Sony Kena: Bridge of Spirits - Information Thread, update: Steam release and Anniversary Update announced for September 27

[Dre801]

I've always sort of been interested in this one, maybe I'll finally pick it up. 

[Spork3245]

48 minutes ago, Dre801 said:

I've always sort of been interested in this one, maybe I'll finally pick it up. 

I believe it’s on PS+ Extra if you’re into that sort of thing 

[best3444]

1 hour ago, Dre801 said:

I've always sort of been interested in this one, maybe I'll finally pick it up. 

 

It's worth a playthrough. 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

I will get back to it. I really like the game. It feels like a throwback to PS2 era games in the world design and character movement. This feels like it would have been right at home releasing alongside games like OG Jak&Daxter and Ratchet&Clank kind of 3D platformers. 
 

The game definitely doesn’t look like a PS2 era game though. I got it on Steam, but from what I’ve seen it’s still a looker on PS4/PS5 too. 
 

combat is among my least favorite part of the game, but it’s passable and functional. But my least favorite thing overall is the collectibles, which is just little hats for the little guys that you collect and have follow you around and use for puzzles. I really like them, and I really like having like 20-30 following me around. I just don’t care about tiny hats. 
 

But it does feel and look like a Pixar movie. I haven’t finished it, but I’d recommend it from what I’ve played so far. 

[Phaseknox]

I was really enjoying this game for a while when it took place in the gorgeous forest, and was primarily a linear action platformer with light puzzle solving. But later you go to a different big wide open area that focuses more on puzzles, and I started to lose interest because it almost felt like a different game and I wasn’t finding it as appealing.

 

Also, there’s not enough focus on Kena herself. Her name is the title of the game, yet she feels like she takes a backseat in it. She doesn’t talk much, and when she does it’s in a deep whisper that doesn’t really match her appearance. I don’t feel that the voice actress that they chose for her was the right fit, and she seems kind of amateurish with her delivery too.

 

Unfortunately, the game didn’t appeal to me quite as much as I was expecting it to. It kind of did for a while, but when it somewhat switched gears I wasn’t finding it to be as fun. I plan on playing it again in the future because I liked a lot about it, but I’m going to have to be more in the mood for the section of the game that I didn’t really like when I originally played it.

[dualhunter]

I found the combat annoying for bosses and challenges so I turned down the difficulty. I don't think I found all the hats, I suspect some might be tied to a higher difficulty or something like that. There's more focus on Kena at the end on the way to the mountain shrine. Before that, she'll helping the spirits so the focus is on them.

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

Yeah it reminds me of a hero’s journey in some animated movies, except we don’t know who the hero is really, or where they came from, or why they’re on this journey. It’s like the opening of the movie was skipped. I don’t need it as Kena and her journey feels like what I’ve seen in movies, anime, or other games. But not having it can make you feel less attached to the character. 
 

it’s like if a game starts with you as a human military person person during an attack by aliens. You get a gun and you shout aliens. Why are they attacking? What started this war? Not really needed. We’ve seen this kind of thing so many times we often don’t even notice the lack of context until later. 

[Phaseknox]

On 8/4/2023 at 6:55 AM, dualhunter said:

I found the combat annoying for bosses and challenges so I turned down the difficulty.

I agree about the difficulty, not every game needs to be a Soulslike. I hope that the Soulslike trend in gaming is coming to an end, because I’m tired of third person action adventure games and action RPGs that I would normally like being ruined by brutal difficulties without easier settings just so that they can claim to be Soulslike. I had to switch to the easiest setting in this game just for the difficulty to be more reasonable which is ridiculous, because a cartoonish and cute action adventure platformer like this inspired by Zelda shouldn’t be extremely difficult like a Soulslike IMO.
 

On 8/4/2023 at 6:55 AM, dualhunter said:

I don't think I found all the hats, I suspect some might be tied to a higher difficulty or something like that.

The hats could quite possibly be the worst collectibles that I’ve seen in a game, there’s a big focus on them for some reason and they’re completely pointless and useless as far as I’m concerned.

 

On 8/4/2023 at 6:55 AM, dualhunter said:

There's more focus on Kena at the end on the way to the mountain shrine.

That’s good to know, but I would have preferred there to be more of a focus on her and who she is before the end of the game.

 

On 8/4/2023 at 7:21 AM, Spawn_of_Apathy said:

Yeah it reminds me of a hero’s journey in some animated movies, except we don’t know who the hero is really, or where they came from, or why they’re on this journey. It’s like the opening of the movie was skipped. I don’t need it as Kena and her journey feels like what I’ve seen in movies, anime, or other games. But not having it can make you feel less attached to the character.

That type of storytelling doesn’t really work for this game IMO. The name of the game is Kena, and I wanted to get to know who she was before embarking on her adventure. I like to do that in every action adventure game and RPG that I play to feel more attached and connected to the character that I’m playing as, otherwise they feel more like an avatar that I’m controlling and less like an actual character.

[stepee]

I agree with Kena could have been fleshed out more. I also can see how it would be jarring with the switch, but honestly I thought it got better as it went so I was ok with it.

 

I disagree with the hats i loved those lol

[Phaseknox]

22 hours ago, stepee said:

I agree with Kena could have been fleshed out more. I also can see how it would be jarring with the switch, but honestly I thought it got better as it went so I was ok with it.

I’m glad that you liked the change in direction that it takes later in the game, but I preferred the more classic linear action platform light puzzle solving formula of the earlier part of the game. The second location feels like it’s trying to be more open world, and it seems out of place to me in this game which feels more like a throwback to the classics in the genre.
 

22 hours ago, stepee said:

I disagree with the hats i loved those lol

I’m not denying that they can be cute, but they’re the only collectible and things that you can buy in the game. I just don’t like them enough to be as big of a focus as they are. 

[Spawn_of_Apathy]

55 minutes ago, Phaseknox said:

I’m not denying that they can be cute, but they’re the only collectible and things that you can buy in the game. I just don’t like them enough to be as big of a focus as they are. 

This. I would have preferred finding more outfits for Kena.