Last week we got the opportunity to take a first look at the upcoming Metroidvania title, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, developed by Surgent Studios and published by EA via it’s EA Originals label.
The process of previewing games is always a curious beast. As the marketing cycle ramps up from reveal to release, gaming media folks often get behind the scenes looks and early glimpses at the new game, soon to be in everyone’s hands.
Sometimes, the publisher will incorporate a playthrough or some hands-on time. Other times, it’ll be a live demo with the developers talking through things.
It’s rare that we get more than that, but with Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, we got to understand a lot more that just what kind of game it is – instead, we got to understand why it exists at all, and how grief and overcoming loss play as central themes in this remarkable first title from a new team.
Why a Metroidvania?
Tales of Kenzera: ZAU follows the story of a young shaman (the titular “ZAU”), who following the loss of his father makes a deal with Kalunga (the God of Death) to revive his father and bring him back to the land of the living.
The first thing that struck me was how deeply personal this game was to Studio head and creative director, Abubakar Salim, following the loss of his own father to cancer when he was just 10 years old. From a game design perspective, one might assume a deeply personal story would be told in another genre – perhaps something in the narrative heavy space with cutscenes used to dramatic effect for example.
“The reasoning behind that is the kind of story I wanted to tell – which is about grief. A lot of the time, when I play games, the story is just thrown on top of a game, it doesn’t marry; it doesn’t make sense,” says Surgent Studio head Abubakar Salim during a recent appearance on the XboxEra Podcast.
“ZAU had to be told as a Metroidvania, because of the story I wanted to tell.“
Abubakar Salim via The XboxEra Podcast
“With open world RPGs [for example] you are incentivised to explore, and it’s kind of okay, but with Metroidvanias – yeah, you’re incentivised to explore, but there’s always a sense of danger, because you have no idea what the hell is going on around that corner. That’s the difference that I really wanted to capture.“
Danger around every corner
One would think that a game that is setting out to tell us a story about dealing with personal loss and grief may perhaps present itself in a more muted way, with worlds devoid of colour and light. Why make a game all about grief so colourful and vibrant?
Surgent Studios Art Lead and Character Artist, Ackeem Durrant explains – “Our source material essentially – Bantu cultures. When we look at those cultures, the one thing you’ll notice, if we take funerals, for example is that the colours worn isn’t the same as what we wear over here in the west…black and whites, usually paired together, but reds, golds, blues, greens – there’s a flourish of colours.”
As with any metroidvania title, you can expect plenty of unique environments and biomes to traverse and explore as you play, and interestingly the colour palettes and overall moods of each setting represent various emotions and stages of ones journey through grief.
Some of the first areas of the game use deep purple hues in calmer and perhaps less threatening locations to represent spirituality and peace. Later biomes, like the deep, dark and claustrophobic woodlands are their to represent fear and loss – the idea that sometimes, when we’re grieving, we can’t always see the way out.
The deadlands, with its craggy rocks and flowing lava and arguably, extreme danger for the player, is there to represent the anger and acceptance one might feel when going through a personal loss. It’s a wonderful approach that helps convey some of the themes of the game in subtle and unobtrusive ways. These colours and subtleties also translate through in to the various characters you’ll encounter along the way, reinforcing the overall themes of the game.
Dance of the Shaman
In an interesting move (and one I think will receive resounding praise), the team have decided to equip Zau with certain metroidvania staples straight out of the gate, as the character is already a well trained and capable warrior. According to Lead Designer, Zi Peters, “From the outset, we equipped Zau with moves like Double Jump, Wall Jump and dashing – Zau feels pretty capable from the get-go.“
Throughout your time with Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, players will be able to switch playstyles on the go, as the team sought to represent the “whirlwind of emotions” Zau may be experiencing, through the power of two ancient masks, each depicting the sun and the moon respectively.
Zau is tasked with capturing the spirits of three other-worldly creatures to give as offerings to Kalunga, in order to bring his father back to life. Each mask has a unique playstyle, from the up-close-and-personal melee combat with the sun mask, to the more ranged and distant combat available to you when wearing the moon mask.
Players can expect plenty of enemy variety in their time with the game, with various combat encounters forcing players to switch their playstyle on the fly, as well as all the exploration, challenges and nooks and crannies metroidvanias are known for.
The traditional bosses, when they come around, will again carry certain themes, linking back to that personal journey one might experience through grief. The usual genre trappings of unlocking more moves, abilities and upgrades for your character are here of course, and with a world structure that closely ties all the themes together. There will be plenty here for metroidvania fans to chew on.
All in all, this was a remarkable first look at an ambitious first game from a new team, and I can’t help but come away impressed with the teams confidence, and their openness as they took us through these deeply personal themes to which I’m sure we can all relate.
I can’t wait to get my hands on the game and experience it for myself, and you can look forward to our in-depth review of Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, a little closer to launch.
