A few months ago, Sony announced in one of their State of Play videos that Kena: Bridge of Spirits is getting a sequel in 2026 called Kena: Scars of Kosmora. I played a little bit of the original Kena a while back, but I bounced off of it for no apparent reason. Seeing the new trailer made me want to give it another shot and they also released it on the Switch 2, which would make it easier for me to play. I have since finished Kena: Bridge of Spirits and it has me even more excited for the sequel coming this year.
I remember reading the reviews when it came out and largely people were saying that it was simple but solid. I would agree with that sentiment, but being a little more in the mood to tackle a game like Kena, it clicked with me a lot more this time. The game is incredibly charming, largely thanks to the animation pedigree from Ember Lab. The cutscenes truly feel more like I am watching an animated film and I love the character designs for both the human characters and the adorable little rot characters.
It does suffer from some strong difficulty swings, particularly in the boss battles where I was constantly squeaking by with a sliver of health after several attempts. The game also has some challenges that are really tough, but I didn’t do many of them since my primary interest was in finishing the game. Nothing ever felt completely unachievable, but it did rise to frustrating a few times. That being said, Kena: Bridge of Spirits was a really fun game overall. Even though the skill tree was pretty small, it felt like I developed my own play style from it and the game pushes you to vary things up a little bit with the variety of enemies they throw at you.
If you saw the Kena: Scars of Kosmora trailer and thought about going back to the original, I would definitely recommend it.
