In recent years suggest that characters-oriented 3D action platforms have fallen out of favor, but 2021 had something to say about this trend. First of all, we had the exceptional Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and now we finally have our dirty mittens on the fascinating Kena: Bridge of Spirits. This is the first crack at a video game of Ember Lab, previously known to do promotional animation with big budget.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a balance story. Between the good and the evil, between the living and the dead, and between nature and its inhabitants. Kena, as a spiritual guide, is responsible for restoring the right balance and helping the inevitable circle of life to continue turning.
It is an excellent concept that integrates perfectly into the traditional structure of Legend of Zelda. Like Link would travel hyrule by helping gorons and Zora, Kena explores the world by helping the minds trapped to move to the next life. Kena s interactions with the spirits of the world are really well done, giving sufficient context to connect with stories and characters, but also by definitely avoiding too much sink into weeds. In the end, the individual stories of the characters gave me the impression that I wanted more information, but that I had enough to draw my own conclusions. For a more focused story at the moment and less on the large image (mainly), this kind of balance can be elusive.
Writing and dubbing are functional enough, but did not do much to stand out in an infinite sea of stories and vocal characters. What desperately missed me is to focus more on Kena itself. There are some clues that she should have an interesting story herself, but it never happens. It s a shame, really. I have a lot of theories about the history of Kena and its presence in the world, but for the moment my fan fiction will suffice.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is in no way a long match - it is somewhere around the 10-hour bar - but it covers a lot of physical territory during this period. Kena explores mountain passes, deep forests and underground structures, all of phenomenal appearance. The level of detail is high in all areas, both in textures and in the density of visual elements such as grass and leaves. The lighting is also excellent, offering not only an atmosphere, but a measure of the life that is in no way guaranteed at this stage in video games.
Since Ember Lab is known for animation, it is not surprising that things are hyper fluid in this regard. Especially in cinematics, there is real Hollywood quality work exposed in Bridge of Spirits. Several methods of performance are expected at this point, and performance are those that keep up to or nearly 60 frames per second most of the time. Strangely, fidelity mode seems significantly slower than dynamic performance mode. I would still choose Performance mode. It s a beautiful end-to-end world, with only the reflections of the old school screen space that spoil a little effect on PS5.
There is something about round creatures and cuddles, is not it? The cute and cuddly factor is absolutely out of the charts in Kena thanks to unfortunately named Rot. Kena brings them together along the adventure, and they follow her everywhere like adorable small totoros. Not cute enough? The rot sets when crossing bridges, enter houses or approach a view, and (you guessed it), it s always more than adorable.
The Rot is also a large part of the gameplay, with lots of little guys hidden in the corners and crannies of the whole world. One of the shots I would put against Kena s design is that there is no good reason to hunt hidden rot and other collectibles other than curiosity. During the game, I won more than enough resources to complete the control list style upgrade path and buy as many hats as I wanted.
Oh yes, the only thing you can buy with your money in the game, they are hats that the rot can wear. You know what I m going to say here - it s damn adorable - but I would like there to be a reason to load hats. Even the smallest boost or bonus would have encouraged me to be more thorough. Spirit Mail is a step in the right direction, but I wanted more variety in these sequences and more visual narration to encourage me to hunt the last few I had missed.
In the end, the exploration and design of levels in Kena are relics of a revolving period. It s a little charming and refreshing compared to open worlds that are now the norm, but the world of Kena is full of one-way doors, slippery slopes and artificial definitions of what Kena can stand at a given moment. . Yet there is a fun crossing and platform if not extremely inventive to do using the powers and skills acquired during the trip.
Finally, there is the fight. It s good! Principally. It is also mechanically dated. There is no lock or method for targeting loaded attacks for example. It s simple and functional, but overall enough fun and satisfying, especially with the dualsense at stake for bow and other sounds. There are works specific to the battle when a boss is vulnerable, which can be frustrating, and I certainly noticed big peaks of difficulty. Sometimes a particular difficulty will seem to be an impressive balance - just cross meetings, to really have the mind about you - only to jump a lot in some of the battles of boss. It s not incredibly difficult, but I suspect that most players will end up increase and decrease the difficulty to maximize their experience.
Where Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart took an old formula and brought it to the modern era, Kena s approach: Bridge of Spirits was more consistent with old methods. The technical aspects are phenomenal and quite current, but the game itself rests strongly on the old way of doing things. Limited paths. Artificial situational limitations. Collectibles in Gogo. You probably already know if it s something that interests you and I personally think they did an admirable job here. Especially for a first crack.
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