Tales of Kenzera: ZAU Review

Grief wears many faces and throughout our lifetime, all of us will have to decide what mask to don and how we will handle that situation when it arises. In tribute to his late father, Surgent Studios director Abubakar Salim embodies this age-old dilemma in Tales of Kenzera: ZAU with not only some of the most unbelievably beautiful artwork and music I’ve heard and seen in a game for a very long time, but how its narrative authentically reaches into the heart of the player and pulls out parts of them they didn’t know existed.

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU follows the story of Zau, the protagonist and a young shaman, who sets out on a grief-stricken yet hopeful pilgrimage to bring his father back to life. This serves as the impetus for not only a Metroidvania adventure, in its truest form, but also a rewarding journey through African culture, its traditions, folklore, and a profound narrative that isn’t about the destination but rather the lessons learned along the way.

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Grief Through Art And Storytelling

Firstly, I must talk about how stunning Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is. It’s a feast for the eyes, and everywhere I looked I found something beautiful to stare at, even within its opening hour. Whether it was the lush forests scattered with huge African baobab trees, a bird flying in the distance, the rush of its tranquil waterfalls, or the array of vibrant traditional African colors, Surgent Studios didn’t miss a beat when incorporating visual delights that completely immersed me into its world right from the start.

Throughout the game, these dynamic level designs, or “biomes” change to match Zau’s emotions through desolation. Some of the most impressive is the swamp area, which represents Zau’s fears, or the desert, a metaphor for the rawness his crippling emotions have left him in. Coupled with his deeply engaging conversations with Kalunga, the god of death, whom he asks to return his Baba (father) to him, these soulful interactions marry within its devesting yet meaningful environments so well that it’s plain to see how much passion and thought went into the game’s art direction.

When it comes to movement, Tales of Kenzera is an absolute delight to play that makes platforming engaging and fun. The controls are super responsive with fluid motion where I could easily access a range of mechanics at the flick of a button or a slide of the pedal on the DualSense controller. Equipped with two masks, the Mask of the Sun and the Mask of the Moon, enemy combat allowed me to develop a range of attacks from standard melee, water freezing and ranged shooting to powerful spears and a grappling hook to reach different levels. Of course, depending on the enemy, I needed to switch between these masks as different foes require a different fighting style, marked by the red and blue colors on their shields.

The range of enemies wasn’t too frequent in the beginning chapter of the game where I met spirit warriors and Tokoloshe’s, dwarf-like water sprites in Zulu mythology, but as I went deeper into the narrative, stronger foes appeared more often that took much more work to bring to their knees, especially the flying kongamato, large pterosaur-like cryptids, alongside other mythical characters, which meant having to be a little quicker on how I wanted to tackle them.

However, one movement that frustrated me to no end was some wall jumping sequences. Throughout Tales, there are plenty of walls and other obstacles to manoeuvre and the key ingredient to a successful jump is timing, which was usually not an issue, but in some areas of the game, the walls Zau must navigate between have a huge gap from one side to another, meaning that I had to smash the crap out of the jump button to get up them. This is very likely a skill issue on my part, but holy hell were they annoying, especially when fire or gruelling insta-kill spikes were involved.

Trust The Process

The game’s map could also be, at times, a little frustrating to traverse due to its purposefully chaotic design to mirror Zau’s disorientation through his difficult period. There are several fast travel points, but since there isn’t an effective zooming feature, being able to see if you can actually fit through certain areas or if you had to go a different direction could be somewhat annoying. I often found my nose pressed against the screen trying to figure it out more times than not. I also wish there were more points of interest or useful map markings to allow me to know where certain things were, but again, the map certainly played into Zau’s psyche very well.

As with anything in life, looks can be deceiving and Tales of Kenzera embodies this motto in every sense of the word. One of my mistakes was becoming so dazzled by its touching narrative and vivid art style that I almost forgot that this was, after all, a Metroidvania. Over the course of its four chapters, Zau is faced with three big boss fights, and let me tell you, these are not easy.

Without spoiling any of the magnificent Zulu-inspired folklore creatures, I will say that many of them were a challenge – a wonderful and completely engrossing challenge that saw my mind and fingers raw with exhaustion. Not only did I have to use nearly every combat mechanic Zau had to defeat them – I’m not ashamed to say some of them took me at least over an hour – but the sheer thought and design that went into these formidable beasts was on another scale completely. So much so that I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen anything close in any other Metroidvania.

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU never felt like it overstayed its welcome nor was it ever loaded with bulk and fluff to make up for its 8-12 hour playtime. While there are plenty of collectibles, a trinket system to unlock abilities and upgrade benches, its most important feature is its story and, coupled with the undertone of mental health struggles in the face of grief, Bantu mythology, an incredible score, and next-level art design makes this amazing debut title remarkably different to anything else on the market.

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Tales of Kenzera: ZAU Director’s Main Game Takeaway To Players Is “It’s OK To Not Be OK”

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU’s creator Abubakar Salim talks about being vulnerable and wanting players to realize that “feeling bad is okay.”