Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is a beautiful game that navigates the difficult journey of grief. Abubaker Salim delivers a great story and performance that resonates with anyone going through that process. It’s backed up with stunning visuals and a score that supports this strong story. While this game doesn’t reinvent the Metroidvania, fans of the genre will still be impressed. Hopefully, they’ll fix the bug of having Zau frozen after exiting the menu. Despite that, Tales of Kenzera is an impressive debut from Surgent Studios.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a delightful experience as it shows great respect for African culture and the Metroidvania genre from the beginning. The combat mechanics are entertaining and challenging, and the story is very emotive. We have a very satisfying game with some issues in its progression. However, it remains an experience that can be enjoyed anytime.
A visually stunning game with a powerful story. A strong central mission carries the game with lots of fun side tasks and events keeping it interesting throughout. Also has top-tier music and voiceovers. Definitely recommend.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is yet more proof that the metroidvania genre can offer great satisfaction, whatever story you try to tell. The one written by Surgent is a story of loss and revenge which, also thanks to the immense charm of the chosen setting, will remain seared in your memory for a long time. Not all the playful elements of the combat system seemed equally effective to us, and we would have liked more depth into Zuberi's character. That said, if you're a fan of the genre or just want to enjoy a good story, then you shouldn't miss it.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is an earnest first video game effort from a studio that's destined for great things. Weak exploration and a lack of combat variety are minor flaws in an overall package that offers up fluid platforming, some great gameplay hooks, an emotionally-resonant story and a rich tapestry of sights and sounds that's like little else in the space. It's almost the perfect pairing to the recent Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, offering a succinct and approachable take on the concept that offers even more story, worldbuilding and visual flair.
A nice and little metroidvania that might not stand out as one of the best in the genre, but we will treasure it for it's powerful messages and deep themes.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU rests on a solid foundation, yet prioritizes its narrative at the expense of its game design. Rather than allowing its gameplay and narrative to support each other, it discards some of the medium’s unique strengths for a competent if bland experience that fails to give full weight to its subject matter.
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU tells a touching, personal story of family, grief, and loss, but it's wrapped up in a game that makes appreciating that narrative a lot harder than it should be. A Metroidvania in only the most basic of ways, its combat and platforming are spoilt by basic design and structure, as well as controller issues and frustrating one-hit kills. At its best when left to simply tell its story, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU falters once you have to start playing.
Context here is important. This game was designed and conjured as a passion project from someone who has never made a game before. To do so and execute something that plays well and communicates what was intended is a feat.
It isn't the BEST metroidvana out there, and neither is it going to change your gaming experience. But it's one of the most expressive and emotional experiences I've come across.
If you look at Hellblade and how they achieved emotional potence through their experience, but not mechanically changed the game, THIS is where this game sits.
My opinion of course. But yes, wont be forgetting this game for a very long time.
Game is good but it's lacking some sprint, some originality, some good puzzle or memorable platforming section. Battling is fine, monster variety is not so inspired tho; every fight will feel the same after a while.
Many sections are just empty autoscrollers and there should be way more hidden paths, secrets and backtracking. Overall a quite good game and ez 15-20h platinum
(MY SCORE : 7.8 /10) An exciting and very challenging Side-Scrolling Action-Adventure Platformer Metroidvania game! That's the impression I got after hours, finally able to finish this game.Difficult? Yup, that's what many gamers will complain about when conquering this game, not only when facing opponents or Main Bosses, but also when walking through areas. Plus the function and response of the buttons sometimes feel "problematic" at some moments!"Escape and Run" is the thing I hate the most in this game, running with the right timing and if you die, you have to start over at a checkpoint quite far away!So, even though it comes with "actually short" gameplay and a story that seems "ordinary", this game is recommended for you to play, especially for "Soulslike-Metroidvania" fans!
C-tier Metroidvania. The combat is pretty boring and gets quite annoying later on because almost every enemy gets a shield before their actual health bar and you just deal so little damage that you feel totally ineffective. The platforming I liked much better, even though it isn't anything revolutionary, but there aren't that many challenging platforming sections in the game, sadly. Exploration is almost non-existent, the game pretty much always tells you where to go and there aren't really any alternative paths to take. So the whole Metroidvania feeling of getting a powerup and then coming to the conclusion "aaaaah, now I can go THERE" doesn't really exist. Also, the characters just never shut up, I don't think I have ever played a Metroidvania with this much incessant blathering, which outright destroys any chances of any type of deep atmosphere building up. The African cultural influences are cool, but then again, I'm not gonna read through mountains of flavour text to get all of that stuff. In conclusion, this is kind of like a "we have The Lost Crown at home" type situation. If you have thoroughly exhausted the Metroidvania genre, maybe give it a go, I guess. For me, it definitely wasn't good enough for me to keep playing until the end.
I was really looking forward to playing this game. I played it on ps plus thankfully I did not buy it. it is not a hard game but the controls make it so, it’s the type of game that devs said “we don’t want to work on challenging enemies and interesting ones but let’s just f*ck up the controls so people say it is hard”. The controls made me feel like I’m playing with a broken controller although it is brand new. the world looks nice but it does not make up for the bad implementation of the game. Repetitive boring fights. Abilities are kind of similar to prince of persia it’s like they tried to copy the game, it is insulting for POP to be compared by kenzera. I absolutely did not want more of it, in fact I was glad I was done with it.
SummaryWield the dance of the shaman. Reclaim your father’s spirit. Brave the beautiful and treacherous land of Kenzera with the God of Death in Tales of Kenzera™: ZAU, a metroidvania-style adventure crafted by Surgent Studios.