Tales of Kenzera ZAU Review: Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Top Features

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU from developer Surgent Studios arrives with massive potential to push a niche-but-booming genre to new heights.

A Metroidvania platformer at first glance, Kenzera's art direction and, more importantly, its narrative explorations of grief and loss help it stand dramatically apart from many in the genre.

Potential doesn't guarantee success, though, and the task is tall for the newcomer. Kenzera must master the nuances of responsive platforming, the layered rollout of abilities and new areas and the bold emotional and story ambitions.

If it sticks the landing, though, there's undoubtedly a wide-open space for more headline acts in a flourishing category.

Graphics and Gameplay

Kenzera exists in the space that carries the fancy moniker "2.5D" that effectively means a layrered-looking experience beyond the player, whose movement remains restricted to the usual sidescrolling.

Within this context, the game really flexes its visual muscle at every turn, be it with stunning-looking underground rivers within caves or sweeping deserts with canyon dropoffs in the background. There's never not interesting things going on in those backgrounds, be it plants and wildlife close up or a massive sense of scale provided by things off in the distance in more open areas.

The game is rich and vibrant with colors and a depth that has become a must in the genre. A variety of enemies await and match those locales while the player character weaves and dashes through the world in engaging ways.

It should be no surprise to find that beyond an excellent score, the voice acting is top-notch. After all, Abubakar Salim, the voice actor of Bayek in Assassin's Creed Origins, is the creative lead for the ambitious title.

Platforming itself is smooth, which might be the downright most important word when talking about games like this. And players are well-equipped to traverse the world from the start with access to a double jump, air dashes and wall jumps. As always, in this space, other ways to get around present themselves in time.

The gradual rollout of these abilities and how they encourage backtracking and exploration to reach new areas is pleasing. It's paced in a way that doesn't feel tedious, though there are some very serious skill checks at certain points that ask for uber-tight timing to succeed.

Through the use of sun and moon masks, which enable attacks from close range and at a distance, respectively, players engage in basic combat with a variety of enemies.

Both have their own upgrade paths via energy gathered in combat. There's a learning curve, but eventually, pulling off close-range combos to send an enemy away, switching masks, and then juggling them with long-range attacks is fluid and one of the game's many joys.

There are some difficult encounters while exploring, but boss battles are where things can really come to a head. Similar to picking and choosing how to navigate the world, the proper timing and decision-making in the face of these memorable bosses is the key to success.

While random-feeling difficulty spikes at times might prevent Kenzera from slotting among the genre's best in the gameplay department, the stunning world and emotional weight to the presentation sure help balance the scales in a fantastic way.

Story and More

Kalunga and the shaman Zau take center stage in a heartfelt manner as they share a bond of sorts through the loss of a loved one.

The goal, in short, is to capture three monster spirits to offer to the God of Death, the premise being to revive Zau's father.

Easier said than done, of course, but the laser focus on the grapple with these complex topics is never not interesting.

There's a sense of emotional weight and outright anger to the characters and overall narrative that is impressive—oftentimes games with much bigger budgets and Hollywood-styled presentation don't manage it. Zau's growth as a character is swift and compelling, taking him from early mistakes to the maturation of acceptance.

To top it all off, there are droves of environmental storytelling and unlockables found via idols, which relay bits of stories. These little bits and pieces, by serving as a sort of carrot to chase, actually encourage more environmental exploration.

This is all especially impressive when one considers that Metroidvania-style games aren't really heavy on story. It's just not a genre associated with that often. Samus doesn't talk in Metroid. Hollow Knight's story comes through the score in an otherwise minimalist approach, etc.

As hinted, progression is a strong suit for Kenzera. That goes for the pulling back of the curtain on the world as much as it does character evolution. Players can invest in big and small things with their resources, such as minor things like say, recharging ammo faster.

Tucked within the menus is a respectable amount of options, with some even going above and beyond—like the ability to even tweak controller dead zones for the sticks, something usually reserved for competitive shooters and the like.

Performance can be an issue at times, with the frames-per-second (FPS) dipping, seemingly at random. It goes without saying, but that can be a big deal when navigating some tricky platforming sections, so it's undoubtedly something that will get addressed post-launch.

Conclusion

It's not easy to muscle into a world dominated by Hollow Knight, Ori and Metroid games that gave the genre its moniker. Heck, it's not easy to spar with the more recent Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown.

Yet, here's Kenzera, offering up fun, always-expanding gameplay that features nice pick-up-and-play potential for most with some high-skill ceiling things to chase that appeals to a more hardcore crowd, too.

More importantly, Kenzera goes to great lengths to accomplish its goal of applying an engrossing narrative atop the standard Metroidvania experience, providing a tale and characters that leave a lasting impression.

Alongside Price of Persia, Kenzera is a welcome next step forward for the genre, creating nice replayability and plenty of anticipation for what might come next, too.