and is repeated at every measure for the rest of the game. To space out these moments, you’ll have a variety of puzzles or areas where you’ll have to activate a special flower that allows the Rot to combine into a serpent-like form, allowing Kena to move them around, if a bit awkwardly, to dispel some of the smaller infected areas that are blocking your progression. The puzzles will vary as well, often having you figure out ways to track down switches or activate platforms with your spiritual power. You’ll also gain abilities that allow you to move rocks and platforms, firing off arrows to manipulate them further. While some of these are pretty standard in what to do, several of these puzzles require a quick pace as you race against the clock, and some require a good look at your surroundings, such as glancing at an arrangement of candles in one scenario to determine a pattern, to using platforms to trace the very stars in the sky for another.
Each location has a central theme, all connected through a hub world that is the village at its center. While much of it has been closed off to the infection, opened up as you find special items that aid in unlocking large ominous doors, you'll tackle each of the few areas in order, so yes, Kena is a very linear experience, largely due to each area requiring a certain power to be unlocked. These areas are complete with collectibles to find in the form of the Rot, and those key items for removing the sickness from the village. There are just under a hundred Rot to track down and while you won’t need them all to level up everything, completionists will have their work cut out for them as they look to discover each and every one.
The few areas you'll explore are vast mountainous forests, with a tremendous amount of verticality as you climb and jump between platforms, wide-open fields, and farms, to a brief but enjoyable winter landscape that I wish was a bit more realized like the others. These areas are connected through the village and apart from using mystical masks to break down certain barriers, there are no load times between each environment. There is a load time as you fast travel, but oddly enough, I kept getting brief load times whenever cutscenes would start, at least in the game’s last few hours. They only last for a second at most, but going from gameplay to a flicker of a load screen to the cutscene is certainly jarring when it happens for the eighth or ninth time.
While the exploration and puzzles that await Kena are certainly highlights of the adventure, combat is certainly a big focal point, and rightfully so. You have a light and heavy attack, which can be combo’d together, a dodge to get out of the way of incoming strikes, and a shield that can be used to block or parry attacks, as long as it holds out anyway. During your adventure, you’ll also earn a skill currency you can use to upgrade your weapons and abilities, such as allowing you to slow down time when you pull back on your bow, fire off a much more powerful shot, or boosting the amount of damage you return in a counter-attack. You’ll also want to keep on the lookout for meditation circles that when used can boost your max health, allowing you to stay in the fight a little bit longer.
The Rot can also join in on your encounters as well, provided they earn enough courage to do so as the battle continues. This allows you to send them to distract a target, as well as powering your abilities as well. Eventually, combat will start to really come into its own when you can throw out time bubbles that lock enemies in place, or a massive Rot hammer that can deal out some substantial damage when it connects. One of my only issues with the courage system is it will be consumed the moment you look to take the action, so you if prepare a power shot with your bow, and dodge out of the way before firing it, you’ll need to wait for their courage to charge up again. The Rot can also heal you should you have a courage point saved up and locate one of the flowers that are staged around most encounters. Courage points are earned as you deal damage as well as killing enemies, allowing the Rot to feel they might be able to turn the tide in battle, and most encounters have a wide range of smaller easier to kill foes that can grant you enough charge to have a few points at the ready for the more imposing enemies that take a bit more to put down, or a skill upgrade that allows battles to start with one already charged up.
Occasionally, you’ll also find challenge chests, forcing you to defeat enemies without getting hit, or simply just decimating their forces in the allotted time given. I only found one of these chests to be really challenging, to the point at which it’s the only one I have yet to actually complete. This one has you on a bridge with enemies consistently spawning in, and it really requires that you have some sort of pattern or rhythm to the fight that I am just not figuring out in time. These chests will grant you a variety of items, such as more hats for your Rot friends, or a boost to your various currencies to spend on skills, or again, more hats at the local hat shop. Yes, there is a hat shop.
I’ve mentioned it a few times as examples of some really ingenious ideas, but the bomb ability might be my favorite thing this game offers in the form of one of Kena’s abilities. Much like everything this game allows, every item seems to have a variety of purposes. The bow, for example. is a tool used for combat, but certain high-up flowers that bloom when you look at them just right, can be used for traversal, firing off at them, and slinging you up to locations that a double jump just won’t allow. But the bombs, are just a joy to use when you don’t let them accidentally go off when you’re standing next to them that is. As you chuck bombs at the shimmering rocks and platforms near you, they will raise into the air, often with glowing crystals that you’ll use the bow to target, causing them to shift and move around. This allows Kena to build scripted paths up and around certain locations, and while yes, there is no variety in regards to how they work, they are still cool nonetheless. Using them in combat is equally fun, such as causing time to stop around enemies that have exposed weak points, letting you get in a nicely aimed shot, and just flat out owning them amidst the chaos.
Bosses will also have their fair share of powers and abilities as well, and slowing down time with your bombs or with your bow, allows you to pick off weak points for some sizeable damage in the thick of it. While I feel that the last boss starts off slow and thankfully ends strong, it’s the fight atop the tower in the game’s second major location that cements Ember Lab as a solid example of great boss design. While I won’t spoil the surprise, having that secondary objective during the fight allows you to get very familiar with everything Kena can do, making it a catalog of the game’s greatest hits during the entire fight. Timing your spirit shield just right, figuring out the best use of your time powers, and of course, using that double jump to avoid damage, just all comes together into one of the most satisfying fights the game has on offer.
While my praise for this game is almost unending, I have two final issues that hold back the game in a few ways for me and both are connected to its central story. First, the overall villain is very forgettable, and while there are bits of pieces of him scattered throughout the adventure to bread crumb into his motivations and just exactly what went on to create such chaos around him, they don’t quite have the impact I was really hoping for and ended up feeling fairly flat in the grand scheme of things. My last issue is that while we get to know a lot about the characters Kena meets, there is a sizable gap in getting to know Kena herself. Sure, we get a few moments near the end, but I feel Kena is sort of in the same place as she was at the start of her journey by the time the credits rolled. I do enjoy the brief moments we get as we explore her past through a single moment in the game, but I feel so much more could have been done to extend that throughout the entire experience; giving her, the titular character, a bigger role here that I feel is just lacking in its current state. This isn’t to say that Kena doesn’t have an impact here herself, but as the game is named after her, I just feel more story could have been devoted to her and her past.
While Kena doesn’t bring much new to the table that we haven’t seen before, Ember Lab refines much of what is here with a level of detail and confidence that most teams who have been in the game for decades still struggle to achieve. Regardless of my few issues, Kena is a damn gorgeous game with the gameplay to match and animations that constantly impress. It feels and looks incredible, and has a surprising level of challenge that oddly came out of nowhere. It’s a shame that previews of this game were held so close to the chest and even reviews didn’t launch until the game was pretty much released. Despite that, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an absolute must-play and a damn impressive first attempt for Ember Lab. Should this become a series and see a more freeform map with a bigger focus on fleshing out Kena herself, then I think this team just might have the next big thing on their hands.
Developer - Ember Lab. Publisher - Ember Lab. Released - Sept 21st, 2021. Available On - PS4/PS5, Windows PC. Rated - (T) Fantasy Violence. Platform Reviewed - PlayStation 5. Review Access - Kena: Bridge of Spirits was purchased by the reviewer.