Kena: Bridge of Spirits by Ember Labs was a game that popped up on my radar rather recently, after its new arrival to Steam as it was an Epic Games exclusive for the first year of its release. After seeing some gameplay from my friends who got the game first, I was certainly interested, as an initial observer’s impression gave off vibes that reminded me of Horizon Zero Dawn and a few Zelda games. I actually decided to pull the trigger and get the game after one of my friends issued an official challenge where he would reimburse me if I was able to clear through the game (whether it’s the first play-through or NG+) on the highest difficulty level. While I already enjoy challenging games, free money is free money. That said, even without the financial incentive, I enjoyed the game quite a bit (at least on normal difficulty) and I think it’s a great indie game that’s worth checking out.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits follows the titular character Kena, who is a spirit guide. Spirit guides are responsible for assisting troubled spirits who have issues with moving on from the real world, and these spirits tend to cause havoc as a consequence of their lingering presence. Kena’s goal is to find a certain mountain shrine in the world, and in the process help any spirits along the path. In the way of the mountain shrine is a village that has been corrupted by the influence of spirits, and in order to gain access to the shrine she must purify the village of its dark influences and restore order.
Gameplay:
At its core, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an action-adventure game, with a heavy focus on combat and exploration. The combat is fairly straightforward at first, with Kena having a rather basic set of abilities, including light/strong attacks and a shield that turns into a parry upon perfectly timing a block. However, as she progresses through the world, her arsenal increases, which later include a bow that can shoot projectiles and bombs. These abilities can be enhanced as she discovers more “Rot” creatures (tiny, cute beings that can wear hats), which allow her to use a powerful hammer and utilize stronger versions of arrows and bombs. The bow and arrow mechanics are what made me draw the earlier comparison to Horizon Zero Dawn, as they feel very similar (especially since you can unlock the ability to slow down time while aiming). I think the developers did a great job with Kena’s mechanics, and controlling her and utilizing her various skills in combat feels very fun.
The enemies in the game are also surprisingly varied, from basic melee/ranged mooks to tougher enemies that can use both types of attacks, and even enemies that are basically walking grenades who try to stick to you and explode. The few bosses are also pretty well-designed, with each boss having its own unique set of mechanics. Enemy-wise, my only criticism is targeted at various encounters where the game just throws a bunch of different enemies to try and overwhelm you, and that is more likely an issue due to NG+ and master difficulty. It probably isn’t a big deal on the standard difficulty, but I found a lot of encounters in NG+ on master difficulty to be rather excessive, and I was only really able to pull through by exploiting a very combination of techniques involving a certain charmstone and Rot bombs (which are actually overpowered as they freeze time).
Overall, the combat is super fun, and my only major criticism of it is the lock-on system, which I think is absolutely atrocious. As someone who never had an issue with FromSoftware’s camera/lock-on implementations (which are often complained about), I had a lot of trouble with the system in Kena: Bridge of Spirits. The game lets you lock on to enemies manually, and when it does it works fine, but things get messy when playing unlocked or trying to switch lock-on targets. Whenever I play unlocked, the game has some sort of inherent auto-lock-on system that sometimes messes with my actions, and the game also seems to have trouble whenever I try locking on to a new enemy after defeating another, as half the time it just refuses to respond. Again, during my first play-through on normal difficulty it didn’t really pose an issue as the encounters weren’t hectic enough, but it became glaringly obvious in my second run on master difficulty.
Combat aside, the exploration aspect of Kena: Bridge of Spirits is solid. I had a fun time trying to explore the world, which ended up being surprisingly complex, trying to find all the various hidden goodies. Finding a Spirit Mail and then using it to restore a new part of the village feels very satisfying, as a lot of the Spirit Mail items are usually well-hidden, and as each part of the village is restored it really brings a good sense of progress, that the work Kena is doing is ultimately helpful. A lot of the puzzles were pretty fun to work out, and also weren’t difficult to the point of annoying.
Overall the gameplay is very fun, though unless you’re a masochist I feel like it’s probably better to stay at normal/expert difficulty or below because master difficulty (at least on NG+) definitely felt more of a nuisance than an actual fun experience.
Writing:
In comparison to the gameplay, the writing in Kena: Bridge of Spirits is honestly rather barebones. Outside of the goal to reach the mountain shrine and helping the various tormented spirits, there really isn’t much else to the overall narrative. In each region to explore, there is a troubled spirit whose presence corrupts that area, and Kena meets other spirits who are related to that particular spirit, and these other spirits assist Kena through the region and give backstory details on what is going on. It is enough to get the player to move from area to area but does not exactly make for a very compelling story. That being said, I don’t believe the story seems to be the primary focus of the game, but rather on the gameplay, exploration, and focus on the environmental set pieces. With that scope in mind, I think the story is fine. Could it be better and more developed? Sure, but it doesn’t have to be.
Misc/Ending Thoughts:
Another thing Kena: Bridge of Spirits does really well is setting the tone of the environment. The game gives off rather spiritual vibes, thanks in part to its great soundtrack and gorgeous scenery. Its impressive graphics and art-style is a major contributor to the exploration being so fun, because it is a lot more enjoyable to explore an environment that is visually beautiful as you get to enjoy the views as you hunt for different collectibles. I also enjoyed listening to the music as I played, whether it be the calming scenic music as I am casually exploring or the tense, fast-paced tracks that play during enemy/boss encounters.
Overall, Kena: Bridge of Spirits was a great experience, boasting a well-tuned combat system and fun exploration elements, all improved by excellent visuals and music. For anyone who is a fan of action-adventure games that focus on combat I highly recommend it.
Rating: The game’s awesome. It goes for retail at about $40, which I would say is a pretty fair price for the experience I had. The anniversary update that introduced charmstones and NG+ was pushed at the same time of the Steam release, and with that I would say the game offers a lot of good value.
