If you haven’t had the chance to play this one before, it’s quite the charmer, while its gameplay has earned it quite a bit of praise since its 2021 release date. It follows Kena as she guides despondent spirits trapped between her world and the afterlife while trying to stem the ever-growing corruption that’s affecting the world. It’s quite the tale, and is likely to have you occupied right off the bat until it ends.

The Switch 2 version is bringing everything that put the original release on the map, including a fantastic combat system, a world full of secrets and mystery, and a New Game+ mode that lets you take on the adventure a second time with all of your unlocks in place. Enemies also get additional boosts to keep things interesting.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is also available for PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S. It’s definitely worth playing if you’re thinking of diving into the sequel when it drops later this year for the PS5 and PC.

Of course, this won’t just be the base game, which follows Kena as she ventures to an abandoned village to help its ailing spirits. It includes the Anniversary Update with New Game+, additional outfits, revamped combat encounters, and Spirit Guide Trials. You can also collect new Charmstones that offer benefits like increased bow damage for a short time after defeating an enemy or fully restoring shields on parry.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is currently available on PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. You can check out our review of the base game and thoughts on the Anniversary Edition to see how much things have improved.

As for Kena: Scars of Kosmora, it launches later this year for PS5 and PC. Available to wishlist, it features a larger world and improved combat alongside an older Kena, who must face new threats. While Ember Lab is working with PlayStation Studios, it doesn’t fall under Sony’s alleged new directive to only release major first-party titles on PS5 going forward.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits, the first game, is notable for launching at $39.99, several years before the $50 price point looked more attractive. That may not be the case for Scars of Kosmora, especially with Ember Lab partnering with PlayStation Studios to expand on the scope. The sheer scale of the new region certainly indicates more premium pricing.

It’s unlikely to cross into the $70 threshold like most first-party PlayStation titles, but you never know. Kena: Scars of Kosmora launches later this year and focuses on a grown-up Kena, who’s now come into her own as a Spirit Guide. She’ll need all the help she can get, especially as new enemies await. Alongside gorgeous new locations to explore, players can look forward to more fluid combat compared to the original.

Kena also has a new mount, which can aid in exploration. You can even summon it during combat for an extra boost in speed. Stay tuned for more details ahead of its release in the coming months.

“Our partnership with PlayStation Studios has empowered us to expand our scope, while still staying true to what made the first game special,” they said in the announcement trailer. The reputation Kena cultivated in the previous game seemingly has her in good standing with the residents of Kosmora, a new region she explores in her capacity as a Spirit Guide. There are new threats for her to face, and new mysteries for her to investigate as she aims to help in both the physical and spiritual realms.

The sequel builds on the first game with a combat system that sees Kena wield her staff and bow to great effect, with fast, fluid animations that bring style and substance to each battle. Kosmora shines through with visual splendor alongside excellent enemy and boss designs that have us quite eager to get our hands on the game.

While details on the story are scarce at this time, we’re expecting a narrative with a lot of charm and heart, just like in Bridge of Spirits. Kena: Scars of Kosmora releases later this year for the PS5 and PC. You can check out the first trailer below.

Nearly three years ago, Ember Lab made its debut in the games industry with Kena: Bridge of Spirits, a charming, gorgeous action-adventure title that by no means set the world on fire, but won over its fair share of fans for the many strengths that it boasted. Now, after having spent three years as a PlayStation console exclusive, the game makes its way to Xbox consoles, giving those within Microsoft’s ecosystem the chance to dive in and see just how well the game holds up to scrutiny. Unsurprisingly, it’s a solid port of a solid game, and easy to recommend to any Xbox players on the lookout for a solid, semi-linear, traditional Zelda-like action-adventure title.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits puts you in the shoes of its eponymous protagonist, a spirit guide who arrives in an abandoned village that’s been taken over by a corruption that’s spreading, and spirits of people who died but failed to move on due to lingering past traumas. As a spirit guide, it’s Kena’s duty to help these people pass on and to clear the corruption that has taken over the village and its surrounding areas, with her ultimate goal being to get to the mountain shrine that looms over the village.

"Unsurprisingly, it’s a solid port of a solid game, and easy to recommend to any Xbox players on the lookout for a solid, semi-linear, traditional Zelda-like action-adventure title."

Narratively, Kena does a lot of good things- a lot of the characters that you meet can be genuinely endearing (even though the voice acting for a few can feel a bit too bland), while some of the individual arcs related to some of those characters can also legitimately tug at your heartstrings. At the same time, however, there are areas where the game stumbles. For instance, Kena herself is a disappointingly dull protagonist, while the story also tends to be a bit too rote and predictable more often than not, even when it’s well told.

The real wonder of this game is, of course, in the visuals. From a pure fidelity perspective, Kena: Bridge of Spirits more than holds up its own, but it’s the art style and the quality of its animations that really make the game pop the way it does. Gorgeous, vibrant environments that never fail to wow you with their visual splendour, characters’ faces and animations being so full of charm and personality, the adorable and whimsical little creatures known as Rot being as endearing as they are to simply look at- Kena boasts a strong visual identity in more ways than one, and developer Ember Lab’s expertise and background in animation is abundantly on display here. When it launched for PlayStation consoles and PC three years ago, I was strongly of the opinion that Kena: Bridge of Spirits was one of the prettiest and most visually pleasant games around, and I don’t think it has lost any of that sheen.

It’s not a spotless technical experience, however. For the most part, Kena looks and runs great on an Xbox Series X, the platform I’ve played and reviewed it on, though I did notice a handful of minor yet noticeable instances of frame rate drops. When I reviewed the game on PS5 in 2021, this wasn’t an issue I ran into, though some players on all platforms did mention frame skipping issues even at the time. Whether Kena: Bridge of Spirits has the same issue on Xbox consoles isn’t something that my technically illiterate self can tell you, but I can tell you that even though the issue isn’t a major one by any stretch of the imagination, it is one that some may notice and be at least slightly annoyed by. Hopefully, Ember Lab irons it out with a future patch.

"From a pure fidelity perspective, Kena: Bridge of Spirits more than holds up its own, but it’s the art style and the quality of its animations that really make the game pop the way it does."

On the gameplay front, Xbox players should expect a traditional Zelda-like action-adventure game with wide linear design. Kena is, in a nutshell, a textbook example of a solid game that’s more than happy to not go off the beaten path. Very rarely does it try to break genre conventions, to experiment, or to try something that you may not have seen in other games before, but it pulls together a whole lot of familiar elements, implements them in equally predictable ways, and produces a gameplay experience that isn’t going to surprise anyone by any means, but is going to provide plenty of fun and engagement.

In almost all ways, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a fairly straightforward game. That’s not to say it is lean – it can easily last over a dozen hours and the gameplay experience that it does deliver isn’t necessarily one that you would call shallow – but it trims down a lot. Combat is the area where you’ve got the most going on, with different enemy types, Kena having access to a growing arsenal of moves and abilities, using your ever expanding army of tiny little Rot creatures, clearing corruption mid-battles, and more. Fights can also often provide more of a challenge than you may expect, especially when you’re taking on some of the key bosses. Though not revolutionary by any means, and though sometimes let down by the stiff movement, combat in Kena is largely a fun experience.

Exploration is similar. Wide linear areas never feel overly large, but there are often plenty of hidden paths, branching roads, optional rooms, and the like to seek out. Light puzzle solving and somewhat-less-light exploration yield various rewards, from currency to cosmetics to new Rot to add to your growing army of adorable Pikmin-like creatures. Again, Kena: Bridge of Spirits keeps things simple and familiar in the exploration and design department, but it implements its well-trodden ideas well enough to keep things engaging. Though again, similar to the combat, the somewhat janky movement can is a knock against the exploration, with simple actions such as jumping, double jumping, grabbing onto ledges, and the like never quite feeling the way they should.

"Kena: Bridge of Spirits keeps things simple and familiar in the exploration and design department, but it implements its well-trodden ideas well enough to keep things engaging."

Does Kena feel like it plays a bit too safe on the gameplay side of things? Maybe so- but though it doesn’t tread new ground and keeps things mostly pretty straightforward and streamlined, it still delivers an engaging gameplay experience, thanks largely to solid execution of its familiar ideas. I will say, however, just as I did when I originally reviewed the game on PS5- when it comes to progression mechanics, Kena feels a bit too barebones, which is something that becomes increasingly noticeable as you play more and more of the game. That lack of depth in progression mechanics can make it feel like a somewhat static gameplay experience from time to time.

Ultimately, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a solid game for Xbox players to dive into, even if it does come with its handful of flaws. If you’re looking for originality or peerless gameplay and design, Ember Lab’s action-adventure title may not be for you, but if a gorgeous setting, a well-told (if predictable) story, and engaging (if occasionally rough) combat and exploration are what you want, this is an easy game to recommend.

This game was reviewed on the Xbox Series X.

Speaking with Pure Xbox, Ember Lab’s chief operating officer Josh Grier revealed that Kena: Bridge of Spirits will run at 4K and 60 FPS on Xbox Series X, which is what you’d expect, since that’s what the game targets on PS5 as well. It’s worth mentioning, however, that the game’s PS5 version also has multiple graphics modes, so it remains to be seen whether the same will be the case on Xbox Series X as well.

On Xbox Series S, meanwhile, Kena will run at 4K and 30 FPS. Again, whether the developer also has a 60 FPS mode planned for the console is currently unknown.

Grier has also confirmed that Ember Lab isn’t looking to bring the action-adventure title to Game Pass anytime soon. “At the moment we don’t have plans for Xbox Game Pass,” he said when asked about the same.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is currently available on PS5, PS4, and PC, and launches for Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One on August 15. Read our review of the game through here.

Available for PS4, PS5, and PC, the story is focused on Kena, a Spirit Guide who helps restless spirits move into the afterlife. Venturing to an abandoned village, she encounters a spirit responsible for the corruption overtaking the land. Kena thus embarks on a mission, with the help of the Rot, to help the neighboring spirits and ultimately save the land.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits recouped its initial development costs in roughly a month, though sales figures have yet to be confirmed. Check out our review here – we awarded it an 8 out of 10 for its presentation, music, combat and more. It received the Anniversary Update in 2022, which brought new content like additional outfits, new Spirit Guide Trials, Charmstrones, New Game+ with revamped combat encounters and more. Head here for more details.

The ESRB has rated Kena: Bridge of Spirits – Deluxe Edition for Xbox Series X/S, with Maximum Entertainment listed as its publisher. There hasn’t yet been any official word on an Xbox release for the game, but the ESRB listing might suggest that that could change with an announcement in the not-too-distant future.

Shortly before Kena: Bridge of Spirits came out, Ember Lab it would “look into other platform releases after launch and a rest”, though no subsequent updates followed. Last year, the studio confirmed it was working on its next project, which it described as being “a little bit more ambitious” than Kena. 

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is available on PS5, PS4, and PC. In our review of the game, we awarded it a score of 8/10, saying, “Kena: Bridge of Spirits delivers an all around excellent experience that’s consistently engaging and manages to enrapture the player, even without doing anything particularly new or innovative.” Read the full review through here.

There’s the desire to “try to do something a little bit more ambitious as we grow” but the duo still wants to make something “that’s digestible.” As Josh Grier noted, “I guess you can call us ageing gamers, people who have less time to play things, so things that are more approachable from a scope perspective are always more appealing to us.

“We’ll try to do something a little bit more ambitious as we grow, but we’re still trying to be conscious of making something that’s digestible and something that we will want to play as gamers right now in our current pace of life with kids and stuff.” Interestingly, their next project may not even be a game.

“We’re filmmakers by trade, and essentially, we’d like to look at linear media. There are great examples out there in the world. Something like Kena exploring the universe in different mediums outside of the interactive ones. There are a lot of opportunities out there. We’d love to do that.” That doesn’t necessarily mean a movie based on Kena, but as noted, there are plenty of opportunities.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits is available for PS4, PS5 and PC. The story follows Kena, a spirit guide who helps guide the spirits of the deceased to the afterlife with the help of the Rot. Upon venturing to an abandoned village, Kena must battle a mysterious spirit and decay affecting the neighboring forest to assist the spirits. Check out our review for more details.

There are new Spirit Guide Trials, which range from Obstacle Courses and Wave Defenses to Boss Reflects. Completing these bestows new outfits, some inspired by different Spirits that Kena meets on her journey. If you complete the bonus objectives for each Trial, you can unlock color variations for each outfit.

Charmstones are also new and provide different “adjustments” to Kena’s abilities and stats. In addition, there’s New Game+, allowing players to start a new playthrough with previously unlocked upgrades, Rot, etc. The combat encounters have been “completely redesigned” and are “more demanding” in New Game+, so it’s a good way to test one’s skill.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits on Steam costs $40 for the Standard Edition and $50 for the Deluxe Edition. However, a 25 percent launch discount is active for the next seven days. Those who own the Deluxe Edition can even net an additional outfit.