Kena: Bridge of Spirits Review

Though it relies on familiar combat and exploration mechanics, Kena: Bridge of Spirits gives a new perspective through its beautiful art direction, emotional story, and super-cute Rot companions.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is, in some ways, a familiar action-adventure game. You'll see similarities in it from the likes of titles such as Okami, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and a host of other titles in the genre. But developer Ember Studios does a great job of giving a new look on the familiar throughout the game, both to tell the deep and emotional story of a spirit guide helping traumatized ghosts move on from this world, and in how it uses gameplay for some deceptively tough combat and smart puzzles.

You play as Kena, a spirit guide trying to find out what has happened in the area around an abandoned village, where all the inhabitants have fallen to tragedy. The pained spirits have been twisted by what has happened to them, causing the land around the village to be poisoned by a spreading corruption. Kena's role as a spirit guide is to help heal those ghosts, and to do that, you have to fight their twisted forms with a combination of melee attacks, dodges, and parries.

But you also have access to the Rot, a group of tiny spirit companions who change up everything about the way Kena plays. The Rot can be used in battle to distract enemies or to power up Kena's special spirit energy attacks. They also work together with your combat abilities to make most fights feel like a puzzle to be solved. The Rot are essential to destroying the poisoned hearts that spread the corruption, and you'll need to think tactically to deploy them at the right time, and in the right way, to defeat Kena's tough enemies and bosses.

With a big world to explore, lots of innovative puzzles to solve with the abilities of both Kena and the Rot, and some excellently designed boss fights, Kena does a lot to stand apart from similar action-adventure games. Its combination of story and mechanics make it a beautiful journey to take. For more, check out our full written Kena: Bridge of Spirits review.