InTales of Kenzera: Zau, players step into the shoes of a young Shaman called Zau. Grieving for the loss of his father, Zau makes a deal with Kalunga, the God of Death, to return his father in exchange for three Great Spirits. These mythological bosses have eluded Death’s clutches, and Zau must learn to wield the Masks of the Moon and Sun if he is to succeed in his quest. On one hand,Tales of Kenzera: Zauis a game about grief as players venture across its various emotionally themed biomes, from the anxious ledges of the Highlands to the dark and fearful Woodlands and further. On the other hand, it’s also a game that showcases the richness of Bantu folklore and tradition, where Bantu tales are often passed on verbally and can change their form according to the storyteller.
Game Rant recently attended aTales of Kenzera: Zaupreview event and spoke with Surgent Studios' lead designer Zi Peters and art lead/character artist Ackeem Durrant about Zau’s journey and the mythological bosses he will face. Peters and Durrant also spoke aboutTales of Kenzera: Zau’s demo feedback, Steam Deck verification, and much more.The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Tales Of Kenzera: Zau’s Approach to Grief and Metroidvanias
Q: In the preview, you talked about a few classic and modern Metroidvanias as inspirations for the gameplay and level design likeHollow KnightandOri. Were there any specific inspirations from any of these games?
Peters:I think the Metroidvania genre as a whole was an inspiration. There are common traits that kind of carry over quite strongly through various installments in the genre itself. I think, from the gameplay side, we did really like howOripushed a lot on the platforming aspect ofMetroidvania games. I think we did really well as quite a relatively small team in being able to deliver a lot of variety in our platforming challenges that we were pushing, so that was kind of a strong aspect.
Overall, Ackeem might be able to talk a bit more too, but I guess from theOriside, it was the beauty in that world that you’re going into, and what does that mean for us in terms of doing thisAfrican-inspired world? Having that sense of not just the visual beauty, but the world building into it as well. Certainly, fromTheWill of the Wisps, as they pushed more into the combat sort of sense. It’s kind of similar as well, I guess, withGuacameleebeing quite entrenched in that combat sort of side, in the Metroidvania inspirations that we had at least. I think those aspects kind of resonated quite strongly for us in terms of makingZau.
Durrant:Yeah, I mean, just to chime in - even in terms of us handling that heavy theme of grief, when it comes toOriand the storytelling, it’s beautifully told. It is asad story, especially when you jump in and see exactly what happens to Ku and so on, but it’s beautifully told and it’s engaging. There are lots of other games that do it, but within the genre, there are not a lot of games that touch on that. You get your sort of mysterious ways of storytelling, you get your “Yeah, just dripped here and there,” or you get your games that they don’t really care about the story. But we did have a focus on that, so that’s a big reference for it as well. Yeah, as well as just running around the world that’s all so bright, colorful, interesting to look at, or even stand at and see what’s just going on.
We had other references, of course, but then that was a nice reference for a good touchstone in terms of a Metroidvania parallel. We also have comic book and anime references that we also love and so forth, and that all gets mixed into it.
Q: It seems Zau’s journey through grief is core to the whole experience. How might the five traditional stages of grief be important in the game? Is that something that we will see in the game?
Peters:To a degree, I think. From the outset, it was important to Abu - he mentioned to us grief can be very different depending on an individual, so it’s maybe not always kind of structured the same for everybody. It was really more so calling back to his personal experience of going through grief, right? There are some parallels there with the traditional stages of grief. So, as Ackeem mentioned in the presentation, we’ve got biomes that are visually and audibly themed to these different emotional states along that journey. We also attempt to tie into that as well with the combat and the traversal as an analogy for that journey through thoseemotions. So yeah, it is something that we did look into, but it was very much also looking into the specific experience, particularly from Abu with what he went through and how we could use that as our kind of springboard for what we were going to deliver withZau.
Durrant:Today, as well, we were even speaking with Dom, the narrative designer, and he was even saying, like, “We’re not trying to be therapists when we tell this story.” We’re not literally going through the stages one by one. Because, for example, you meet characters along the way – from the first stage, you meet a character, and it’s like how do they go through it? How do they deal with it? You can take notes, you can take touchpoints from each of those stories, but it’s not to say that we even have a conclusion that is solid for every player. Every player will be able to take something out of it in some way along that journey, so that’s mainly the aim, rather than saying, “Let’s go through the five stages and let’s teach your mind, let’s tell you everything about it.”
It’s very much how do people interpret that, how do people handle it, and then how do we then showcase that from a different lens as well, to give people an insight about that.
Skill Tree Upgrades In Tales Of Kenzera: Zau
Q: For the mask and the skill upgrades, how can players expect to upgrade those as they progress through the game?
Peters:Yeah, so we’ve got the core abilities that are tied to the ability gates that go through and open up the Metroidvania world. From the demo, you will have seen Bamba’s Stone, which allows you to freeze water and then you may also freeze enemies. Those are along the critical path, and we use those to kind of gate progress through the critical path from where we want story beats to happen. Those are typically tied into traversal or being able to affect the world. We really wanted to be able to: one, not just open up more of the world to the player as they got these abilities, but also allow them to move through the world in an increasingly engaging way as they progress through the game.
There are also instances where we also try to add additional combat utility to those. With Bamba’s Stone, primarily in terms of the game progression, you have to use it to freeze the waterfalls and stuff, so you can wall jump off them and also get up the rapids back up to where the broken bridge is. At the same time, it has a combat utility where you can then use it tofreeze enemiesin place. You can use that as your crowd control as you freeze an enemy and deal with another one who’s not frozen, and that buys you a bit of time and eases the pressure a little bit. On top of that, we also have a skill tree that is more combat-focused so that the player earns experience as they go through the game. The player also has some choice in, “Okay, what specific things do I want to upgrade in the blue mask or the red mask that’s going to add extra utility for how I go into combat? Is it going to improve my chances, make me a bit stronger?”
We also have the trinket system, which is more kind of a statistical sort of buff system where you’re limited to a certain amount of trinkets that you can equip on Zau. As you discover more trinkets around the world, the player can then start to characterize their own build of Zau, right? Maybe I want my aerial attacks to be more effective because I do a lot of aerial stuff, so I use a trinket that makes my aerial attacks deal more damage. But then I’m weighing that up against, “What am I using that slot for against something else?” There might be another trinket, for example, which is like, “Oh, I take lesspoison damage,” for example. The player can switch in and out those trinkets to their desire and not just play with the stuff that we give you, but then also be able to kind of imprint your own personal preferences on Zau as well, as you go through the game.
Tales Of Kenzera: Zau’s Time Manipulation Mechanics and Inspirations
Q: Is freezing time the main way that players will get to manipulate time in the game?
Peters:It’s the same with freezing water; it’s very specific to the water and to enemies. We wanted to make sure that there were clear sorts of use cases for that ability as it goes through, and we didn’t want to negate any of the other abilities that the player would unlock later on. There’s another ability later on, so they’re not kind of all time-related, which is Pulse, for example. Similarly, it changes the status of these platforms and barriers. They either have a fully formed version or a broken version, and depending on the situation, you would want it to be one or the other. You can break it down by essentially kind of rewinding and fast-forwarding the state of an object.
If a barrier is in your way, you might want to Pulse it in a specificmaskthat kind of makes it crumble down to its component pieces, si you’re able to kind of pass through. In another case, it’s horizontal as a platform, and you need to go to the other mask and pulse and make it form back into its solid state. You can then jump and then get to the other side of an obstacle, and those are time-limited, so it creates some really quite interesting gameplay where you’re weighing up the time restriction on those but also which mask you need to be in to use that ability to have a specific effect, if that makes sense. Yeah, I think it’s something that when you get to that point in the game, you’ll see exactly what I mean, in terms of the engagement there.
Q: Were there any particular inspirations for the time mechanics?
Peters:I guess we started a lot with the functional basis for a lot of the mechanics: what gives us a cool way to be able to not just bypass these gates, but also what gives us an extra layer for Zau’s movement and in terms of combat. From the design side, we kind of had a lot of focus on that. I don’t know if Ackeem can maybe speak more to kind of like the theming of the abilities, visually and stuff.
Durrant:Yeah, from our perspective, we had each of those statues themed around the actual visual from the beginning, but then we had a unique one. The themes all had to do with the stories, and those stories were nicewhimsical storiesor folklore that we could tap into and get nice visuals for. When it comes to the time slow and things like that again, it was more linking to that whole moon, ethereal theme of stuff. One ability that we didn’t touch on that is more spoilery or, I don’t know if we’re keeping it a secret, is Grab. I don’t know if you want to mention that, Zi?
Peters:You can mention it, yeah.
Durrant: Grab is a really nice ability that’s also time-themed. With the abilities, the thing is you get into this flow with one character when you start playing. Obviously, you have the regular abilities that you unlock during progression, but the skills really do change up the gameplay. So, “I prefer the red mask, and then I’d go back to blue. And then I get this ability, but I’m like, this parries really well with that, and then I go from there.” But time with blue definitely opens up as you go through the skill tree, and then really opens you up to all those different possibilities of linking attacks and stuff like that. We very much themed everything off of thosefolkloreand stories that we waited to tell and went to town with the visuals for those as well.
Boss Fight And Themes In Tales Of Kenzera: Zau
Q: In the preview, you talked about the boss fights being themed and having a more intense combat experience. Could you tell us a bit more about them from a gameplay and theme perspective?
Durrant:Jumping into the feeling of it, when you have the Impundulu —not to dive into everything—but it’s very much a mother not wanting to let go of responsibility for a child. The Kikiyaon is really where a lot of the inspirations I spoke about shine as well when it comes to the platforming. When it comes to the difficulty of that, it’s not a conventionalboss fightin the same way that the other two fights are. We wanted to break things up, we wanted to give players room to breathe, and that took a lot of iteration and some reworking there as well to really get that working. But the traversal elements to there and the way that you’re not just fighting the boss one on one - very interesting, very cool.
Then we have the GaGorib as well, which is a fiery rage. It is that Tempest that you have to go up against, but there is also a justification for it. It’s not just an enemy for enemy’s sake, right? The stories that come from each of those are great because there’s closure to some degree, to whatever degree the player takes, there’s closure as well. But I’ll let Zi speak about the mechanics of them.
Peters:Yeah, I think with these I think they’re closely tied because we knew we were interpreting mythical creatures fromBantu mythologyalready. We did look, research, and attempt to take from that lore, like, what do these creatures represent? What are they typically known for doing? As Ackeem mentioned, the Impundulu - we knew it was a bird from the get-go. We knew that, you know, it’s referred to as the lightning bird. We knew that there was this element of lightning and weather manipulation, so that was a good jumping-off point: “Okay, what does this mean, functionally, for us in terms of what we can do with this?” Obviously, some things came to the forefront of our minds in terms of, “Okay, these lightning strikes down from the sky, and it being really fast because it’s this flying creature and everything.” Yeah, it’s definitely our own interpretation of that, and we really push those elements to get the variety that we needed. Whether it’s the variation and direction of the attacks and the different types of challenges they presented.
Tales Of Kenzera: Zau’s Art Style And Handcrafted Animation
Q: What were the inspirations from the gaming space for the art style, as well as of course Bantu culture, that you talked about in the preview?
Durrant:Yeah, I mean the ones that we mentioned before -Oriwas an inspiration, but so wasHollow Knight. EvenBaba is Youthat juxtaposes styles. The reason is, even when we’re just speaking about the Kikiyaon, for example, we wanted it to be thematically different. When it comes to that, we’re not just going to say, “Okay, cool, let’s just make everything darker.” It’s like, what can we really do to bring out the fear and the terror of the Kikiyaon, there’s even a little bit offourth wall breakinginto that fight as well when you go to some of the places again - trying not to give away everything.
When it comes to visuals, it was again comic books. It was sort of that anime element of stuff that we liked, butOriand so on came out as well. To be fair,Prince of Persiais one that gets thrown out a lot, but we sawPrince of Persiawhen we were wrapping up as well, so that was a surprise for us as much as it was for anyone else. There’s an interesting parallel there between the studio sort of starting at a very similar time and then releasing at a very similar time, but that would’ve been a direct inspiration for us if not for that.
Those were the central things, but to be fair, it was more so looking at, “Okay, this is what we’re representing, these are the characters". And as I showed in my slide show, we did start as a2D side scroller gamewith a bat companion. That lasted quite a while into production. Ultimately, we wanted that whimsical, but we also wanted a horror - I wouldn’t even call it horror necessarily - we wanted a weight, a gravitas to the whole thing where it felt like you could connect with the emotions of these characters. So yes, we still wanted that whimsical style, but we wanted that mix.
Q: Could you talk a little bit about yourhandcrafted animationprocess?
Durrant:Yes, Griff Warner would be the best person, but I’ll give it a shot. With animation, it’s one of those things that, just like with the art, just like with the gameplay we wanted, we wanted to craft everything. We wanted it to feel handcrafted, and we also wanted to inject that whimsy, that fantasy, that squash and stretch in places where it worked - that epicness in there as well. We didn’t want it to feel like mo-cap or anything else. It’s not so much tech driving our decisions. It’s more what we feel we are trying to get across, so that’s very much the same for animation, you know.
When you’re in combat, everything’s snappy, and it feels like you’re really controlling this player, that’s intentional. We didn’t want it to feel too weighty, but we also wanted it to feel good when you’re jumping around, switching masks, and going from enemy to enemy. If you want that frantic type of nature to things, you have to balance it out and have timings on point.
There was lots of balancing throughout, even with just getting in and out of the glide, for example. That was a thing that we wanted players to feel like they had control of, and they could see the visual cues that they needed to. Then just lots of bits were added, like enemies being thrown up or jumping up to different ledges and Zau doing ledge grabs into poking. When you’re in the red mask, you poke your spears in when you’re walking with a push block versus the blue mask - you sort of float it along and you’re pushing it. It’s just a feel with all of these different things that we wanted to inject. Even down to the backflip, whereOriwas an inspiration there, but when you just press a button to do a backflip, you do it on purpose even if it sometimes happens incidentally in combat. There’s a littleskill ceilingon even just doing the base moves. We wanted that type of feel to it as well.
Tales Of Kenzera: Zau Demo Feedback
Q: Was there anything that surprised or stood out to you from the demo feedback? Have there been any major gameplay changes since the demo?
Peters:I don’t think so. I think, you know, as we’re going through development at each of the stages, there are a lot of issues and things that we’re aware of and we know of. A lot of game development is prioritizing which thing to address at what time, so it certainly did help. It certainly did help reveal some things that maybe we weren’t fully aware of, but also just helped to shine a light on where to kind of put our attention to some of the things that we already knew that existed and how to go through that.
I think Abu mentioned - I don’t know if he mentioned it in the presentation, but in something else - but you know, the demo did help push the game. As I said, we’re a relatively small team, and gettingSteam Deck verifiedreally helped to push to make that happen on the tech side, in terms of being “Right, this is something that people are really keen about and really want. Let’s do the best we can to deliver on that and make that something that’s available for people.” They haven’t to go through these other extra hurdles to make that work on Steam Deck. Maybe the big standout would be we did get something through from that extra desire shown in the demo.
Durrant:Just to add a little bit, we love seeing the feedback. The teams were overwhelmed spinning up these messages, and then it had to be like, “Hey, how do we manage all of this?” We spun up a Slack channel to put everything in there and then just took notes. Again, a lot of the stuff that was there, like Zi said, it’s just about managing when we get to it. It was already stuff that was in the backlog to get to, but we were just making sure and checking everything to make sure there wasn’t anything strange. Because again, we are a small team, you know, and when something happens on a certain piece of hardware that maybe you’re not expecting or you start seeing X, Y, and Z, it’s helpful to see the feedback because, yeah, we don’t have all the scope in the world to test most things, even though we do get to everything eventually. Seeing it prematurely helps us, and it helps to speed the process along.
Peters:Yeah. We also do like a lot of our own sort of internal testing and stuff, play testing, but it was really helpful with the demo getting that wider sort of sense of people who are less familiar with the game, finding where those rough edges are and helping smooth out the difficulty ramps. Also because it’s set at the beginning of the game, we get a good look at the tutorialization, right? In terms of like, “Okay, are people understanding how we’re trying to teach them certain mechanics or not? What kind of barriers are there? Okay, what can we do to alleviate that a little bit?” It was super useful for that as well.
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