Surgent Studios’ narrative focused debut is a solid Metroidvaia effort, with underwhelming enemy variety offset by fun traversal and memorable characters.
Setting is important in any game, but especially a Metroidvania, where you must explore it intimately, traversing back and forth while continually opening up new pathways and hidden secrets you previously didn’t have access to before. In this regard, the debut title from Surgent Studios is a pure joy, with the eponymous location of Kenzera playing host to some of the most beautiful sights seen in the genre, and featuring plenty of optional veins and arteries to dig into. There’s a reason its name is in the title! And true, while Zau’s personal pursuit to overcome grief might often play a little too closely to the greats that inspired it, the emotional ride through such scenic landscapes is all made worthwhile thanks to a heartfelt payoff and some seriously cool powers to master.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau aims to stand out by being a Metroidvania that places equal importance on plot and characters, just as much as combat or exploration. You play as Zau, a Shaman who makes a deal with the god of death to bring back his recently deceased father, a feat that requires him to gather up the souls of three ancient spirits littered in the land. Based on the real-life experience of Surgent Studios creative director Abubakar Salim and his reconciliation following the loss of his own father, having such a deeply personal narrative crux works well to bring weight to your actions. It also helps that Zau stays an empathetic (though brash) character from start to finish, contrasting wildly with the god of death Kalunga’s more stern approach – who remains your constant companion.
Zau himself thankfully starts off incredibly nimble to control. Double jump, air dash, wall climb… it’s all here right from the beginning, removing that initial feeling of dread I usually have in the early hours of a game like this, while further contributing to the idea that Zau is no beginner in his field. It was refreshing and made getting around Kenzera’s multiple regions a breeze almost instantly, paving the way for even cooler abilities set to appear later on. From freezing previously unclimbable waterfalls, to a glide that lets you ride an updraft up through various floors and chambers, Tales of Kenzera: Zau achieves a good standard when it comes to giving you fun ways to traverse and the pace in which it dishes them out.
Less successful, however, is the combat, which is annoying given that the premise behind it starts in such a promising way. You see, battling foes is based around switching between the masks of the Sun and Moon, which let you focus on either melee or ranged attacks respectively. While donning the Moon mask, for example, makes chipping away at far-off enemies with ice shards your best bet, more hulking creatures are better dealt with using the Sun mask’s hard-hitting close-up attacks. This unique setup works to make you think tactically about how to approach each confrontation depending on the scenario the game boxes you into, especially when shields are introduced that force you to wear one over the other.
Might and magic
So what seems to be the problem? Simply put, enemy variety, and more specifically the lack of it. This doesn’t start as an issue during the first two Acts, of course, as different types of flying and ground-based combatants are gradually introduced, encouraging me to equip certain gameplay-modifying trinkets and unleashing super spirit attacks based on my preferred approach. By the time I started the third Act, though, Tales of Kenzera: Zau had exhausted all the ways it could challenge me in a practical sense, and so resorted to throwing tougher variants of the same type I had already defeated endlessly before reaching this point. It ultimately doesn’t ruin how fun flittering between the Sun and Moon masks can be in the moment, but it does grate in the game’s latter half where enemy rooms become a regular occurrence.
This brings me to another slight bugbear, which is the imbalance between environmental puzzles and combat. Sure, there are plenty of cool ways to get around and doing so is always fun and often a challenge in and of itself, yet between these long sections of traversal is rarely anything other than walled-off enemy bouts. Again, this isn’t an issue while new skills are still being introduced, but I couldn’t help but feel that big narrative beats would have been better broken up using more inventive and elaborate puzzles, aside from the typical ‘move the metal box onto the platform’ requirement that pops up once per region. Kenzera’s various locations are always stunning, but not always fully capitalised on as far as the ways Zau can interact with it.
Luckily, exploring out of Kenzera’s usual bounds after gaining a new power is almost always worth the trip. Because while completing Spirit Trials to gain new trinket slots and spirit bars is relatively self-explanatory, seeking out Echoes will be a must for anyone craving extra context to the state of Zau’s world before his father passed away. The absolute standout in terms of the game’s optional content, however, are its various traversal trials, where your mastery of gliding, dashing, and generally zooming about platforms is put to the test. At various times while undertaking these I struggled to get a handle on the type of manoeuvre needed to not reach an instant-fail state initially. It always took me at least a handful of attempts. That said, I didn’t mind since the reward is always a shiny new trinket, and the traversal challenges found within these trials usually influenced my ability to get around quicker elsewhere in the world.
Boss fights were similarly testing of my skill, yet never failed to impress from a visual standpoint. All four have a tendency to dwarf Zau, reinforcing how minuscule a character he is amongst Kenzera’s more extravagant figures. Though the strategy needed to take each boss down is always evident and well-telegraphed, actually moving quickly enough to execute the necessary manoeuvres always kept me on my toes, whether it be in the form of dodging a slam, jumping over a wave, or knowing exactly when to best unleash a super spirit attack. The second Act’s spider-like boss sequence in particular proved taxing but in a good way, teed up by a tough escape sequence reminiscent of Ori and the Will of the Wisp’s more tense sections before forcing me to dash around in a way that saw me utilise the entire screen.
By the time I hit credits in Tales of Kenzera: Zau, I really came to appreciate just how delicately such hefty topics of grief, loss, and fear were handled within the wider realm of the story. It doesn’t take too long for you to realise, for instance, that Zau is far from the only one suffering in this land, and learning how Kenzera’s collection of other inhabitants were manifesting their emotions always offered me a new perspective I previously hadn’t considered, all while smartly revealing a new side to how Zau was feeling too. In lesser hands, the narrative here could have been entirely melancholic, but Surgent Studios finds a great balance in its storytelling, not being afraid to shy away from how impactful the idea of losing a parent can be, alongside lighter elements introduced by colourful exploration, set-piece boss fights, and something as simple as Zau and Kalunga’s constant bickering.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a handsomely made Metroidvania, leaning into the genre’s typical conventions, yet also knowing when to slightly break them in favour of engaging traversal and side activities, wrapped within a beautiful world and hopeful story. Sure, the lack of enemy variety becomes an issue at the midpoint and somewhat undercuts the brilliant mechanical hook of combat, but it doesn’t dampen what is undeniably an impressive debut game that sets the foundation for more excellent entries to come. If indeed there are other tales the world of Kenzera has to offer – Metroidvania or otherwise – I can’t wait to experience them.