Tales of Kenzera: ZAU Overview (PS5)

There’s one thing about enjoying Tales of Kenzera: ZAU that by no means feels fairly proper. Whether or not it is the gradual, sluggish controls or frustratingly frequent one-hit kills, reaching any form of move state the place you are vibing and jiving with the most recent EA Originals title is nigh-on unimaginable. It is a very stop-start expertise at odds with the same old hallmarks of the Metroidvania style, as an alternative spotlighting a touching, private story of parental loss. Such a heavy narrative focus isn’t any unhealthy factor, however with little gameplay satisfaction to depend on between plot factors, it feels so lopsided that anything comes throughout as an afterthought.

By definition, the debut title from Surgent Studios is a Metroidvania recreation, however solely within the loosest phrases. You will discover a fairly sized map encompassing totally different areas and areas whereas unlocking a handful of latest skills, secrets and techniques, and shortcuts. Two ability bushes improve your fight strategies, then persistent platforming sections navigate you to goals and non-obligatory challenges. That description might be utilized to many Metroidvania greats like Hole Knight and Prince of Persia: The Misplaced Crown, however the situation with Tales of Kenzera is it would not lean into these options wherever close to sufficient.

It is a very fundamental tackle the style, to the purpose the place it may need been higher off as a extra easy motion platformer so such comparisons can be moot. Not often are new expertise teased by way of inaccessible passages, by no means will its platforming actually problem you. The sport’s not utterly devoid of such parts, although what’s there will not show notably satisfying — it really works lots higher as an introduction to Metroidvanias than anything.

As an alternative, the title is made up of quite a few singular paths that sometimes break off into non-obligatory impasses with a secret on the finish, and fight encounters. Principal character Zau utilises them on a quest to say his father’s spirit again from the useless; a narrative private to Surgent Studios founder Abubakar Salim, who beforehand voiced Bayek in Murderer’s Creed Origins.

Informed by way of prolonged and frequent dialogue interactions, it is a change of tempo from narratives typical of the style. Nonetheless, taken as a standalone plot, it really works properly from each an emotional and suspenseful standpoint. Zau is accompanied on his journey by the God of Demise, creating an attention-grabbing dynamic as the 2 characters do not at all times get alongside. Stripped of all the pieces else, Tales of Kenzera has a touching story to inform.

Its subsequent neatest thing can be the fight, which employs magical skills alongside customary melee and projectile-based assaults. Zau comes outfitted with a solar masks and a moon masks, which might be swapped between on the fly to entry various kinds of strikes. The solar masks is for getting up shut and private with enemies whereas the moon masks places down ranged foes by way of small crystalised missiles. New and present skills might be upgraded by way of every masks’s ability tree to make for what finally turns into a well-rounded fight system. It feels a bit too fundamental at first, however begin incomes improve factors and it shortly begins to flourish.

The identical can’t be mentioned of the repetitive arenas that host these bouts, nevertheless. Whereas the background would possibly change between every area, the sport subscribes to basically a single structure when it blocks off the exit and forces you to combat enemies. The platforms will at all times be in the identical place and so too will your opponents. Regardless of the evolving fight system, this implies each engagement performs out virtually precisely the identical method each time. Aside from a handful of boss encounters, fight steadily feels repetitive because you already know what’s labored 10 occasions beforehand.

By far the most important flaw, although, is the controls — or relatively, their incapacity to reliably register your inputs. Very ceaselessly, protagonist Zau will merely cease shifting when you’re pushing the left thumbstick to both facet. In our expertise pre-release, we needed to recenter the thumbstick a number of occasions to start out shifting once more, and this occurred each jiffy. You work together with characters and collectibles by urgent the R2 button, and it too generally calls for you push the button a number of occasions earlier than the on-screen motion happens. We examined the sport utilizing three totally different DualSense controllers to see if we had a defective pad, however the issue was simply replicated throughout all of them.

Even once they do work correctly, there is a weight and clunkiness to the controls that makes Tales of Kenzera really feel lots much less responsive than different Metroidvanias. When it’s good to shortly react to your environment, there isn’t any assure the sport will even register your button press within the first place. It is a problem that’ll must be sorted out by way of post-launch updates.

The environments might be a tad extra forgiving too, as a result of by no means have we skilled so many one-hit kills that really feel frankly pointless. Whereas different video games would merely deal customary chip injury for those who collide with one thing — akin to spikes — Tales of Kenzera kills you right away. Worse nonetheless are conditions the place puzzles require you to push boulders off ledges, and Zau one way or the other will get caught beneath it and kills himself. By means of no fault of your individual, you’ve got misplaced progress. It is by no means various seconds resulting from frequent checkpointing, nevertheless it occurs so typically that the expertise deteriorates into fixed exasperation.

A minimum of these deaths look and sound good. With a vibrant visible palette that shifts and adjustments as you progress between areas, Tales of Kenzera is a reasonably spectacular graphical showcase that goes above and past the requirements of what’s nonetheless a PS5 indie recreation. It is then complemented by an exquisite soundtrack from Nainita Desai, which works such a protracted method to heightening the senses and feelings of the title’s extra impactful sequences.

Conclusion

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU tells a touching, private story of household, grief, and loss, nevertheless it’s wrapped up in a recreation that makes appreciating that narrative lots tougher than it needs to be. A Metroidvania in solely probably the most fundamental of how, its fight and platforming are spoilt by fundamental design and construction, in addition to controller points and irritating one-hit kills. At its greatest when left to easily inform its story, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU falters as soon as you must begin enjoying.