Tales of Kenzera: ZAU Review

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is a captivating Metroidvania that explores themes of grief, meeting our obligations as we age, and releasing the burdens of the past. In their debut game, Surgent Studios tells a story about coming to grips with the loss of a parent, weaving elements from Bantu culture into a universal embrace of the inescapable cycle of life and death.

The premise of ZAU is emotionally gripping. As a parent of two young children and with parents around the age of 70, I'm all too aware of my love as a father and my gratitude as a son. In my experience, words can't adequately express the depth of my love for my children. In the case of those of us with exceptional parents, our gratitude for those who guided us to adulthood is also difficult to capture. ZAU successfully channels and communicates these complex feelings through a memorable story while offering competent, though not always exceptional platforming and combat.

The gameplay of ZAU focuses on navigating platforms through lush, colorful landscapes while encountering a handful of enemy types. Zau fends off evil spirits by "dancing" between the powers imbued by Sun and Moon masks from his father. While the Moon excels at ranged combat, the Sun enables Zau to unleash brutal close-quarters combos. The skills you acquire along the way are logical, but not particularly exciting. You can shoot more projectiles or add one more move to your light-attack combo by leveling up. But visually-stunning finishing moves are never expanded upon, and after a few hours, the battles and boss fights became somewhat repetitive.

Despite this relative sameness, I felt compelled to see Zau's journey through because of the Hades-style dialogue between key characters. At a regular cadence, characters share their concerns and their aspirations. And the voice acting, led by actor Abubakar Salim (also Surgent Studios founder), is superb. Unlike some games where I mash X (or A on Xbox) to skip through a conversation, I listened intently. Each line is delivered with authenticity and sincerity, conveying the team's appreciation for the game's themes.

The soundtrack and sound design complement the game's setting and action. With sweeping chords and sparsely-used, beautiful vocals, the music enhances the moment-to-moment action and impact of the game's powerful story. (Composed by Nainita Desai, the full original soundtrack is available through Apple Music.)

I played ZAU on PlayStation 5, completing the game in about 10 hours. While I left some optional platforming and combat challenges incomplete, I nearly maxed out Zau's skill tree. And as mentioned earlier, I was pulled through the game by its story more than its gameplay.

ZAU is well-worth its modest runtime due to its heartfelt, mature narrative. It thoughtfully focuses on a reality we must all confront, endings and beginnings that are inherent in our shared experiences as mere mortals.