Tales of Kenzera: Zau preview: A mythical Metroidvania

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is an intriguing Metroidvania launching on April 24. The devs were kind enough to give us a rundown of how it came together along with opening the door for some hands-on time with the game ahead of its full release.

Originally announced at The Game Awards 2023, Tales of Kenzera is the passion project of Abubakar (Abu) Salim who you might recognize as the voice of Bayek from Assassin’s Creed Origins. Along with a tight-knit team of 30, Abu has been working on the game for over four years and it’s nearly ready for the world to enjoy.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a visually striking and mechanically rich Metroidvania that draws on Abu’s cultural background as well as his personal experiences of grief. Made to honor his late father and those who have touched the lives of his team, it’s a labor of love with a powerful story.

We attended a preview event where Abu and some other Tales of Kenzera devs unpacked their journey. We got some hands-on time with the finished product and while we can’t offer any story spoilers, we’ll let you know how it stands up to peers in the genre.

Tales of Surgent: Abu

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is the first video game by Abu and the company he founded; Surgent Studios. Along with some help from publisher EA Originals and some friends at Critical Role of course.

According to Abu, Surgent’s goal is to “tell stories that connect to the human truth”. “We want to tell stories that go beyond race or gender, it’s raw, it’s real, it taps into what makes us all human.”

The studio is doing just that with Tales of Kenzera: Zau which is intended in part to mirror Abu’s own journey with grief. As a longtime fan of the Metroidvainia genre, the team at Surgent felt that it was the best vehicle to communicate that journey.

“The genre’s rules and structures behave like grief. You’re thrown into an alien world that you couldn’t prepare for,” Abu explained. “Yet, the longer you stay in it, y’know, explore its corners in your own time, the more comfortable you get with it.”

In my brief time with Tales of Kenzera: Zau so far, the escalating challenge of its gameplay – coupled with a steady rollout of tools to handle it – has revealed snippets of that intent.

There and back again

While the formula of Metroidvanias is tried and true, Tales of Kenzera: Zau’s Bantu-inspired setting and the unique character, enemy, and environmental design choices that come with it make it feel remarkably fresh.

I’ll out myself and say I have no pre-existing knowledge of Bantu peoples or their varying cultures but that lack of familiarity works in the game’s favor. It’s an uncommon basis for a video game that gives Tales of Kenzra: Zau an edge.

The world I’ve traversed so far is filled with amazing spectacle for a 2D sidescroller as well as interesting and well-thought-out characters. Of course, for a Metroidvania, it’s the traversal of that world that should shine.

The usual structure is here in which you’ll explore varying biomes while looping around and doubling back where you meet resistance. Your reward for exploring are keys or movement abilities that allow forward progression.

Power up to progress

The young warrior-shaman Zau begins the journey with the ability to double jump and dash but along the way, you’ll pick up new powers handed down by legends of the past. Upon acquiring the ability to freeze water, I found that previously traveled areas took on an entirely different feeling and challenge.

Inclusions like this do a lot to combat the linearity that some games of the genre can fall into. Learning to quickly switch back and forth between multiple traversal abilities made its fast-paced platforming challenges feel rewarding to beat.

Expanding your movement capabilities doesn’t just allow you to push further along Zau’s quest. Tales of Kenzera has many hidden collectibles and optional challenges that reward you with powerful upgrades. It’s worth taking the time to cover every inch of its expansive map.

These newfound abilities also have applications in the game’s combat and a similar feeling of satisfaction can be found in expertly deploying multiple tricks to make light work of the game’s varying enemy types.

A tale of two masks

Combat in Tales of Kenzera: Zau is aptly referred to as “the dance of the shaman”. It involves carefully switching between two styles that draw their power from mystical masks.

The Mask of the Sun centers around fiery melee combat that usually focuses on a single target. The Mask of the Moon offers ranged attacks and crowd-control techniques that will even the scales in some of the game’s more frantic encounters. For example, that water-freezing ability I mentioned earlier also freezes enemies to take them out of the fight momentarily.

Each mask has its own skill tree that offers new combat techniques as well as improvements to the basic ones. If you’re thinking about prioritizing a particular style, don’t. Tales of Kenzera: Zau has done a great job so far of making each one feel essential.

After a few hours of play, I was able to master the dance of the shaman and quickly switch between masks in order to take advantage of enemy weaknesses. It’s a good thing I did too because the game’s first major boss is no slouch. It was a surprisingly difficult encounter that tested all of the mechanics I had learned to that point. Thankfully, that made beating it all the more satisfying.