Kena: Bridge of Spirits was unveiled last year during the PlayStation 5 event. For me, the reveal was one of the highlights, because I was immediately drawn to the beautiful animations, the setting and secretly also those cute black creatures. Last month I shared my Three of those expectations from Kena: Bridge of Spirits And now that I’ve finished the game, I can already tell you that it has exceeded my expectations.
There was once..
As the title suggests, you take on the role of Kena, a spirit guide who helps spirits cross into the afterlife. During her journey to the Sacred Mountain Shrine, she visits several villages that have been abandoned due to a natural disaster. With the exception of a few characters, the world has given way to tree-like monsters, poisonous plants and water. During her journey she meets people with a special background story and gets to know herself better.
The abandoned houses are half eaten by the beautiful green nature and the contrast is beautiful to see. The world around it is large, colorful and detailed, making it a pleasure to wander around. The game looks great on the PlayStation 4, but falls short in terms of performance in some areas. There are a number of bugs in it, so you have to reload the game to continue. Fortunately, that compensates for in the graphic style and in combination with the soundtrack it is like being in a fairytale Disney movie.
Kena’s magical staf
Although the game has a Disney vibe, you can’t say this about all places in the world. You can see that beautiful contrast in the various corrupt places where it is all horror. These places are inhabited by various tree-like monsters that can do a lot of damage. Fortunately, Kena has inherited a magical staff from her father, with which she can make the monsters disappear for good. The corrupt places have to do with the stories of deceased heroes and Kena must help their spirits cross to the afterlife. The structure of the stories is very well developed. Gradually you will learn more and more about the past of these heroes, their motives and their relationship to the villages.
In the beginning of the game, the combat is still quite limited. For example, the staff first serves as a sword, but you can later also use it as a bow and arrow. Then you unlock the bomb-throwing ability and once you have all these skills, the battles become very challenging and dynamic. The boss fights are unique one by one, because they use their own fighting style. As a result, it is often trial and error to discover the right combinations of your skills and learn the patterns of the bosses. You never get bored fighting, but it can be frustrating at times. There is the possibility to lower (and higher) the difficulty during the game.
Help and companionship of the Rot
In addition to the magic staff, you also get help from the Rot, those little black creatures you’ve seen all over the trailers. In combat, you build up Rot power, which allows you to perform special attacks in conjunction with your staff. In addition, they can heal and clean corrupt places. The Rot follow you everywhere, but also have a mind of their own. Occasionally they dance around you or hide from you in, for example, a bush. In addition, you can buy different hats for them from a special cart, which you unlock by opening chests. Although the hats have no other functions, it is just a lot of fun to collect them.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an action-adventure game, but it still feels like an RPG in many ways. In addition to being in a large open world, there is the opportunity to improve your skills upgrade in the menu. You do this by collecting karma that you can find anywhere in the world or obtain by defeating monsters. In addition, the game does not contain side missions, but they can be found in other forms. So it is a pleasure to look for Rot who are hiding under branches, pots and other objects. You will also find cursed chests, cursed chests, where you have to defeat different monsters within a certain time or not be hit and are rewarded by achieving them. In addition, there are places where you can practice your archery skills and hidden places to meditate that will allow you maximum health goes up.
The final verdict of
Celine Man
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is certainly not perfect in its performance, but in every other way it has exceeded my expectations. The game has an entertaining graphic style, is colorful and detailed with matching soundtrack. It is a pleasure to discover the world through the beautiful environment and addictive to look for Rot and special chests. The battles are unique and challenging, and the use of the magic staff is fun and varied. Kena: Bridge of Spirits never gets bored and is arguably one of the most beautiful and best indie games I’ve ever played.
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Pros
- Entertaining Graphic Style
- Nice big open world
- Strong and interesting story
- Challenging boss fights
- Great pleasure to discover Rot
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Negatives
- Contains some bugs
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Score
Excellent
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About author
Celine Man
Some people play a game and can put it down quietly. However, Celine can’t. No no, Celine thinks about it, puts it away for a while and then writes a whole philosophical thesis about it. It is therefore not very strange that Celine studies philosophy. However, the sky is the limit, because she will one day apply that philosophy to Artificial Intelligence and video game design. Celine is where Skynet originated.
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