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Kena Bridge of Spirits Review Thread

dano1

A Sheep
I'm done with it. Know it's only short, but fuck is it a grind. I can't finish it, and I hate leaving games unfinished. This is the biggest case of smoke and mirrors I've seen in a long time - hide a bang average, by the numbers game behind some (admittedly very nice) CGI and watch the fansites hype it to oblivion.

The gaming equivalent of pointing and saying 'look over there' to distract you. 6/10. I hate myself for getting sucked into the hype :messenger_tears_of_joy:
Play on easy mode! I wasn’t ready for the crushing combat. I know get good…. So much more enjoyable now!
 

dano1

A Sheep
I finished the game on expert and really enjoy the boss fights, more than majority of AAA western games theses days.
I thought it was a fair fight on normal but just don’t have the patience that I did years ago. But I know how awesome that is to finish a game that’s challenging! Great job!!
 
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dorkimoe

Member
ok first things first. Fuck the guy who made those damn flying things. Stupid pieces of poop.

Any other games similar to this on xbox or playstation? Preferably within the last 2-3years, i dont care to play really old games.
 
ok first things first. Fuck the guy who made those damn flying things. Stupid pieces of poop.

Any other games similar to this on xbox or playstation? Preferably within the last 2-3years, i dont care to play really old games.

Horizon Zero Dawn has similar bow and enemy things going on
 

Exentryk

Member
Started playing this and have put in a few hours now. Really enjoying it so far. The graphics are great, the cutscenes are amazing, and the combat is also neat. Story seems a little plain, but the other stuff is carrying it.

Some screenshots:

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ep78uTV.jpg
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Yeah, sure Ember Labs. Lets take this wonderful game and put in some shitty timed cursed chests in it where the player has kill a certain amount of randomly spawning enemies. Sometime they spawn alright but most of the time the shit spawns make it almost impossible to complete the task.

Fucking retards…
 
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Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
Yeah, sure Ember Labs. Lets take this wonderful game and put in some shitty timed cursed chests in it where the player has kill a certain amount of randomly spawning enemies. Sometime they spawn alright but most of the time the shit spawns make it almost impossible to complete the task.

Fucking retards…
Some of them are tough and sometimes annoying but I wouldn't got that far.
 

HotPocket69

Banned
Yeah, sure Ember Labs. Lets take this wonderful game and put in some shitty timed cursed chests in it where the player has kill a certain amount of randomly spawning enemies. Sometime they spawn alright but most of the time the shit spawns make it almost impossible to complete the task.

Fucking retards…

I didn’t have any issues with them. Stop being a JimmyRustler and start being a JimmyHustler.
 

GHG

Gold Member
Yeah, sure Ember Labs. Lets take this wonderful game and put in some shitty timed cursed chests in it where the player has kill a certain amount of randomly spawning enemies. Sometime they spawn alright but most of the time the shit spawns make it almost impossible to complete the task.

Fucking retards…

No, you are the one unable to cope with the task at hand, not them.
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Really enjoying this game so far. Some gripes though:

Is there a way to find out where rots are? Would be handy.

When you enter areas with enemies, you can knock them out of the “enemy zone” and if you follow them in there to kill them, it will vanish the enemies and you’ll have to start fighting the entire batch of enemies ALL OVER AGAIN. Just incredibly bad design there, major oversight. Especially when you can’t tell sometimes where the area of enemy spawns begins and ends.

Encountered a handful of bugs already. One, the square button where you are supposed to fill one of those large flowers with spirit energy didn’t work. So I couldn’t renew the area. I had to reload the save. Another, I jumped off the side of a ledge and landed outside the map and I was stuck and couldn’t move and had to reload. But the actions to use spirit on objects just not working has happened to me a few times already. And it takes me a while to figure out what’s going on because I think I’m missing something and then when I realize I’ve searched every corner I realize it must be glitched out and I’ll reload.

Those healing mage enemies are super fucking annoying.

But despite the gripes, loving my time with it, it’s a gorgeous game with some interesting puzzles and pretty fun combat,
 

Exentryk

Member
The world and level design are great that I am finding losing hours just exploring these wide linear zones. Even with the fact that the hat money isn't a good enough incentive to explore, I find that I want to do it anyway to see it all. It wouldn't hurt to have more abilities and RPG elements in the next game though.

Anyway, a few more screenshots:

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DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I didn't read the thread so I'm not sure if this is a prevailing sentiment, but does anyone else think the difficulty spikes with bosses are pretty drastic?

Part of me finds them really fun, but another part really frustrating. I enjoy getting the timing down and their patterns down and figuring out what works best. But man their attacks can take 60+% of your life in one hit and most bosses only have 2 heal spots that don't even heal to 100%.
 

Phase

Member
I didn't read the thread so I'm not sure if this is a prevailing sentiment, but does anyone else think the difficulty spikes with bosses are pretty drastic?

Part of me finds them really fun, but another part really frustrating. I enjoy getting the timing down and their patterns down and figuring out what works best. But man their attacks can take 60+% of your life in one hit and most bosses only have 2 heal spots that don't even heal to 100%.
It was a little frustrating. I beat Taro on normal, but switched to easy after and greatly enjoyed the game on the story difficulty.
 

ManaByte

Member
It was a little frustrating. I beat Taro on normal, but switched to easy after and greatly enjoyed the game on the story difficulty.

You can switch on the fly? I might do that. I love the game, but those boss spikes are frustrating.
 

GHG

Gold Member
I didn't read the thread so I'm not sure if this is a prevailing sentiment, but does anyone else think the difficulty spikes with bosses are pretty drastic?

Part of me finds them really fun, but another part really frustrating. I enjoy getting the timing down and their patterns down and figuring out what works best. But man their attacks can take 60+% of your life in one hit and most bosses only have 2 heal spots that don't even heal to 100%.

The bosses test your ability to execute the mechanics the game has taught you up to that stage, nothing more, nothing less.

If you're struggling against a particular boss then there's a possibility you're not executing the correct strategy.
 

Exentryk

Member
I didn't read the thread so I'm not sure if this is a prevailing sentiment, but does anyone else think the difficulty spikes with bosses are pretty drastic?

Part of me finds them really fun, but another part really frustrating. I enjoy getting the timing down and their patterns down and figuring out what works best. But man their attacks can take 60+% of your life in one hit and most bosses only have 2 heal spots that don't even heal to 100%.

I haven't found the bosses too much of a spike. The Shield can protect against a bunch of attacks and give you that extra margin of error. We take high damage on expert even from normal enemies, so it's already expected to not get hit as much. Getting a few perfect parries in is usually enough to win the fight in terms of the additional damage it deals and the courage it charges, which can lead to more damage and quicker fights.
 
Trying to finish this game since you guys said it was short. I am really getting pretty bored with the whole experience. Im on Taro's Love, and the pacing is just grinding to a halt. Feels like I've been in the same area the whole game so far. The story is pretty awful as well.
 
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Trying to finish this game since you guys said it was short. I am really getting pretty bored with the whole experience. Im on Taro's Love, and the pacing is just grinding to a halt. Feels like I've been in the same area the whole game so far. The story is pretty awful as well.

you’re barely 1/3 through, there are like two more areas and you’ll get some more powers but the variety of environments and story doesn’t get much better so if you’re not enjoying the gameplay (combat and exploration) there isn’t going to be much for you to continue
 
you’re barely 1/3 through, there are like two more areas and you’ll get some more powers but the variety of environments and story doesn’t get much better so if you’re not enjoying the gameplay (combat and exploration) there isn’t going to be much for you to continue
Geez lol. Im enjoying some of the tree platforming but the game is losing steam rapidly for me. Really not a bad experience, just growing a bit dull.
 
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sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
Yeah, sure Ember Labs. Lets take this wonderful game and put in some shitty timed cursed chests in it where the player has kill a certain amount of randomly spawning enemies. Sometime they spawn alright but most of the time the shit spawns make it almost impossible to complete the task.

Fucking retards…
Be better....like Clint Eastwood
 

DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
I finished it. I liked it a lot, but I think some things kept it from being truly great. The things I mentioned in a previous post, and nothing to spend all that spirit energy on other than stupid cosmetic stuff.

If there's another entry, I hope it is expanded more and they get more creative with the platforming parts, which were good, but there's potential for a lot more there too.
 

Phase

Member
I finished it. I liked it a lot, but I think some things kept it from being truly great. The things I mentioned in a previous post, and nothing to spend all that spirit energy on other than stupid cosmetic stuff.

If there's another entry, I hope it is expanded more and they get more creative with the platforming parts, which were good, but there's potential for a lot more there too.
I didn't buy a single hat in my playthrough. I was saving up hoping I could use them for something worthwhile...
 

bargeparty

Member
Just dropping my appreciation for this game. A mostly chill time in a beautiful world. Definitely interested in whatever they do next. (Gonna be a long wait, sigh).
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Alright, completed the game yesterday. I may have been a bit too harsh about that chests. It's only 2-3 times ones in the game. I was just riles up. Hate that shit.

Anyway, game was great overall. It had a few more bosses than I expected honestly - and most of them were actually quite challenging. Don't know if it was just me but the parry system seemed a bit hit and miss and up until the very end I could not get the counter attack after the parry work often. Not sure if I should even attempt the hardest difficulty for the trophy. PRobably won't for now in hopes that they add NG+ at some point.

Kudos for the final boss fight. That was epic stuff and luckily not as frustrating as the fight before that.
 
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TrebleShot

Member
Slapping this down to easy mode today, I don't have the time or patience to grind out bosses.
I know I am close to beating Taro on normal difficulty its just about the timing of the dodges etc, but I can't really be bothered to learn it to that detail.

Ill slap it down and enjoy the story.
 

Exentryk

Member
Slapping this down to easy mode today, I don't have the time or patience to grind out bosses.
I know I am close to beating Taro on normal difficulty its just about the timing of the dodges etc, but I can't really be bothered to learn it to that detail.

Ill slap it down and enjoy the story.
That one isn't so bad. You can essentially fight it from far using your bow.

Below is the fight on expert:

 
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sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
Wood Knight....two hits and im dead on normal LMAO What kind of unbalanced horseshit is this? Then i get to do the long ass slide alllllllllll the way down again, to fight the perfect aiming shooterd again.......and then i cant skip wood knights intro. Talk about a mood killer. About to uninstall this
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
Lol people really dont like challenging games huh? I wouldnt even say kena is all that challenging, i think people are being over dramatic about the difficulty or dont know how to observe boss loops properly.

I got through it....its not the challenge i mind, its the unskippable scenes to get back to the fight again that drive me insane. And two hits and your dead on normal is unbalanced, not challenging
 

Mossybrew

Member
Its not Dark Souls level. But most of these bosses will take a few tries. Timing your dodge is key. Jumping before aiming your bow is huge, the slowmo makes it not only easier to aim but gives you time to breath for a sec, watch a boss winding up and better learn its attack - all bosses in this game have obvious telegraphs for their attacks if you slow down and pay attention, and the dodge window is generous. While I found a couple bosses surpisingly easy, most you can expect to die to 3-4 times at least as you learn the battle. Kena has a tight, focused combat kit, you are not expected to learn a ton of weird combos or abilities, but master what she can do.

I love love love this game. It prunes away so much modern game bloat, no xp, no gear grind, huge skill trees, endless cutscenes and character chatter, no massive open world to traverse because this game just doesnt need one, its not interested in wasting your time. GOTY for me no joke.
 
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GhostOfTsu

Banned
I just finished Kena and it was a lot longer than I thought. It was so epic. My GOTY with Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart. Very emotional at the end. Whew 🥲

I hope it's a huge success and they're able to make a sequel 😁
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
I'm not sure if I am going to finish this one. Got tired of the endless platforming puzzles. They're not finicky or annoying or anything, jut constant. Shelving it for now.

Outside of that terrific game though.
 

bargeparty

Member
I got through it....its not the challenge i mind, its the unskippable scenes to get back to the fight again that drive me insane. And two hits and your dead on normal is unbalanced, not challenging
what scenes can you not skip? i was able to skip cinematics on retries no problem.
 
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