I accept part of the blame for my not enjoying ‘Kena: Bridge of Spirits.’ It was only in my final play session that I realized that there were multiple difficulty levels. Good thing I learned then, because I was considering abandoning the game on the final boss. I finally did beat this damn game on ‘Apprentice’ difficulty, ultimately accepting that the default difficulty is way too hard for an otherwise cutesy, Disney-looking adventure game. I’m not ‘bad’ at video games, I don’t think. I beat ‘Doom Eternal’ on console on ‘Ultra-Violence’ difficulty and with the aim assist turned off. I beat ‘Contra 4’ on Nintendo DS (if you know, you know). So why was I beating my head against the wall trying to defeat low-level bosses in this cartoony indie game? It’s such a frustrating kind of difficulty too. Kena falls squarely in the ‘your hits do no damage’ category of difficulty. On default, even the smallest grunts require massive damage to kill. When I dropped to ‘Apprentice,’ finally my attacks did actual damage. What a refreshing feeling!

Considering the artwork seems catered to four-year-olds, and the difficulty seems catered to the ‘Dark Souls’ crowd, you really have to wonder the intended audience for this game. It’s not all bad. I did like the music. And there were some stirring story moments. But I really think this developer needs to rethink combat. No one likes to feel ineffectual in a video game, and ‘Kena’ is ‘Ineffectual: The Video Game.’ On default and higher difficulties, at least. One more note: the map sucks, and why oh why was there no minimap on the HUD? This is a big, complex game world with no way of finding your way around outside of the (itself terrible) pause screen map. While traversing the game world, I was pausing, no lie, every fifteen seconds just to make sure I was getting closer to my goal.