Founded in 2009 by brothers Mike and Josh Grier, Ember Lab is an animation and digital content studio whose portfolio includes animated shorts and commercials for companies such as Coca-Cola, Hisense, and MLB. Kena: Bridge of Spirits, an action-adventure game released on September 21, 2021, is the studio’s first venture into creating original video games. 

The game takes place in a forest that’s been engulfed in a mysterious blight and stars Kena (pronounced “Kay-na”), a spirit guide who uses her powers to help restless spirits who are unable to move on from the world. Along the way she befriends small and adorable little helpers known as the Rot, who help the player progress on their journey.

GRAPHICS 10/10

Without a doubt, one of the main draws for Kena: Bridge of Spirits is the gorgeous, movie-like graphics. It’s not surprising that Ember Lab started out making animations long before ever making games. The studio has been able to capture a Disney-like quality for all of their characters. Eyes are big and expressive and facial animations overall convey a lot of emotion.

As for the setting, the forest is a bright and lush green with cartoon-like trees and buildings. In areas where the corruption has taken over the forest, this brightness gives way to a depressing, greyish color, complete with dead grass. As the player progresses through the story, more and more of these corrupted areas will be cleared, and a cutscene shows their transformation into the more cheerful, bright green colors. 

The cutscenes are equally impressive and it can’t be overstated how much this game looks like it could be a movie. Luckily, there is a photo mode in-game with the option to pose Kena. Unfortunately, there is no option to pose the Rot, which follow you around for the entire game.

SOUND QUALITY 10/10

The voices in this game are top-notch. Kena and the rest of the cast of voiced characters are played with a lot of emotion. Even the two child characters Beni and Saiya sound good—their actors knocked it out of the park. The environmental sounds are great as well. You’ll hear the distant sound of water running, gentle ambient music, and my favorite part: the tiny cooing sounds from the Rot as they struggle to keep up with you. Another favorite of mine is hearing the sounds of their tiny footsteps as they help carry something for you.

The score for Kena: Bridge of Spirits was composed by Jason Gallaty and was an unexpected highlight of the game for me. The tracks in Kena heavily feature Indonesian Gamelan music. Gamelan music is characterized by percussive instruments such as metallophones and drums, as well as bamboo flutes, a bowed lute called a rebab, and vocalists. Gallaty collaborated with the Balinese musical group Gamelan Çudamani to produce Gamelan music that was respectful and sensitive of the culture. The result is an exciting list of tracks that always feel perfectly placed. For more tense moments such as fights, the music might be punchy and percussion-driven, with the traditional Gamelan instruments at the forefront and backed by powerful brass instruments. There are also more mysterious and somber tracks with a string orchestra accompanying the Gamelan elements. This soundtrack rocks.

GAMEPLAY 7/10

Throughout your journey through the forest, you’ll encounter some sections blocked off by the corruption. It’s up to you to figure out what you need to do to clear it so you can move on to the next area. Often this will involve using your shield pulse ability to light up crystals and unlock a door. Other times you may need to use your arrows to activate crystals from a distance in a specific order. The Rot will also help Kena progress by interacting with parts of the world that she wouldn’t be able to handle on her own. Most puzzles can be figured out relatively quickly; however, there were a few that took me a while to realize what the game wanted me to do. The solutions to the puzzles aren’t always obvious, so you’ll have to use quite a bit of trial and error to progress. 

The combat is simple. You have a light and heavy attack with Kena’s staff, a shield that can be used for parries, and later in the game you get access to a bow and the ability to channel your energy into bombs. You also have a dodge that you can use to cancel other attacks. 

As you collect more of the Rot, you’ll be able to use them in combat as well. Along with your health and shield meters, you have a Courage meter. You fill up this meter by attacking enemies during combat, and once you fill it up you’ll be able to use a Rot action that can help you out in battle. You can use them to power up your arrows or have them swarm an enemy, for example.

While the cutesy art style of this game might suggest that it won’t be much of a challenge, I was surprised to find that I had some trouble with a few of the fights even on the default normal difficulty. Parry timing is strict and your shield can only take a few blows before it bursts, taking a few seconds to recover. The enemies’ attacks also do a surprising amount of damage, even on the normal difficulty. 

There is not a lot of variation in the combat. Besides the abilities I just mentioned, there is only a simple skill tree available to you for upgrading your moves. You can upgrade the amount of arrows Kena can shoot before having to recharge, you can add the ability to empower your attacks with the Rot, you can increase the amount of damage your shield can take, etc.—nothing that really stood out to me and made me think: “Wow, this is awesome,” however.

CHARACTERS 7/10

Kena: Bridge of Spirits doesn’t have a huge cast of characters. There is Kena, of course, and then there are the people she meets and helps along the way. There are also the Rot, which are very helpful as the game progresses. As an added bonus, you can find and equip various hats onto individual Rot to give them a little more personality. It’s very cute and one of my favorite touches from the developer. 

Early in the game, Kena meets the sibling pair Beni and Saiya and learns that they are looking for their lost brother, Taro. After Kena agrees to help the pair, they’ll appear periodically as you progress in your quest to find Taro. This is, of course, only about a 10-hour-long game, so this is to be expected.

Kena is very likeable, as are the others. Seeing the resolutions to their stories made me happy and left me wanting more—maybe as DLC or a sequel? I was, however, disappointed in the fact that we don’t really get to learn much about Kena herself. Most of the exposition is centered around the characters she helps rather than the person the game is named after.

STORY 7/10

The story, while simple and slightly cliché, is nonetheless engaging. As has been mentioned, the story centers around Kena after she journeys to the forest in which the game takes place. We meet several characters along the way who need our help, and we do our best to help them. As we do this we help rid the forest of the corruption that has engulfed it. Seeing the forest being restored to its former, pre-corruption glory is satisfying and made me want to keep playing. The excellent voice acting adds a lot. It’s much easier to care about a story when the characters are believable, as is the case with Kena: Bridge of Spirits.

OVERALL 8.2/10

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is fun, beautifully animated, and full of charm. For being Ember Lab’s very first game, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a very solid game that is well worth the $40 price tag for the standard version. I highly recommend that anyone interested in a short and relaxing (albeit sometimes challenging) action game give this a shot. Ember Lab has created a game that even a veteran development team could be proud of, and I for one am excited to see what else they’ll have in store in the future.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits was released on September 21, 2021 and is available now on PC through the Epic Games Store, PS4, and PS5. The PS5 version was used for this review. The reviewer purchased the game at full retail price. Disclaimer: This article contained Amazon affiliate links.