Kena: Bridge of Spirits

 PlayStation 5
User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1291 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,034 out of 1291
  2. Mixed: 162 out of 1291
  3. Negative: 95 out of 1291

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  1. RGames2k
    Sep 7, 2023
    7
    اللعبة رائعه
    القصه غير محمسه ولكن القيم بلاي جيد
    الشخصيات جيده
    الجرافيكس جيد

    اللعبه جيده
  2. Lastnight1
    Aug 22, 2023
    6
    This game is a good game but sometime it will be dull,ı most love boss fight in this game because most enemy is same so it is boring .if you don't like a animation things ,you mustn't play
  3. Tintler
    Jul 15, 2023
    5
    Oyunun grafikleri ve animasyonları kaliteli. Konusu, müzikleri, dövüş mekanikleriyse vasat. Ortalama bir oyun olmuş diyebilirim. Oyun kısa olmasına rağmen biraz sıkılarak oynadığımı belirtmek isterim.
  4. JoseCal
    Jul 11, 2023
    7
    I think it’s okay. Honestly, it’s very repetitive and the graphics could have been a bit better. The story was very weak, but at least the gameplay was smooth and quite enjoyable.
  5. Nando2k2
    Jun 6, 2023
    7
    The game gets old fast; same platforming, collectible hunting, etc. The bosses are difficult. The parry system is horrible. Despite this, it is a fun game, sometimes, with a linear storyline and awesome animation. I wouldn’t spend full price, rather get it in a sale.
  6. Evac1996
    May 22, 2023
    7
    I like the game, for an indie game its awsome, great features with the dualsense, good gameplay mechanics, and ok history
  7. pelota18
    May 19, 2023
    5
    meeeeeh... Not amazing! A game with good ideas and decent story, beautiful, but very repetitive.
  8. Lokendens
    May 14, 2023
    6
    The game is ok, but I have not finished it because I got bored after 3 hours.

    Most of the game is combat and solving puzzles. The puzzles are fine, but the combat feels super unsatisfying. From the hits in animation that just go through the oponent like a lightsaber to unsatisfying sound design when fighting. There is no punch and crunch. There are a lot of side activities but in the end    The game is ok, but I have not finished it because I got bored after 3 hours.

    Most of the game is combat and solving puzzles. The puzzles are fine, but the combat feels super unsatisfying. From the hits in animation that just go through the oponent like a lightsaber to unsatisfying sound design when fighting. There is no punch and crunch. There are a lot of side activities but in the end they dont give tou any rewards except for money you can spend on buyng hats for your little sweet friends. This made me stop even going for the sidequests since I dont really care for that.

    The game looks great and the animations are superb, but the overall gameplay left me unsatisfied.    … Expand
  9. Dathmach
    May 9, 2023
    6
    While the game has excellent visuals, the rest of the experience feels hollow with a lackluster story and uninspiring gameplay
  10. Uncl3s4mbr
    May 7, 2023
    7
    Nice game and history. Beautiful graphics. The bosses are not well design and combat commands are not very responsive and have an irritating delay.
  11. ehtaco
    May 1, 2023
    5
    One of the biggest disappointments in recent memory and genuinely slightly confused by all the egregiously high scores, but preferences and stuff.

    Nothing about this game will stick with me outside of the visuals. The combat is clunky, the world and the exploration within it are kind of bland and quite repetitive, the boss fights are uninspired as hell and absolutely frusturating. Not    One of the biggest disappointments in recent memory and genuinely slightly confused by all the egregiously high scores, but preferences and stuff.

    Nothing about this game will stick with me outside of the visuals. The combat is clunky, the world and the exploration within it are kind of bland and quite repetitive, the boss fights are uninspired as hell and absolutely frusturating. Not even because of difficulty, but because the game does not play very well. The story is fine albeit for sure nothing worth remembering.

    I understand it's a new studio and in a lot of ways it's definitely an impressive outing in that regard. But I'm not rating based on that fact or based on the idea that future sequels may have potential. I'm rating this game and it just, simply put, is not very good. It does nothing great, few things well, and most things pretty poorly.    … Expand
  12. Nintenderek
    Feb 3, 2023
    7
    Kena is a beautiful game with a wonderful story but unfortunately full of poor game design choices. It's a combination of The Legend of Zelda with Pikmin and Tomb Raider and uses elements of game mechanics from all of those games, leaving the player a bit unsure at times what this game is actually trying to be, made even worse by the elements of old school game design which just feelKena is a beautiful game with a wonderful story but unfortunately full of poor game design choices. It's a combination of The Legend of Zelda with Pikmin and Tomb Raider and uses elements of game mechanics from all of those games, leaving the player a bit unsure at times what this game is actually trying to be, made even worse by the elements of old school game design which just feel outdated by modern standards.

    First off, the graphics are beautiful. The game runs perfectly smoothly and everything looks crystal clear. The lush environments make the world more appealing and make you want to explore it. The sound design is also really good with wonderful music and atmospheric sounds. The voice acting is also top notch.

    I really liked the story of the game. Kena is a wonderful character and helps make the game more interesting when they are exploring her story. Unfortunately, you don't actually explore her story often and it is almost confusing that they named the game after her when she realistically has every little to do with the story of the game outside of being the character you experience that story though . The rest of the stories are also very good, but it would have been nice to have a slightly more story related to the main character herself. They left her story a bit open and they could have easily explored it more towards the end of the game and for some reason chose not to. The stories of the other characters are also quite good and quite emotional. This is a game that clearly wants you to be attached to each and every character and does so quite successfully.

    The game's big weak point is the gameplay itself. Combat isn't entirely satisfying and doesn't really have a whole lot of complexity to it. There's an upgrade system within the game but it is almost useful as the rewards don't actually feel like they offer much. The world itself can be fun to explore, but trying to complete the game objectives isn't always fun as you struggle to figure out what you are supposed to do from moment to moment. It feels a bit like an older Gamecube or PS2 type game, in all of the good ways but also all of the bad ways, making the game design feel a bit out dated. There's a map in the game that's supposed to help, but without any method of setting up waypoints, feels quite useless at times.

    There is a lot to like within Kena, but at the end of the day it feels quite obvious that this game was made by an animation studio, not a game studio. I feel like the developers could take the experience they learned from this and hopefully make something a bit better, but the wonderful story and graphics here do not make up for the poor game design choices nearly enough, leaving me upset as the character of Kena herself feels like she deserves better.    … Expand
  13. thaesino
    Jan 27, 2023
    6
    Wonderful game. Nice music. Nice story. Nice, simple combat (no DS here, which is a nice break sometimes as everyone these days seems to want to copy FromSoftware).

    Only one reason I game a 8/10... the animations and voiceovers just aren't there. Small studio, I believe, which is fine. But something about the animation feels unpolished - almost like Kena isn't "attached" to the world.    Wonderful game. Nice music. Nice story. Nice, simple combat (no DS here, which is a nice break sometimes as everyone these days seems to want to copy FromSoftware).

    Only one reason I game a 8/10... the animations and voiceovers just aren't there. Small studio, I believe, which is fine. But something about the animation feels unpolished - almost like Kena isn't "attached" to the world. The facial gestures are also really limited which probably means there was no mocap. And finally... voiceovers at times sound (in English at least) as though they hired the first people they could find off of Tik Tok or something.

    But definitely give this one a try if you own a PS4/PS5. Wonderful fun, and the closest thing to a Zelda game you'll play in a while.

    EDIT (after 100%): Buy it on sale. What I thought was just the beginning 1/3rd of the game ended up actually being the whole game. Because all the narrative parts didn't quite connect with one another, the various parts of the game felt more like side-quests than different chapters of the same story. I'm not quite sure why the studio didn't hire better writers if they knew that other parts of the game would naturally suffer under the limitation of a smaller studio.    … Expand
  14. GRX3m0m
    Dec 24, 2022
    7
    Excellent game, breathtaking graphics, but completely ridiculous difficulty spikes in certain bosses.
  15. winzentween
    Dec 23, 2022
    7
    It's ok. It's average. It looks good but it's not as good as it looks. It has some really bad design choices and iffy controls. And it's hard but not nec fun. Everything is stolen from better games. It's fine. I loved it until I hated it.
    Also Google the behind the scenes shenanigans. They didn't pay the head designer lol not cool.
    The game annoys me because it pretends to be awesome but    It's ok. It's average. It looks good but it's not as good as it looks. It has some really bad design choices and iffy controls. And it's hard but not nec fun. Everything is stolen from better games. It's fine. I loved it until I hated it.
    Also Google the behind the scenes shenanigans. They didn't pay the head designer lol not cool.
    The game annoys me because it pretends to be awesome but it's just not. It couldnjave been ...But it's not. Great for young adults.    … Expand
  16. gkehn
    Dec 21, 2022
    7
    + world and graphics
    + solid, difficult combat
    + story emotional at points
    + the rot

    - story a bit jointed
    - not much depth
  17. Sixpack6
    Dec 18, 2022
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Fair storyline, okay open world. Hats and gems are useless collectables. Very stingy with upgrade material where you don't even get to enjoy charms and the differences because there's not enough 'karma' to even finish your weapons. You're essentially an underpowered kid with a stick and low power bow fighting souls type mobs. And if your succeed you get a hat. Or gems. Which do nothing. Why not be more generous with karma where we can have fun and enjoy the charms. I've unlocked one.… Expand
  18. Haannss
    Nov 17, 2022
    7
    Good work for an indie company. The art direction is just amazing and graphics are also good. The game is quite simple and intuitive to control. Major control issues, specially when new abbilities have been collected, because the control interpretation is not good. The difficulty is high at some points, but that's not the main problem. The worst part is that you really feel the game isGood work for an indie company. The art direction is just amazing and graphics are also good. The game is quite simple and intuitive to control. Major control issues, specially when new abbilities have been collected, because the control interpretation is not good. The difficulty is high at some points, but that's not the main problem. The worst part is that you really feel the game is unfair, and that bosses could kill you whenever they want. You win just because they allow you to, by not doing the combo that would kill you in two seconds. That feeling keeps going on final bosses all the second half of the game, and it's a pity because the game could have been incredible if more balanced.

    The story is good, and it's easy to discover Kena's world from her perspective. You always want to know a bit more about it.

    All in all, the game is very good in some aspects, and it could have been a great game if the control and difficulty were a little bit more balanced, instead of a souls wannabe. A pity.    … Expand
  19. Wackme
    Sep 19, 2022
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Beautiful game, nice music/sounds. What i didn't like were the game mechanics and controls. I didn't like any boss battle, but it became less irritating after getting the dash possibility. The levels became also repetitive for me, so i set the game on "story mode", the game became ok for me. The story was also lacking, missed the Kena who, why, when and how explanation.

    I played the end boss, but i couldn't finish the game, because every time the beast threw me into the lava zone, i died. One mistake, and you die. I played until i died multiple times in phase 2 with "story mode". I know that i must use the block and dash to avoid, but if you forget/not fast enough/don't have a block, you have to start over the entire end boss battle.

    There were moments i enjoyed the game, but i don't know if i would buy a Kena 2.    … Expand
  20. Richard4949
    Aug 17, 2022
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. There’s a lot of good in this game for sure. The graphics are simply amazing. The world is surprisingly large and extremely fun to explore. The combat is fairly simple, but some of the boss battles are very difficult. You’ll see what I’m talking about towards the end. And there is no checkpoints either. And there is the worst camera assist system ever. Like, who ever approved this needs to be fired and go work at Pizza Hut. Ember labs clearly can make a good game and they’re competent, so I don’t understand how this made it in. Even when you turn it off, it still will pop up and prevent you from looking at the boss you’re trying to attack or parry, and it’ll highlight what it thinks you should be doing. It literally prevented me from beating the final boss many times. It’s beyond frustrating. If you’ve played it, then you know.… Expand
  21. Gosticouilles
    Aug 7, 2022
    6
    I was really looking forward into playing this game and sadly, I'm really really disappointed. Besides being pretty, this game doesn't offer much. I feel like playing a Ps2 Remake. Mecanics are really outdated, the music is sometimes good but sometimes really annoying and the combat system is one of the worst I've seen in decades. I usually play my games on hard or normal difficulty and II was really looking forward into playing this game and sadly, I'm really really disappointed. Besides being pretty, this game doesn't offer much. I feel like playing a Ps2 Remake. Mecanics are really outdated, the music is sometimes good but sometimes really annoying and the combat system is one of the worst I've seen in decades. I usually play my games on hard or normal difficulty and I just put this one on story mode since controls aren't responding at all and bosses are just damage sponges that take 50 hits+ to kill. Parrying is really tedious and frustrating too. I would recommend to play this game when it's 20$ or less :(… Expand
  22. StIwY
    Jul 26, 2022
    7
    Game is mediocre. Weak design, weak plot, the last boss without checkpoints is a bulls_it, Rot searching is useless along with hats...what's the point ? And at cherry on the top, is quite short. I was expecting much more.....
  23. Daanvandam
    Jun 17, 2022
    6
    I had pretty high expectations going into this hoping the devs would not follow common western design trends but when the uncharted climbing sections came in my heart sank. I think its best to go into this game blind and set the expectations somewhat lower. For some reason I thought the action gameplay was going to be great but the combat is really simple. Not as precanned animation asI had pretty high expectations going into this hoping the devs would not follow common western design trends but when the uncharted climbing sections came in my heart sank. I think its best to go into this game blind and set the expectations somewhat lower. For some reason I thought the action gameplay was going to be great but the combat is really simple. Not as precanned animation as Spider-Man but it is close sadly. Length of the game was perfect though.… Expand
  24. Burzyk
    May 29, 2022
    7
    Pretty, fun and satisfying little game. Too bad that Xbox has this kind of games in Game Pass, and here (Sony) you have to pay for it.
  25. paduladiego
    May 25, 2022
    6
    BR = Jogo, bonito e fluído, porém completamente desbalanceado, quanto mais forte fica menos dano causa e mais dano sofre... ainda com muitos bugs e falhas nos processos de luta de colisão. jogo chega a ficar chato e revoltante devido ao desbalanceamento de golpes e falhas em ataques.
    - - - -
    EN = The game is beautiful and fluid, but completely unbalanced, the stronger it gets, the more    BR = Jogo, bonito e fluído, porém completamente desbalanceado, quanto mais forte fica menos dano causa e mais dano sofre... ainda com muitos bugs e falhas nos processos de luta de colisão. jogo chega a ficar chato e revoltante devido ao desbalanceamento de golpes e falhas em ataques.
    - - - -
    EN = The game is beautiful and fluid, but completely unbalanced, the stronger it gets, the more minor damage it causes and the more damage it suffers... still with many bugs and flaws in the collision fighting processes. The game gets dull and revolting due to the unbalanced blows and failures in attacks.    … Expand
  26. StaTplay6
    May 21, 2022
    7
    I find this game fun and challenging. I wish there was a 2 player mode though. The controls are hard to learn at first but you will understand them eventually.
  27. DMJReviews
    May 5, 2022
    7
    An impressive feat from this new indie developer. The animation and visual design is downright "disney" in a good way. The difficulty and inspiration from Soulslike genre was a surprise albeit not a positive one. Fortunately the game offers difficulty options to tailor your experience.
    The game is very charming and excels in visuals and audio. The vibe is a highlight as well.
    The game    An impressive feat from this new indie developer. The animation and visual design is downright "disney" in a good way. The difficulty and inspiration from Soulslike genre was a surprise albeit not a positive one. Fortunately the game offers difficulty options to tailor your experience.
    The game is very charming and excels in visuals and audio. The vibe is a highlight as well.

    The game design is run-of-the-mill. You won't notice anything sticking out. It's solid but not memorable.    … Expand
  28. aandrade81
    Apr 6, 2022
    5
    Kena tem um visual bonito, historia legal e um gameplay bem legal até uns 70% do jogo, na parte final o jogo muda de figura (se transforma de um jogo de exploração/aventura em um souls like), e aqui é onde eu acho que ele peca, pois falta coerência da parte final com a primeira parte ou faltou astúcia para os desenvolvedores abraçarem um souls like desde o começo.
  29. Schmaerzkeks
    Feb 24, 2022
    7
    Für ein Indie Spiel wirklich traumhaft. Die Story hätte etwas komplexer sein können.
    + Optik
    + Gameplay
    + Charaktere
    - Umfang zu gering
    - Story zu blass
  30. Bodipo86
    Feb 21, 2022
    6
    Creo que kena es un buen juego. Creo que no es notable ya que en lo personal me ha parecido un juego un tanto aburrido en sus combates, exceptuando quizás el último Boss que realmente destacaba con respecto a los otros. Un juego entretenido con puzzles sencillos pero funcionales y una historia que guía bien al juego en sus mecánicas. Pero su punto fuerte es a nivel artístico y visual, queCreo que kena es un buen juego. Creo que no es notable ya que en lo personal me ha parecido un juego un tanto aburrido en sus combates, exceptuando quizás el último Boss que realmente destacaba con respecto a los otros. Un juego entretenido con puzzles sencillos pero funcionales y una historia que guía bien al juego en sus mecánicas. Pero su punto fuerte es a nivel artístico y visual, que sencillamente es excepcional. En resumen un juego audiovisualmente muy vistoso pero con una jugabulidad que no es nada del otro mundo.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

34
#34 Best PlayStation 5 Game of 2021
11
#11 Most Discussed PlayStation 5 Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 82 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 71 out of 82
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 82
  3. Negative: 0 out of 82
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Feb 18, 2022
    80
    Kena is a playful and beautiful adventure, but it does not bring any breathtaking innovation. But it has the potential to take you to a fairy tale and let you experience the story of a young girl, which is a balanced experience.
  2. CD-Action
    Jan 19, 2022
    90
    Ember Lab didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. Instead the developers opted for tried and true mechanics that entertained us time and again in many action adventure games, and mixed them in an almost perfect way. The beginning might be a little slow, but when Kena: Bridge of Spirits gains momentum, it becomes truly great. It’s hard for me to point out any significant flaws apart from overall lack of originality. What a debut! [12/2021, p.74]
  3. Impulsegamer
    Oct 28, 2021
    100
    Kena: Bridge of Spirits should take most gamers around 10 to 12 hours to complete, depending on the amount of exploring and the level of difficulty. While the blockbusters games of 2021 continue to deliver the same ho-hum experience of 2021, Kena is a much needed ray of sunshine to the current choices of titles available and more importantly, looks fantastic on the PlayStation 5.
    Read full review
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