Having a game deal with loss and grief is a theme that is often visited but with Tales of Kenzera: Zau it’s presented in such an imaginative way that it’s drawn me in and kept me wanting to play through and see the story play out. The story revolves around Zau, a young shaman who makes a deal with the god of death Kalunga in a bid to bring back his father. To aid in this he has two masks that grant him additional powers when fighting the many creatures he will encounter on his quest.

The game plays like a classic Metroidvania where the player navigates a vast 2D map completing objectives and acquiring new abilities that open up the map for further exploration. At first I wasn’t sure just how large that map was going to be but I’ve been really impressed with the size and the subtle variety between areas based on the three bosses Zau has to defeat. I’m eleven hours in as I write and can only now see the end approaching.

In terms of gameplay a lot of the early focus is with using the abilities of the two masks Zau can use. The moon mask is primarily for ranged combat while the sun mask is more for melee. Both need to be leveraged during combat as some enemies are only vulnerable to a certain mask’s attacks. Experience accrued during combat, objectives and discoveries can be used to upgrade the masks to increase their damage while trinkets found add modifiers that can help boost specifics such as damage resistance or XP bonuses.

In play I really appreciate the difficulty balance that’s been set as I’ve occasionally found other games in the genre to be far more punishing. That’s not to say there aren’t challenges – having to switch masks during combat or navigating through some areas can still test players but the game does allow progression to happen at a good pace which is great for players wanting to play in small doses over time. If there’s anything I could think of tweaking it might be the location of the fast travel points and workbenches (for managing trinkets) – they’re useful for moving to different areas but if you’re trying to 100% an area and discover hidden locations or change your active trinket you may still need to do a lot more platforming to get there.

The presentation really sells the game’s setting and developer Surgent Studios have crafted something that takes its African cultural influences and infuses it with an animated style that’s vibrant and easy on the eye. The palette used for the landscape is smartly selective, so it doesn’t clash with Zau’s moon (blue) and sun (red/orange) masks and create confusion during the action. The use of portraits during the story segments help add even more personality to the characters. The audio is excellent and the voice acting really stands out with how well it works both in game and during the cutscenes and story segments. Combined with an awesome soundtrack the production values are really impressive.

Overall, I’m really enjoying this game. There’s a lot to play through and its influences provide a new world (for me) to explore that I don’t always get from more established IPs across the popular genres. I do hope in the future we get to see more “Tales of Kenzera” from this team as they’ve done a great job here and it deserves more attention.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is out now for PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Switch. Played on an Xbox Series X.