This review contains spoilers
HE WROTE THAT ENTIRE BOOK IN PEN?!
From its announcement, it was clear this was a very heartfelt game, driven by the personal tragedy and grieving process of actor Abubakar Salim. His speech at The Game Awards 2023 is so vulnerable - I already can't imagine speaking in front of that many people physically and online, but such a personal parable on top of that... I just couldn't do that. This was immediately a game I had my eye on between it just looking generally fun, and wanting to see what kind of story and characters would be birthed by Salim's grief.
By total coincidence, the day after I downloaded this game, I learned about how the harassment of the game developers about this game got so bad that Abubakar Salim himself made a video response, and in response, he discounted the game to be less than $15 when it was "the price of a pizza" (Salim's words, I thought it was funny) so that more people could play it. Good on him. I'm not surprised at all that the developers were harassed - it's honestly just so commonplace in general nowadays, but especially if you dare to make your game star a character that isn't white ("Forced diversity" in... a game inspired by Africa's Bantu cultures? Sure). I'm sure I don't need to explain all this to you, but it's still so disappointing to see, and I imagine nothing but crushing on the receiving end. I sincerely hope this doesn't deter the team from working on new projects, or simply adding more to Zau, whatever is next.
So, I'm going to start off in talking about the game itself by saying a general statement - everything about Tales of Kenzera: Zau is pretty good. I don't really think any one aspect rises too far above "pretty good", but nothing falls below that threshold either. The platforming is pretty good, but doesn't beat its contemporaries. The combat... is pretty bleh for most of the game, but I found by the end it was pretty fun. The artstyle is great, but I feel the actual graphics were lacking in comparison. The story and characters were pretty good, the themes are where it really shines. The setting is great, though, I'd really like to see more of this mythology put to use.
Something I didn't know going in is that this game is a story in a story. Zau is technically not the main character - he's who you are with the most, but he is simply a character in a book; the real main character is Zuberi, a young man who recently lost his father, and his mother gives him the book his father was writing for Zuberi to help him grieve. The book itself follows Zau, a shaman who... just lost his father. But instead of reading a book, he searches out the god of death, Kalunga, and makes a deal with him to bring back his Baba in exchange for "guiding" the three Great Spirits. As you'd expect, each Great Spirits' areas are essentially chapters wherein Zau (and thus Zuberi) tackles his emotions and learns to grieve his father. Much to my surprise, this doesn't do the standard five stages of grief, but takes its own approach to it, and that really set it apart from other stories about tackling grief, to me anyway.
I already marked this review for spoilers, but I'm about to spoil the end, and it's a satisfying conclusion, so if you're interested, I recommend packing up here.
Anyway, after defeating the third Great Spirit, Kalunga and Zau begin talking. Zau has met his end of the deal, and now "It is-"
It cuts off. I thought my game crashed for a second, but no. Zuberi's father never finished the book. In the middle of a piece of Kalunga's dialogue, the story ends. After reading what there was to read, Zuberi resolves to finally visit his Baba's coffin. He finds his mother, and after pouring his emotions out to her, she tells him something his father said to her: "Every story begins at the end of another." And so, Zuberi goes and finishes the book himself (using a PEN, DIRECTLY ON THE BOOK! Surely I'm not the only one who is dumbfounded by that?). I won't detail the rest of the story as there's a bit more, but that's the most striking part to me. "Every story begins at the end of another." It's a phrase I feel I've heard before, or even thought of before perhaps, yet I couldn't help but feel it was quite profound in that moment. It's a great message.
Really, the whole last third of the game is a great time. The movement of Zau was pretty underwhelming, but you get the best additions to your moveset at the end and it starts being really fun (a new game+ would be amazing). The combat was a slow burn. I outright disliked it at first. I saw no reason to use the long-ranged Moon Mask outside of when it's needed, so I would embody my inner Kafei and main the Sun Mask, with close-ranged, more powerful strikes (and a pretty potent spear attack at the end of the first act). Almost every enemy in this game is so annoying, especially the last enemy introduced, but when you get all of your moveset, it gets a certain rhythm, and ended up being a great time, especially when I fully upgraded the Moon Mask and saw its merits. I think the combat is gonna be the thing that breaks this game for people, but if you stick to it, I think you'll find a good time. It's just a shame how long it takes to get there.
I know a lot of people make fun of this kind of approach to rating things, but for a good two-thirds of the experience, I was thinking "this is a solid 3.5 star" until the last third where it became more like a 4.2 star game. But since that's only a third, uhhh... it averages out to around 3.75, and I want this game to get more attention, so I'll round that up to a solid 4 stars. Is this really a four-star game? Nah, not really. But if they make things better from The get-go in a future project, then it would be something pretty special.
But for now, Tales of Kenzera is
Pretty good.
From its announcement, it was clear this was a very heartfelt game, driven by the personal tragedy and grieving process of actor Abubakar Salim. His speech at The Game Awards 2023 is so vulnerable - I already can't imagine speaking in front of that many people physically and online, but such a personal parable on top of that... I just couldn't do that. This was immediately a game I had my eye on between it just looking generally fun, and wanting to see what kind of story and characters would be birthed by Salim's grief.
By total coincidence, the day after I downloaded this game, I learned about how the harassment of the game developers about this game got so bad that Abubakar Salim himself made a video response, and in response, he discounted the game to be less than $15 when it was "the price of a pizza" (Salim's words, I thought it was funny) so that more people could play it. Good on him. I'm not surprised at all that the developers were harassed - it's honestly just so commonplace in general nowadays, but especially if you dare to make your game star a character that isn't white ("Forced diversity" in... a game inspired by Africa's Bantu cultures? Sure). I'm sure I don't need to explain all this to you, but it's still so disappointing to see, and I imagine nothing but crushing on the receiving end. I sincerely hope this doesn't deter the team from working on new projects, or simply adding more to Zau, whatever is next.
So, I'm going to start off in talking about the game itself by saying a general statement - everything about Tales of Kenzera: Zau is pretty good. I don't really think any one aspect rises too far above "pretty good", but nothing falls below that threshold either. The platforming is pretty good, but doesn't beat its contemporaries. The combat... is pretty bleh for most of the game, but I found by the end it was pretty fun. The artstyle is great, but I feel the actual graphics were lacking in comparison. The story and characters were pretty good, the themes are where it really shines. The setting is great, though, I'd really like to see more of this mythology put to use.
Something I didn't know going in is that this game is a story in a story. Zau is technically not the main character - he's who you are with the most, but he is simply a character in a book; the real main character is Zuberi, a young man who recently lost his father, and his mother gives him the book his father was writing for Zuberi to help him grieve. The book itself follows Zau, a shaman who... just lost his father. But instead of reading a book, he searches out the god of death, Kalunga, and makes a deal with him to bring back his Baba in exchange for "guiding" the three Great Spirits. As you'd expect, each Great Spirits' areas are essentially chapters wherein Zau (and thus Zuberi) tackles his emotions and learns to grieve his father. Much to my surprise, this doesn't do the standard five stages of grief, but takes its own approach to it, and that really set it apart from other stories about tackling grief, to me anyway.
I already marked this review for spoilers, but I'm about to spoil the end, and it's a satisfying conclusion, so if you're interested, I recommend packing up here.
Anyway, after defeating the third Great Spirit, Kalunga and Zau begin talking. Zau has met his end of the deal, and now "It is-"
It cuts off. I thought my game crashed for a second, but no. Zuberi's father never finished the book. In the middle of a piece of Kalunga's dialogue, the story ends. After reading what there was to read, Zuberi resolves to finally visit his Baba's coffin. He finds his mother, and after pouring his emotions out to her, she tells him something his father said to her: "Every story begins at the end of another." And so, Zuberi goes and finishes the book himself (using a PEN, DIRECTLY ON THE BOOK! Surely I'm not the only one who is dumbfounded by that?). I won't detail the rest of the story as there's a bit more, but that's the most striking part to me. "Every story begins at the end of another." It's a phrase I feel I've heard before, or even thought of before perhaps, yet I couldn't help but feel it was quite profound in that moment. It's a great message.
Really, the whole last third of the game is a great time. The movement of Zau was pretty underwhelming, but you get the best additions to your moveset at the end and it starts being really fun (a new game+ would be amazing). The combat was a slow burn. I outright disliked it at first. I saw no reason to use the long-ranged Moon Mask outside of when it's needed, so I would embody my inner Kafei and main the Sun Mask, with close-ranged, more powerful strikes (and a pretty potent spear attack at the end of the first act). Almost every enemy in this game is so annoying, especially the last enemy introduced, but when you get all of your moveset, it gets a certain rhythm, and ended up being a great time, especially when I fully upgraded the Moon Mask and saw its merits. I think the combat is gonna be the thing that breaks this game for people, but if you stick to it, I think you'll find a good time. It's just a shame how long it takes to get there.
I know a lot of people make fun of this kind of approach to rating things, but for a good two-thirds of the experience, I was thinking "this is a solid 3.5 star" until the last third where it became more like a 4.2 star game. But since that's only a third, uhhh... it averages out to around 3.75, and I want this game to get more attention, so I'll round that up to a solid 4 stars. Is this really a four-star game? Nah, not really. But if they make things better from The get-go in a future project, then it would be something pretty special.
But for now, Tales of Kenzera is
Pretty good.