I recently played the free demo for the upcoming 2D Metroidvania game Tales of Kenzera: Zau. This game will be released on April 23, 2024 for the Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series S&X, and PC. The demo is only available on Steam. I just want to give my thoughts on the brief demo that I played on PC and let you know about it.
Zau was first revealed at 2023’s Game Awards and was introduced by voice actor and founder of Surgent Studios who talked about how this game is in honor of his father who passed away. This game follows the titular Zau, a shaman from Kenzera, who is trying to find a way to bring his deceased father back to life. While the demo doesn’t give away much, it does provide a glimpse into a uniquely human story rooted in mysticism.
Being a demo, it still has some technical flaws that need to be ironed out such as frame rate dips, but it was still a relatively smooth experience. The demo was only about 30 minutes long so I didn’t get a super in-depth dive into the mechanics, but the parts I did play were really fun. The platforming and movement feel great and like the developers will continue to build on the foundation of the gameplay. The upgrades I did receive in my brief time with it made the game feel deeper. The combat was mostly against copy and paste enemies but I’m sure the developers are keeping all of their best boss and enemy designs close to their chest for when it actually launches in April. Combat was varied and designed to guide the player to make long combo chains and blend their different abilities together. It was a little clunky and needed some polish but it was a fun time.
Overall I think it was a really fun demo and I’m looking forward to its release in April. Check out the demo now until February 12th.