Tales of Kenzera: Zau review: a beautiful meditation on loss

Loss is inevitable, and yet knowing it doesn’t make it any less difficult. It’s all but guaranteed that grief will touch your life – and touch my life. And that is certainly already the case. This certainty – that we are all touched by death – is one reason so much art is devoted to interrogating these feelings. For so long, video games have been a medium that, for all its death, dying, and lives, hasn’t quite expressed the feeling of grief. There was hardly any reason for this: if you die in a video game, you always come back to life. The danger of death is nothing more than a few hearts on a screen, a number. It is often encouraged. The more kills you get, the better. Death is not a topic of mourning there, but rather a celebration. However, this does not apply to all games. More and more video games are exploring what it means to lose – no longer just a level, but a more tangible, life-changing loss. It’s games like Ghost drivera “cozy management game about dying” about the afterlife; What remains of Edith Finch, about the stories that remain; or The Story of an Undertaker, which makes you experience death up close. Grief can also be found in games that are not explicitly about loss; Like I said, it’s inevitable.

Surgent Studios’ Tales of Kenzera: Broad is the latest game about dealing with grief; In fact, that’s the core of the game. Led by House of the Dragon Actor Abubakar Salim, the development team at Surgent Studios did not shy away from the topic. As he announced the game at the G ame Awards

in 2023, Salim said Tales of Kenzera: Broad was a way for him to process his grief in a way that felt familiar to him as someone who grew up playing and loving video games. The game is a tribute to his father, who died of cancer in 2013.

Set in a colorful, Afrofuturistic world, Tales of Kenzera: Broad begins with a boy mourning the recent death of his father. His father had been ill for a long time and his death, although expected, was no less devastating. The boy isn’t ready to say goodbye, so instead he picks up a book his father wrote. Most of them can be found in this book Tales of Kenzera: Broad takes place in a world that reflects the boy’s world. Grief-stricken over his father’s death, a young shaman named Zau makes a deal with Kalunga, the god of death, to bring his father back. Zau must venture deep into Kenzera, which is overrun with lost spirits, to face three powerful spirits and fulfill Kalunga’s request.

Tales of Kenzera: Broad is a Metroidvania-style game whose gameplay reflects the history and grief of Zau. Zau enters Kenzera, overcome with sadness and focused on bringing his Baba back – he resists Kalunga’s help, even as he struggles without her. His grief is overwhelming and complicated; He processes his feelings, sometimes out loud, as he travels through different but interconnected lands in search of the spirits.

To face the angry spirits, Zau uses the powers of two of his father’s masks: one representing the sun, the other the moon. Initially, the blue moon mask allows Zau a ranged attack, while the yellow sun mask provides a melee attack for close combat against enemies. Like every Metroidvania, Tales of Kenzera: Broad Improves these skills as you progress through the platform. Eventually, Zau will gain the ability to freeze water or enemies, shoot electric spears, swing from hooked flowers, and break through reinforced gates. Beyond platforming, Tales of Kenzera: Broad features numerous environmental puzzles – considerations of timing, movement and placement.

The game’s main path is linear and follows the story, but there is always room for further exploration, as is usual with a Metroidvania style game. Here the genre is particularly suitable for a game about grief; It is not linear as you often find yourself on what seems like a wrong path or lost in cycles and loops. But even for Zau, it is often important to walk these winding paths in order to process his grief: for him, dead ends are often spaces for reflection or rest, which give him additional health or bring small fragments of stories to light. Not to mention the world of Tales of Kenzera: Broad

is absolutely great, even though there is a lot of destruction and betrayal. Each of these areas is different: lush greenery in the treetop jungle; Browns and yellows for bone-crushing desserts; Shades of blue and purple for the subterranean depths. Every environment teems with emotion and life, with music that suits their soul – and heightens their danger. It is a beautiful visual recreation of the Bantu myths and legends that are central to the game’s narrative.

With every new skill Tales of Kenzera: Broad is becoming more and more difficult. The platforming puzzles build on themselves in each of the game’s four chapters and the enemies also become increasingly powerful. There’s also an upgrade tree to make Zau’s abilities more powerful, as well as unlockable challenge runes that go even further. (The runes are nice to have, but not absolutely necessary; one, for example, charges your abilities the more you juggle enemies.) It all gets a little messy, but in the best way. Tales of Kenzera: BroadThe platforming and enemy combat are challenging in a way that feels rewarding and never punishing. The game’s story makes everything seem difficult for a reason, and each victory brings a new realization for Zau or the people he meets along the way. These insights don’t always stick with Zau; He might have an epiphany about someone else’s grief, only to plunge headlong into his own. Grief is messy and Tales of Kenzera: Broad doesn’t shy away from it.

Towards the end of Tales of Kenzera: BroadThere is a precision and time based platforming section that is extremely difficult. It requires the use of almost all of Zau’s upgrades and abilities, meaning there are a lot of buttons and timing involved. (I also encountered a few bugs that caused Zau to freeze in a certain ability, meaning he automatically failed due to being consumed by raging fire – a detail that made the hard level even more painful.) In this section Zau escapes an erupting volcano while fighting the malevolent GaGorib. With smoke and lava chasing him, Zau must break through walls, climb walls, avoid obstacles, and execute precise and well-timed platforming moves to survive. The sticking point for me was that wall-breaking kick that came at exactly the right time after a hook swing – I got caught in the lava more times than I could count. I never felt completely comfortable with it and every time I did it felt like a miracle. The section went on for quite a while without a save point, and after about an hour I finally finished it. At this point I was frustrated and tired and had pain in my thumb. I was mad at the game and also at myself. I almost stopped playing. But the feeling of Zau breaking through that final barrier was a huge relief that felt like a real accomplishment. A relief that made the fight worth it. Unbeknownst to me, this level is near the end of the game – one of the last major challenges I would face Tales of Kenzera: Broad. It’s the perfect time for such a challenge, the culmination of so many messy, complicated feelings for both me and Zau.

I finished the game in tears as Zau’s story came to an end, because I, too, experience sadness in my own life – the kind of anticipation, but sadness nonetheless. I’m not ready to accept this yet, and I’m not sure I ever will. But I’m going Tales of Kenzera: Broad knowing that relief is possible, no matter how distant it may be.

Tales of Kenzera: Broad will be released on April 23rd on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC and Xbox Series X. The game was tested on PS5 with a pre-download code provided by Electronic Arts. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These have no influence on the editorial content, although Vox Media may earn commissions for products purchased through affiliate links. You can find More information about Polygon’s ethics policy can be found here.