Where the story is concerned, the characters Kena meets is another one of the game’s strengths. Meanwhile, the excellent soundtrack never misses a beat either, very effectively complementing the game’s beautiful world with everything from somber tunes to dramatic melodies. Of course, given developer Ember Lab’s past experience with animation, it’s not a surprise that Kena excels in this area. Character models are charmingly designed, and excellent animations both in cutscenes and gameplay contribute greatly to the game’s visual quality. The environments look lush and gorgeous, with vibrant vegetation and abundant natural beauty. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call this one of the most beautiful games I’ve played in recent memory. Kena’s world has a very distinct sense of place, a lot of which is, of course, made possible by the game’s visuals. But there’s enough there to really draw you in. The game is quite restrained in what it says and shows about the world, and nuggets of backstory and little details are peppered in infrequently. The biggest strength of Kena’s story is not the actual narrative, but the world that it is set in. "Nothing in the game screams originality, with familiar mechanics and structuring taken from several inspirations, but it never fails in execution, and with a few interesting twists of its own, it crafts an engaging and immersive adventure." It falls to Kena to help these tortured spirits find peace and move on, and clear the corruption that plagues the land. The people that once inhabited these locations have slowly died off, and many spirits with unfinished business or unresolved traumas linger on in the world, contributing to the vicious cycle and spreading corruption of their own. ![]() ![]() The village and the lands surrounding it are covered in a malignant corruption. Kena: Bridge of Spirits puts you in the shoes of the titular protagonist, a spirit guide who, as the game begins, arrives in an abandoned village. Barring one or two exceptions, nothing in the game screams originality, with familiar mechanics and structuring taken from several inspirations, but it never fails in execution, and with a few interesting twists of its own, it crafts an engaging and immersive adventure. A game that has new and exciting ideas but executes them shoddily can be something of a disaster, but a game that relies largely on familiar, well-worn staples and nails their execution is pretty much guaranteed to be a good time.
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