Kena: Bridge of Spirits is about a young girl, the titular Kena, on a journey to help spirits pass into the afterlife. She is a reaper by trade and as is the case with many spirits, some don’t want to leave this mortal coil. That’s where the real plot begins as she discovers her land is in peril of rotting away due to a spiritual curse.
In order to solve this crisis, she finds these littler critters called The Rot. It’s an ironic name since these adorable munchkins can help heal the land. It’s sort of a cross between Okami, which itself was an homage to The Legend of Zelda, and Pikmin. Among these many inspirations, Kena: Bridge of Spirits manages to find a name for itself too, and is getting great reviews on PS5. Let’s go through some early tips.
7 The Difficulty Options
There are three difficulty options at the beginning of the game. There is also a fourth difficulty that can be unlocked for players that want a real challenge the next time around. The easiest difficulty creates a fair pace that should be fine for casual gamers.
It helps the most with combat in Kena: Bridge of Spirits. It’s not as accessible as other platformers from 2021, like Psychonauts 2, but it’s good to know there are options out there.
6 Look Above
The best piece of advice to give players early on is to look up. Chances are there will always be something above whether that is a jar containing a new Rot friend, or a chime. If a chime is glowing blue, it is filled with crystals.
It’s a good idea to constantly be hitting that ping button because of this. Players never know what is around the corner or off-screen. There are also a lot of puzzles with obscure switches hidden above like crystals embedded in trees. If players are stuck then chances are the solution is right above. This is a general rule of thumb.
5 Finding Rot Is How You Level Up
There is no traditional way of leveling up like in an RPG. There are two distinct ways to improve Kena. The first is through collecting Rot. The more Rot players collect, the higher level they will achieve.
This allows them to buy deeper upgrades in the menu from new attacks with the staff to abilities like slowing down time with the bow. Health can be improved through mediation points found in the world. They are like the Haiku spots in Ghost of Tsushima except with more of a reward at the end.
4 Focus On The Bow
The bow is the most useful weapon players will get early on. This allows them to attack from a distance as well as hit weak points on bosses. Some will have big glowing bits that practically shout at players to strike them. The best reason to focus on upgrades for the bow is the aforementioned slow down of time.
This can be achieved while aiming down the sights. This makes it easier to get cleaner shots with energy arrows, but it also helps when trying to aim the Rot. The bow is Kena’s best friend so a good chunk of the upgrade currency should go to it. Using the photo mode is also good to look for enemy weaknesses while the game is paused.
3 Don’t Forget To Manually Save
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is relatively bug-free but there will be an occasional glitch that can halt progress. Sometimes the menus will freeze, forcing players to hard reset the game. Sometimes there will be a button prompt on the screen that won’t go away like the Triangle button on the PS5 controller.
This makes it impossible to interact with other Triangle-based commands, again, forcing players to reset. While a simple reload of reset may work, players never know if that file will be corrupted. That’s why it is important to save manually often and to diversify among the five slots available just in case.
2 How To Heal
This might be an obvious tip for some but might be a bit more obscure for others due to the game being unclear. During normal encounters or boss fights, there will be blue corrupted flowers in the arena. Usually, if players fling Rot at corrupted plants, this will stop enemies from dispersing more.
These blue plants, as pictured above, work differently. If the Rot are sent into them the plant will instead release healing energy. Sometimes they can even be used multiple times before disappearing. That’s the major healing method for battle in Kena: Bridge of Spirits.
1 Take Notes Of Foreign Objects
This game is not quite a Metroidvania but it does have elements players can recognize from that genre. There will be tools and abilities gained that will open up new paths in the world. The bow is the first big example.
If something looks inaccessible or locked after the first encounter, chances are that thing or place may open up with a new ability. That’s why it is important to make manual notes while exploring the world. This is a good tip to dish out to true Metroidvanias.
Kena: Bridge Of Spirits was released on September 21, 2021, and is available on PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5.