The game
Dealing with mourning for a loved one is never easy, especially if this has been a guide and point of reference for our entire life: this is what happened to Abubakar Salim, British actor (known to most as one of the two protagonists of the TV series sci-fi Raised by Wolves, as well as the voice actor of numerous video games) who, after losing his father, decided to found a software house and create a video game inspired by his journey of accepting grief. He was born like this Tales of Kenzera: EXPANDa 2D scrolling action-platformer with Metroidvania elements that sees us follow the story of a young shaman dealing with the death of his father, from whom he inherited two masks that give him access to mystical powers.
MX Video – Tales of Kenzera: EXPAND
As a neo-shaman, Zau should use his powers to help the tribes of Kenzera, the world in which the game is set, but his pain is too strong and he is too young to bear it. He then makes a pact with Kalunga, the God of death: he will help him get past three powerful souls who refused to die, and in return the God will give him back his father. The boy thus sets off in search of the three spirits across the many lands of Kenzera, accompanied by the constant presence of Kalunga who, from his side, will try to instill some wisdom in him and make him become a better shaman.
With this premise we begin our adventures in Zau’s shoes; as mentioned, Tales of Kenzera: EXPAND It’s a 2D scrolling action-platformer, billed as Metroidvania before launch, but in reality it has few elements in common with this beloved genre, so it would be more correct to call it “Metroid-lite”. The map of the game world, which is revealed as we visit new areas, is very reminiscent of the twisted and interconnected labyrinths of the Metroidvania genre, but as we move through it we realize that the similarity stops only at the shape of the levels, because they are missing all the frequent “unreachable points”, classics of the genre, which make us understand that we will be able to visit them again when we have new powers. Over the course of the story we acquire new powers which allow us, for example, to sprint, double jump or open blocked passages, but the progression is always very linear: at a certain point we encounter an unreachable area, then we explore an adjacent area in which – after some platforming and combat – we find a new power, and head back to go through that area. In fact, backtracking, the joy and pain of metroidvania lovers, is severely limited here, and the impression you get is that of following a long predetermined path with few deviations. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s worth clarifying: Tales of Kenzera: EXPAND it does a great job as a scrolling platformer, but it’s best not to approach it with the expectation that it’s a new Ori or Hollow Knight.
The same goes for the fights: the enemies are not generally distributed across the levels, every now and then we encounter some isolated ones, but the majority appear in specific areas whose exits are blocked and become real arenas, from which we will exit only after having defeated the different waves of enemies. The combat and platforming/level crossing phases are therefore isolated from each other, another important difference compared to the metroidvania genre which often sees us face enemies while making jumps and acrobatic moves to overcome the levels.
An important component of the gameplay of Tales of Kenzera: EXPAND it is the alternating use of the two masks, which in the game is called “the dance”. By pressing the left shoulder we can switch between the sun mask and the moon mask: the first allows us to launch powerful melee attacks, while the second sees us throw bolts of light for ranged attacks. Some enemies are only vulnerable to attacks from the sun or moon, so you may have to fight by often swapping masks based on the enemy in front of you. Each of the two masks also has its own dedicated skill tree, giving us the possibility of acquiring new skills by spending the experience points earned during exploration and combat.
Depending on the difficulty chosen (three available, from easy to difficult), the game can be completed in between 8 and 10 hours; if you want to engage in the various optional “challenge levels”, which test your skills and motor coordination, you can add a couple of hours to the total. The game is finally dubbed in English, with texts and subtitles in Italian.
Amore
Deep and emotional story
– The stretch of Tales of Kenzera: EXPAND what struck me the most is undoubtedly Zau’s story (and the boy who reads his story, but I’ll leave this to you to discover in the game) and his process of mourning the loss of his father, facing different phases that they range from initial desperation to a very youthful anger and rebellion up to the predictable – but no less emotional – conclusion. The fact that it is an autobiographical story based on the experience of the director Abubakar Salim is tangible, and being the father of an 18 year old boy to whom I am very close, more than once during the game I was moved by the ‘Imagine his feelings if I were to pass away. A type of emotion that rarely comes from a video game.
Graphics and backdrops
– The game’s graphics are very beautiful, rendered completely in 3D and with backdrops that develop very deeply, offering us a nice overview of the world of Kenzera as we explore the different settings: desert villages, stilt houses in marshy areas or mountain peaks are all rendered in very pleasant manner. The game offers Performance mode at 60 fps and Quality mode at 30, but personally I didn’t notice big differences in video quality, so 60 fps is always preferable, especially for this type of game.
Running and jumping for Kenzera
– The game’s “traversal” mechanics are very good, combined with a certainly satisfying level design. Our exploration of the world of Kenzera sees us jump, sprint, make long leaps using a sort of ethereal grappling hook and even freeze jets of water to use as improvised walls on which to jump to reach higher areas.
I hate it
Missed Metroidvania
– Given the excellent platforming and level design, it’s really a shame that Tales of Kenzera: EXPAND does not offer a true metroidvania structure, which would have made the gameplay much deeper and more varied, limiting itself to being a good linear action-platformer with some “-vania” elements. Recent titles like Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown have shown that the genre still has a lot to offer, and I’m convinced that Surgent Studios’ game would have gained a lot from a greater depth of structure and gameplay.
Frustration with bugs and imprecise controls
– As far as the platforming of Tales of Kenzera: EXPAND Although it is good, it is unfortunately not free from defects, some of which are quite important. I found some controls not always very precise, causing problems in the most frenetic situations: for example the double jump on the walls sometimes misfires, causing the character to fall or die. Furthermore, even one of the skills acquired by Zau, which allows us to launch ourselves into short aerial shots during a jump, slowing down time to choose the direction of the shot, sometimes remains “stuck” in the moment of choosing the direction, without carrying out the I also click by pressing the relevant button several times, which causes disastrous falls. There is one level in particular, a long escape from an enemy in a series of caves in which every mistake takes us back to the beginning of the section, which requires us to use this ability several times: you can imagine the series of “smashes” in which I was shocked every time, after doing everything perfectly, these shots didn’t activate as expected. There are also some small problems to report in the fight scenes: when multiple enemies crowd together, the scene becomes difficult to read and we even lose sight of the position of our character, who merges into a chaos of moving characters. All situations that make the game more frustrating than it should be.
Some performance drops
– In Performance mode the game normally runs at 60 fps without problems, but I happened to encounter some levels where, due to the richness of the scenarios, the frame-rate dropped close to 30 or maybe even below. Nothing that makes the experience unplayable, especially since it happened in exploratory and not very dangerous phases, but greater optimization of these situations would have been nice.
Let’s sum it up
Tales of Kenzera: EXPAND it’s a good action-platformer with a great emotional impact, which however feels like a wasted opportunity due to a too light approach to Metroidvania mechanics. The platforming is of an excellent level as well as the visual sector is very pleasant, while the gameplay can sometimes be frustrating due to some bugs and precision problems in the controls. However, it remains a pleasant experience for lovers of the genre, with which you can spend just under ten hours.