Tales of Kenzera: ZAU accomplishes the difficult role of translating a deeply personal experience into the medium of gaming. Surgent Studios' platformer is relatively simple but is engaging enough that it did not commit the sin of forgetting it must also be fun.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU excels most at storytelling, enveloping players in a rich, emotional journey.
Often, that may not be the sentiment one wishes to hear from a game, rather a film or gripping piece of music. But using a videogame as a delivery vessel, Surgent Studios and creator Abubakar Salim have accomplished a harrowing task.
My time with Tales of Kenzera: Zau was bookended by the death of my grandmother, a humble, reserved woman who spent a majority of her 84 years on this earth fostering a relationship with a Christian God. Days before her passing, I delved into the African mystique of Kenzera, its futuristic framing and tribal backdrop. It was a game that spoke to me as a passionate player and one who has also experienced loss.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU made me reflect on the 33 years that have passed since the passing of my own father. The father who, I would imagine, my grandmother has been eager to see again for the first time in decades.
Death is a pervasive, transformative topic. One that can inspire and infect. At the age of 5, the concept of a loved one’s passing was not something I would fully be able to process. Rather, it existed like an absence, similar maybe to a tooth that never formed in the mouth, a space meant for something that was never destined to be there.
We process loss in so many strange, painful, and touching ways. In the years since my father, I tangentially reflect on where his life may have ended up or how he would feel about where mine is. In the days since my grandmother, I wonder how many loved ones would surround me in the moments leading up to my passing and what hopes or dreams may lay on the other side.
Some of us may speak to friends and families about our individual tragedies, expressing thoughts and feelings as a balm for pain. Others may cry and scream when the world grows too silent or merely when opening the fridge to grab a drink. Those talented among us may write music or poetry.
Like few before him, Salim decided to form a tribute to his father as a videogame. A piece of entertainment that requires active engagement with. A thing–like a movie or song–that could be ripped asunder by critics or hailed for its most touching elements. And while Tales of Kenzera: ZAU may not have a kind of mechanical poetry that a capital-P player seeks in a game, its purpose remains greater.
Over a decade ago, I reviewed a game called Papo & Yo. Its creator made a unique experience meant as a kind of way to process his childhood growing up with an alcoholic father. The game had a small boy solving puzzles and interacting with a monster who would turn from friendly companion to a deadly, angry beast. It was a flawed, somewhat ugly game that was not scared to make its symbolism obvious. But I treasured my time with the game because I had never played anything like it.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU reminded me of Papo & Yo in that both games are artistic expressions of pain, loss, and coping. But where Papo & Yo was a moderately obscure puzzle game, Surgent Studios has opted to etch emotional depth into an action-platformer.
There is a hesitancy to refer to the game as a Metroidvania. Partially because this term feels like it is being stretched far too thin, much like Soulsborne. But also because Tales of Kenzera: ZAU only spends a modicum of its time dabbling in retreading old steps.
Personally, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown has framed 2024’s standards of hybrid action-platformers and Metroidvanias. And if Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is held up to those same standards, I do think it falters greatly. When walking into a new area, players are given a map that slowly unfogs or brightens up, the whole section is revealed, allowing explorers to take full stock of where they may need to go, even where out-of-reach paths may exist. Additionally, only a handful of powers are granted to the player which upgrades their traversal toolset. An early one allows water to be frozen, granting the ability to wall jump off waterfalls or not be swept away by rushing currents.
Exploring the world of Kenzera, players are treated to a modest amount of side paths and permanent upgrades that reward curiosity. But a number of what can be discovered are small lore and narrative beats that expand upon the game’s delicately crafted universe.
In my first three-hour session of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, I couldn’t help but notice how brisk traversal felt. Players are given a double-jump immediately and can dash mid-air. Jumping was moderately tight but had enough floatiness that whiffing a jump might be salvageable with quick reflexes. I was careful to jump up walls to ensure I wasn’t missing anything. Only two or three times did I discover amulets that could be equipped to provide a specific buff. In fact, players are given the option to start their journey by going left when the game explicitly tells them to go right. Minutes of exploration can pass with a character remarking not to go that way, only for the player to end up at a dead end.
While that may strike some as an annoyance, it’s actually a comment on how flexible the world of Kenzera is. There is a distinct golden path in the game and diverging from it has rewards but merely enough to satiate those who need it. A robust fast-travel system shouldn’t be expected, nor elaborate prizes. Rather, an exciting platforming section or small puzzle is meant to be sufficient. It makes this aspect of the game a little bland but one that I can forgive considering how fast the journey can be completed in.
Combat, like traversal, is meant to be digestible with little friction between the player and the actions occurring on-screen. Our hero, the young Shaman named Zau, possesses the Mask of the Moon and the Mask of the Sun. With a quick press of the button, players can switch between these two masks to enable their unique combat styles. The Mask of the Moon focuses on shooting rapid projectiles that are great for distant kills while the Mask of the Sun acts as a fiery brawler that can easily launch enemies in the air.
The ability to switch between these two combat modes is granted at the onset of the game and is instantaneous. Gaining experience allows players to unlock nodes on a small skill tree that adds a bit of extra utility and buffers the powers of the two ultimate attacks each Mask unleashes. Players should rarely expect any severe kind of roadblock when engaging with foes in Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. Enemies will spawn in a room and players need to decimate them. There’s no reward for being stylish, as great as it does feel zipping around the screen. Later on, enemies will gain shields that require the appropriate Mask to break and bosses, while spectacular looking in their own right, prove to be action setpieces over tricky barriers.
While it may be fair to say that Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is slightly lackluster at being an actual game, I feel that it stands strong as a stylish action title that wants to whisk players away to a world of African culture, packaged with an intensely meaningful story.
The events of the game take place as a story a boy is reading that was written by his father. This boy lives in a futuristic African setting but the tale he is reading is meant to be a reflection of his current grief. A son reading a book by his father, who was also a son to a father who has passed on. But here, Zau is attempting to strike a bargain with the God of Death to fell three spirits in exchange for the return of his father.
The cyclical nature of grief and the inexperience of youth are key details at the onset of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. Zau is gifted with great power in the form of the Masks but is almost weakened by the constant reminder that his father is gone. It causes him to be reckless, cocky, and immune to advice. But there’s a distinct magic in the game that has the ability to send players through an exceptionally gorgeous world steeped in African culture, while acting as a hymn to life and death.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU weighed heavily on my heart and mind. I felt like I was learning new things about a world and culture I know little of. I reveled in switching back and forth between the English and native voice acting and how flawless both were. A sweeping orchestral score matches the densely lit and glowing caverns and jungles and volcanoes players encounter.
A narrative treat such as this can often strip away or mask other flaws that gameplay may not always cure. The journey Zau goes through with Kalunga, the God of Death, at his side is a wonderful piece of storytelling. Kalunga provides the perfect foil to Zau not because he is attempting to trick or defy him, merely that he works to teach Zau and have him come to terms with both life and death and the worlds where each resides.
Frequently I would soak up a cutscene or story beat, knowing that a quick, satisfying section of combat or exploration would follow. A death or a clumsily missed jump would hold little detriment. And soon after, the tale would continue enticing me towards another section of emotional resonance. It’s often strange how dissonant and fragmented a game about loss or heady emotional concepts may seem when paired with varying genres. But there are a number of times when narrative and genre transcend their trappings and harmonize in a unique way.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU accomplishes the difficult role of translating a deeply personal concept into the medium of gaming. With a lack of intricate backtracking and complex combat, Surgent Studios’ platformer is relatively simple. But the extraordinary narrative, paired with equally powerful visuals and audio provide an experience that is engaging enough to not commit the sin of forgetting it must also be fun and resonant.
