As the current console generation quickly approaches its midpoint, gamers who have either thrown in their lot exclusively with the Xbox platform or simply can’t afford to invest in a PlayStation 5 or PC are finally starting to see a steady trickle of former PS5 timed-exclusive games arrive on their chosen platform. Case in point, Ember Lab’s visually show-stopping action-adventure, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, which was a prominent launch window exclusive for PS5 back in 2021, has finally come to Xbox, signalling that the console-exclusive deal between Ember Lab and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) for that game has quietly come to an end.
Repackaged as a “Premium Edition,” Kena: Bridge of Spirits for Xbox One and Xbox Series consoles is effectively another variant of the Digital Deluxe versions of the game that were released on PlayStation and Epic Games Store in 2021 and Steam in 2022. The package comprises a Digital Soundtrack, a “Golden Rot Skin” that can be equipped on one of its adorable (?) Rot characters, Xbox-exclusive pirate-themed hats for the Rot characters, a “unique” staff for the game’s main protagonist, Kena, and should one desire to purchase a physical copy of the game, the retail version also includes an exclusive sticker sheet. But swag aside, is this game worth the three-year-long wait that curious Xbox owners like myself have endured?
An unfortunate narrative that has developed in the console space over the past couple of years is that games which were previously PlayStation 5 exclusives inevitably wind up becoming inferior Xbox Series ports despite Microsoft’s flagship Xbox Series X having superior hardware specs, not to mention a number of circumstances that in one way or another have afforded the developers behind these games several months to even years of added development time. It certainly doesn’t help that a number of these high-profile games owned and operated under Microsoft’s own banner have fed into this narrative as well (e.g. Ghostwire: Tokyo, Deathloop).
So, it’s all the more reason that this excellent effort by Ember Lab deserves to be applauded, as Kena: Bridge of Spirts for Xbox is effectively a perfect port of its PS5 sibling.
As my colleague Zubi described in his review of the original PS5 version, Kena bedazzles with hyper-fluid character animations, environments and special effects rivalling many of today’s CG-animated films from studios like Pixar, Illumination, DreamWorks and the like. Even as we approach the three-year mark since the game first launched, there are still few game studios (beyond Sony’s Insomniac games) that have even come close to achieving this game’s level of artistry and consistency in a fully working, playable product. It’s a little less surprising when one considers Ember Lab’s lengthy background in animated commercials, but as a first game offering from a small, independent studio, Kena is still an absolutely impressive feat.
Just like the PlayStation 5 version, Kena on Xbox Series X targets an upscaled 4K resolution at 60fps in Performance Mode and a locked 4K at 30fps in Quality Mode. Performance mode is definitely where it’s at; I only experienced one tiny hitch in Performance Mode during my many hours of play, with no noticeable loss in image quality (at least to my own naked eyes anyway), making the idea of settling for 4K30 seem entirely pointless.
“Kena: Bridge of Spirts for Xbox is effectively a perfect port of its PS5 sibling.”
Meanwhile, the seamless, in-game cinematics are pre-rendered at a silky-smooth 30fps and boast Hollywood-level production values. It’s almost inconceivable to me that this game was made by a team of less than 20 people, and it is little wonder why Sony secured a timed exclusivity deal with Ember Lab in the first place.
If anything, Kena might be too good-looking for a game, as its teeming woodland environments, dense foliage, and scattered, natural-looking arrangements of rocks, stumps, and hollowed-out trees can often make it difficult to identify the parts of the world that are interactive. There were many occasions during my playthrough of the game where I found myself wandering about a puzzle area for close to an hour, completely missing a switch, footpad or other mechanism hidden right before me in plain sight.
Kena’s family-friendly marketing guise might appear to target young children, but in truth, the game is more suited towards core gamers in their tweens and up with plenty of action-adventure/puzzling under their belt and a keen eye for spotting clues, as most assistance from NPCs is one-note only and don’t provide any helpful hints when players get stuck.
Complicating gameplay matters further because button icons for context-sensitive commands often don’t appear unless the player positions Kena in just the right spot, not too close and not too far away. This can lead to players walking right past an important item or hint or missing a crucial opportunity to “sic” Kena’s Rot companions on an enemy’s weak spot in battle.
This is by no means a fault of the Xbox, however. A key issue with Kena being a practically flawless port of the original PS5 version is that all of the flaws of that game have been preserved like Jurassic Park’smosquitoes in the amber, including the above-mentioned issues as well as the game’s vague, 90’s era in-game map that doesn’t even allow players to set a waypoint for basic pathfinding.
Then, of course, there is the game’s infamously high level of combat difficulty, where even on the default setting, players can expect to be swarmed on all sides by enemies and hit by both melee and projectile attacks coming from off-screen without warning, making some attacks near-impossible to effectively parry or block against.
Many of these attacks can be evaded by rolling, but when such encounters occur at precarious heights, one errant roll or blast from an enemy explosion can send Kena tumbling to her death. Worse yet, an archaic target lock-on system doesn’t let you switch between targets on the fly (you literally have to break lock-on, physically turn towards the new foe you wish to target and then re-establish the lock). Boss encounters will truly test one’s patience, even after several skill upgrades.
“Boss encounters will truly test one’s patience, even after several skill upgrades.”
On the bright side, the audio design and game soundtrack are phenomenal. Minor audio cues are too plentiful, in fact, sometimes making it tricky to discern during gameplay if something of importance has just occurred, whether an ability has just recharged, or if a bunch of Rot companions have just innocuously popped up alongside the titular Spirit Guide. The memorable soundtrack fuses Balinese gamelan music with east-Asian and Western influences, eerily striking a The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt-esque tone that ranges between both playful and sorrowful melodies, punctuated by rousing battle songs during the challenging boss skirmishes. Regrettably, beyond the Rot characters, the voice talents in Kena don’t measure up at all, lacking in both energy and passion.
Long story made a wee bit shorter, Kena: Bridge of Spirits – Premium Edition for Xbox makes no noticeable improvements over the original PS5 version, but apart from the inevitable loss of the PS5’s DualSense haptic features, the gameis still an impressively faithful port of the original that any Xbox owner still longing to experience Kena’s adventure for the first time should absolutely check out, provided they are up for an somewhat unforgiving, old-school level of challenge.
