free download kena bridge of spirits metacritic

The only good thing is that it's not bloated, coming in at eight to nine hours.įrom Kena: Bridge of Spirits to eFootball, Games to Play in SeptemberĪ couple of enemy types in Kena: Bridge of Spirits For the most part, it's a standard action platformer relying on the same tools that power Sony's biggest franchises (from God of War to Horizon Zero Dawn) meshed with its obvious Zelda inspirations. And though the game has some strong thematic building blocks - it's about grief, healing, and moving on - Ember Labs is unable to come up with mechanics that might illustrate that through gameplay on Kena: Bridge of Spirits. That's largely because its characters aren't fleshed out, with Kena herself being short-changed, so you aren't really motivated to do what the game wants you to. Speaking of the story, Kena: Bridge of Spirits doesn't ever really pull you in.

After all, Ember Lab is happy to stick with Western English accents everywhere, which doesn't sit well with its love for all things visually Eastern. But Kena: Bridge of Spirits never really justifies its setting, in why its story needs to borrow from - a cynic might say “appropriate”, instead of borrow - the cultures that it does. Inari fox statues dot the landscape, torii gates are pulled from Shinto, and the game's lovely background gamelan orchestra score (more so when Kena is exploring) involves a collaboration with Baliense ensemble Gamelan Çudamani. This is all set in a world inspired by Asian cultures, primarily Japanese and Balinese. And all of them are at their best in Kena: Bridge of Spirits' photo mode, where they pose, say cheese, and come alive. Some side characters are really adorable too. Kena is accompanied everywhere by tiny cute little creatures who can be best described as furry black-coloured Minions (though they aren't bumbling fools). The titular protagonist Kena (voiced by Dewa Ayu Dewi Larassanti) feels like a Studio Ghibli heroine designed by way of Disney, Pixar, and Laika. No wonder then that the most successful thing about Kena: Bridge of Spirits is its character designs and animations.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits - out now on PC, PS4, and PS5 - is the first game for California-based studio Ember Lab, which was previously in the business of making animated shorts and commercials.

Free download kena bridge of spirits metacritic