3/5 ★ – bokonon764's review of Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

Now that a lazy peasant can easily get a PS5, I got one, and Kena is the first game I beat on it. Love the console so far, but Kena was a bit of a mixed bag. When it hits, it hits, but it’s a little…generic, I guess? It’s kind of like Zelda meets 2000s PS2 platformers, with a little more emphasis on combat. In Kena: Bridge of Spirits, you play as the titular Kena, who is a likeable protagonist who’s heart is always in the right place, is wise beyond her years, and proudly sports that Disney hero smirk. That’s one thing, this game feels like a fuckin Disney movie a few times, which is okay I guess, but I’m not watching a Disney movie. Kena isn’t much of a character honestly. She’s not lame or poorly written, just not a lot goin on. Kena is a spirit guide, and she is trying to cleanse the corruption from a mountain village, in an East Asian-inspired fantasy world. She is also tasked with guiding corrupt, angry spirits into the afterlife. I didn’t give a shit about the story until the second segment of the game, then I was all in. If there’s ever a sequel, I’d love to see more of these types of stories, maybe in a bunch of different settings, not just all tied to this one village. There’s these kids in the beginning of the game that are so cutesy and adorable, I hated it, but they were only in one portion of the game, so I managed. Also adorable, and a kind of adorable that worked on me, are these little guys that serve as collectibles/special attacks/companions called the Rot. The Rot are mystical beings that inhabit the world of Kena, and they are very cute. You can collect little hats for them throughout your adventure, and they’re one of my favorite parts of this game. I think they should have leaned more into using the Rot for puzzles, more special attacks involving the Rot, just more Rot, that’s what I need. I played this on Master difficulty, which is the hardest one. I don’t know why, or what I have to prove, it would’ve been more fun if I played it on an easier difficulty, but I wanted that ultimately pointless platinum, I guess. I will say, on high difficulty, the bosses in this game are greatly elevated, and Dark Soul-level tough. There’s 7 bosses which I would call the “true bosses” of the game, and they are all fucking excellent, and really fuckin hard. I did eventually fight a few of the true bosses on a lower difficulties, it’s still great, bosses look great, arenas are cool, score is hittin, but I feel like it needs that higher difficulty to really set it off. The combat is fun, although somewhat limited. As I said before, more combat options would be cool. Still fun though, and apart from some bugs, some shitty auto camera choices (halfway through, I realized these can be changed in the pause menu, under options>accessibility) and buggy stuff, pretty fun smooth game. Kena: Bridge of Spirits ultimately isn’t really doing a whole lot. Felt like a lot of games I’ve played, and I never really felt that connection with it. The final moments of the story, I thought they were about to pull a massive twist, but they didn’t, and if they did it would’ve got at least another star on the rating. Kena is a beautiful game, with a beautiful score. And it’s fun, give it a try.