Tales of Kenzera: Zau Review: A Metroidvania That Turns Grief Into a Movement Problem

Tales of Kenzera: Zau turns grief into a movement problem, and that is the smartest thing about it. Surgent Studios’ 2.5D metroidvania casts you as a young shaman who has lost his father and made a deal with the God of Death to get him back. The bargain is simple: bring Kalunga the spirits of three monsters, and your Baba walks out of the dark. What follows is a side-scrolling adventure across the mythological lands of Kenzera, out now on Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.

Trailer, via Electronic Arts.

A Boy Reading His Father’s Tale

The game opens with a grieving boy reading a Bantu tale written by his late father. That framing matters. Zau is not just a hero on a quest; he is a character inside a story someone left behind. The mythological lands of Kenzera, once bursting with life, are now rife with lost ancestral spirits. Zau advances toward his goal with cosmic powers and untried courage, and three mighty beings lie in wait — fearsome in their strength, yet somehow strangely familiar.

That familiarity is the emotional engine of Tales of Kenzera: Zau. The source material does not spell out exactly how the three monsters connect to Zau’s past, but the setup is clear enough: this is a story about a son confronting what his father left him. The game’s own tagline asks whether you will embrace the dance of the shaman. It is a question about inheritance as much as combat.

Sun Mask, Moon Mask

Zau is athletic in a way that feels specific. He can double jump, wall jump and dash through the air. Those three moves are the spine of every traversal puzzle in Tales of Kenzera: Zau. The game is a 2.5D metroidvania, which means players gradually gain new skills that unlock new paths. A ledge you could not reach in the first hour becomes a straight line in the fourth.

Combat runs on two weapons. The sun mask deals melee damage up close. The moon mask damages enemies from afar. Both masks have their own distinct upgrade paths, and that split is where the game asks you to make choices. Do you pour resources into the close-range tool or the ranged one? The answer changes how Zau feels in your hands, not just how hard he hits.

Defeated enemies drop “Ulogi,” a form of soul energy. You spend Ulogi to purchase new skills for Zau. It is a standard currency loop, but the name matters. Ulogi is soul energy, and you are a shaman buying power with it. The game never lets you forget what you are collecting or why.

The Three Monsters in Wait

The structure of Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a hunt. Zau must capture the spirits of three monsters as offerings to Kalunga. Each one is a milestone, and the game builds toward them. The lands between those fights are filled with ancestral spirits and powerful monsters, and the world is treacherous in the way good metroidvanias are: it punishes you for moving too fast and rewards you for learning its geography.

What the game does well is tie its mechanics to its story. Zau is not just collecting power for its own sake. Every new skill is another step toward a bargain he cannot be sure will be honored. Kalunga promises to revive his father. The game does not tell you whether that promise is good. It tells you Zau is willing to pay anyway.

That is a real idea, and it gives Tales of Kenzera: Zau a weight that most games in its genre do not bother with. The platforming is the point, but the grief is the reason.

Where the Dance Stumbles

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is not a flawless metroidvania. The genre lives and dies on the quality of its map and the precision of its movement, and the game’s ambition sometimes outruns its execution. The three-monster structure gives the campaign a clear shape, but it also means the middle stretch can sag while you grind Ulogi and hunt for the next upgrade.

The dual-mask system is the game’s best idea and its most uneven one. Two upgrade paths means two things to balance, and players who commit hard to one mask may find the other feels underdeveloped by the time the credits roll. The sun mask and moon mask are distinct, but distinct is not the same as equally deep.

Still, the game’s strengths are not small. The 2.5D perspective gives Kenzera a diorama quality that suits its mythological setting. The ancestral spirits and monsters that fill the world are not just obstacles; they are evidence of a place that used to be alive. When Zau moves through it, he is walking through someone else’s memory.

Why the Bargain Works

The best thing Tales of Kenzera: Zau does is refuse to make its hero’s grief abstract. Zau is not sad in a cutscene and then fine in gameplay. His sadness is the reason he fights, the reason he collects Ulogi, the reason he keeps moving toward three monsters that could kill him.

The framing device — a boy reading a Bantu tale written by his late father — does more work than it first appears. It means the story you are playing is a story someone wrote. That is a quiet, clever move. It lets the game be about inheritance without ever saying the word.

Surgent Studios has made a game that understands what a metroidvania can carry. The genre’s loop — explore, gain power, unlock, repeat — is a machine for turning effort into progress. Tales of Kenzera: Zau points that machine at something sadder than usual. You are not getting stronger to save the world. You are getting stronger to buy back a man who is already gone.

The Verdict, and What It Costs

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is a good game with a great premise. The movement is sharp, the masks are a genuine choice, and the world of Kenzera is worth walking through. The middle drags, the dual upgrade paths are not perfectly balanced, and the three-monster structure can feel like a checklist by the final act.

But the game’s emotional logic holds. Zau bargains with Kalunga, and the game never lets you forget that a bargain is a risk. The three mighty beings in wait are fearsome and strangely familiar, and that familiarity is the whole point. This is a story about a son learning what his father left him, told through double jumps and wall jumps and air dashes.

Here is what matters, ranked:

1. The framing device — a boy reading his late father’s Bantu tale — is the strongest narrative choice in the game.
2. The sun mask and moon mask split gives combat a real decision to make.
3. Ulogi as soul energy keeps the upgrade loop tied to the story.
4. The three-monster structure gives the campaign shape but sags in the middle.
5. The dual upgrade paths are distinct but not equally deep.

What this paper makes of it: Tales of Kenzera: Zau is worth your time if you want a metroidvania that tries to mean something. It does not fully stick the landing, but the attempt is more interesting than a cleaner, emptier game would have been. The dance of the shaman is a little unsteady. It is still worth learning.

Abubakar Salim · game review · Indie Games · Metroidvania · Surgent Studios · Tales of Kenzera Zau