Watch out Prince Of Persia, there's another platforming-packed Metroidvania coming to steal your crown

Confession time, folks. Of all the games shown off during The Game Awards last December, Tales Of Kenzera: Zau was the one I glossed over the most. Listen, it was very early in the morning at the time, and it must have come at a peak eyes-glazing-over moment for me. However, having now played the first 30 minutes of Tales Of Kenzera thanks to its just-released early Steam Next Fest demo, I have seen the error of my ways. The demo might only cover the game's opening, but this 2.5D Metroidvania already looks to be quite the promising newcomer in this ever-crowded genre - so much so that it may even be able to go toe to toe with Ubisoft's Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown. Yep, I went there.

At the heart of Tales Of Kenzera is its eponymous shaman Zau, who begins the demo very much in the throes of mourning his recently deceased father. Developer Surgent Studio's creative lead Abubakar Salim has spoken previously about how the game was originally borne out of his own experience of losing his dad, and it's clear right from the off that this Metroidvania is going to be as much of an emotional journey as it is a physical one played out through your finger taps and button presses. Crucially, though, Tales Of Kenzera seems refreshingly earnest in how it's gone about portraying that grief onscreen, with its both its dialogue and voice performances conveying a lot more nuance and depth of feeling than you might expect.

That said, it's still clearly very video game-y, as straight off the bat, Zau makes a pact with Kalunga, the god of death, to bring his dad back to life - a premise that has historically never ended well for anyone involved, but one that does involve bringing Kalunga the spirits of three great beasts who have defied shuffling off their mortal coils. Yep, that sure sounds like one handy recipe for a rollicking Metroidvania to me, doesn't it?

Kalunga is less than convinced that Zau will be able to pull it off, but it didn't take much to convince him he's worth keeping an eye on either. Zau's a capable and affable chap, after all, able to double jump, wall jump and dash through waterfalls (and other spirit enemies) with ease, feeling just as athletic and easy to control as Sargon from The Lost Crown. Zau can also call upon the power of the sun and moon thanks to a pair of masks passed down to him from his father, which he can switch between at will to give him different shamanic abilities. The sun mask is all about fiery, up close and personal melee combat, while the moon mask is focused more on ranged and magical attacks, and each has their own upgrade path to follow as well. Only the moon mask will let you unlock a parry, say, while the sun mask gives you a powerful downward strike to blast enemies from above with.

At first, there's admittedly not much separating how each mask feels under the thumbs. Enemies weren't obviously susceptible to one mask more than the other, for instance, and it's not like attacking with one charged up or fed the ferocity of the other one in reserve. If anything, I found the moon mask more cumbersome to use, as it only has so many magical bolts you can fire before it forces a timed cooldown to recover. But that cooldown/stamina bar doesn't appear anywhere onscreen to tell you how close you are to the end of your combo string, making it hard to account for and plan around in the heat of battle. It wasn't the end of the world, mind - the enemies present during this early part of the demo weren't too complicated to take down, and I was able to get by without it being a major issue. Elsewhere, Tales Of Kenzera's combat felt pretty sound overall, and a quick glance of each mask's upgrade trees suggests they'll diverge in some quite interesting ways to make them feel more distinct as the game goes on.

The platforming challenges felt suitably taxing as well considering the section I played was still just the tutorial, with spiky, insta-death rock formations book-ending slippery waterway on show, as well as crushing pillar slams, and lots of nooks and crannies that were only accessible with co-ordinated double jumps and air dashes. I also spotted an optional challenge room off the beaten path that upped the ante quite a bit compared to the main questline. These will reward you with special buff-giving trinkets you can equip whenever you stop by a work bench (similar to The Lost Crown's amulets and Wak-Wak trees), though the demo suggests you'll only be able to equip one of these at a time. For now, at least. Given this is a Metroidvania, I wouldn't be surprised if there were further upgrades down the line that let you carry more.

What really impressed me about Tales Of Kenzera, though, is how it seems to be binding its Bantu-inspired tales, myths and story beats into its wider platforming. Despite Zau's initial confidence in summoning Kalunga, for example, you can see his grief and frustration start to bleed through into his dialogue and behaviour even in the space of 30 minutes. This gets him into a slightly sticky situation in the latter half of the demo, where he ends up tumbling into a watery ravine after an old bridge collapses when he tries racing across it. It's a good framing device for what you're about to play next, but the fallout of his actions is also handled with surprising care and sensitivity in the moments of dialogue that follow. Kalunga is a stern, but refreshingly forgiving guide, it turns out, and the way he talks with Zau as they try and get themselves out of this literal and metaphorical hole feels almost - dare I say it - fatherly, thanks in no small part to the heartfelt performances of its voice cast. Kalunga proves to be anything but a grim reaper as the demo goes on, and the pair of them feel like they're going to be quite good hangs for the rest of the game.

Similarly, when Zau comes across a shrine dedicated to another shaman (a power-up station by another name), Kalunga tells him a grand story about how this particular shaman once threw a small stone to stop a raging flood threatening his village in its tracks, freezing it solid so his friends could escape. Zau merely laughs at the idea of erecting an entire shrine to some bloke who just "threw a stone" one time, but the more he uses this newfound power to freeze waterfalls and wall-jump his way back to the surface, the more you can hear tinges of regret and embarrassment at his earlier childishness in his subsequent chats with Kalunga.

It's neatly done, and it makes me feel optimistic about how the rest of Tales Of Kenzera will handle its themes of grief and mortality deeper into the game. If developer Surgent Studios can continue walking this fine tightrope without tipping over into shmaltzy sentimentality, then it could be quite special indeed. And this is also by the by, really, but if you're looking at Prince Of Persia: The Lost Crown and feeling the sting of the cost of it all, then you should be pleased to hear Tales Of Kenzera: Zau is launching for a mere £18/$20 when it arrives on April 23rd. So why not give its Steam Next Fest demo a go yourself to get an early taste of it? I'll certainly be keeping an eye on Zau as we get closer to launch, so except some further thoughts closer to release.