Kena: Bridge of Spirits was originally released in 2021, following an initial showcase at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier that year. The game is absolutely stunning graphically, plucked out of a Pixar film. Do not let the adorable characters and charming, lush locales lull you into thinking this game is for kids, though, as Kena poses a formidable challenge.

I first started in on this game around its release in September of 2021. I had an incredibly difficult time on my first play-through, consistently getting trounced by bosses and frustrated by cursed chests. Despite my struggles, I did not want to stop trying, as the boss battles are the type where you can feel yourself getting closer and closer each time. There are 16 boss battles in this game, most of them of the mini-boss variety, but if you’ve ever marathoned Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, Cuphead, or any From Software game, you are familiar with the feeling of “almost got it” I am describing. I got obliterated so consistently by Toshi (the penultimate boss) that I came to believe I had missed some essential item earlier in the game and started over, determined not to make that mistake again.

Upon my restart, I had a much easier time. I can chalk that up partially to having been through it once before, and also to the fact that a patch released in December made the game way more generous with the EXP (called “karma”). The trade off for the game’s generosity is the appearance of more cursed chests, unlockables, and a few extra enemies. The game is far more balanced after this update. Turns out, I hadn’t missed an item, I just had to “get good”.

Let me be very clear: when I say I had an easier time, that is not at all to say that this game is easy. Kena is simple to learn but difficult to master, particularly the timing of parries. As you can imagine, parrying becomes an integral part of succeeding at Kena, but I don’t think I felt fully comfortable with my ability to do it until I was about 7/8 of the way through the game. Maybe I suck, but it seemed like the timing was impossibly late. After awhile, though, when I became familiar with all the different unlocked abilities and understood which skills worked best against which enemies (and the game will always give you a subtle clue), I felt like a fully badass Spirit Guide. Unleashing an arrow in slow motion and nailing a bullseye on an enemy’s weak spot or shooting a bomb out of the air is particularly gratifying. My biggest gripe is that the developers (Ember’s Lab) decided to absolutely nerf Kena before the final battle, which felt like a very cheap way to increase the difficulty of the final boss, who would have otherwise been far less challenging, given the time spent mastering the moves required to reach him.

I’ve seen complaints online (surprise!) that the story doesn’t flesh out Kena, herself, enough; that players felt very little connection with her. This was not an issue for me, I found Kena charming (thanks in no small part to her relationship with the Rots) and was genuinely moved by the ending. I actually gasped in amazement during the end scenes, an effect brought on by a combination of breath-taking graphics and a fantastic conclusion to the story.

Despite Kena’s difficulty, the game is short. You should be able to finish it in a weekend (provided you don’t unnecessarily punish yourself like I did, or have kids). There’s much to love here if you are a fan of the Zelda series (pre-Switch era), although I was disappointed that a vast majority of the rewards for exploration were purely cosmetic. I dove back into this game with a New Game + immediately upon finishing because I wanted more. I immediately began noticing pieces of foreshadowing I hadn’t noticed the first time through. This game is glorious.

7.5/10

• Spirit Mail and Rot quests are fun, Cursed chests are positively loathsome.
• Bosses are challenging and maybe a bit frustrating, but you won’t want to stop trying.
• Graphics are absolutely beautiful. Not necessarily “realistic”, but a wonderful sight to behold.
• I could not care less about Rot Hats.
• Combat is very fun, but it takes actual practice to master.
• Legitimately heart-wrenching story, especially when you realize what is actually going on in the forest.