What is the Tales of Kenzera Zau release date? This Metroidvania from Surgent Studios is an absolute feast for the eyeballs, that’s for sure. Takes of Kenzera Zau tells a story of loss and the lengths one person would go to to retrieve what they once had, even if they have to deal with the actual God of death in the process.
You’ve seen Metroidvania games before, sure, but Tales of Kenzera Zau is looking to take what you know and package it in a game that explodes with color, dialogue that swings with real verve, and a rewarding combat system that flows on the screen like water. Here is everything we know about the adventure game, including its release date, the story so far, and its two trailers.
Tales of Kenzera Zau release date
The Tales of Kenzera Zau release date is Tuesday, April 23, 2024. It will be available on PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and the EA app. Tales of Kenzera Zau will also be available on Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo Switch.
You can currently pre-order Tales of Kenzera Zau on any of those platforms and receive several bonuses, including a 10% discount, visual effect variants, in-game skill unlocks, and a digital companion comic. There is also a Tales of Kenzera Zau demo, which is now available to download on Steam as of February 5, 2024.
Surgent also has an active Discord server. The Tales of Kenzera Zau Discord is where you can talk to the team of developers and keep up to date with any new information that may surface about the platforming game.
Tales of Kenzera Zau story
Tales of Kenzera Zau tells the story of Zau, a young shaman grieving the loss of his father. Zau decides to embark on a journey to retrieve his father – his Baba – by negotiating with the God of death themselves. Zau must face his own emotions to become a worthy Nganga – spiritual healer – and, along the way, make peace with loss and death while embracing the power of love.
The story takes cues from actor Abubakar Salim’s own experience with grief, and, according to the official Tales of Kenzera Zau website, it is about “discovering how love gives us the courage to press on after a devastating loss.”
Tales of Kenzera Zau trailers
The first Tales of Kenzera Zau trailer preps us for the story and gives us a glimpse of the astonishing 2.5D environments and two-toned combat system. To defeat your enemies, you’ll use two masks: the Sun and The Moon. These masks grant Zau unique powers and must be used correctly to best his most fearsome foes.
Zau’s Sun mask powers revolve around fire, and with it equipped, he can launch fiery spears at his enemies and burn parts of the environment. The Moon powers act as a counterpoint to this, granting Zau the ability to crystallize enemies and his environs, with the added plus of being able to control time.
We see huge bosses, a variety of enemies, and some mind-twisting platforming areas. It looks like Zau’s powers will be used for navigation as much as dispatching enemies, with environmental hazards and tricky layouts putting his abilities to the test.
A second, more gameplay-focused trailer was shown during the Xbox Partner stream in March 2023. We see more of the basic combat as Zau fires projectiles with the Moon mask and slashes enemies with the Sun mask, but we also see more of the individual mask powers. Sun can generate platforms, while Moon destroys them.
New powers are learned by visiting shrines, such as Bamba’s Stone, a Moon mask ability that freezes enemies and moves water. We also see more of Akida’s Spear, the Sun fiery spear ability mentioned earlier, as this trailer reveals that it can go through multiple enemies at once.
Each skill you learn can be upgraded with skill points, such as adding an additional strike to a light attack combo in the Sun mask tech tree or increasing the maximum Light Charges for the one with the Moon mask. You can also equip trinkets that add new perks, such as increasing spirit gained by juggling foes or increasing damage inflicted on enemies that are slammed into each other or the local environment. Finally, we see one of the bosses: a giant thunderbird that calls upon lightning to strike down Zau.
There’s everything we know about Tales of Zendera Zau, but rest assured we’ll update this guide whenever new information becomes available. If you’re looking to play something similar in the meantime, the new Prince of Persia game got a healthy review from our very own Will, and if not that, then check out our best PC games list here. There’s bound to be something on there that tickles your fancy.