It’s not often that we revisit a game steeped in drama because, more often than not, the drama surrounding a game is far more interesting than the game itself ever was. Tales of Kenzera: ZAU (at the time of publishing you can grab an Origin key from Instant Gaming for $1.44) is a game that unfortunately found itself in the middle of a bunch of drama partly because it was made by a studio founded by actor Abubakar Salim – and let’s face it, Hollywood attachment to games usually isn’t received very well – and secondly, he called people who commented on his game “racists” which kicked off a whole new batch of drama which includes his involvement with Sweet Baby Inc, the notorious consulting company vilified by gamers for “injecting DEI” into games. Now that the dust has settled, we looked at this troubled title to see if it deserved all the flack it received. Aby went on the record multiple times to defend his stance and his game, but ultimately, no one cared, and Surgent Studios suffered because of the public backlash.

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU
Developer: Surgent Studios
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: Windows PC (reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch (reviewed)
Release Date: April 23rd, 2024
Price: $19.99

Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is a profoundly personal experience for Abubakar Salim and it shows, as the main character of this game, Zuberi has to deal with the death of his Baba and to help him grieve; his father left him a gift: A book that he wrote, in which Zuberi could imagine himself as the hero in. Tales of Kenzara: ZAU takes place in the fictional world of Kenzera, and it tells the story of a young shaman named Zau who links up with Kalunga, the God of Death, to claim the three world’s spirits in exchange for the returned spirit of his beloved father. Along this path you’ll meet some other interesting characters that all lead to Zau’s inevitable battle and claiming of the Earth spirits of Bantu mythos.

Zau journey is filled with colorful worlds and lush scenery, actively invoking the images one might expect to envision when reading a story about a fictional African land, and it’s a welcome sight considering how many Metroidvanias I’ve seen lately that stick to one biome or dark/dank themes. Zau’s adventures take him through some dark caves, but even in those spaces, the details are vibrant and colorful, and the lava sections are extremely well done, unironically breathing some much needed life into this overly saturated genre. The puzzle sections are complex enough to be interesting but not too unforgiving that you can’t complete them within a few attempts. The hardest parts are throwing your sun spear at the target and having to race the spark to get through the gate before it closes, and eventually learning how to control your charged dash to break through barriers before you crash into spikes.

Zau gains two masks that give him the powers of the moon and sun respectively, and the mask of the moon powers give him a ranged attack that also helps to dispatch blue shielded enemies, while the mask of the sun prefers melee attacks with spears and the destruction of red shielded enemies. Tales of Kenzera: ZAU doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, but it’s a nice mix of fun platforming and repetitive yet satisfying combat (though on harder difficulties, enemies are a little too damage spongey.) They even thought to include games journalist assists if you play on the easiest difficulty, such as static platforms that make the difficult timing sections easier and the ability to talk to a creature to skip the scary chase sections that are often filled with twitch reaction platforming.

The single most baffling thing about Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is that it caught a boatload of flack and outrage by people calling it “woke” and DEI-bait who’ve never bothered to look into the story or play the demo or check out anything about the game for themselves. Contrary to what social media will tell you, there is nothing that could be considered “woke” about this game unless your definition of “woke” is “this game has black people in it”. There are no overpowered girl bosses, there are no LGBT elements, there are no racial superiority statements, there are no anti-Capitalism sentiments, no political spin, it’s untainted and pure. ZAU is nothing but an adventure where a young boy seeks to soothe the restless spirits and learns that death is an inevitable end to life, and that letting go is the only way to truly find peace. This is a game that isn’t meant for everyone, as not everyone will be interested in the African culture backstory, and the message of letting go undoubtedly hits harder with people who’ve experienced profound loss in their lives.

To put this in persepective for you as the reader: I lost my mom in 2013 and my dad in 2020. While I’m not crazy about how this story ends, I get why they opted to go the route that they did, and the final scene after the last boss battle did make me tear up a little bit. It’s a good game, but it’s nothing revolutionary, and it’s fairly forgettable if you don’t identify with either the emotional or historical connection. Still, $20 is a little bit steep for an eight to ten hour experience, even though there’s an enjoyable game that’s still here waiting for more people to experience it. I think I picked up $8.99 during the Steam Winter Sale and a $10 price point felt like a better value for the time. For those who want to complain about forced representation, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is an excellent example of how to craft a game that’s full of representation for a distinct group of people, yet still remain completely approachable for anyone else who wants to experience the tale. Shortly after finishing this game, I found myself falling down a rabbit hole of Bantu stories and mythologies, and while I won’t ever connect with them racially, I found their interpretations fascinating to read about.

And as a bonus, if you’re the first person who reads this review and want to play it yourself, here’s a key for you to play it on Origin: 42CC-45FR-AHB5-KMMA-MQVS as it’s part of this month’s Humble Choice bundle.