Kena: Bridge of Spirits
Summary
You are a young spirit guide named Kena who arrives at a haunted, abandoned village to help out spirits who have not accepted their passing and restore the environment around the town. Actually you are there cos the village is at the foot of a mountain you wanna go to for personal reasons BUT STILLKena: Bridge of Spirits on Steam
So what do you do
Kena consists of multiple segments in which you liberate a specific part of the village from the "Deadzones" that have taken root. The way you do this is through combat and the help of your adorable little companions named... Rot.
Yeah.
Rot.
You might think; is that an in-game term that means something specific to the game? Is it perhaps something from the different South Asian cultures the game takes inspiration from? No, no it is very much the type of rot you think of. The kind that takes care of dead things. The kind that cleans up nature. See rot ain't so bad gee i wonder if that has something to do with the story of the game
Kena: Bridge of Spirits tells you beautiful and heart gripping stories as you uncover bits and pieces of the backstories of the spirits you are trying to free, all the while saving different areas in the village from Deadzones. Any time you defeat a deadzone the place will liven up with lush greenery and honestly its super satisfying and never gets old. You also collect more and more Rot as you play and they will follow you around!!!! All of them!!! YOU HAVE LIKE A LITTLE ARMY OF BLACK BLOBS FOLLOWING YOU EVERYWHERE AND YOU CAN GIVE THEM HATS ITS SO GOOD
I should point out this game is not an indie of the relaxing variety. Kena's combat is tough; it doesn't pull any punches (im cringing writing that that is not meant to be a pun ohmygod) though there are multiple difficulty modes and scaling it up or down whenever won't make you lose too much progress thankfully. It's very good combat though, don't get me wrong! Kena's different abilities and being able to set the Rot on enemies is a lot of fun and figuring out different strategies for different enemies feels very organic and satisfying.
Oh also this game will make you cry. At every single story it tells you. The second spirit's story was the one where I thought "ah this one I'll be able to handle I'll be fine" but in the end it got me the worst once the final reveal happens of where you are and why that area exists. It's so so *so* well done, and the animations and designs of the world and its characters are beautiful.
When should I play this game?
Spend some time on Kena: Bridge of Spirits if:- You love action adventure games with a fantastic story
- You love collecting things by completing challenges and puzzles, such as companions (The Rot), outfits and hats for your lil companions
- You just wanna fucking cry. you wanna cry a lot