Tales of Kenzera: ZAU offers players a gorgeous world and captivating story, but some of the gameplay challenges might prevent you from seeing it all. Our full review…
From the moment I saw the reveal trailer for Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, I was intrigued by what the game promised. I’ve been fascinated with Metroidvania style games for a while now, an interest that was only heightened with the release of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown at the start of the year. Therefore, when the opportunity to check out this game came around, I happily dove in.
For this review, I played Tales of Kenzera: ZAU on the Playstation 5.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU follows a young shaman named Zau as he journeys to gather three spirits in an attempt to revive his recently deceased father. The controls are fairly typical for a Metroidvania, they allow Zau to jump, duck, double jump, leap onto walls, etc. One detail that sets this game apart from others, is Zau’s shaman powers. These are derived from Zau’s two masks: one for the Sun and the other for the Moon. These masks can be swapped at will and greatly change the powers at Zau’s disposal.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU
Publisher: Surgent Studios, Abubakar Salim
Platform: PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X|S
Release Date: April 23, 2024
The game seems to be equal parts divided between battling enemies and maneuvering through areas, using the exploration skills the player has already gathered. This is where Tales of Kenzera: ZAU runs into a problem that may prove insurmountable depending on the player’s skill level. The problem comes in the form of spike formations that instantly kill Zau if he makes contact with them.
Now, I should make it clear I understand obstacles of this sort are part and parcel in Metroidvania games. I accept this. The issue comes in how this particular trap is introduced in Act One of the game. Of course video games are going to get more difficult the farther in you go, but the difficulty spike here seemed almost unusually difficult. Worse, when I checked the game’s settings to see if there was a way to get past the spikes without immediately dying, I learned the insta-kill obstacles are the only thing not affected by changes in difficulty.
I can’t help but draw comparisons between Tales of Kenzera: ZAU and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown in how they handle the difficult portions of their respective games. The Lost Crown had an accessibility feature that let players skip past difficult obstacles if they so chose. ZAU has no such option. As beautiful as the game is, I really feel like the lack of this feature is going to prevent a lot of people from getting too deep into the game’s story.
The good news is, once you do manage to get past these tricky points, the game world has so much to offer. Initially it felt a little dizzying hopping around the map; unsure if I was even going the right direction. However, between conversation prompts and other artifacts encountered along the way, it’s not too hard to figure out which way you need to go.
One neat detail about the game is that, when Zau gains a new skill, like the ability to freeze water, it is a near certainty that that skill will come in handy for getting out of a given area. This makes every skill earned feel important, and it also gives players plenty of opportunities to practice using them as they make their way through the game.
There is no manual save option in the game, but have no fear, the game auto-saves whenever you make your way past a challenging area. The downside to this, is that if you die mid-obstacle you have to start over from the beginning of that area, which can lead to interesting consequences for gameplay. Don’t be surprised if it takes multiple attempts to get past certain areas. Be patient, and if the technique you’re trying isn’t working, switch up your approach. I tried that multiple times while playing and was pleasantly surprised when I finally locked on to the method that worked.
There is a fast travel option in the game that lets you travel from one specific point to another, though as of writing this review it’s hard to say when it will be useful as so far there doesn’t seem to be any specific need to revisit previous areas.
In conclusion, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, while proving a formidable challenge in clearing certain obstacles, is still a fun adventure that draws the player deep into a story that dwells on the nature of grief and learning to mourn the ones we’ve lost. This is definitely a game worth checking out, though it will require a lot of patience.
