Tales Of Kenzera: Zau’s Leads On Exploring Grief And Loss Through A Metroidvania

Summary

“My feelings go from ‘oh my god it’s happening’ to ‘yeah it’s happening’,” Surgent Studio founder andTales of Kenzera: Zaucreative director Abubakar Salim tells me. “It’s great but it’s terrifying. I’m very much of the mentality of let’s just enjoy it while we can. You never get a first time again. That’s something I’m really looking forward to exploring and expressing as we go along.”

The Game Awards faced a lot of criticism last year for how it treated anyone who wasn’t Hideo Kojimaor one of The Muppets, frequently hurrying them off-stage before they could enjoy their well-earned achievement. But there was one bright moment among it all.Abubakar Salim, best known for playing Bayek in Assassin’s Creed Origins, took the stage to announce Tales of Kenzera: Zau, a game that explores grief through the lens of aMetroidvania.

Zau with the Sun and Moon masks in Tales of Kenzera: Zau.

Before announcing Surgent Studios’ first-ever title, Salim delivered an emotional and heartfelt speech about how the game, which had been in development for four years, was a tribute to his late father, whose passing inspired the message it was trying to deliver.

A Story All About Grief That’s Not Doom And Gloom

While grieving, Salim was surprised to find that, despite such a big part of his life being gone, the world kept moving, introducing new responsibilities for him as the “man of the family”. That, combined with the fact that he couldn’t properly communicate his feelings, pushed him to look for a way to express himself.

“What pushed me was this feeling of wanting to tell an authentic and honest tale in regards to the journey of grief I experienced,” Salim says. “I feel like a lot of the time whenever we see grief it’s like this sad, morose, down-in-the-dumps thing, whereas from my experience, it felt more like a wake-up call.

Zau launching off a platform in Tales of Kenzera: Zau.

“It’s incredibly isolating and, even though everyone will go through it in their lives, it feels very lonely and unique to you because of the experience you go through with it. That’s what drove me and got me to want to tell this story that explored this human truth in a way that felt honest to me, but also respectful of my father and that connects to other people as a whole.”

Salim isn’t just the director, as he also voices the titular character, something he wasn’t originally planning on doing until the rest of the studio convinced him.

Zau using the Sun mask in combat in Tales of Kenzera: Zau.

For someone who has made a name for themselves as an actor, Zau’s announcement and the formation of Surgent Studios came as quite a surprise. Although Salim has long been involved with video games thanks to his role inAssassin’s Creed Origins, directing a game from his own newly-founded studio was a bold move.

Salim could have pitched the idea to another studio and had them develop it, but he tells me that one of the reasons he put together his own was so that he could be in the position to craft a space that respects both the developers and the audience, while also telling a human-centric story that mattered.

Salim also says that Surgent Studios being independent is why Tales of Kenzera: Zau not only had a demo before release (a rarity in this generation) but why it’s priced at just $20.

A Change In Medium For Salim

“Whenever I think of my father, I think of games,” Salim tells me. “He was the guy that brought me into games, who allowed me to enjoy the medium of games. Especially at the time when it was almost seen as a bad thing, he was the one person who was really like, ‘No, no, enjoy yourself, keep playing with it, keep going with this hobby’. It really just made sense to do it as a game”.

With Tales of Kenzera: Zau proudly inspired by an emotional and vulnerable time in Salim’s life, you’d expect Surgent Studios would be nervous about handling such a personal story. As it turns out, though, Salim isn’t the only one on the team who understands grief.

“I had a somewhat similar experience losing my own dad,” lead gameplay designer Zi Peters tells me. “I could easily understand where he was coming from, and things I could bring to the table when it came to handling that side of the game. It also served as a strong motivational factor for us as well. It was like, I want to do this game but it’s more than just a game, it’s a hugely important aspect to him and what his dad meant to him.”

Tales of Kenzera: Zau is far from the first indie game to tackle such heavy themes, but it is in an interesting position as a Metroidvania. Although a very popular genre filled with beloved games like Castlevania, Metroid, and Hollow Knight, its focus is typically on gameplay instead of story-telling.

Metroidvanias Are Perfect For Explaining Grief

Considering the main focus of Zau is to authentically tell a story about two young men struggling to deal with loss, the Metroidvania genre might seem like a strange pick. For Salim, though, it was the only possible option.

“The Metroidvania genre is exactly like grief,” Salim says. “In a sense, you’re thrown into a world you have no control over, you’re kind of lost in it. You’re winging it and there’s no guide or book as to how to go through it and you’re discovering secrets as you go along.”

Peters tells me that, from the moment Zau was revealed to him more than four years ago, it was pitched as a Metroidvania, something Salim was particularly set on.

Despite deciding on the genre before Zau even entered development and had its team fully formed, its unique position as a game that focuses on its story as much as gameplay meant there weren’t too many specific titles that inspired it. Instead, Peters says that the “genre as a whole” acted as a jumping-off point, while there were plenty of games that Surgent Studios looked into and researched, it wanted to carve a unique identity for itself.

“We really wanted to have something that has a strong emotional core that not many Metroidvanias do,” Peters says. “Delivering on that with a really personable story for the character, and really trying to tie the narrative into the gameplay and make them work in sync with each other.”

Tales Of Kenzera Is Just The Beginning

Tales of Kenzera: Zau may have only just been released today and has taken four long years to make, but Salim and Surgent Studios already have a lot of ideas about where the series could go in the future. Salim likens his plans to make the game available in many different formats to his experience growing up withPokemonand simultaneously experiencing it across gaming, TV, and the TCG.

“I want to put the story of Tales of Kenzera in every format and in every way by exploring different characters and different time frames - I’ve got a plan of where I want the story to go,” Salim says. “There’s a reason why Zau was the first story, and there’s a puzzle I’m trying to create, a picture I’m trying to paint, and if Zau is a huge hit it gives me insurance. You have no idea what I have in store.”