Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a 2021 action-adventure video game developed and published by Ember Lab. The story follows Kena, a young spirit guide who uses her magical abilities to help deceased people move from the physical to the spirit world. The game is presented through a third-person perspective. The player uses Kena's staff for attacking enemies, and her pulse ability for defending against attacks. They are tasked with collecting small spirit companions known as the Rot, who help to complete tasks and battle against enemies.
The game's development was led by brothers Mike and Josh Grier, founders of Ember Lab. Having spent five years creating commercials and branded applications, the development team shifted to creating an original video game after 2016. They partnered with Sony Interactive Entertainment for a console-exclusive deal, and grew the team to 15 core employees. The game's art was created in collaboration with Vietnamese animation studio Sparx, and its fictional world is inspired by Eastern locations such as Japan and Bali. The original score was composed by Jason Gallaty, who collaborated with Balinese ensemble group Gamelan Çudamani to create gamelan music respectful to the culture.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits was showcased at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2021. Following some delays, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the game was released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Windows in September 2021, for the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in August 2024, and for the Nintendo Switch 2 in March 2026. It received generally positive reviews, with particular praise directed at its artistic design, original music, and the use of the Rot, though critics were divided on the gameplay, narrative, and characters. It received several awards and nominations from video game publications and awards ceremonies. A sequel, Kena: Scars of Kosmora, is scheduled to release in 2027.
Gameplay
Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an action-adventure game played from a third-person perspective. The player controls Kena, a young spirit guide with magical abilities. In combat, the player uses Kena's staff for light, heavy, and charged attacks. An upgrade transforms the staff into a bow, which can be used to attack enemies, act as a grappling hook, or hit crystals to solve puzzles. When defending against enemies, the player can activate Kena's pulse ability, which acts as a shield and has a health meter that depletes when attacked; it serves to provide clues and activate objects, and an upgrade allows the player to dash forwards, which can be used to pass through barriers to the Spirit Realm, dodge attacks and stun enemies, and corporealize spirit enemies. Activating the pulse ability before an attack stuns the enemy. The player gains the ability to use Spirit Bombs, which can be used to float shimmering rocks for platforming or as a stun attack against enemies.
The player is tasked with collecting small spirit companions known as the Rot. They can be directed to complete tasks, such as moving objects, taking certain shapes, or distracting enemies. The player must damage enemies to collect enough courage before the Rot can join battles. Directing the Rot to complete a task during battle will expend courage, which can be regained by continuing to attack enemies and collecting the dropped courage. The Rot can infuse the player's arrows or bombs to provide a stronger attack. The Rot can be customized with different hats, which are discovered by completing tasks or opening chests; when discovered, they become available at the Rot Hat Cart, where they are purchasable using Gems earned and discovered throughout the game world. The player earns karma by completing tasks and finding collectibles, which is used to unlock upgrades and abilities such as more powerful attacks or a stronger shield. Throughout the world, the player may discover spirit mail, which is used to unlock areas within the village and free the spirits within. The player may find locations to meditate; doing so will increase their overall health meter. The game utilizes the DualSense controller's haptic feedback for features such as Kena's spirit bow.
Plot In the world of Kena: Bridge of Spirits, deceased people can remain between the physical and spirit worlds if they are traumatized or feel unfinished. The task of spirit guides is to understand their difficulties and help them to move on. In the game, a young spirit guide named Kena (Dewa Ayu Dewi Larassanti) travels to an abandoned village in search of the sacred Mountain Shrine. She collects small companions called the Rot, who help her throughout her journey. On the way to the village, she confronts a powerful masked spirit who reveals himself to be the cause of corruption in the forest, forcing it to decay and unleashing deadly monsters on the land. Kena insists she can help his spirit move on, but he refuses and leaves. In the village, Kena meets former elder Zajuro (Vlasta Vrána), who informs her she must help the trapped spirits before being granted passage to the shrine.
Kena follows the spirits of two young children, Saiya (Sam Cavallaro) and Beni (Joshua Vincent), whose older brother Taro (Tod Fennell) is a restless spirit struggling to move on. After discovering relics of Taro's memories, Kena defeats the corruption that has overtaken him. Taro tells her, after a sickness killed their parents and spread throughout the village, he took his siblings and sought help from Rusu (Alan Adelberg) but they were told to return to the village. On the journey back, Taro witnessed the explosion of the Mountain Shrine; its impact wiped out the village. As a spirit, he desperately searched for his siblings, but the corruption overwhelmed him. Kena tells Taro to forgive himself, and that his siblings need him; he embraces them, and their spirits move on.
Kena seeks to help the village's Woodsmith, Adira (Amber Goldfarb); on the way, she encounters the spirit of Adira's partner, Hana (Gita Miller). After Kena finds relics of Adira's memories, Adira tells her she and Hana had discovered how to focus the energy of the Mountain within the Village Heart, but it had started to fade. When the sickness began to spread throughout the village, Hana left to search for food and supplies, but never returned. To help Hana find her way home, Adira built a tower and put the Village Heart at the top of it; while doing so, the Mountain Shrine exploded, wiping her out. Kena tells Adira to forgive herself, and the work she built with Hana would forever be a part of the land; Adira and Hana embrace, and their spirits move on.
To reach the Mountain Shrine, Kena attempts to help the powerful masked spirit, revealed to be the former village leader Toshi (Masashi Odate), but his corruption overpowers her. Kena finds relics of Toshi's past in the spirit realm and attempts to free him of corruption, but he overpowers her again and takes control of the Rot. She confronts him atop the mountain, where he fuses the Rot with corruption to create a giant corrupted Rot monster. Kena takes back the Rot and defeats the creature. Toshi tells Kena he sought answers after the village was overcome with sickness; Zajuro told him it was the natural cycle of the Rot God and they must find a new home, but Toshi refused. He confronted the Rot God atop the Mountain to inquire about the suffering inflicted upon his people. The Rot God did not answer, provoking Toshi to kill it and causing the explosion that wiped out the village and its inhabitants. Kena tells Toshi to forgive himself, and his and Zajuro's spirits move on. Kena bids farewell to the Rot, revealed to be fragments of the Rot God. The Rot combines to restore the spirit of the Rot God while Kena meditates on the Mountain Shrine.
Development
Kena: Bridge of Spirits was developed by Ember Lab, an independent studio based in Los Angeles. Founded in 2009 by brothers Mike and Josh Grier, the studio worked on several animated commercials and branded game applications, and in 2016 released a viral short film based on The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask titled Terrible Fate. Following the release of Terrible Fate, the development team felt creating a video game was the "natural next step". While developing the story for Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Ember Lab considered an animated film or series; after creating the Rot, they realized a video game would be more appropriate as the creatures provided a connection between gameplay and narrative.
Along with a small team, Mike used his experience with programming to create a prototype over several years, before employing staff with more development experience. Once the prototype was complete, in March 2017 the team began pitching to potential publishing partners with assistance from industry veteran Tina Kowalewski. They found several publishers were familiar with Terrible Fate. Ember Lab signed a console-exclusive deal with Sony Interactive Entertainment in October 2017; Sony assisted with funding and marketing. The team grew to 15 core employees, with assistance outsourced to other studios. Mike Grier handled the creative elements of the studio, while Josh worked with the business and managerial side. The final game was larger in scope than originally envisioned.
In October 2020, former designer Brandon Popovich claimed Ember Lab did not fully compensate him for his work on the game and failed to honor promises made regarding equity and a promotion; an anonymous source issued similar claims, accusing the company of unpaid overtime and unfulfilled promises of a full-time position. Ember Lab responded, claiming it had records of all invoices being paid and denying any promises of equity or promotions.
Art and gameplay design
For the game's art, Ember Lab partnered with Vietnamese animation studio Sparx. The team visited the studio in Vietnam early in development to ensure a smooth process. Lead environment artist Julian Vermeulen, who worked with Mike Grier on the original prototype in 2016, worked with both studios. Unity was used as the game engine for an early prototype, but later builds shifted to Unreal Engine 4. The majority of development took place on PlayStation 4; the team was unsure if they would be provided a development kit for the PlayStation 5, but Sony eventually approved. The team wanted to make a "rich experience" that could be completed in a weekend.
The game's fictional world is inspired by several Eastern locations, including Japan and Bali. The symbols throughout the game are inspired by Japanese and South East Asian cultures. Combat designer James Beck, who started on the project as animator and lighting/shading artist before transitioning to combat, found working on character animations and enemy behavior simultaneously led to a more seamless integration.
For some time during development, Kena had a separate spirit meter for each ability; however, the team ultimately wanted difficulty in combat to derive from enemies and their attacks rather than resource management—they wanted gameplay to be enjoyable with some depth, but ultimately simple for the player to understand. The ability to cancel animations during gameplay was seen as imperative as it allowed better pacing and responsiveness. Mike and Josh Grier often delayed game testing throughout development as they wanted to present a higher quality product to testers; they ultimately felt testing should have begun earlier in development.
Character design