Kena: Bridge of Spirits Image
Metascore
81

Generally favorable reviews - based on 82 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 1249 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
Rate this:
  • 10
  • 9
  • 8
  • 7
  • 6
  • 5
  • 4
  • 3
  • 2
  • 1
  • 0
  • 0
  • Summary: Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a story-driven action adventure set in a charming world rich with exploration and fast-paced combat. Players find and grow a team of tiny spirit companions called the Rot, enhancing their abilities and creating new ways to manipulate the environment.

Trailer

Play Sound
Please enter your birth date to watch this video:
You are not allowed to view this material at this time.
Kena Bridge Of Spirits Preview
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 71 out of 82
  2. Negative: 0 out of 82
  1. Oct 28, 2021
    100
    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.
  2. Sep 28, 2021
    90
    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.
  3. Oct 15, 2021
    89
    I found Kena: Bridge of Spirits to be one of the best treats of the year, both for the eyes and for the soul. Not only does it show elaborate craftsmanship, but it also feels like it was infused with joy and awareness. I'm happy it's here, and I look forward to seeing where Kena's bridge can lead.
  4. Sep 20, 2021
    80
    With its elegantly simple combat and beautiful world, Kena: Bridge of Spirits harkens back to the days of the N64/GameCube-era Zeldas, Okami, and Star Fox Adventures, while also adding modern sensibilities and a distinct personal touch.
  5. Sep 30, 2021
    80
    Kena: Bridge of Spirits is the game that was missing to end 2021 in the best way possible. This title pictures a reality not far from ours, where the corruption is imminent and the salvation of the land demands a path that challenge us and makes us grow into a better version of ourselves. As a Spirit Guide, Kena took the compromise of freeing every soul that needed her. She felt fear, failed to have decisions but with the help of her Rot friends she was able to accomplish her mission, in which is the perfect balance between duty and passion.
  6. Sep 23, 2021
    80
    Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a fantastic achievement, one that celebrates the wonder of adventure games with a story to fall into, characters to root for and a ton of collectibles to uncover. The ‘Now That’s What I Call An Adventure Game’ nature of the mechanics offers little in the way of huge originality, but presents them in a world so full of beauty and wonder you’ll soon forget all about it. The future is bright for Ember Lab.
  7. Sep 22, 2021
    60
    Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a completely inoffensive, if somewhat bland adventure that will mildly entertain for the duration of its runtime, but won’t live long in the memory.

See all 86 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Negative: 33 out of 467
  1. Sep 22, 2021
    10
    Pretty amazing first effort from a new team... Kudos, from a lover of Zelda-type games and all things cute.
  2. Sep 30, 2022
    10
    Great story, graphics and new content as well. The devs of this game surely do show passion and dedication towards this beautiful game. By farGreat story, graphics and new content as well. The devs of this game surely do show passion and dedication towards this beautiful game. By far the best indie I've played. Expand
  3. Sep 22, 2021
    10
    Buen Gameplay, excelente animación, excelente diseño de personajes , excelente actuación, excelente historia y excelente precio. noBuen Gameplay, excelente animación, excelente diseño de personajes , excelente actuación, excelente historia y excelente precio. no esperaba éste producto final por parte de emberlab. Un juego para disfrutar cada segundo Expand
  4. Oct 7, 2021
    9
    Excellent and beautiful game. Great graphics and story. Amazing. Totally worth it.
  5. Sep 26, 2021
    9
    Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a great game but it has some flaws.
    Pros
    • Art style The cuteness of this game is almost unbearable. The Rots
    Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a great game but it has some flaws.
    Pros
    • Art style
    The cuteness of this game is almost unbearable. The Rots look so cute! I love how the voice actress sounds when she’s interacting with them. It’s so adorable. Like a dog lover interacting with a puppy.
    The art style reminded me of Jak and Daxter from the PS2 era in the best possible way, as if there’s another way. You meet some sage guy early on and he reminds me of Samos Hagai, the old man from Jak and Daxter 1 who had logs strapped to his head and feet.

    The layout of the environment is beautiful but it gets complicated towards the end. Sometimes I was frustrated because there wasn’t a clear sense of which direction to go. I did notice that I did better when I calmed down and let the spirits of the forest guide me. No joke, there was a puzzle that somehow I just knew how to beat but I don’t know how or why I knew it. Other puzzles were more challenging but often the environment will give hints. Sometimes things will need to be done in order but there will be a subtle hint that might be hard to pick out. Once you understand one of them, subsequent puzzles are easier.
    I personally loved the character designs. Kena was very charming. Her animations and voice acting made her an adorable character. But don’t let her cuteness fool you. She is an absolute beast in combat. I was a little shocked with how aggressive her voice acting was but it was fitting.

    The animations were top notch. I remember the first time I climbed up a ledge and Kena spun her staff around, I was thoroughly pleased with how satisfying it was.

    •Story
    I’m sad we didn’t get to explore Kena’s past as much as I’d like. The story overall was very sparse on details. A lot of things were left up to interpretation. It was very short in scope. Literally three spirits are trapped in this world because of grief and whatnot and they’re not being able to move on which causes corruption. Kena shows how their grief was the wrong attitude and they understand and move on. The music and animation told me my heart strings should be plucked but I just didn’t get as emotionally attached to the characters I was saving over the roughly four and a half hours it took to save them. I was more emotional during the first 20 minutes of The Last of Us than at any point during this game. I’d say the story was the weakest part of the game but it wasn’t enough for me to stop playing or lose my motivation.

    •Gameplay
    But I don’t play games because of their story. I play games for the gameplay and always have and this is where Kena really shines. It reminded me of a lot of past games: Jak and Daxter, Uncharted, God of War, Ratchet and Clank, and Final Fantasy X. All the mechanics were smooth and satisfying to play. My biggest problem with gameplay was the progression system. You get Karma to upgrade your abilities which is fine. But there are also crystals that are only used to buy cute hats for the Rot. I would have loved to see more uses for the crystals. I understand this is their first game so I can’t knock them too much.

    •Cons
    Some of the environments are bugged but the latest patch fixed some of them but I haven’t confirmed. There was an invisible hole in the ground that you could fall through and get stuck. I found a board that looks like you can walk over but Kena will stop at it and you have to jump over even though there’s another board right beside it that you can walk over. I found a ledge that has some strange collision geometry making jumping across difficult. I could have loved to see better collision geometry overall. You can't stand on many things that look like you can. I’ll report all this stuff to the devs eventually and hopefully they’ll fix it. The initial release had a few game breaking bugs but many of them have been patched. I think with a few more updates I could remove this cons paragraph completely.
    Overall, I’d say the experience is worth it. I played on the Deluxe Edition but I don’t think the Golden Rot and Staff was worth it unless you want to support the devs. I would love to see them make more games like this. Hopefully this will be financially successful and they can fund much larger games.
    Expand
  6. Dec 5, 2021
    8
    Story: 8
    Graphics: 8
    Sound: 9
    Gameplay: 8
    Game Time: 13 Hours (Main Story + Extra)
  7. Feb 19, 2022
    0
    Kinda overrated............................................................

See all 467 User Reviews