Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a marvel. The animation, art, and world design are fantastic. To see this level of quality carried from animation into the interactive space is just very impressive. Especially in a debut. The world is well realized and is very enjoyable to explore. The game seamlessly guides players through the forests to help those they find along the way find peace, even as it is clear that there is no going back and saving them. In that sense, Kena feels dominated by death in a way that few titles are. Each character that Kena helps leaves her more alone, even with the Rot by her side. As each character arc explores regret, the game endeavors to say quite a lot about how people (often fail to) move on from past mistakes. This all said, the game design does not always match the artistic design.

Being both too difficult and too reliant on conventions (like the rule of three) Kena can feel particularly plain to engage with. Each character’s story is entirely driven by a structure to seek out three things, all while learning more of the individual, before fighting the corrupted spirit and celebrating a job well done. Not to say that the individual gameplay elements are poor, but structurally it feels weaker than the sum of its parts. Regardless, that is not true of much of the rest of the experience. If Kena is the first outing of Ember Labs, I am very excited to see what they do next. This is a well told, if simple, story that is worth experiencing at least once.