What a delight! I really enjoyed this one; I know it gets flack for how much of its visual story (and, to a lesser extent gameplay) it borrows from other greats like Zelda, but to be honest I really adored that; I felt like I was 9 again, playing Jak and Daxter on my PlayStation 2 after school. The nostalgia was lovely, and it's fun to see more games playing into the ps2-era stylings and movement that aren't full-on retrobait stuff.
The movement feels good, the boss battles are wonderfully challenging, the world is really beautiful, the soundtrack is GORGEOUS. The story isn't mind-blowingly original, but it does what it aims to do beautifully, and with a lot of affection and tenderness. I loved its study on care and love and how those things can warp a person into the worst, most destructive version of themselves. I definitely teared up a few times.
I only have two real gripes, and one is quite petty. The non-petty one is that the invisible walls and invisible death triggers were a pain; I was regularly barred out from platforming on things that by all accounts looked like places I could platform, and occasionally killed jumping down to places that I absolutely should have been able to reach. Watching Kena's "long fall" death animation trigger four inches above the ground was not great. The pettier one is that the character modeling, particularly of Kena and the Rot, is all very...Disney, in the most generic and boring sense of the name. The environs are beautiful and some of the other characters push the stylization far enough to feel more interesting, but I do wish they'd gone for something more interesting, at least for the Rot. Like, Kena's actual DESIGN is great, I just wish it was on a different model. I'm a little bored of every girl looking like she's trying to be the next Disney princess and the little guys all looking like adorable Disney movie animal sidekicks.
Genuinely, though, those gripes are SO minor overall. I had a great time with the gameplay and the story. Really recommend if "beautiful 10-14 hr game with a banger soundtrack and vibes that feel the way playing all those stellar PlayStation platformers when you were 11 felt" sounds remotely appealing.
The movement feels good, the boss battles are wonderfully challenging, the world is really beautiful, the soundtrack is GORGEOUS. The story isn't mind-blowingly original, but it does what it aims to do beautifully, and with a lot of affection and tenderness. I loved its study on care and love and how those things can warp a person into the worst, most destructive version of themselves. I definitely teared up a few times.
I only have two real gripes, and one is quite petty. The non-petty one is that the invisible walls and invisible death triggers were a pain; I was regularly barred out from platforming on things that by all accounts looked like places I could platform, and occasionally killed jumping down to places that I absolutely should have been able to reach. Watching Kena's "long fall" death animation trigger four inches above the ground was not great. The pettier one is that the character modeling, particularly of Kena and the Rot, is all very...Disney, in the most generic and boring sense of the name. The environs are beautiful and some of the other characters push the stylization far enough to feel more interesting, but I do wish they'd gone for something more interesting, at least for the Rot. Like, Kena's actual DESIGN is great, I just wish it was on a different model. I'm a little bored of every girl looking like she's trying to be the next Disney princess and the little guys all looking like adorable Disney movie animal sidekicks.
Genuinely, though, those gripes are SO minor overall. I had a great time with the gameplay and the story. Really recommend if "beautiful 10-14 hr game with a banger soundtrack and vibes that feel the way playing all those stellar PlayStation platformers when you were 11 felt" sounds remotely appealing.