i got this shit for free and i want my money back

the voiceover in this is possibly the worst i ever heard

one star for the base gameplay concept which would probably be good if it was put into some passion project movement fps for pc with animation cancelling and half a star for the photorealistic seal

Kena: Bridge of Spirits was one of my most anticipated games this past year. In addition to this, Ember Lab, like myself, are avid fans of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, and have stated that it was influential in creating Kena. Because of this, I am a tad more critical of this game than I might otherwise be. So at the top I would like to say that I very much enjoyed the game to the end. It is a beautiful and refreshing game that while it isnt completely groundbreaking, felt new to what I have played over the past few years.
While I think the game is a fantastic first entry for a team who has previously focused purely on animation, it is riddled with seemingly rookie mistakes and the occasional odd design choices make it slightly frustrating at times. The difficulty curve is incredibly uneven, with the beginning and ends feeling simply easy and the middle having spikes of bosses that felt so brutal. Level design seemed to forget to take swimming into account as most of the areas with water feel just dreadful to get into. Some areas had so much packed into such little space, with little information to determine what was useful to explore (spirits, rot, hats) and what was mostly trivial (doing an elaborate puzzle for some currency which you will have way too much of through the whole game).
HOWEVER, setting these gripes aside, there are some wonderful things being done in Kena. It somehow feels nostalgic while not taking too strong of an influence from any one game, even Majora's Mask which only comes thru in themes and rarely in play. By the end your kit feels very powerful and fun, the combat feels quick and diverse. The world is deeply engrossing and you can't help but to feel for many of the spirits you guide. Their stories are simple yet powerful and help paint a picture of the interconnected struggles this village faced before the big finale. This is of course the biggest influence from Majora: Several tales of grief, loss, and acceptance. I cannot wait to see what this team does next, taking what they have learned from this project.

I grew weary of the characters squabbling, the word “flark”, the constant slides and gaps, and the combat/cutscene/combat/cutscene nature of the closing chapters. I still loved it. It has such great emotional highs and a chaotic joyousness pumping through its veins that kept me smiling and wanting more. It proves in this day and age that a linear AAA game can still offer up imaginative, wondrous ideas and sights. As a result it feels like a refreshing rarity in the current “bigger is better” market. Thank goodness it’s a single player game too and one that takes the time to build a complex, heartfelt narrative around its protagonist.

Outer Wilds is a game that I've heard calling my name for a long, long time, an experience that rivals some of gaming's giants, some of my personal favorite adventures of all time. I knew I would love Outer Wilds before I ever played it and I wanted every aspect of my playthrough to be absolutely perfect. I made sure to only play the game at night with dim lighting to ensure I was in the ideal setting to become totally absorbed, I waited days and days and DAYS to return to it, simply because I wasn't in the "proper headspace". and I DID it! My playthrough was absolutely brilliant, I explored every region without guides, without frustration, I solved every burning question. It was perfect.

Until... it wasn't.

Some things just weren't adding up, I went over my notes over and over and over again and it became horribly clear that I was missing something. No... no, no, no that can't be right, right? I saw everything, I checked everywhere. I had ensured that the conditions were absolutely perfect. But somewhere along the lines... I slipped up. I began beating my head against a wall, one that I had worked so diligently to avoid. I became discouraged, disappointed, and eventually upset with myself for becoming so emotional. I had ruined my absolutely perfect playthrough of Outer Wilds.

And it took me some time to realize just how astounding that was.

In Outer Wilds, nothing is lasting. Not life, not our universe, even the simple mystery of the game eventually comes to a quiet end. It's a type of morbid pressure that all of us face, the certain but hushed understanding that all of this will be over some day. And it scares the hell out of me. I became emotional when things didn't go exactly the way I had carefully planned them to because I was afraid of that impermanence. And if there's one thing I was not at all ready for with Outer Wilds, it was the gentle reassurance that this was what makes it all worth it. The profound realization that beauty exists not in spite of, but because of how fleeting each moment is. That it's okay to just breathe a little bit. Our lives are brief, they're messy, and they're probably entirely incidental, but that's exactly what lends so much more power and warmth and serenity to everything we do, whether it's studying the bones of those who passed before us, or crash landing when we take our eyes off our target. Whether it's our grandest achievements, or just roasting a marshmallow. This, all of this, it isn't perfect, and it isn't much, but it is amazing, and it is everything.