Ember Lab, stole the show at the June 2020 PlayStation 5 reveal event with Kena: Bridge of Spirits.
Showcasing it’s Pixar or DreamWorks like animation, the title has quickly become one of the most anticipated PS5 games.
Here’s everything we know about Kena: Bridge of Spirits.
Release Date
Kena: Bridge of Spirits was initially supposed to release in 2020, around the time of the PS5 launch. However, Ember Lab announced via Twitter on September 11, 2020 that Kena: Bridge of Spirits was delayed to Q1 2021.
“This year has brought many challenges and our transition to working from home has caused development to move slower than we hoped,” the tweet reads. “For this reason, we have made the difficult decision to delay the release of Kena: Bridge of Spirits to Q1, 2021. We have not made this decision lightly, but feel it is best for the game and well-being of the team.”
This statement suggests that the game will in fact be released before the end of March, 2021.
Trailer
Story
“Kena, a young Spirit Guide, travels to an abandoned village in search of the sacred mountain shrine,” the official plot synopsis on the Epic Games Store says. “She struggles to uncover the secrets of this forgotten community hidden in an overgrown forest where wandering spirits are trapped.” Game Informer’s cover story gives even more insight into this compelling narrative.
The demo referenced in the Game Informer story is set towards the beginning of the game, where we see Kena fight evil spirits before coming across a village where she meets a pair of sibling spirits, Saiya and Beni. They are the young children that sport a fox mask on their backs like a backpack. Kena helps these siblings find and calm down the spirit of their brother Taro.
Helping spirits like this is apparently the focus in Kena: Bridge of Spirits, as Kena will run into a family of spirits like this in every world that she visits. Saiya and Beni aren’t the only characters that accompany Kena, as she also has the help of The Rot.
Gameplay
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is slightly akin to 3D Zelda games. Much of the combat in Kena: Bridge of Spirits is centered around the titular character, not the Rot. She can fight enemies with her staff, hitting them with it, casting magic shields, or even using it as a bow.
Kena will also be able to command the Rot to target enemy weak points in combat.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is also slated for a PS4 and PC release.