Kena: Bridge of Spirits Review- A Serene Spirit Journey

Over the 2022 Christmas period, I had the pleasure of experiencing the fantastic indie ‘Kena: Bridge of Spirits’. The first game by Ember Lab, the self-published Kena achieves so much more than you may think. A beautiful art style with unique character designs is just scratching the surface when it comes to this grand adventure. Unbelievably polished, narratively gripping, and, with a runtime that never feels like the game is dragged out, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a wonderful romp that I believe should be held on the same pedestal as masterpieces like Hades and Stardew Valley. The biggest shame is that this has flown under the radar of so many despite its inarguable quality.

Story

Kena: Bridge of Spirits follows the titular Kena in her goal to reach the mysterious Mountain Shrine. You’re not initially given much context for why this is your end goal, but this allows the game to quickly set you on your way and grip you with its first of three major story arcs. Without spoiling too much, as a spirit guide, everyone you meet has already died as a result of a cataclysmic event centering around (you guessed it) the huge mountain in the middle of the map. Your goal throughout most of the game, then, is to help the spirits of the dead face their mistakes and move on to the afterlife. This involves gathering artifacts of their past that allow you to summon twisted forest monsters to finally help them come to terms with their fate. While initially seeming grim and depressing, Kena’s take on the spirits is anything but.

As you meet the spirits and learn their stories, you realize that each has made very human mistakes that are relatable and real. The greatest strength of Kena’s narrative is its restraint. There are no unnecessary cutscenes or exposition dumps anywhere- which allows this ten-hour adventure to feel contained and constantly interesting. With each arc taking around three hours to complete, you have time to understand the relationships that each character has and the mistakes they made that led them to their downfall. This makes the inevitable conclusion of their lives really quite emotional. The entire narrative is fantastic and never fails to grip the player even in its slower moments.

Presentation

Kena’s world is absolutely beautiful. On its first reveal, fans took to calling its art style ‘Pixar-esque’. While this is quite an accurate take, the game is anything but a meager copy. Each frame of both the in-game animations and pre-rendered cutscenes is beautiful and similar enough to the graphics of the main game that a return back to gameplay doesn’t feel jarring. Instead, the cutscene feels like it continues with the gorgeous boss battles and environments never failing to impress in the visual department. Even in its downtime, you’re able to sit down and play with your mascot-esque black rot creatures through the use of charming animations that give you a connection to your little battle companions. Every frame of this game could be put in an art gallery thanks to its incredible visual fidelity and beauty.

In the performance department, Kena certainly does not falter. With an industry-standard performance and fidelity mode, you’re given the choice between graphics or frame rate. I played the game on the 60fps performance mode- which makes the texture and lighting quality so impressive. I never experienced a dip in frame rate either- with battles feeling smooth and dynamic that always allowed mistakes to feel like my fault. Kena has certainly set an industry benchmark for its presentation alone- especially in the indie scene.

Gameplay

Kena plays in a way similar to most third-person action/adventure games. With combat, cutscenes, and the occasional platforming spliced together to generate a fluid and (most importantly) fun gameplay loop. What makes Kena more unique than most is its traversal mechanics. You are given the opportunity to manipulate the environment with the use of your bow, bombs, and, of course, the Rot- who can help with anything from moving around platforms to turning waterwheels. You can also create levitating rocks that allow you to maneuver around the environment in simple but rewarding puzzles. While not deep by any measure, they do provide a break from the occasionally repetitive combat sections.

This isn’t to say that combat is bad though- as you have a limited set of tools that intertwine with each other to create combos like shooting a bomb with an arrow to shatter shards into any surrounding enemy or using the Rot to charge up a big, finishing staff blast that only works if the enemy is staggered for a long enough time. With many more fights, this system may begin to feel stale but the perfect ten hour length of the game prevents this from happening. Instead, combat remains engaging until the very end- and if you want more, optional challenges are available to those who want to customize Kena and their Rot companions to their heart’s content. By not requiring a slog through endless hours of content just to beat the game, Kena respects the players time and allows its narrative to feel far more earned and impactful than it otherwise may have.

Conclusion

Overall, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is one of the most underrated indies of the past decade. Restraint almost always trumps bloated open worlds in gaming- which is becoming more and more evident with the decline of Ubisoft-style map marker-filled experiences over the past few years. Kena manages to say everything it wants to and show everything it wants to show in its ten-hour runtime- and that is something that should be applauded. If you’re looking for a piece of comfort after being burned out by excessively long games, Kena may just be able to provide that for you. Ember Games have really achieved something special here- and I’m looking forward to see what this studio will do next, whether Kena related or not