- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- Release Date: Apr 23, 2024
- Also On: PlayStation 5, Switch, Xbox Series X
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
- Unscored
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Apr 22, 2024Legends of Kenzera: ZAU is a triumph of storytelling. It's immersive and thoughtful in every element of Zau's journey. But the narrative, for all of its impact, doesn't stand alone. Instead, the difficulty and complexity of traversing Kenzera complement and add a tactile nature to the emotional endeavor of moving through grief.
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Apr 22, 2024Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is a triumph for Surgent Studios. The team has clearly thought long and hard about how to best depict this tale of grief and has presented it in a way that perfectly parses how it feels to come to terms with the loss of a loved one.
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Apr 22, 2024In a completely different way from what we're used to, Tales of Kenzera: Zau tackles the ups and downs of the grieving process through an exciting, colorful and charismatic adventure. With a fun combat system that becomes increasingly challenging throughout the campaign, the game meets expectations with rich world-building and satisfying exploration.
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Apr 22, 2024Tales of Kenzera: ZAU proves that innovation isn't always necessary to craft a compelling experience. With its heartfelt story, compelling protagonist, and solid metroidvania gameplay featuring excellent pacing, Zau's journey is one that resonates, especially for those grappling with similar grief to the young shaman.
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Apr 22, 2024Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a triumphant debut for Surgent Studios. At $20, and available on day one for PlayStation+ subscribers, any fan of the action-platformer genre would do well to check it out. Zau’s journey through loss will stick with me for a long time, and the excellent gameplay already has me itching to play through it all again.
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Apr 22, 2024Atmospheric Metroidvania experience with enjoyable runtime and dynamic gameplay.
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Apr 28, 2024A unique take on the Metroidvania genre in terms of identity and art and a successful gameplay!
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Apr 23, 2024Not that it isn’t a complete product; it would have been nice, though, to spend more time within the game and its universe. Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is just that inviting even with its heavy subject matter, such that players want to continue to experience heartfelt and responsible stories enveloped by a beautiful world design, memorable soundtrack, and delectable gameplay.
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Apr 22, 2024Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a beautiful little game. Fun platforming and a setting we rarely see in games both support a genuinely moving story of grief. While it is a game about the acceptance of death, it’s also about the joys of life. And just like life, it’s a little rough around the edges and can be frustrating, but ultimately worth it.
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Apr 22, 2024Though Tales Of Kenzera: Zau plays it safe at times, its touching story, engaging combat, and fantastic performances will stay with us for some time.
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Apr 22, 2024As a story of loss, grief, and acceptance, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a game like few out there. It's short and, in some ways, it can be basic. Given the story that it's telling, that's just fine.
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Apr 22, 2024Tales of Kenzera: Zau's strength lies in its powerful narrative, digging into how one navigates the sadness, rage, and terror that accompanies the worst moments of grief. Its tale has its hiccups, but Zau's adventure of coming to terms with loss resonates through the beating heart of the thumping musical score, standout vocal performances, and dance-like battles that feel straight out of Bantu myth. Loss is a universal human emotion, making Zau's attempts to grapple with grief uncomfortably relatable. But there's catharsis to be earned in working through that discomfort alongside Zau, and a touching story to enjoy along the way.
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Apr 22, 2024At a mere 10 hours, this is a game whose brevity is by design. After all, its story is, ultimately, about letting go, about accepting life’s harsh limits, and finding meaning in the time you have.
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Apr 22, 2024Tales of Kenzera: Zau builds upon the Metroidvania formula to deliver exciting action, emotional storytelling, and African cultural specificity.
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Apr 22, 2024In Tales of Kenzera: Zau, grief and acceptance tug at your heart between bouts of refined combat and slick traversal. While seasoned Metroidvania fans will want more diversions and mystique, the game’s platforming abilities and challenges do justice to its setting.
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May 5, 2024As short as Tales of Kenzera is, it meaningfully addresses what players need to encounter.
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Apr 24, 2024In terms of gameplay, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is not special and in terms of difficulty it is even unbalanced here and there. However, the game immerses you in an intriguing setting with a beautiful graphic style and a moving story. In combination with the entertaining combat, it is still worthwhile to venture to the mythical plains of Kenzera.
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Apr 22, 2024Tight design and compelling mythology compensate for a few too many borrowed ideas.
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Apr 25, 2024The gameplay in Tales of Kenzera: ZAU does at solid job at keeping up with other platformers. The unique abilities which are each provided a nice background story benefit the worldbuilding in a way that other Metroidvanias are more than welcome to adapt. However, the story and dialogue want to be deeper than they ultimately succeed at being. The low enemy variety and their constant recycling is really annoying.
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Apr 23, 2024As a diverse story featuring wonder and beauty, I cannot recommend this game enough, but the nuts and bolts need tightening for it to truly soar.
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Apr 22, 2024Tales of Kenzera: ZAU offers a potent narrative journey through grief and African mythology within a metroidvania framework. While the story and atmosphere shine, the gameplay lacks depth, with simplistic platforming and combat mechanics, ultimately delivering an experience more focused on storytelling than gameplay challenge.
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Apr 22, 2024Zau's journey with grief is compounded by his desire to be a valued member of his society, and to fill the empty footsteps left behind by his father's death. Surgent Studio's efforts to twist the heartbreaking experience of a son mourning his father with metroidvania style gameplay gives homage to how one person's time with grief is not always linear. Just as grief presents new challenges, we learn new tools to cope with the obstacles. It is an excellent juxtaposition that is marred with some frustrating technical issues and the need for just a bit more polish.
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Apr 22, 2024Despite issues with its difficulty balance and some of the elements of the metroidvania genre, Tales of Kenzera: Zau is still a promising start for Surgent Studios, with its smooth, fast gameplay, astounding world, engrossing story and jaw-dropping visuals. Hopefully we'll be returning to Kenzera sometime in the future, because no matter what form any future tales may take, there's a ton of potential here and a lot of fun to be had.
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Apr 22, 2024Tales of Kenzera: Zau is more effective as a moving reflection on grief than as a Metroidvania.
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Jun 7, 2024Tales of Kenzera: Zau offers a typical metroidvania experience and it’s a shame that the team led by Abubakar Salim lacked the courage to put some kind of a twist on the genre’s formula. Surgent Studios has the potential to create amazing games, but unfortunately this isn’t one of them.
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May 5, 2024We would have liked all the charm of the African legends of Tales of Kenzera ZAU to also be found in a level design that was both inspired and inventive! Outstripped by a plethora of competitors, the first software from Surgent Studios lacks the depth and precision to establish itself in the domain of the Gods. However, it does not lack assets: with its low price (20 euros), its dynamism and its enchanting universe, this Metroidvania, less labyrinthine than the others, has interesting arguments to help you spend 8 entertaining hours.
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Apr 22, 2024Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is a video game with so much heart... enclosed in an imperfect container. Moving within the various regions of Kenzera is a pleasure, but for a good part of the game the combat remains more of a burden than a pleasure. When things finally start to get more complicated the adventure finally seems to take off, but unfortunately this happens far too late.
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Jun 23, 2024Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is an example of an interesting concept blighted by lazy implementation.
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Apr 22, 2024I truly loved the first two-thirds of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU and it saddens me that I felt the opposite for the remainder of it.
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| This publication has not posted a final review score yet. | |
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Apr 24, 2024It has its flaws, but it's a fun metroidvania full of jumps and fights.
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Apr 22, 2024Tales Of Kenzera shows great precision in its character and world design, in the writing, in the voice acting, even down to individual animations. But it lacks precision in some areas of the combat, in particular the platforming, which arguably is the bit that matters more in a platformer. For me, I'm not sure it does! Despite my frustrations - I have evidence in the form of furious texts to a friend about how many times I attempted one sequence where you have to sprint up waterfalls to a timed gate, and another that features a jump-dash in time to land on a platform floating on a lava fountain - I'd like to see what other tales can be told in Kenzera.