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KENA Bridge of Spirits is Amazing (PS5)

KillaJamm

Member
Personally I still haven't finished it, the game just couldn't 'grab' me and I haven't returned to it for a while. Definitely in the backlog to finish at somepoint but it got lost in other games that I thought were better that released over the past few months.
 

HYDE

Banned
I want them to do a Jak & Daxter,
if Insomniac won’t, of course.
I would love a game like the first entry…
 

Combichristoffersen

Combovers don't work when there is no hair
I want them to do a Jak & Daxter,
if Insomniac won’t, of course.
I would love a game like the first entry…
Why would Insomniac do a Jak & Daxter when it's a Naughty Dog IP? 😉

That series is dead though, but Ember Labs have the chops for another AAA action platformer
 
D

Deleted member 471617

Unconfirmed Member
Kena is a great game. My 4th best game of 2021. Hoping Sony acquires Ember Lab so they can have more money, resources and time for a sequel.
 

Vyse

Gold Member
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This game absolutely floored me out of nowhere. Spent the last week playing it with the gf and loved every second. The music, the animation, the rich world, the story, even the combat was surprisingly good and the game was fairly challenging. It’s got little bits of so many games, it’s 1 part Pikmin, 1 part Horizon, 1 part Zelda, and a little bit of it’s own spin mixed in. It’s completely wholesome and family friendly as well if that matters to you. I’m so glad we bought it on the PSN sale, what a cool, fantastic adventure. Honestly can’t say enough good about this game. I hope it did well because I will be playing the sequel day 1. This is now a series on my radar. God, even just exploring the world was fun, the meditation spots and fixing various statues gave me huge Ghost of Tsushima vibes. I can’t stop gushing about this game.


9/10

Some slight camera issues here and there and a few minor bugs are my only complaints. Still absolutely worth it if you’re even slightly curious about this game. On PS5 on a 4K display it’s utterly ridiculously beautiful. It looks better then many CGI movies, and completely outclasses the straight to Netflix animated shows.

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Downloading now. Excited to check it out.
 

HYDE

Banned
Why would Insomniac do a Jak & Daxter when it's a Naughty Dog IP? 😉

That series is dead though, but Ember Labs have the chops for another AAA action platformer
Because they aren’t doing shit with it, and it’s owned by Sony, and Insomniac has the skills to do it justice, and it’s my dream…so back down bitch, lol.
 
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People are too hooked on the past. Let devs make new stuff with new systems and ideas.

Jak had its run. There’s nothing particularly unique about that series (as much as i enjoyed it) to warrant the constant need for everyone to drop what they’re doing and make more.

Odds are if it ever did get a remake everyone would just complain about how its more of the same and just prettier
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
It has a nice art direction and is well made, a great looking UE4 game, going for that pixar style.
Im not going to buy it, but hopefully it comes to Ps+
 

Tschumi

Member
Appreciate the OP :)

I love this game, too. It's one of those games I've been able to bond with my girl with her watching me play. I'm playing on max difficulty which gives us lots of chances for a lusty high five when i finally nail a boss.

I actually find that the PS4 build of Kena was more stable, i get a few bugs with targeting and movement on PS5, maybe something to do with frame rate pacing? I have no idea. It's still great.

Only one issue, that i hate the kinda aim-assist camera. Even when i turn off all the assistance it still seems to stick to enemies slightly when I'm trying to change my perspective. There's one boss (Shrine Guardian I think it was called) who is twice as difficult because his minions keep getting in the way of your targeting. This was probably a deliberate move, I can't fault them for it, but yeah sticking aiming was a real tooth grinder there.

Just remembered though that i turned up look sensitivity to fix this on my old pro, so I'll do that when i next play it.
 
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Tschumi

Member
It has a nice art direction and is well made, a great looking UE4 game, going for that pixar style.
Im not going to buy it, but hopefully it comes to Ps+
Can i ask why you think it's not worth a buy? Not trying to square up or anything ^_^ maybe i can bust a myth or assumption or two
 
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Tschumi

Member
I would buy it for £7
Yes but por que?

It's a full fledged game with a ton of depth and great length, it's not an indy title, very stylish and smooth, really creative boss fights, a huge, David jaffe-vexxing challenge (appropriate for this post-soulsborne age) at higher difficulties, amazing graphics and music, sound mixing, high tier animation... The one cringe i have being some of the voice actors being a bit too cheesy but that doesn't wipe off 90% of the value of the game lol
 
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Fredrik

Member
I need to keep going! I only played a few hours and while I liked the visuals the gameplay was too simplistic early on for me so I kinda dropped it. Kids loved it though. Will pick it up again because of this thread OP.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
Way too much backtracking for my taste, it ruons the whole pacing, if I could change anything it wouldn't be the combat, nor the set-pieces, nor the plot, I'd first and foremost simply make the game more linear. Other than that a great title.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Yes but por que?

It's a full fledged game with a ton of depth and great length, it's not an indy title, very stylish and smooth, really creative boss fights, a huge, David jaffe-vexxing challenge (appropriate for this post-soulsborne age) at higher difficulties, amazing graphics and music, sound mixing, high tier animation... The one cringe i have being some of the voice actors being a bit too cheesy but that doesn't wipe off 90% of the value of the game lol

No doubt, but theres a lot of games competing for my time these days. Theres simply other stuff id rather play.
 

Bragr

Banned
People are too hooked on the past. Let devs make new stuff with new systems and ideas.

Jak had its run. There’s nothing particularly unique about that series (as much as i enjoyed it) to warrant the constant need for everyone to drop what they’re doing and make more.

Odds are if it ever did get a remake everyone would just complain about how its more of the same and just prettier
But that run was 20 years ago. Imagine modern Naughty Dog making an action-platformer, the stuff they could do with Jak today would be fascinating to see.
 

Bragr

Banned
Yes but por que?

It's a full fledged game with a ton of depth and great length, it's not an indy title
Well, while that's true, I would say that it feels like a semi-indie title.

The progression is very old-school, you fight through an area with various platforming, puzzle, and combat encounters, reach the boss and unlock the next area. And while the next area has a new setting, there is very little new or interesting that separates the different areas. There is nothing that elevates or creates novelty, and it does start to turn a bit old and worn during the later parts of the game. There is a simplicity to it, basic, straightforward, which ain't bad, but it certainly doesn't feel like a triple-A game, you can sense that the team lacks experience.
 

Robb

Gold Member
It looks really great imo, would definitely try it if I had a Ps5!
 
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Skifi28

Member
I'm in the first hour so I can't comment on much. It seems OK, but doesn't have me excited to continue. One thing I cant stand is the framerate in the cutsenes. Feels really bad going straight from 60fps to 20.
 

Tschumi

Member
Well, while that's true, I would say that it feels like a semi-indie title.

The progression is very old-school, you fight through an area with various platforming, puzzle, and combat encounters, reach the boss and unlock the next area. And while the next area has a new setting, there is very little new or interesting that separates the different areas. There is nothing that elevates or creates novelty, and it does start to turn a bit old and worn during the later parts of the game. There is a simplicity to it, basic, straightforward, which ain't bad, but it certainly doesn't feel like a triple-A game, you can sense that the team lacks experience.
I dunno man, i take games as they are, i don't have the imagination to speculate on things they should have in addition to what they bring to the table. To me this is a AAA game, a bit simplistic maybe but they don't all have to be RDR2 :p I think the levels are pretty varied, I like the dripfeed of new weapons and skills, i like how early game bosses become end game trash, i like how the first act is linear then the second act opens up, i like how that second act's open'ness naturally suggests new applications for skills learned in that first act.. yeah!
 

sigmaZ

Member
Personally I still haven't finished it, the game just couldn't 'grab' me and I haven't returned to it for a while. Definitely in the backlog to finish at somepoint but it got lost in other games that I thought were better that released over the past few months.
Same. It's not bad, but it feels very derivative somehow and the environments, though beautiful, feels somehow boring. My biggest pet peeve is the way she jumps. Oh, god. Why?!
 

Roufianos

Member
I'm a couple of hours in, really enjoying it but the rewards for exploration / side activities is fundamentally broken. Most of the time you only get shards for buying hats.
 

Papacheeks

Banned
I truly hope Sony pays attention to this studio. And I mean that in with Ratchet and this game doing well and the Crash remakes doing well. Give us a god damn remake of the Jak and Daxter games. Specifically Jak 2 was a fucking masterpiece outside of some wonky physics.

Those games remade from the ground up to me is something I could get behind.
 

AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
Really wished I had more fun playing the actual game but I got mortally bored halfway through. I think it's pretty evident that the team is an SFX studio because it's sublime looking, I just wish there was more of a game there.
 

Roxkis_ii

Member
This game looks crazy good and it's cross gen!?
I look forward to trying this on my Ps4 pro.

Man I've been loving these cross gen games.
 
Really wished I had more fun playing the actual game but I got mortally bored halfway through. I think it's pretty evident that the team is an SFX studio because it's sublime looking, I just wish there was more of a game there.
I bailed at the first significant story boss. The difficulty spike was pretty annoying. Played just fine on Expert up until that point. Going to go back to it at some point.

The game has a lot of pros and cons for me.
Pros:
  • Graphics
  • Feel of movement and jumping is great
  • The bow feels great to use.
  • Lighting up elements in the environment with your force field is fun
Cons:
  • Uneven difficulty
  • Combat has lots of moments that felt slow, like the delay after trying a counter. For the most part the combat is pretty good, but it's not all the way there.
  • Boring story, boring characters.
  • Not into the Rot and the cutesy design. I find it annoying and alienating.
  • No rewards or significant collectibles. The hats are not fun to equip or collect.
For the price though, I totally recommend it. It felt worth it even at $40, so on sale I'd still recommend it.
 

emilegc

Member
I bailed at the first significant story boss. The difficulty spike was pretty annoying. Played just fine on Expert up until that point. Going to go back to it at some point.

The game has a lot of pros and cons for me.
Pros:
  • Graphics
  • Feel of movement and jumping is great
  • The bow feels great to use.
  • Lighting up elements in the environment with your force field is fun
Cons:
  • Uneven difficulty
  • Combat has lots of moments that felt slow, like the delay after trying a counter. For the most part the combat is pretty good, but it's not all the way there.
  • Boring story, boring characters.
  • Not into the Rot and the cutesy design. I find it annoying and alienating.
  • No rewards or significant collectibles. The hats are not fun to equip or collect.
For the price though, I totally recommend it. It felt worth it even at $40, so on sale I'd still recommend it.
I agree with you but not in the feel of movement part. I hate games that the character animation goes from walking to running, without nothing in between. That part feels to dated to me. I had the same problem with Nier Automatta. And jumping also feels really bad to me.
 
I agree with you but not in the feel of movement part. I hate games that the character animation goes from walking to running, without nothing in between. That part feels to dated to me. I had the same problem with Nier Automatta. And jumping also feels really bad to me.
I think that double jump feels good though! And it's a little odd how she spins, but for some reason it just works for me.
 
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