Since its announcement in the summer of 2020, I’ve been enamored with Kena: Bridge of Spirits. From the beautiful visuals and animation to the overall theme, I knew I had to play it. Kena marks the video game debut of indie developer and animation studio Ember Lab. After a few delays, the game is finally here.
In Kena: Bridge of Spirits, players take up the mantle of the titular character, Kena, a spirit guide tasked with aiding the dead as they move from the living realm into the spirit world. On her journey, Kena faces deadly and corrupted enemies, but she’s not alone as she is joined by allies and, of course, the cute and cuddly Rots.
Breathtaking Visuals with Pixar Vibes
From the first look at Kena: Bridge of Spirits during PlayStation’s Future of Gaming event last June, the game set our expectations high with the visual buffet offered in the trailer. The short video provided us with a look at what we could expect from the game’s visuals, and now that I’ve experienced the game, it looks even better than I expected. Sparx, a Vietnamese animation studio, did incredible animation during the cutscenes, and it’s on the same level as Pixar.
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With the cutscene animation so stunning, I was worried about how the gameplay visuals would look by comparison, but I soon found out I had nothing to worry about. The gameplay, while having the typical graphical glitches, was unlike anything I’ve seen from such a small indie team. The environments were breathtaking. The forests especially had such a warm atmosphere conveyed perfectly, and even the corrupted areas, while pretty dead, were visually pleasing.
One of the things that initially sold me about the game was the character design. The game featured terrific designs from Kena to the adorable Rots, the corrupted enemies, and Kena’s allies. Kena gave me big Kubo and the Two Strings vibes, and that’s not a complaint, as that’s one of my favorite animated movies. While the Pixar comparison is strong, this game is reminiscent of the movies from Laika Studios (Kubo, Coraline, Paranorman).
Audio That Complements the Visuals
Kena: Bridge of Spirits boasts an auditory experience that compares to the visuals. The game features an incredible score composed by Jason Gallaty through a rare collaboration with the Balinese ensemble Gamelan Çudamani. Initially wary of contributing their culture’s music to a video game, the group’s lead singer, Emiko Susilo, was won over after seeing the game and talking to the dev team. Susilo’s vocals can be heard throughout the game’s soundtrack, including my favorite track, “Befriending Spirits.” The soundtrack is reminiscent of Studio Ghibli films while also doing something different. Overall, the score and audio ambiance greatly contributed to how full and vibrant the world feels.
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I found the voice acting solid, especially considering many of the cast are newcomers to the voice acting field. Dewa Ayu Dewi Larassanti, the daughter of Emiko Susilo, is the voice of Kena. It is hard to believe this is her first-ever professional voicing gig. She did an incredible job. Sam Cavallaro and Joshua Vincent’s performances as Saiya and Beni, respectively, are impressive. Both voice actors are young, and their performances carry so much weight.
While I am head over heels with the game’s audio, it’s unfortunate that some sound levels are unbalanced. The music overpowers the dialogue at points, taking me out of the narrative. Some tweaking can be done in the audio menu, but I never got it quite right.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits Doesn’t Lack in Gameplay
Ah, gameplay. The meat and potatoes of most video games. Often, gameplay can make or break a video game. The gameplay is rather fun, while the combat is fluid and enjoyable. The difficulty is always fair, but it can be challenging at times. A few boss fights took a couple of attempts, but as soon as I got the swing of things, I got through them and never felt frustrated.
Being a game developed and released on both the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5, I was hesitant to experience load times. Surprisingly, I found the load times to go by exceptionally quickly. I can’t even imagine how fast they’d be on the PS5 (which is almost a shame because the load screen art is pretty).
Kena: Bridge of Spirits may not have the longest campaign, but I believe it more than makes up for that with its pseudo-open world and a slew of collectibles. While Meditation spots are the only collectible you can seek that contribute to your gameplay experience, collecting the hats for the little Rots quickly became an important mission for me. There’s a ton of them, and they’re all cute! Players who want even more will be happy to hear that the game also features a perks system. While it’s not too robust, it’ll motivate players to grind some Karma to unlock some pretty useful (and fun) perks.
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Unfortunately, one thing jumped out at me, which was pretty jarring—input lag on the walking and camera animations. After some internet perusing, I discovered I was not the only person experiencing this. While I don’t think it went away, I got used to it pretty quickly and could compensate for it fairly easily.
Regarding combat, the game’s more simplified take on an RPG-style combat system gives players little in the way of moves to string together any satisfying combo. While I would have liked a little more diversity in the way of attacks, the simplified mechanics allow younger gamers to enjoy the game alongside the more experienced ones.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits Is Charming and Authentic
With Kena: Bridge of Spirits being story-heavy, the writing is essential—not only the narrative but also the dialogue. The writing is charming and authentic, complementing the voice acting. The story takes the player on quite a ride. While Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a fun and adorable game, it’s also not afraid to get dark and a little sad throughout its narrative. Both high and low points hit and have such an emotional impact.
One thing I found lacking from the narrative was Kena’s development. The game did such a good job bringing most characters and even the environment to life, but I would have liked it if Kena had received some of that treatment as well.
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Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an astounding debut for Ember Lab. A studio’s first game is rarely such a masterpiece. The team pulled off a unique and special game, which I know I’ll be thinking about for a while. Without a shadow of a doubt, I can say that Kena will be my GOTY, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is now on the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC for an almost criminally low price of $53.49 (Canadian).
