Tales of Kenzera: Zau

This is a positive review focused on addressing some of the points mentioned in the negative reviews for this wonderful game. I feel like the negative reviewers never played any other platformers and/or are very impatient people that expect story-driven games to be TikToks. I mean, one of the negative reviews is calling a heavy enemy a boss. This shows how some people aren't paying attention to the story and didn't even finish Act 1.

This game is a walk in the park compared to most platformers I played: super chill and quite easy. The amount of content (characters, enemies, collectibles, skills, upgrades, dialogue, etc.) is perfect. Backtracking to platinum is minimal and the platforming and combat are progressive, very fun and diverse enough not to be overwhelming. I understand that some people like more complicated and longer games, but the premise of this game is clearly "sit back and relax" (more reasons why will be mentioned below). Personally, I love games like this and Stray, and hate games that demand hours of grinding, tons of backtracking and dozens of attempts retrying things on a "Nightmare" difficulty to platinum.

Unlike some reviewers say, the controls respond very fast, the hit boxes are normal and the camera is almost always just fine. There are game with bad mechanics out there, but this sure isn't one of them. And like in every other game, it just takes some time getting use to them (I'm talking to you, negative reviewers with less than 2h of gameplay).

Insta-kill spikes exist for decades, and yet people are complaining even though they have checkpoints right before them. The enemies and their buffs are a balanced mix of easy and annoying, forcing you to to strategize on how to take each of them down and in what order, while still not demanding a lot of brain cells. They're also not as deadly as the spikes, so you have room to recover from mistakes.

Tastes are subjective, so you may or may not like the story. It's simple and cliché, but it's quite pretty. The important thing here is that this game is a love letter from the creator to his late father. The dialogue is ordinary for the theme of the game, which, for me, is fine. The characters are charming and their interactions are sweet. And if you fall in love with this world like I did, there's some character and world lore to read in the codex. The lore is short and you unlock them as you progress through the game, so it doesn't get boring.

As for the graphics, the style and the music: they're amazing! But then again, tastes are subjective. I just wish the in-game cutscenes were more animated.