Kena: Bridge of Spirits Critic Reviews

With its Pixar-like characters and beyond stunning animation, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is as charming as it is dark with plenty of surprises that will not only keep players enthralled for hours but also captivate their hearts.

Every single moment of Kena: Bridge of Spirits is simply wonderful. Very few games are as pleasing to the eyes, and coming from an indie studio – making its very first game, of all things – that's something quite remarkable. Even more remarkable is that Kena isn't simply a visual showcase, either. It's challenging, fun to play, and has a world teeming with life. It also tells a fantastic story, and there's plenty to do even when the credits have rolled. Kena: Bridge of Spirits truly is something special, and I can't wait to see what Ember Lab does next.

Amazing graphics is one thing, but Bridge of Spirits is so much more thanks to engaging level design and surprisingly deep combat. It's a game that overdelivers on almost all fronts, making for a truly superb and memorable adventure.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits should take most gamers around 10 to 12 hours to complete, depending on the amount of exploring and the level of difficulty. While the blockbusters games of 2021 continue to deliver the same ho-hum experience of 2021, Kena is a much needed ray of sunshine to the current choices of titles available and more importantly, looks fantastic on the PlayStation 5.

I’m not sure how Ember Lab did it, but I walked away from Kena: Bridge of Spirits with my expectations surpassed to a much further extent than I could have imagined. The visuals are breathtaking, the gameplay evolves in meaningful ways, and the heart the story contains has no bounds. You’ll find it hard to come across a more wholesome and beautiful game in 2021 than Kena: Bridge of Spirits, it’s everything I wanted it to be and more.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a remarkable and magical adventure, and it’s honestly still hard to believe this is an indie title. This is the kind of game that simply needs to be part of every gamer’s library and one that raises the bar for the adventure genre in this generation. With emotional story beats, a compelling game world, engaging level design, challenging boss battles, and surprising combat versatility, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an experience far greater than the sum of its many interconnected parts.

After playing a couple of great AAA 3D platformers earlier this year, I'm absolutely blown away that I enjoyed Kena: Bridge of Spirits even more. With thoroughly challenging fast-paced combat, rewarding puzzles, and a breathtaking world; it's one phenomenal game.

Kena: Bridge Of Spirits might draw upon some aged influences, but the way it assembles the various pieces of the puzzle together makes it feel very modern indeed.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an excellent debut game from developer Ember Lab. Pulling from legendary franchises like Pikmin and God of War — with a splash of Ori and the Blind Forest for good measure — Kena manages to balance a compelling story with engaging gameplay and a charming art direction to create a worthwhile adventure.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is absolutely brilliant. It's one of those rare games that feels like it belongs to the new generation thanks to its magnificent world, and its developers knew exactly how ambitious to be while still providing a top rate experience.

Bridge of Spirits stumbles a little in spots, yet confidently sprints into the heart of the adventure, rewarding the player with secrets galore and visuals that are almost always worth admiring. If you love Zelda-like games or are just looking for an experience that will make you smile every step of the way, you can’t go wrong with Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is the finest adventure game released in years and a clear highlight of the latest console cycle. Both its exploration and combat components gradually build in complexity with tools that always have a clear purpose. That elegant mechanical design keeps the focus on the game’s impactful story, which tells an aching, but hopeful tale of environmental disaster. There are a lot of points of comparisons to be made when breaking it all down, but Kena: Bridge of Spirits blends every little influence together into its own gorgeous mix.

The act of meeting and understanding all those other characters is powerful, though. Kena: Bridge of Spirits is ultimately a game about making those connections, just like it's about making a connection with the game world around you through the Rot. It centers on characters who tried valiantly but failed to help one another, and what dealing with that pain did to them. It's about exploring a world and seeing what it once was, and helping to restore it again. And while Kena: Bridge of Spirits is full of familiar-feeling combat and exploration, its ability to find different ways to look at those ideas makes for a beautiful, emotional, and exciting journey.

For its first attempt, Ember Lab makes quite simply a master stroke. By delivering an ideally successful action-adventure game on all fronts, the studio, however neophyte, is not content to "just" perfectly fulfill the specifications of an excellent production. Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a delicious breath of fresh air, which marvelously combines the grace of a sumptuous animated film and the game design intelligence of an ingenious video game, with multiple inspirations. As for Ember Lab, faced with so much mastery of their subject for a first production, it is advisable to take our hat off to them and already wait firmly for their next creation.

Kena might not be perfect, but it's far from what one might expect from a studio's first game. It's a spectacle to look at without being too long or too short, and it's one of the rare examples of a game that deserves a movie adaptation, not the other way around. Perhaps more than anything else, it's a game that sets the bar high for whatever Ember Lab wants to do next.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a magical journey, one that I hope everyone will take.

Kena Bridge of Spirits is a magical adventure, even if it doesn't do anything entirely original. Its elements tie together well, and it's jaw-droppingly gorgeous on PS5. It hearkens back to the days of PS2 platformers in all the best ways, and despite a few small issues, it stands out as one of 2021's best titles.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a fantastic adventure, one which does an incredible job of mixing platforming elements, fun and energetic combat, a rewarding exploration system and beautiful graphics. It's not only of the best games of 2021, it's one of the best games in recent years.

A stunningly beautiful 3D action-adventure that combines environmental puzzles, exploration and Dark Souls-like (both in implementation and challenge) combat.

Ember Lab didn’t try to reinvent the wheel. Instead the developers opted for tried and true mechanics that entertained us time and again in many action adventure games, and mixed them in an almost perfect way. The beginning might be a little slow, but when Kena: Bridge of Spirits gains momentum, it becomes truly great. It’s hard for me to point out any significant flaws apart from overall lack of originality. What a debut!