The review of Tales of Kenzera: Zau, is a metroidvania title that tells the story of the process of a terrible loss in the form of a 2.5D adventure.
Everyone has a different way of reacting to the death of a loved one. Tales of Kenzera: Zau is one of these, having been born from the experience of Abubakar Salim. His idea is to lead us into the elaboration of his pain, giving it the shape of a multi-colored metroidvania. Although the underlying track is very promising and the ideological aspect is presented memorably, the gameplay itself has some design flaws that we will see later.
The true story of Tales of Kenzera: Zau is contained in the book that the father of the protagonist Zuberi began writing sometime before. Baba's premature death of him is something unacceptable for him. For this reason, the mother chooses to submit the written work to Zuberi as a means of dealing with mourning.
Zau is the protagonist of the book and plays a young shaman in the same situation as Zuberi. To bring his Baba back to life, he makes a pact with the God of Death Kalunga. We all know that such gestures always have a price to pay. For Zau this takes shape in the difficulty of having to explore the varied landscapes of Kenzera, overcoming challenges, increasing one's power, and thus going through the infamous stages of grieving. We leave you with our review of Tales of Kenzera: Zau.
A Kenzera full of colours
Although Kenzera's settings follow the usual canons of video game adventures (desert, forest, ruined city, volcano), it is the union with the distinctive elements of African culture that makes the difference. We must not forget that, although Zau lives in a fantasy world, colorful and full of environmental diversity, Zuberi is an inhabitant of a hyper-futuristic city. It is therefore not a contemporary Africa, but rather one that has undergone enormous technological and urban development.
Despite this, the spiritual dimension is fully maintained. The continuous dialogues between Zau and Kalunga show how Bantu culture pervades the entire world of Kenzera, affecting the player in two different ways. Those who have already come into contact with this culture previously will rediscover the known elements, while those newly interested will be taken by the hand and brought inside to discover a completely unknown world. The sound sector also celebrates this culture with a dubbing between English and the original language. Subtitles in Italian are always available.
The enemies themselves are identifiable: their nature derives from negative feelings of humanity. To find a similar representation you have to go back a few years and travel around the world to find yourself in Japan with Ghostwire: Tokyo.
All the Metroidvania clichés
The gameplay of Tales of Kenzera: Zau follows all the characteristics of the metroidvania. Kenzera can be explored far and wide to find secret rooms and upgrades, occasionally retracing your steps to follow previously inaccessible paths. The classic aspects of this genre are a continuous increase in difficulty with increasingly frequent and elaborate traps.
An unusual feature, however, is the fact that Zau already possesses some abilities. His shaman rank is advanced and this allows him, for example, to already use the double jump and have both physical and medium-range attacks at his disposal. Commonly they would be traits obtainable after a few hours of play.
New abilities can be discovered in two ways. The "hard" ones for the continuation of the game are donated by statues and cannot be forgotten. Others, called Gifts, must be conquered through platform challenges that put the player to the test with the newly unlocked skills. These cannot all be enabled at the same time, so it is necessary to clearly understand which ones to choose at the dedicated workbenches.
Zau can use two different powers to fight. The Sun is dedicated to physical attacks, while the Moon allows you to hurl projectiles at enemies. It is almost reductive as an explanation, because as the story continues these two powers evolve naturally, taking on importance even outside of combat. An interesting and well-done feature is the ability to change power instantly during fights.
A few small technical hiccups
This is where Tales of Kenzera: Zau stumbles. In certain situations, Zau's moments are imprecise, for example in changes of direction or movements in mid-air. There also appears to be some work to be done regarding the hitboxes of instant-kill environmental elements, such as lava and spikes.
Although the difficulty can be set on 3 levels, the instant kill remains in those sections and is frustrating when it comes from a technical inaccuracy. It's already difficult to understand where Zau is on the screen when the light effects are king, so similar errors and a not-always-responsive camera lead to the temptation to throw the controller toward the screen.
A shame from this point of view, because Tales of Kenzera: Zau has all it takes to become the first Metroidvania for those who have never played anything similar. These errors, combined with a couple of escape sections without intermediate checkpoints and with unpredictable changes of direction, work against it.
A story that teaches acceptance
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a title born from a personal story that, unfortunately, is experienced by everyone at some point in life. The narration of Zuberi and his father's book follows all the stages of mourning, giving them a graphic and spiritual representation. Kalunga, the God of Death, takes human form to accompany the protagonist with a continuous dialogue. While this is understandably resentful at first, it slowly becomes almost like a conversation between two friends.
The rapprochement between Zau and Kalunga is nothing other than the acceptance of the loss of the father, to be crowned with a final boss fight full of emotions. Kalunga, or in any case death in general, is part of life and all you can do is accept it as it is. The God of Death himself never presents himself in a brutal, atrocious, and negative way as one might imagine, but rather in an extremely welcoming manner to demonstrate his inevitability as tactfully as possible.
It is the circle of life, a concept increasingly present in the final lines thanks to the phrases recited during the last act of Zau's journey.
TESTED VERSION: PC