Tales of Kenzera: Zau – A Metroidvania with heart and soul?

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is an ambitious metroidvania that features a deep story, a beautiful African setting and a moving tale of loss and grief. The game attempts to take players on an emotional journey and will undoubtedly leave an impression along the way.

What convinces:

History and Atmosphere:
The story of Zau and his loss is touching and is enriched by the impressive African mythology. The world of Kenzera is visually stunning and creates a dense atmosphere.

Soundtrack and voice acting:
The soundtrack is a true masterpiece and contributes significantly to the emotional intensity of the game. The voice output is just okay in German Syncro, but it seems as if it is being read. It's best to play the game in the original audio with subtitles.

Diverse world:
The world of Kenzera is full of secrets and offers a variety of environments to explore.

What's less convincing:

Metroidvania Gameplay:
While the game adopts the Metroidvania formula, it remains rather average in terms of gameplay. The level design is linear in places and the progression doesn't always feel satisfying.
Combat system: The combat system is solid, but not particularly innovative and can seem a bit chaotic in hectic situations.

Steering:
The controls are very spongy compared to the genre reference Ori and the blind Forrest / the Will of the Whisps.
During some of the jumps I just didn't understand why I died.

Conclusion:

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a game with two faces. On the one hand, it offers a moving story, a beautiful world and an impressive atmosphere. On the other hand, there are some issues with the gameplay and technical implementation.

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Tales of Kenzera: Zau – Ein Metroidvania mit Herz und Seele?

Tales of Kenzera: Zau ist ein ambitioniertes Metroidvania, das mit einer tiefgründigen Geschichte, einem wunderschönen afrikanischen Setting und einer bewegenden Erzählung von Verlust und Trauer aufwartet. Das Spiel versucht, die Spieler auf eine emotionale Reise mitzunehmen und hinterlässt dabei zweifellos einen Eindruck.

Was überzeugt:

Geschichte und Atmosphäre:
Die Geschichte um Zau und seinen Verlust ist berührend und wird durch die beeindruckende afrikanische Mythologie bereichert. Die Welt von Kenzera ist visuell atemberaubend und schafft eine dichte Atmosphäre.

Soundtrack und Sprachausgabe:
Der Soundtrack ist ein wahres Meisterwerk und trägt maßgeblich zur emotionalen Intensität des Spiels bei. Die Sprachausgabe ist in der Deutschen Syncro gerade noch okay, wirkt aber als wenn abgelesen wird. Am besten man spielt das Spiel im O-Ton mit Untertiteln.

Abwechslungsreiche Welt:
Die Welt von Kenzera ist voller Geheimnisse und bietet eine Vielzahl von Umgebungen, die zum Erkunden einladen.

Was weniger überzeugt:

Metroidvania-Gameplay:
Während das Spiel die Metroidvania-Formel übernimmt, bleibt es in Sachen Gameplay eher durchschnittlich. Das Leveldesign ist stellenweise linear und die Progression fühlt sich nicht immer befriedigend an.
Kampfsystem: Das Kampfsystem ist solide, aber nicht besonders innovativ und kann in hektischen Situationen etwas chaotisch wirken.

Steuerung:
Die Steuerung ist im Vergleich zur Genre Referenz Ori and the blind Forrest / the Will of the Whisps sehr schwammig.
Bei einigen Sprungpassagen ist mir einfach nicht klar gewesen warum ich jetzt gestorben bin.

Fazit:

Tales of Kenzera: Zau ist ein Spiel mit zwei Gesichtern. Auf der einen Seite bietet es eine bewegende Geschichte, eine wunderschöne Welt und eine beeindruckende Atmosphäre. Auf der anderen Seite hapert es an einigen Stellen beim Gameplay und der technischen Umsetzung.

ZAU is a solid platformer with some Metroidvania elements, albeit without the inspired level design. Although it is mostly mechanically sound, what makes this game worthwhile is its heartfelt, well-paced and moving story primarily centering around grief. The artwork and overall presentation also rises towards the heights of its narrative, but the combat becomes stale with limited tools, lackluster enemy variety, and general tedium of these repeated encounters. The level design also grows stale in the final hours of the game, with minimal puzzles or new design gimmicks introduced to the player. Instead, it often feels as though you're just navigating hallways to your next story beat with minor inconveniences along the way. Some of those nuisances might include enemies in areas where the camera moves elsewhere to accommodate platforming, or the ever-present instant-kill spikes lining the world's walls and floors.

All things considered, ZAU is a solid debut title for an indie studio, with a story that is worth witnessing.

Tales of Kenzera is mostly a pretty solid game, that while its mechanics aren't exceptional, its bolstered by its narrative and the clear passion in its creation. It leans slightly more as an action platformer than a full Metroidvania as the game doesn't make you really backtrack to unlock new areas with your abilities outside of some side content, but it does have the expansion of your movement abilities that the genre is known for and those feel good by endgame. Combat also takes a little bit to get going but it ultimately ends up being good too. You can style switch between the Moon and Sun masks, which are primarily ranged and melee focused respectively, and I recommend switching a bunch because the combat has a better flow that way. One flaw though is that one of the chase sequences is pretty trial and error, primarily the one before the second boss encounter, as there are multiple times in that chase where the game will just throw gotchas at you that the player has little time to react without prior knowledge, most notably poison gas spawning right in front of you as you're running away from the first cloud. Also unlike the rest of the game, which have pretty forgiving checkpoints, you got to do these segments in one go. Its not too bad, but it still is rather sloppy and its strange because the third boss also has a chase sequence that I managed to do in one go and felt much less trial and error. Really feels like just that second act chase needs another pass.

As I said the narrative is one of the game's strongest suits. Inspired by Bantu folklore and creator, Abubakar Salim's, own experiences, Kenzera's thematic core is dealing with the death of loved ones and the legacies parents can leave their children. These themes are expressed both in the main story of the shaman Zau accepting the god of death, Kalunga's, challenge to battle three tormented spirits in order for them to find peace and pass on to restore the lands in exchange for bringing his father back to life, and in the game's framing device of a young man reading Zau's story, which his recently deceased father had been writing. Each act of the game reinforces these themes as well as some of the side content, such as the health upgrades which are Zau reflecting on his past and his relationship with his father with Kalunga. All of this really aided by the quality voice-acting too, namely Zau and Kalunga who interact throughout much of the game. Overall there was just a clear passion in crafting the game's narrative and it has genuine heart.

While Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown may have overshadowed it when it comes to Metroidvanias, Tales of Kenzera definitely deserves some love as it was a labor of love that succeeds at what it sought to achieve.

Empecé jugándolo en piloto automático, tiene una jugabilidad muy agradable y noté que se fluía mucho entre otras cosas porque muy bien escalado la obtención de nuevas habilidades, cuando está a punto de hacerse repetitiva sale una nueva habilidad. El gran pero que le encuentro es el combate, se hace repetitivo sobre todo al final.

La historia al principio no la estaba siguiendo pero una vez me enteré de todo y reconecté me pareció bonita y creo que el motivo del juego, que es la pérdida de su padre, hace que se note el cariño plasmado en el juego.