What is Tales of Kenzera: Zau?
Tales of Kenzera: Zau (Zau for the remainder of the review) is a metroidvania where you play as a shaman from the fictional African region of Kenzera who helps guide spirits to the afterlife. It was released on February 1, 2024 and is available on the PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S&X, and Microsoft Windows. It was developed by Surgent Studios, founded by voice actor Abubakar Salim, and published by EA. I played it on PS5 through the PS Plus Extra subscription. It costs $19.99 to purchase. It took me 6-7 hours to beat the game.
Game Review:
Metroidvanias are one of my favorite genres of video games. I love the exploration-focused platforming that is often paired with engaging combat. I love the layered worlds with hidden passages and locked doors littered throughout the world map. So of course I was excited to see Zau announced as it looked like a fun metroidvania with a touching story which games in this genre don’t often have. I was curious about how this game would compare to some of my favorite games like Hollow Knight.
One of the top barometers of a metroidvania for me is how the platforming feels. Zau had pretty fun platforming. The game layered new traversal mechanics throughout its short playthrough that kept platforming fresh and engaging. The movement mechanics were not always very precise. There would be moments where I would just miss a platform for some reason that I couldn’t tell. The levels were also not always the most precisely designed. There were several sequences of jumps that I had to cheese and do in a very clunky, uncomfortable way. For example, some ceilings were too low with instant kill spikes on them but there were obstacles down below that required jumps that would inevitably send you into the spikes. Just little moments here and there where I felt like the platforming wasn’t as precise as I wanted it to be. There were also moments where Zau (the main character) would get stuck on a ledge and clip for a second or two before mounting up onto the ledge. It felt like there maybe should’ve been a little bit more time to iron out the physics. The level design also needs a bit of improvement as there are huge swaths of levels that are just open spaces for the character to run on. In these areas there’s not really any platforming or combat, it’s just empty space which can be a little disappointing as a player.
The game performance also wasn’t stellar. I had one instance where my game crashed, but thankfully it was close to an autosave point. There were also multiple instances where the enemies would get stuck in their T-pose. This actually made it harder to tell how they were going to hit me because now they would make an attack but I would have no on-screen indication that it was coming. I’m not usually a stickler for performance but I noticed it more in this game than I have in most other games.
Combat was pretty basic in my opinion. The combat in Zau focuses on switching between the powers of two magical masks, the sun and moon mask. The sun mask is better for close-quarters melee combat and the moon mask is more suited for ranged combat. This is a cool idea but it doesn’t seem to be fully fleshed out in a satisfying way to me. There is no way to block or parry which I feel like would’ve been so beneficial as getting up close to enemies basically guarantees a hit on you. Once you use attack you are stuck in an animation until you either get hit or end the animation. Towards the end of the game I gave up on using the sun mask except for where it was required because I was tired of getting hit just because I wanted to get some damage off with melee combat. The moon mask however leads to a lot of cheesing enemies. Staying just outside their combat range and blasting with the moon mask while focusing on a specific enemy is how I ended spending a lot of my time in combat. I don’t think this was the most fun way but I would take too much damage trying to vary up my attacks. Added to that is the fact that the ability to heal yourself is tied to how many times you hit an enemy, meaning that if I sat and just spammed light ranged attacks on an enemy, I could earn more healing so I could be more aggressive. The downside to this is that it means a lot of sitting in a corner which isn’t particularly fun.
Enemy variety is not great in Zau. Most enemies you fight are the same enemies you fight in the beginning level, so the enemy variety gets stale and boring. Boss fights are more creative and unique however. There are 3 main bosses you need to fight and then a final boss. They all bring a new flavor to the fight which can be fun. What I didn’t enjoy with the boss fights is the ability to just instantly lose in some of them. If you’re fighting on a platform they can just knock you off in one hit where you fall to an instant death. Or one boss involves a chase sequence where you will die if you platform too slow, which doesn’t pair well with imprecise platforming like I discussed earlier. This wouldn’t be so bad except for Zau does not have good checkpointing. You need to start the fight from the beginning if these happen to you, even towards the end. Even platforming sections have bad checkpointing that can be overly frustrating.
The story is what really shines in Zau. The story uses a parallel story system where Zuberi, a young man in a futuristic African city who is grieving his recently deceased father, reads one of his fathers stories. The titular Zau is the main character of the story and he also is grieving his recently deceased father. Zau tries to bargain with Kalunga, the god of death, to bring his father back from the dead. This is the main premise of the game. It’s an impactful story about grief and loss and coming to terms with that loss. It’s also a story about the cycle of life and new beginnings. There were a few moments that I didn’t love, the ending boss battle in particular stands out as a narrative moment that left me confused. But all in all, the story is incredible.
The founder and leader of the studio being a voice actor lends itself well to the writing and acting in this game. For a game without mocap, I was impressed with the voiceovers and how much emotion they conveyed without leaning on physical emoting. The writing was also poignant and personal while still sprinkling in some humor and joy. The founder of the studio choosing to use his own experience dealing with the death of his father and using this game as a way to process and heal is incredible in my opinion. It’s a great way to honor the life of someone you love by pouring out into something you love for them. This game is obviously important for Abubakar Salim and it has an important message for all of us.
Family Friendliness:
Zau is family friendly in my opinion. It does deal with topics of death and grief but it doesn’t get graphic with any of that. And there are a few moments that are a little scary and tense, particularly towards the middle boss fight. But it has a very cartoony art style and basically all enemies are not humans.
Features for Parents:
Zau doesn’t have a great checkpointing system. It autosaves but it can leave a lot of space between those leading to the player having to replay larger chunks. I didn’t look too closely at accessibility but there is a difficulty slider which I utilized in those instances where I got frustrated by getting instant-killed deep into a boss fight.
Final Verdict:
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a conflicted game. Its narrative and acting are excellent and moving. I was invested in the story and the themes are ones that we all can relate to, either for past experience or just the fact that we will all deal with death at some point. But the gameplay and moment to moment action really let me down and is disappointing. It’s a game that I recommend if you can get it as part of the PS Plus subscription service but I recommend maybe waiting for a sale otherwise.
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