Tales of Kenzera: ZAU Hands-On Preview – Lovely Metroidvania that Embraces Bantu Cultures 

Follow a young shaman as he seeks to capture spirits as offerings to the God of Death Kalunga in Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, an upcoming single-player Metroidvania by Surgent Studio under Electronic Arts’ EA Originals label.

Promisingly, Surgent Studios is a new developer founded by Abubakar Salim, who is most known for voicing Bayek in Assassin’s Creed Origins. Salim is serving as the game’s creative lead with Tales of Kenzera: ZAU as the studio’s debut project, heavily inspired by Bantu cultures in Africa.

As we are approaching the game’s launch on April 23, 2024, we were given an opportunity to play parts of the title early.

Embracing Culture

Be pleasantly surprised, because Tales of Kenzera: ZAU embraces African culture proudly, launching with Swahili, also known by its local name Kiswahili, voice acting in addition to the English option. In other words, you can experience the game fully in the auxiliary language, which is quite common in many parts of Africa, especially in Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. 

The availability of languages like this in games is quite rare and made for an appreciable step in adding a feeling of authenticity in conveying the beauty of culture, especially when Tales of Kenzera heavily presents traditional African culture to its fullest. 

While the game may be packaged as a Metroidvania, a genre that tends to prioritize fun gameplay and intricate level design over narrative, Tales of Kenzera focuses on presenting its story at its forefront. You play as Zau, a young shaman who wants to make a pact with Kalunga, the God of Death, to resurrect his beloved father. But to do so, he has to try to persuade 3 Great Spirits who oppose the God of Death to submit to Kalunga.

The God of Death just so happens to also be your guide, so throughout this adventure, Zau and Kaluga will actively interact with each other. It can be casual conversations, or them trying to solve precarious situations that are happening. Perhaps even lore drops from either character regarding the background context of the world.

The many moments of interaction between these two characters make the journey enjoyable especially since the genre is known for having silent protagonists. While Kalunga doesn’t contribute to the gameplay, his presence on Zau’s side is enough for a more lively atmosphere.

Masks of the Sun and Moon 

On the gameplay side of things, the game is pretty promising so far. It manages to live up to the qualities expected of a solid Metroidvania, especially in terms of its highly responsive controls when it comes to platforming challenges and fast-paced combat scenarios. The main uniqueness of Zau’s ability is the utilization of Masks, where the Mask of the Moon enables long-range advantage, while the Mask of the Sun specializes in melee combat.

You can swap between the two at any time according to the situation. Although they may seem simple at first, over time you will be presented with more skills to further enhance the capabilities of each mask. For instance, Mask of the Moon may also fire Bamba’s Stone projectiles that can freeze enemies, or create torrents of water during platforming.

Each time you inflict damage on an enemy, you recover a Spirit Bar that is useful for restoring health or unleashing ultimate attacks. Every enemy you defeat also gives energy known as Ulogi to accumulate into skill points.

In terms of difficulty, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is on the milder side, whether on platforming challenges or the legion of enemies you face. Some foes you have may have layered armor and are immune to stagger, so that is part of combat that you need to be wary about, encouraging you to try to penetrate through their defenses before approaching them aggressively at close range.

Upon completing certain platform challenges, you may also acquire special Trinkets to strengthen Zau. The catch is that you are only limited to using one Trinket and can only access it through a workbench in several specific spots on the map. Level design-wise, it unfortunately isn’t as memorable at least in the portions we played. It is enough to facilitate some fun gameplay, but the atmosphere and nuances can seem bland.

Impression So Far

A thing to appreciate is how Tales of Kenzera: ZAU aims to represent Bantu cultures in its glory through a fantastical world of wonders. Even if you are not of African descent, you will be quick to appreciate it, as exploring one’s culture is fun.

That said Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is still firmly rooted as a Metroidvania, but admittedly, I have yet to get an impression that it tries to be comparable to many of the best titles in the genre. For what looks to be the studio’s first work, the gameplay offered is satisfying enough, to say the least. The first hours of the game also seem to have given me the full picture of its premise, so whether or not there is still room for big surprises still remains to be seen.

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is slated to launch on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC on April 23, 2024.

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