Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is an ambitious. This is a Metroidvania not content with only including the usual genre constants of an underpowered protagonist, plentiful power-ups, and a vast labyrinthian land to explore. Instead, developer Surgent Studios has woven the theme of grief throughout everything the player does and experiences. From the visuals, to the combat, to even the rhythm and pacing of exploration; grief underpins it all. The only problem with this is that, so intent were the developers in building a palace of elaborate emotional adornments, they seem to have forgotten about some of the Metroidvania bits.
Zau is a young warrior shaman, grieving the death of his beloved father. Decides to do something about it, he strikes a deal with the God of Death. Should Zau successfully be able to survive the land of Kenzera and vanquish three mighty spirits, then his father will be returned to the realm of the living.
All this information is delivered to the player in rather staid comic book cutscenes, and unfortunately, Zau is a character that’s difficult to like. Irritating, whiny and petulant, his character is one that’s hard to empathise with as the player, and that immediately makes the game’s lofty ambitions to explore grief in a meaningful manner more difficult to engage with.
More successful are the levels that player will explore, so even while they lean into some tried and true gaming conventions – a cave, a swamp, a desert – there is always something wondrous that feels refreshingly new to see. The enemy types don’t share in this same masterful design, though. Forgettable and bland, blasting away at the same interchangeable spirits soon grows tiresome.
These matters aren’t helped by the floaty and impactless combat. Collision detection is an issue throughout the game – every spike you encounter must be much bigger than it looks, like an iceberg or something – but even more so in combat. It never feels like you’re actually hitting an enemy, nor that they are hitting you, turning every encounter into a button-mashing chore.
In an attempt to liven the fisticuffs up, Zau is equipped with two masks – of the Moon and the Sun –  that come with distinctive abilities. The idea is that you switch between the two on the fly, but why bother when the Sun mask is so much better than the Moon, and will see you through every battle just fine? The game fails to find an answer to this question, other than forcing you to have to use the puny Moon powerset on occasion.
Platforming and exploration, which are surely the most vital element of a Metroidvania, are poorly handled too. Zau just doesn’t steer very well, responding lazily to player inputs. All too often he’ll overshoot his mark and land on an insta-kill obstacle, sending you back to the last checkpoint with old-school punishing intent. The controller layout never becomes instinctive enough, forcing the player to have to contort their fingers like a master yogi to try to use all of Zau’s different powers to navigate the world.
Even with all of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU’s failings as a Metroidvania, there are successes too. The dramatic and emotive musical score by Nainita Desai is a revelation. The sweeping instrumental adds a vast amount to the atmosphere of the game and is well worth a listen too on the musical streaming platform of your choice.
The exploration of grief can also be very effective, with some stand-out emotional narrative beats that are a welcome break from the generic gameplay on offer. It’s just a shame that the basics, those Metroidvania foundations, didn’t get as much attention as the big ideas built upon them.
