In today’s landscape, a lot of the most memorable games come from smaller studios with a clear vision and a personal story to tell. “Tales of Kenzera: Zau” started as Abubakar Salim’s way of coping with the loss of his father, and the result is a beautiful game that stands out in a competitive genre.
This game is a “metroidvania” style action platformer. Players take control of Zau, a young shaman who makes a deal with death itself. Zau must defeat three great spirits in order to bring them to afterlife and in exchange the spirit of death, Kaulunga, will bring back Zau’s dead father.
The story’s setup is simple, but it is elevated by Zau and Kaulunga’s interactions with each other and those they encounter. Zau is young and emotional, driven to revive his late father who he feels was lost too soon. It’s relatable to anyone who’s lost an older family member, especially a parent. Even if they were sick, you never feel prepared for that loss, and it never feels like you had enough time with them.
One aspect of the game that does a lot to give it personality and make it stand out is an aesthetic that embraces the Bantu cultures of Africa. The character designs, enemies, environments and music immerse you in a fantastical world with roots in reality. The voice acting is also superb and makes it easy to get emotionally invested in the story.
Unlike a lot of modern “metroidvania” style games, this one focuses more on platforming challenges than finding a lot of items in the world. It’s a risky choice because if the platforming didn’t feel great, it would bog down the whole experience. Thankfully that’s not the case as the controls feel tight and the challenge is fair.
Combat also has some unique quirks as Zau fights using two masks representing the sun and moon. The moon focus on ranged attacks while sun is all about fighting up close. It’s fun to swap between the two masks during fights, and while the masks are balanced for most part, it feels like ranged combat is often the way to go during boss fights.
Every once in a while, the game will throw the player into an escape sequence where they have to keep moving before something on the edge of the screen catches and kills them. The platforming itself isn’t bad, but the lack of checkpoints in the segments can make them annoying. One small mistake will make you start over, and a lot of deaths can happen because of a sudden hazard that the player has to react to in a split second.
Zau’s story goes through some twists and turns, and by the end I thought that the whole game was brilliant. It doesn’t overstay its welcome and it’s well-paced from beginning to end. Surgent Studios has made a great debut with this game, and I hope to see more from this series. Still, I would have preferred if the game did more with its map than just combat and platforming segments by adding a little exploration and a few more secrets. “Tales of Kenzera: Zau” earns four-and-a-half stars out of five.