REVIEW: ‘Tales of Kenzera: ZAU’ Is A Masterpiece

Grief is personal. That said, when it’s shared with others, it can create something special. That’s exactly what Surgent Studios does with their debut game, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU. Published under the EA Originals banner, the game is a personal project for actor and studio head Abubakar Salim. Made in the wake of his father’s death, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU feels like entering someone’s catharsis. Only the personal intimacy of processing loss translates into something more universal for anyone who has woken up one morning with someone they love suddenly absent.

Blending Bantu folklore from African tribes like the Maasai, Zulu, or Ndebele with Afro-futuristic designs, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU isn’t only an emotional experience; it’s a vividly beautiful one. A Metroidvania-styled action adventure platformer, Surgent Studios has developed a truly special experience. In it, you play as Zau, a young man who wields the dance of the shaman wearing his father’s Moon and Sun masks—each embuing him with signature elemental powers for melee and ranged combat.

Your goal? To traverse the beautiful and treacherous land of Kenzera to fulfill a promise to the God of Death, Kalunga. You will bring the three ancient spirits that have not crossed over in exchange for reclaiming your father’s and bringing him back. Grounded in the bond between father and son, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU doesn’t just look at grief in one way. Instead, each subsequent ability you gain, each new zone you traverse, adds layers to the complexity of loss and how it transforms you.

While you play the bulk of the game as Zau, the story revolves around more than him. In Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, you are a grieving boy who begins to read a Bantu tale written by his late father. Instead of attending his wake, you instead lose yourself in your father’s work in Kenzera. In this, Zau is a young shaman who bargains with the God of death to bring his Baba back from darkness. As Zau advances toward his goal, three mighty beings lie in wait, fearsome in their strength yet somehow strangely familiar.

You are working through two connected stories of loss shaped by actor Abubakar Salim’s own experience with grief. Each character you meet helps Zau work through another emotion he feels because of his loss. In the First Act of the game, Zau helps a mother and daughter. The great spirit in this act struggles to let go of her daughter and allow her to take responsibility without her protection.

The Second Act of the game brings you to the Great Spirit of Nature, where you also learn that sometimes it’s not about healing someone. Instead, it’s about honoring your time with them before you lose them. The game’s Third Act has you bring together a father and son, letting go of anger in the process.

With each area processing a different emotion, the level design isn’t just aesthetically beautiful and mechanically well-balanced. Depending on the emotion, you can speed through a level, focused on moving quickly. In another, Kenzera is more treacherous, causing you to pause and plan instead of speeding through to make adjustments for more traps. Whether you’re double jumping over spike pits, gliding across large gaps, or wall-running, every piece of traversal is excellently themed to each emotion.

The accompanying score from Nainita Desai also offers an immersive atmosphere. By paying attention to the tempo, you also get a sense of the tension involved in each section of Kenzera. More importantly, it tells you exactly how quickly you should move through the area.

The platforming in Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is crafted with care. It’s dynamic and never too simple. However, each difficult hurdle is easy to see. With thoughtful environmental cues, those seeking to find difficult collection spots won’t be disappointed. And those struggling with certain areas only need to look closely to find their way through.

Wielding two Shaman masks, you can move between the sun and the moon, both of which have their own specialties. Outside of their place in combat, each subsequent Mask power that you’re granted builds on the last. On the combat side of things, the masks allow you to use ranged or melee combat. Swapping between the two is essential, and at the same time, it’s never an overbearing task. Instead, it all feels rhythmic. Performing combos is simple, but learning how to aim remains a constant issue. However, you can adjust sensitivity settings that help.

With an intuitive control scheme, learn how to utilize changed attacks that allow you to crystalize enemies (or water to aid in your traversal) or launch fiery spears that shock opponents (and activate charged elements that release doors). Larger attacks and movements, you learn, also have a place in solving puzzles and platforming areas, connecting combat and movement intrinsically. Which, of course, makes for dynamic gameplay.

The game also features vivid 2.5D realms that are layered in design. Lush landscapes, cold caverns, scorching sands—the diversity of the biome is astounding, to say the least. When coupled with the larger story of grief, the game presents a moving and inventive world.

Each Act tests you by making you complete a run that encapsulates everything that came before it. Every section of the zones is expertly and intelligently designed, stringing together each and every movement mechanic you’ve learned, building the experience higher and higher. There isn’t a single traversal mechanic that, once introduced, doesn’t stick around. It’s simply a smart design.

All of that brings us to the game’s Fourth Act. Small in scope, intimate in nature, and radically different from the high combat of the previous Acts, Act Four is astonishing. It’s a bold swing better left to the player to explore, but it pays off. The quiet way that Tales of Kenzera: ZAU ends is one of the most moving moments in gaming.

Zau is always the grieving hero who wants to bring his father back from the dead. That doesn’t change by the end of the narrative, but he is changed. We will always want to be reunited with the people we love. Zau doesn’t lose that, the same way grief never truly dissipates. However, Kalunga teaches Zau how to understand, how to move forward, and how to allow himself to feel his vulnerability and reflect on the past. Zau cherishes his father’s memory.

Legends of Kenzera: ZAU is a triumph of storytelling. It’s immersive and thoughtful in every element of Zau’s journey. But the narrative, for all of its impact, doesn’t stand alone. Instead, the difficulty and complexity of traversing Kenzera complement and add a tactile nature to the emotional endeavor of moving through grief.

Legends of Kenzera: ZAU is available on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC (via the EA app for Windows, Steam, and the Epic Games Store).