Kena: Bridge of Spirits - Switch 2 Review

Almost five years since its original release on the PlayStation 4/5 in September 2021, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is finally seeing a release on a Nintendo console. Watching gameplay videos, it’s easy to draw comparisons to some of the late 90s/early 00s Nintendo classics (Legend of Zelda, Starfox Adventures, etc.), and as such, it has always felt to me that Kena: Bridge of Spirits belongs on the Nintendo Switch (or its successor). I’ve been a patient boy and avoided the temptation to play it, knowing and hoping that surely one day we’ll see it over here on planet Switch, and here we are! Going straight to Nintendo Switch 2, Kena: Bridge of Spirits looks beautiful; will my years of patience be worth it?

The Good

Whilst it would be easy and somewhat lazy to carry on the comparisons, it is clear and obvious that Kena: Bridge of Spirits is strongly influenced by many classics of the adventure genre. There are elements of action RPGs, elements of collectathon games and also elements of large open-world games like Horizon Zero Dawn, but Ember Lab does a fantastic job of making Kena: Bridge of Spirits feel fresh and unique in its own right. You play as the titular character, Kena (pronounced Kay-nah), who is a young spirit guide armed with a staff that can collect and manipulate small characters known as ‘Rot’. The Rot are the key gameplay feature of Kena: Bridge of Spirits and they act as a group of small critter-like creatures who can be summoned in battle or used to solve puzzles. You discover more and more Rot hidden in the game world as you progress, similar to Koroks in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and the more you find, the stronger Kena becomes.

Fairly early on in Kena: Bridge of Spirits you also add a bow to your arsenal, adding to the melee abilities of the staff; the combat is incredibly satisfying and rewarding, especially as you upgrade your powers. The combat generally manifests itself in small arenas that you must overcome to proceed rather than finding enemies out in the open. Each combat arena is overtaken with a blight that has transformed the landscape and surrounding creatures into the baddies that attack Kena, and when Kena fights back, she builds up an energy bar that – when full – can be used to utilise your Rot army. You can generally choose to use them to attack the enemies OR to activate flowers in the arena that replenish your health, and this makes each arena incredibly strategic; use your Rot energy wisely! And don’t be mistaken by Kena’s cute presentation; the combat is HARD. I played the normal difficulty and struggled regularly; combat relies heavily on parry mechanics, so if you’re not a fan of timing-based combat, then Kena: Bridge of Spirits isn’t for you; you can’t just mash buttons and hope for the best!

The game world in Kena: Bridge of Spirits is absolutely gorgeous and the lush forests, large bodies of water and ruins-type architecture give an amazing sense of scale and adventure. The Balinese score from Jason Gallaty is also epic, and it’s great to see a soundtrack influenced by a lesser-represented culture. It also means the music feels fresh and it really fits into the landscape that Kena explores. As I mentioned further up there are plenty of nooks and crannies to explore, so completionists like me will find Kena: Bridge of Spirits a rewarding experience. The map and item checklist system are intuitive but don’t give the game away, so you will spend plenty of time hunting down that last Rot or whatever it is you need. I had a blast.

TL;DR

• Kena: Bridge of Spirits influenced by many games but doesn’t feel derivative
• Combat is challenging but rewarding
• Plenty of items to find while exploring off the beaten path

The Bad

All in all Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a well-polished experience. On Nintendo Switch 2 it ran pretty smoothly and I had no crashes. In some biomes, however – generally caves – I had a few flickering white textures in the corner of the screen as I panned the camera around. Not sure exactly what was going on but it was really noticeable in certain areas and affected the immersion somewhat.

I mentioned the Kena: Bridge of Spirits map earlier, and it works pretty well as an explorer’s companion. That being said, there are no map markers to use, which would have really aided things. Of course we still have the trusty old screenshot function which works a charm for tracking inaccessible areas to revisit, but the matter of having to leave the game and return to check the screenshots was also an immersion-breaker. Shame as map markers tend to be pretty common these days in adventure games!

TL;DR

• Some glitchy textures in cave biomes
• Lack of map markers is a miss

Final Score: 9/10

All in all, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an intoxicating adventure that I couldn’t put down. The heady mix of exploration, adventure, puzzle-solving and accessible but challenging combat is moulded together by Ember Lab fantastically well. The news that a sequel, Kena: Scars of Kosmora, is coming out shortly makes me incredibly excited!

Thank you for checking out our Kena: Bridge of Spirits Switch 2 review, thank you to Ember Lab (via Renaissance PR) for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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