Kena.txt

KENA: Bridge of Spirits


	A wonderful first game from Ember Labs. Kena Bridge of Spirits is a game which stays with you even after it's short playtime. THe game distinguishes itself due to it's art syle and the mini creatures called rot that follow Kena, A spirit guide helping lost or trapped spirit move on to the afterlife. The rots help her solve puzzle, provide comapanionship. Slowly as the game grows so does their abilities and nubers. Kena can even give them hats to wear that she finds after exploring the nooks and crannies of the world. Their bond and their secrets are the crux of the story. 

	You get to know about the secrets of the cute adorable rots towards the end. But not much is told about Kena's background aside from the fact that her father too was a spirit guide and after his death Kena took his staff and followed in his footsteps so that he can be proud of her. But there is more to that story than she lets on. At least that's what hinted at throughout the game. 

	So, it's a shame that it's not followed through on. I felt like thier was a potiential lost here. Without spoiling too much I'll say this that Kena's origin should've been explored a little more than just a flashback and a few lines. Because she is a character that will make you love her. She is brave, kind, very good as a spirit guide, the cute finnicky rots love her and yet she is hiding something dark unless I'm reaching too far in shallow waters here. But it is hinted a few times in game if you catch it.  

	That's not to say that the game world and it's inhabitant don't have an engaging story to tell of their own. Along it's three Arc's Kena and her following rots go around the village cleaning corruption, freeing spirits, solving puzzles that net you skill points with which you can buy hats for your rots and unlock new skills from the quite small and limited skill tree.

	The game takes place in a corrupted, destroyed, long abandoned village. No man roams here only trapped spirits. Along the 10 hours journey Kena workouts her way to reach the ruined mountain shrine-- The source of all that's bad here. And figure out what happened here. The three arcs tell the story of the detoriating village and the sudden destruction of the Mountain shrine from three different perspectives. And how it affected it's inhabitants. The people were already struggling to survive the famine when the catastrophie struck. Many were fighting their own fight when it happened. Some were trying to stay together, others tryig to protect or provide the village with food as crops died. And some planned to entirely leave it, settle somewhere else as the village was not home anymore.

	Kena reminds me of breath of the wild with it's unique art style and music but at the same time it never achieves the same height. It's puzzles are small and easy, the world is beautiful but unlocks in a linear form for you to explore and the boss battles can become difficult depending on the difficulty you play one which I recommend to play on the second highest one for some excitment and challenge. Though if you have booted it for the first time, you obviously you won't be able to expirirence it on the hardest one as the game won't unlock that difficulty option unless you finish it one time on the second hardest difficulty.

	Kena's gameplay has it's faults but it also has it's moments when it shines. It's limited skill tree harms it in way that most of the times youll be depended on your melle attacks and dodging and even after unlocking the powerful skills you rarely use the starting ones. It doesn't incetavizes you in anyway or diverses itself so that you focus on something in some scenaros and others in other. 

	The boss battles are the gems here though. Some sixteen or so bosses in Kena are varied and well challenging in upper difficulties. You die a lot but you never felt like the game was for fault here. After each one your are reward with some answers to a puzzle, lore bits, and even story progressions. And don't worry even if you die too much in a fight cause unlike dark souls Kena Bridge of spirits doesn't punishes you by starting the whole level again instead driopping you just near the boss to try it again.
	
	So if like to play a short sweet rpg with challenging combat, puzzles, and exploration that doesn't occupy too much of your time Kena Bridge of Spirits is the game for you. You fall in love with the small cute rots, the emotional hooks of the game and the lovel therapeutic art and music that comes with it.