Kena: Bridge of Spirits, apotheosis of the sensory spheres

Today, September 21th 2021, the catalog of PlayStation 4 e PlayStation 5 is enriched with a new title, passed almost on the sly due to its graphic characteristics a little atypical for modern times, but also appreciated by many since its announcement: we are talking about Hit the Bridge of Spirits, action adventure video game developed by Ember lab.

Spiritual guide

Kena: Bridge of Spirits was announced on 11 June 2020 during the "Future of Gaming" event dedicated to PlayStation 5. In this first trailer of about 2 minutes with many animated scenes and little gameplay, Ember Lab is already able to make it clear what theessenza of this title, or adynamic adventure seasoned with puzzles, exploration and hand-to-hand combat in natural and boundless environments.

Kena, the protagonist of the game, is a young girl who sets out on an expedition in order to discover what has caused the destruction and abandonment of her village in the past. During the adventure Kena manages to gather the little spirits of the village, called Red, who help the young adventurer solve the problems environmental puzzles to continue the journey. As mentioned, the title also features gods fighting: in these cases the protagonist makes use of the magic to hit enemies with his enchanted staff that he can strike from a distance than hurting opponents in the hand-to-hand clashes.

What is highlighted already from this first presentation of the game, however, is not only the gameplay, but also the importance that Ember Lab wanted to give to I share graphic and sound: A Animated 3D with smooth outlines, which in some ways recalls that of Pixar films, merges with suggestive settings able to immediately underline the theme spiritual and magical on which the title is based. All accompanied obviously by one colonna sonora with solemn tones and sound effects that make the player completely immersed.

Hearing and 360 ° view

In February 2021, Ember Lab publishes the primo trailer gameplay by Kena: Bridge of Spirits confirming the good that had been shown 8 months earlier. In this new presentation we see the first meeting between Kena and the Rot, a combination that constitutes the core of the gameplay of the game.

Even in this case, however, maximum attention is given to visual and sound effects, almost as if it were an animated film: the tribal and sweet voices of the background music, the verses of the Rot, the sound of water produced by Kena while swimming and that of the wind that moves the leaves in the forest, they are all elements that allow the player to immerse yourself in the game's settings using your own sensory skills (especially the auditory and visual ones) a 360°.

The various places in the village where the Kena adventure takes place are presented as postcards, snapshots full of colors and lights. The light beams produced by the sun that pass between the foliage of the trees illuminate and highlight important glimpses of the landscape. The player's field of vision then widens when the amplitude of the settings is shown with the view of the snow-capped mountains in the distance.

We also notice the skill of Ember Lab in the ability of the developers of knowing how to adapt the music and colors to the different gameplay moments. We can already perceive from the trailers that in the exploration phases the soundtrack is much more light and solemn and this also happens with regard to lights and colors, the latter very saturated.
In the combat phases, however, the music is made more pressing and the lights and colors do turn off giving the settings more effects dark and mysterious.

The influence of Zelda and Disney

Ember Lab, the studio behind the development of Kena, is a software house independent formed by 14 members and founded in 2009 by brothers Mike and Josh Grier.
Like all video games, especially those developed by indie studios, Kena: Bridge of Spirits also takes some inspirations from much more famous works of the past; in this case the Grier brothers have stated that their title has some elements that recall the series of The Legend of Zelda and the films of Disney.

The dark tones, the theme of spirits and the attention to the sound effects of the surrounding environments that we find in Kena, are most likely inspired by the chapter "Majora's Mask", a title of the Zelda series published in 2000 for Nintendo 64. This thesis is corroborated by a short animated video that the developers of Ember Lab created in 2016, dedicated to the aforementioned chapter of Zelda and entitled “Terrible Fate“.

As for the inspiration for the creations of Walt Disney, in addition to the parallelism drawn previously between the graphic aspect of Kena and the most famous Pixar feature films, we also find inspirations regarding the game music: the composer Jason Gallaty he stated that he was influenced by Disney's darkest and most mysterious soundtracks, although he preferred not to include sung scenes or musical performances so as not to distort the identity of the video game too much.

Hit: Bridge of Spirits is the demonstration of how modern video games, especially those published on PlayStation 5, are getting closer and closer to 360 ° sensory experiences, also holding up comparisons with animated films.
For a more in-depth analysis of the title and to know the personal evaluations, we refer you to our review which will be published shortly on our portal.