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Kena: Bridge of Spirits is our latest cover-story game, and we\u2019ve dedicated 14 pages in our issue<\/a> to Ember Lab\u2019s adventure title. We\u2019re sure you have plenty of questions about the game, which made its debut during Sony\u2019s PlayStation 5 reveal event. We certainly did, so we spent several days talking with the team and seeing the game in action (on PlayStation 5 hardware!), and we have answers to some of the biggest questions we saw floating around online.<\/p>\n Who is Kena?<\/strong> Does that mean if she dies in the game she will live on in limbo as a restless spirit because she wasn\u2019t able to help other spirits while she was alive? Unfinished business, and all?<\/strong> How do you pronounce her name?<\/strong> Does Kena talk?\u00a0<\/strong> Where are we, anyway?<\/strong> What\u2019s up with those little guys we saw in the trailer?<\/strong> What can they do?<\/strong> They can enter the fight? Uh oh. Can they die?<\/strong> What can Kena do?<\/strong> Some of that sounds kind of familiar. Is this like a 3D Zelda?<\/strong> Is there any kind of character customization?<\/strong> Are there microtransactions?<\/strong> That sounds really cute. Is there going to be a way for me to capture how adorable my team looks?<\/strong> What engine did they build this with?<\/strong> Is this an open-world game?<\/strong> What is the advantage of PS5 vs PS4?<\/strong> How long is it?<\/strong> How much does it cost?<\/strong> It looks cute, but is it challenging?<\/strong> This all sounds good, but I don\u2019t have a PlayStation. Am I out of luck?\u00a0<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n\n \t\t\tPublisher: Ember Lab<\/p>\n \t\t\tDeveloper: Ember Lab<\/p>\n \t\t\t\tRelease:
\nKena is the hero of the game. More specifically, she\u2019s a spirit guide \u2013 a person with a special gift who can help guide restless spirits to a peaceful end. In Kena: Bridge of Spirits\u2019 lore, people who have suffered great trauma or who have unresolved business can linger between the physical and spirit world, causing trouble for ordinary (living) people. Kena\u2019s job is to understand what\u2019s keeping them from moving on and helping them reconcile past events.<\/p>\n
\nOh. That\u2019s a good question. I have no idea how to answer that. Maybe ask something easier?<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s pronounced KAY-nuh. Whew!<\/p>\n
\nYep! Her voice acting wasn\u2019t finalized in the demo, but Ember Lab\u2019s chief creative officer, Mike Grier, told us that she has plenty to say. Kena is being played by an actress who also sings on\u00a0
\nseveral of the soundtrack\u2019s songs.<\/p>\n
\nBridge of Spirits is set in a fictional place that\u2019s an homage to a variety of different Eastern locations. You\u2019ll find nods to Japan, Bali, and other places in the geographic features and architecture. Kena\u2019s not from the place she explores in the game, either. She had to travel quite a distance to get there. Mike jokes that she didn\u2019t ride her bike over, to give you a sense of how far she\u2019s come.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/prod-media.gameinformer.com\/styles\/body_default\/s3\/2020\/09\/08\/eb2eed26\/kena_fishingrot.jpg\")
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\nThose are the Rot, and they\u2019re an important part of the game \u2013 both in terms of gameplay and the story. As Kena travels around, she can find them hidden in the world (think hidden Toads in a Paper Mario game), and they\u2019ll join her. That name isn\u2019t just coincidental. They\u2019re responsible for decomposing things, and the fact that they\u2019ve been scattered is one of the reasons why this region has become tainted with corruption.<\/p>\n
\nLots of things! Outside of combat, Kena can direct them to move things around to help her. Can\u2019t cross a big gap? Maybe they can pull a broken bridge back into shape temporarily. Can\u2019t climb up to that ledge? They can maneuver a block into position and give her a boost. In combat, Kena can tap into the Rot to distract enemies or infuse her attacks with special power. The Rot are timid by nature, however, and players will have to build their courage by damaging enemies before they\u2019ll enter the fight.<\/p>\n
\nNope! Mike doesn\u2019t want players to see the Rot as a consumable resource; once you find a Rot, they\u2019re part of the team forever. You don\u2019t need to worry about digging tiny little graves or anything morbid like that.<\/p>\n
\nShe can do lots of things. Besides using her staff\u2019s basic light, heavy, and charged attacks, she can get an upgrade that bends the staff and turns it into a bow. On defense, she can use a pulse ability to create a bubble-like shield around her. It has its own health meter, which gets depleted by enemy attacks. If she times its activation correctly, it will stagger enemies and make them more susceptible to attack.<\/p>\n
\nIf you got those kinds of vibes from the trailer, you\u2019re not far off. There\u2019s definitely a 3D Zelda influence in the game, which shouldn\u2019t come as a surprise considering an earlier Ember Lab project\u2026 [LINK TO MAJORA\u2019S MASK FILM]<\/p>\n
\nWe didn\u2019t see Kena put on different clothing or get any cosmetic upgrades during our demo. Players can outfit the Rot with a variety of different hats, however. Those can be found in the world, and players can purchase hats for individual members of the Rot crew by spending gems that are also found in the world.<\/p>\n
\nNo.<\/p>\n
\nIf you\u2019re asking about a photo mode, the team shares your enthusiasm. Josh says the studio wants to include such a mode, but they can\u2019t say whether that feature will make it in time for launch or if it would come via a later update.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/prod-media.gameinformer.com\/styles\/body_default\/s3\/2020\/09\/08\/120a7520\/kena_combatcu.jpg\")
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\nWeird question, but Ember Lab built Kena: Bridge of Spirits with Unreal 4. An earlier prototype was built in Unity, but development shifted over to Unreal.<\/p>\n
\nNope! You\u2019ll encounter a village fairly early on in the game, and that serves as a hub. From there, you can travel to several connected regions. Think of it as being wide linear. There are secrets to find and things to discover off the main path, but it\u2019s not an open-world game.<\/p>\n
\nWe only saw the game running on PlayStation 5, so we can\u2019t offer any side-by-side comparisons, but there are differences between the PS4 and PS5 versions. One of the most notable is the number of Rot that you\u2019ll see onscreen. On PS5, all of them can be visible simultaneously. On PS4, you\u2019ll still be able to collect all 100 of them in the world, but you\u2019ll see fewer of them at a time. They won\u2019t be any less effective in combat or during puzzle solving, but there won\u2019t be as many of them visible at once. Also, the forests and overall foliage is denser on PlayStation 5.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s tough to put an exact number on this, because of the number of side activities, but Josh says they set out to make something players could comfortably finish over a weekend.<\/p>\n
\nKena: Bridge of Spirits isn\u2019t going to be priced at $60. We don\u2019t know the exact price yet, but it won\u2019t cost as much as a traditional full-priced retail game. If you buy it on PS4, you can upgrade the game to PS5 at no additional cost, too.<\/p>\n
\nMike says the team has a lot of Sekiro and Soulsborne fans on the dev team, and while the game isn\u2019t quite up to FromSoftware’s difficulty, players will be challenged on the highest setting. On the other end of the spectrum, enemies won\u2019t be able to one-shot you in most difficulty settings; you\u2019ll be able to sustain one final sliver of health to give you a fighting chance against tougher enemies. Ember Lab wanted to make a game that families could enjoy together, whether your family just wants to enjoy the story or is looking for tougher battles.<\/p>\n
\nYou\u2019re not! It\u2019s also coming to PC via the Epic Games Store. As for when, Ember Lab hasn\u2019t nailed down a specific release date, but you can expect to be playing it within a few months from now.<\/p>\n![\\\"IT\u96fb\u8166\u88dc\u7fd2](\\\"http:\/\/itteacheritfreelance.hk\/test\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/logo2-2.png\\\"){kind=logo}
\r\nwww.itsec.hk<\/a>
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