- Game: Kena: Bridge of Spirts
- Developer: Ember Lab
- Publisher: Ember Lab
- Available on: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, PC
- Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
First unveiled at the PlayStation 5 reveal event, Kena: Bridge of Spirits quickly became one of the platform’s most anticipated games. Its dazzling, cinema-quality visuals and charming world from animation studio turned game developer Ember Lab, garnered plenty of excitement and had many looking forward to this promising new IP. With the game finally in our hands, it’s safe to say that it certainly lived up to expectations, and in some ways even exceeded them.
The story is a simple one that’s not too groundbreaking. Set in a fantastical forest, you play as Kena, a young Spirit Guide who’s trying to reach the sacred Mountain Shrine. In order to accomplish this, she has to clear the forest of the corruption that’s overtaken it and assist the Spirits that still reside there. Taking about 12 hours to complete, the game moves along at a fairly steady pace. While its story may not be doing anything particularly new, the world that’s presented here is rich and well-crafted, with a surprising amount of emotional depth that’s hidden beneath the kid-friendly surface.
Throughout the story, themes of grief, forgiveness, and moving on are explored in increasingly sincere and heartfelt ways. Each of the Spirits that Kena comes across on her journey has their own fully fleshed-out story that elevates them from just another NPC to a wholly developed character that I completely sympathized with. To be frank, I would be lying if I said that I didn’t get a bit teary-eyed seeing the way these stories played out.
Out of everyone in the game, Kena herself, unfortunately, doesn’t get much character development. She’s a great character with wisdom beyond her years, but while we know she wants to reach the Mountain Shrine, it’s not until near the end of the game that we find out what’s motivating her to go on this journey and see her be truly tested. While this didn’t detract much from my enjoyment of the story, or of Kena herself, it did leave me wondering the “why?” of everything for a large portion of the game.
When it comes to gameplay, Bridge of Spirits keeps things simple and straightforward. Taking elements of Metroidvanias and character action platformers from the PS2 generation, the game feels like a successful modern take on those classic genres.
Broken into separate sizeable regions, the world is large with plenty of space to explore. At the center of it all is the village that serves as your main hub. There’s a lot to see here, with some sections of the village only becoming available after unlocking different abilities from the main story. Although it starts out covered in corruption, clearing it out little by little is rewarding, since doing so gives you more to explore, and provides a nice bit of visual and character progression, as it ties neatly into Kena’s separate goal of saving the forest.
Each of the game’s regions features a different Spirit’s story, but the gameplay loop is the same in each. You’re tasked with finding three different items that are key to that Spirit’s story and removing the corruption that’s infesting the area. It can be a bit repetitive, but the story that’s told in each area is worth it and made the tasks feel important as opposed to just busywork that prolongs the story. Additionally, the different abilities that you unlock in each area such as the use of a bow and arrow, and a spirit bomb, play a part in spicing up the exploration of each region by opening up new avenues of traversal and different paths to explore. It also helps that each area is distinct from one another and made me want to fully explore it as much as possible in between progressing the story.
Exploration throughout the world is certainly encouraged and rewards you with a number of things. Spirit Mail can be found and brought back to its corresponding house in the main village, allowing you to help the Spirits residing there move on. There are different chests in the world too, with some containing stones to use for purchasing Rot hats, and others offering challenges that reward you with this currency. Meditation spots can be found as well, offering a health boost and a brief moment to take in the sights of Bridge of Spirits’ beautiful world.
The biggest reward for exploration though is the Rot themselves. These adorable creatures of the forest are numerous and assist Kena both in combat and exploration, with a total of 100 to be found. Finding them unlocks different skills for Kena to use and upgrade, so I was always on the lookout for them. Aside from gaining access to more skills thanks to the Rot, I enjoyed being able to just do little things with them. Actions such as personalizing my growing army of little guys with the different hats I bought, finding fruits for them to eat, or sitting and interacting with them made me care about them far more than I initially expected to, and had me eager to find as many as possible.
A world map is available to help navigate throughout the different regions, but there’s no way to mark a waypoint for viewing outside of the map. Wearing one of your Spirit masks’ allows you to see the direction of your next main objective, but it can only be used while stationary, so it’s not the most helpful tool. While I never got lost while playing, it would’ve been nice to be able to place a waypoint, that way I wouldn’t have had to constantly go into the map to make sure I was heading in the right direction.
There are also a number of different puzzles in the game, with some being simple and others being a bit more complex. Some of them may give a bit of pause, but none of them are real headscratchers that will leave you stumped for too long.
As with the story, combat in Bridge of Spirits is fairly straightforward. Kena has both light and heavy attacks she can perform with her staff for simple combos, but can also use her bow and arrow, and spirit bombs to mix things up. The Rot play a key role in fights too with their ability to temporarily distract enemies and augment your moves with powerful attacks that are performed at the expense of Courage that’s built up during fights. There’s also a shield that Kena can summon, though it can only sustain a certain amount of damage before going away, making dodging and parrying attacks crucial for surviving fights. Having all these options adds some variety and depth to combat, keeping things from being too repetitive or simplistic.
What’s most shocking, however, is the difficulty in combat. Enemies are strong and can take you down in just a matter of hits if you aren’t careful. Most enemy encounters don’t pit you against more than a handful of enemies at a time, but these matchups will still keep you on your toes. There’s a good number of enemy types as well, with many of them requiring different strategies to beat. This level of challenge was something I enjoyed, as it made all the fights exciting affairs no matter how far into the game I was.
The only time the difficulty becomes an issue is during the many boss fights. I played on the game’s Normal mode, and during these encounters the difficulty gets raised significantly, making for some painfully hard battles. This is partially due to the moves and strength of the bosses, but it’s also due to how the fights are designed. When in combat, Kena’s health doesn’t regenerate. The only way to restore it is by collecting a healing flower that’s in the arena. Since there are generally only two available during boss fights, it’s not uncommon to use them both before reaching the hardest part of the fight, resulting in multiple deaths. If there were more of these flowers available during boss encounters, it would go a long way towards decreasing the difficulty of these tough battles. Beating these bosses still provides a strong sense of satisfaction, but the road there can be a frustrating one.
It’s not a surprise to say that Bridge of Spirits is a beautiful game. Ember Lab’s animation and film background shine in the game’s visuals, with its stellar art direction, movie-like cinematics, and lively world and character design. Everything oozes with charm, making it easy to get swept up and enamored in the world that’s presented. The game’s Photo Mode offers a neat feature that has the characters animate and pose in different ways too, allowing you to highlight their different personalities when taking that perfect shot.
The music also deserves high praise. It all comes together to accentuate and elevate whatever is happening at any given time. Whether it be fighting a group of enemies, walking through the forest, or watching one of the game’s many emotional cutscenes, the music works hand in hand to make the moment a truly powerful one.
Overall
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is the latest in a line of great PlayStation exclusives. Though it may suffer from massive difficulty spikes and not being that adventurous, it’s balanced out by exciting combat and a gorgeous world with a lot to explore. And that’s all on top of the beautifully poignant story that’s told throughout. One can only hope that this is the start of a new series for Ember Lab, as this first installment has me eager for more.
Play To Win 