Game Title: Kena: Bridge of Spirits
Platform: Xbox
Release Date: 15th August 2024

Developer: Ember Lab
Review copy supplied by publisher

What’s Kena: Bridge of Spirits about?

Kena is a young female spirit guide who has carried on her fathers legacy and wields his spirit staff and she is on a search for a sacred mountain shrine and has the power to help spirits move on. She can use her staff for various attacks and even as a bow to shoot arrows at enemies. You meet up with many characters in the story and even some creatures. You visit many locations on your travels from dark caves that you can light up with your staff pulse to mountain tops and forests.

Kena uses mythical masks belonging to various characters which help let her see certain events that has taken place in that persons timeline which which she can then use to find artifacts belonging to these characters. Along the way, Kena must free certain spirit creatures known as “Rot” which help her gain extra abilities though a upgrade feature and follow her along her journey allowing her to use them to interact with items in the world. As a added bonus, you also get to outfit these rot with many types of hats you can find and purchase in the world. These cute lil guys follow you about in the game but never get in your way. You also get to find certain power ups called Charmstones that can either help you or hinder you depending on it’s attributes. You also get to deliver Spirit Mail left behind by lost spirits to open up new areas by posting it in their post boxes in the main village. You can also take place in various trials to earn rewards like new outfits for Kena and more Charmstones.

There is also various corrupted type plants growing around the world that you must destroy to clean up the world and also at times clear a path to a mission or exit or entry to another area of the map. This was called corruption in the game and you will come across it a lot. To clear rot and restore corruption back to normality, you would usually send the Rot to attack the main bulb of the corruption only after you have cleared out a horde of enemies or a boss fight like the image below.

What’s the movement and controls like?

By default, Kena has the usual double jump and rolling dodge that is core to the gameplay of the many worlds you visit and some paths require the double jump whereas the dodge is core to the fighting mechanics in the game against enemies and bosses alike. There are several areas that you must perform multiple jumps under a timer or you need to sequence various jumps combined to gain access to various sections. When fighting bosses, the dodge comes into its own and is required as you dodge attacks souls-like and can be very hard to defeat depending on the difficulty level set. Upgrading Kena’s abilities as you progress usually are weapon attacks and power or arrow count increases, meaning there are not more more controls needed than the basics.

There is climbing in the game that reminds of the climbing in God of War where you climb from cliff faces to the sides of buildings and can find hidden areas and powerups in hidden areas. Like those games the mechanics of the climbing are flawless and react great to the controller and i had no issues with it.

How does the game look graphically?

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a beautiful looking game and it’s world is lush with beautiful forests and mountains and countryside with night time rounds and rain and thunder storm scenarios that just look amazing. Even with its cartoon like graphics for characters and NPCs and others, it does not take away from its charm and elegant look. The game has two graphic modes that can be switched in the display options listed here.

• Fidelity mode: Game runs at native 4K and 30 FPS.
• Performance Mode: Game runs in upscaled 4K and targeting 60 FPS.

The lighting in Ken: Bridge of spirits is also great and specially shows when in the darker areas of the game like in caves or when you’re running about the forest at night time. The gamma settings are fine but cannot be increased too much to take away from the caves and the lighting in the game.

Conclusion

Kena: Bride of Spirits is a fantastic game and gets you enthralled in it’s story from the get go. The characters narration is on point and the progression is not stuffed down your throat and you can take your time with it so i like that. I did find the campaign short in Kena and found myself wanting more of this great game but doesn’t take away from it specially since the new game+ option is available. If you enjoy platform games that can offer various challenges and puzzles then you will love Kena and i would say definitely check it out.

PROS	CONS
Great Story	Felt Short
Great Combat	Camera Angle can have a mind of its own
Good Graphics	Outfits only unlockable in trials
Progression is good
Game+ option
Photo Mode
Great fighting mechanics