{"id":380,"date":"2024-04-22T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/?p=380"},"modified":"2024-05-01T23:44:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T23:44:49","slug":"tales-of-kenzera-zau-is-a-beautiful-devastating-meditation-on-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/2024\/04\/22\/tales-of-kenzera-zau-is-a-beautiful-devastating-meditation-on-loss\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a beautiful, devastating meditation on loss"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image: Surgent Studios\/Electronic Arts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fast, challenging Metroidvania-style gameplay paired with a heartfelt story<\/p>\n

Loss is inevitable, and yet, knowing that makes it no less difficult. Grief is all but guaranteed to touch your life \u2014 to touch my life. And, most certainly, it already has. That assuredness \u2014 that we\u2019ll all be touched by death \u2014 is part of the reason so much art is dedicated to interrogating those feelings. For so long, video games have been one medium that, for all its death, dying, and multiple lives, had not quite unpacked the emotion of grief. There was little reason to: When you die in a video game, you always come back to life. The danger of death amounts to nothing but a few hearts on a screen, a number. Oftentimes, it\u2019s encouraged. The more kills you get, the better. Death is not something to mourn there, but a celebration. But this isn\u2019t a universal truth across all games. More and more video games are exploring what it means to lose \u2014 no longer just a level, but the more tangible, life-altering loss. It\u2019s games like Spiritfarer<\/em><\/a>, a \u201ccozy management game about dying,\u201d which is about life after death; What Remains of Edith Finch<\/em>, about the stories that are left behind<\/a>; or A Mortician\u2019s Tale<\/em>, which has you going hands-on with death<\/a>. You\u2019ll find grief in games, too, that are not explicitly about loss<\/a>; like I said, it\u2019s inevitable.<\/p>\n

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Surgent Studios\u2019 Tales of Kenzera: Zau<\/em> is the latest game about processing grief; in fact, that\u2019s at the very core of the game. Led by House of the Dragon<\/em> actor Abubakar Salim, the development team at Surgent Studios has not shied away from the topic. When he announced the game at The Game Awards<\/a> in 2023, Salim said Tales of Kenzera: Zau<\/em> was a way for him to process his grief in a manner that felt familiar to him, as someone who grew up playing and loving video games. The game is a tribute to his father, who died of cancer in 2013. <\/p>\n

Set in a colorful, Afrofuturist world, Tales of Kenzera: Zau<\/em> begins with a boy grieving the recent death of his father. His father had been sick for a long time, his death anticipated but no less devastating. The boy is not ready to say goodbye, so instead he picks up a book that his father was writing. Inside this book is where the majority of Tales of Kenzera: Zau<\/em> is set, in a world that mirrors the boy\u2019s own. Grieving the death of his father, a young shaman named Zau makes a deal with Kalunga, the god of death, to bring his father back. Zau must head deep into Kenzera, overrun with lost spirits, to confront three powerful spirits in order to fulfill Kalunga\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

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Tales of Kenzera: Zau<\/em> is a Metroidvania-style game that uses its gameplay to reflect back Zau\u2019s story and grief. Zau enters Kenzera overcome with sadness, singularly focused on bringing back his Baba \u2014 he\u2019s resistant to Kalunga\u2019s assistance, even if he struggles without it. His grief is overwhelming, complicated; he processes his feelings, sometimes out loud, as he\u2019s zipping through several different \u2014 but interconnected \u2014 lands in search of the spirits. <\/p>\n

To take on the upset spirits, Zau uses the powers of two of his father\u2019s masks: one that represents the sun, the other the moon. At the outset, the blue moon mask gives Zau a ranged attack, while the yellow sun mask is a melee attack for fighting enemies up close. Like any Metroidvania, Tales of Kenzera: Zau<\/em> upgrades these abilities as you progress through its platforming. Eventually, Zau will gain the ability to freeze water or enemies, shoot electric spears, swing from hook flowers, and smash through reinforced gates. Beyond platforming, Tales of Kenzera: Zau<\/em> offers plenty of environmental puzzles \u2014 reflections on timing, movement, and placement. <\/p>\n

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