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Kena Bridge of Spirits Review Thread

kyliethicc

Member
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an indie game, self-published by a new developer Ember Lab. It's their first game. It's a singleplayer story-based action game with some platforming and puzzles. Out today on PS4 and PS5 and PC (Epic store). It costs $40 USD / 40€ EURO (and you get both PS4 and PS5 versions). Digital only for now, physical release in November.

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Metacritic score is now 81.
OpenCritic score is now 82.






Some written reviews:






















Some video reviews:

Karak Karak








davidjaffe davidjaffe
 
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Ezquimacore

Banned
Don’t mean this in a console war way, but this game looks better than anything Nintendo has ever developed, and it’s made by a team of only a dozen or so people.

Truly a remarkable achievement as far as graphics are concerned.
Of course it's going to look better than Nintendo games, like hundreds of games do. Where Nintendo take other developers to school is in the gameplay and design aspect.
 
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Don’t mean this in a console war way, but this game looks better than anything Nintendo has ever developed, and it’s made by a team of only a dozen or so people.

Truly a remarkable achievement as far as graphics are concerned.
It certainly looks better than any Nintendo games for sure, but gameplay wise it seems completely derivative and unimaginative. Eurogamer review was especially critical of this.
 
Damn, another amazing Sony exclusive this year with Deathloop and Kena.

Sony fans are feasting on all these great lower-key games Sony made this year, even though losing out on Horizon is disappointing.

SlimySnake SlimySnake

I figured some of these would end up bad but it's just hit after hit. Ember Labs seems like a perfect studio to acquire and turn into something bigger...hell, make them Sony's Zelda studio
 
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Good to see that it's reviewing pretty well so far.
You can really see their background in the quality of the animations and the personality they've managed to bring to bring to the game. Fortunately, the general consensus is that they seem to know what they're doing with gameplay too. Perhaps not the most challenging of games but they don't always have to be and I think as well as me enjoying it, it's going to be something the kids are going enjoy too.
 

tommib

Member
These guys need to take over Zelda

Already blown the fuck away. And this their first fucking game. Holy shit.
That’s quite the hot take. Current Zelda team is one of the most well oiled and creative teams out there. They’re leading the industry. BOTW had a profound effect on the overall open-world game industry. Kena looks adorable but there’s absolutely nothing groundbreaking about it.
 

Ezquimacore

Banned
That’s quite the hot take. Current Zelda team is one of the most well oiled and creative teams out there. They’re leading the industry. BOTW had a profound effect on the overall open-world game industry. Kena looks adorable but there’s absolutely nothing groundbreaking about it.
Exactly he's probably too excited and was not thinking... I would give them the visual aspect tho. This thing looks prettier than any Sony/Nintendo/Xbox first party game.
 
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AlexxKidd

Member
Anyone get the Digital Deluxe edition? Does that staff do anything gameplay wise or is it all cosmetic?

Deciding on regular or deluxe version.
 

kyliethicc

Member
Anyone get the Digital Deluxe edition? Does that staff do anything gameplay wise or is it all cosmetic?

Deciding on regular or deluxe version.
Sounds like its all purely cosmetic.

Just get the standard for $40. They let you upgrade to deluxe for $10 later if you really want the extra stuff.
 
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bender

What time is it?
Sounds like its all purely cosmetic.

Just get the standard for $40. They let you upgrade to deluxe for $10 later if you really want the extra stuff.

You'd be missing the pre-order hat to complete the set anyway. Deluxe would be more about the soundtrack, I'd think

Does this game has dungeons? Without dungeons I don't understand the comparison. In that case the best non Zelda Zelda game would be Darksiders and Darksiders 2.

Kena wins by default then since it doesn't feature Todd McFarlane art.
 
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PSYGN

Member
I wish the in-game graphics remained as good as the cutscenes but I know I'm just being picky at that point.
 
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