Tales of Kenzera: Zau evaluation: a stupendous meditation on loss

Loss is inevitable, and but, realizing that makes it no easier. Grief is all however assured to the touch your life — to the touch my life. And, most definitely, it already has. That assuredness — that we’ll all be touched by loss of life — is a part of the rationale a lot artwork is devoted to interrogating these emotions. For thus lengthy, video video games have been one medium that, for all its loss of life, dying, and a number of lives, had not fairly unpacked the emotion of grief. There was little motive to: Once you die in a online game, you at all times come again to life. The hazard of loss of life quantities to nothing however just a few hearts on a display, a quantity. Oftentimes, it’s inspired. The extra kills you get, the higher. Loss of life isn’t one thing to mourn there, however a celebration. However this isn’t a common fact throughout all video games. An increasing number of video video games are exploring what it means to lose — now not only a degree, however the extra tangible, life-altering loss. It’s video games like Spiritfarer, a “cozy administration sport about dying,” which is about life after loss of life; What Stays of Edith Finch, in regards to the tales which are left behind; or A Mortician’s Story, which has you going hands-on with loss of life. You’ll discover grief in video games, too, that aren’t explicitly about loss; like I mentioned, it’s inevitable.

Surgent Studios’ Tales of Kenzera: Zau is the most recent sport about processing grief; actually, that’s on the very core of the sport. Led by Home of the Dragon actor Abubakar Salim, the event crew at Surgent Studios has not shied away from the subject. When he introduced the sport at The Recreation Awards in 2023, Salim mentioned Tales of Kenzera: Zau was a method for him to course of his grief in a way that felt acquainted to him, as somebody who grew up taking part in and loving video video games. The sport is a tribute to his father, who died of most cancers in 2013.

Set in a colourful, Afrofuturist world, Tales of Kenzera: Zau begins with a boy grieving the latest loss of life of his father. His father had been sick for a very long time, his loss of life anticipated however no much less devastating. The boy isn’t able to say goodbye, so as an alternative he picks up a e book that his father was writing. Inside this e book is the place the vast majority of Tales of Kenzera: Zau is ready, in a world that mirrors the boy’s personal. Grieving the loss of life of his father, a younger shaman named Zau makes a cope with Kalunga, the god of loss of life, to deliver his father again. Zau should head deep into Kenzera, overrun with misplaced spirits, to confront three highly effective spirits as a way to fulfill Kalunga’s request.

Picture: Surgent Studios/Digital Arts

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a Metroidvania-style sport that makes use of its gameplay to replicate again Zau’s story and grief. Zau enters Kenzera overcome with disappointment, singularly centered on bringing again his Baba — he’s proof against Kalunga’s help, even when he struggles with out it. His grief is overwhelming, difficult; he processes his emotions, generally out loud, as he’s zipping by means of a number of completely different — however interconnected — lands seeking the spirits.

To tackle the upset spirits, Zau makes use of the powers of two of his father’s masks: one which represents the solar, the opposite the moon. On the outset, the blue moon masks offers Zau a ranged assault, whereas the yellow solar masks is a melee assault for combating enemies up shut. Like all Metroidvania, Tales of Kenzera: Zau upgrades these skills as you progress by means of its platforming. Ultimately, Zau will achieve the power to freeze water or enemies, shoot electrical spears, swing from hook flowers, and smash by means of strengthened gates. Past platforming, Tales of Kenzera: Zau provides loads of environmental puzzles — reflections on timing, motion, and placement.

The sport’s important path is a linear one which follows its story, however there’s at all times room for additional exploration, as is conventional in a Metroidvania-style sport. That is the place the style feels significantly apt for a sport about grief; it’s not linear, as you’ll typically end up on what appears to be the fallacious path, or misplaced in cycles and loops. However strolling these meandering trails is usually essential in processing grief, even for Zau: Lifeless ends are sometimes areas for him to replicate or relaxation, which provides him further well being or uncovers little story bits. To not point out, the world of Tales of Kenzera: Zau is completely attractive, regardless of that destruction and treachery abound. Every of the areas is distinct: lush greens in treetop jungles; browns and yellows for bone-crushing deserts; blues and purples for the underground depths. There’s emotion and life teeming in every surroundings, with music that matches its soul — and enhances its hazard. It’s a stupendous visible re-creation of the Bantu myths and legends which are central within the sport’s storytelling.

With every new skill, Tales of Kenzera: Zau turns into more and more tough. The platforming puzzles construct on themselves inside every of the sport’s 4 chapters, and enemies develop extra highly effective, too. There’s additionally an improve tree to make Zau’s abilities extra highly effective, in addition to unlockable problem runes that go even additional. (The runes are good to have, however not important; for instance, one will recharge your skills the extra you juggle enemies.) All of it turns into a bit chaotic, however in one of the simplest ways. Tales of Kenzera: Zau’s platforming and enemy battles are difficult in ways in which really feel rewarding, by no means punishing. The sport’s story makes all the things really feel exhausting for a motive, and each win comes with some kind of new realization for Zau or the folks he’s met on his method. These realizations don’t at all times keep on with Zau; he may need a revelation about one other’s grief, solely to proceed headfirst into his personal. Grief is messy, and Tales of Kenzera: Zau doesn’t draw back from that.

Picture: Surgent Studios/Digital Arts

Towards the very finish of Tales of Kenzera: Zau, there’s a precision- and time-based platforming part that’s painfully tough. It requires the usage of practically all of Zau’s upgrades and talents, which means there’s loads of juggling buttons and timing. (I additionally encountered just a few bugs that froze Zau in a sure skill, which means auto-failure as he was consumed by raging fireplace — a element that made the exhausting degree much more painful.) Throughout this part, Zau is escaping an erupting volcano after combating the malevolent GaGorib. Because the smoke and lava chase him, Zau should bash by means of partitions, scale partitions, dodge obstacles, and carry out exact and well-timed platforming strikes to outlive. The sticking level, for me, was this one wall-breaking thrust timed excellent after a hooked swing — I ended up caught by the lava extra occasions than I may depend. I by no means bought precisely snug with doing it, and each time I broke by means of felt like a miracle. The part continued on, with out a save level, for fairly a bit, and after an hour or so, I lastly made it by means of. By that point, I used to be pissed off and drained, and had a sore thumb. I used to be mad on the sport and likewise myself. I virtually stopped taking part in. However the feeling of Zau breaking by means of that final barrier was such a reduction, one which felt like an actual feat. A reduction that made the battle price it. Unbeknownst to me, this degree is sort of near the tip of the sport — one of many final main challenges I’d face in Tales of Kenzera: Zau. It’s the right time for such a problem, the fruits of so many messy, difficult emotions each for me and for Zau.

I ended the sport in tears as Zau’s story concluded, for I, too, am experiencing grief in my very own life — the anticipatory type, however grief nonetheless. I’m not prepared but to just accept that, and I’m unsure that I ever will. However I go away Tales of Kenzera: Zau realizing that reduction is feasible, nonetheless far off it could be.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau will likely be launched April 23 on Nintendo Swap, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, and Xbox Sequence X. The sport was reviewed on PS5 utilizing a pre-release obtain code offered by Digital Arts. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media might earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. You will discover extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.