Highlights
- Tales of Kenzera: Zau blends Afrofuturism with Bantu culture to create a unique Metroidvania experience.
- The game focuses on themes of grief and celebrates life, inspired by the colorful representation in Bantu culture.
- Surgent Studios aims to spark curiosity about Bantu mythology.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is an upcoming Metroidvania developed by Surgent Studios, a multimedia company founded by British actor Abubakar Salim, the voice of Bayek in Assassin’s Creed: Origins. The game is being published under the Electronic Arts Originals label.
The game features a young shaman named Zau who has been tasked with capturing the spirits of three legendary monsters to offer to the God of Death. The game draws inspiration from the Bantu culture, a linguistic culture spread across Central and Southern Africa.
In an interview with DualShockers’ own Rachael Fiddis, Tales of Kenzera’s lead animator Griffin Warner and lead artist Ackeen Durant spoke about blending the Afrofuturism aesthetic with Bantu mythology and culture.
An Exploration Of Grief
“The game takes place over a legacy period, and an Afrofuture period, so there’s this marriage of old and new through the art, the music, and the effects. Everything we do is trying to bring these together,” Warner said.
Durant spoke about the studio’s desire to spark players’ curiosity about Bantu mythology and culture. He gives the example of Tikoloshe, an evil spirit from Bantu culture, and how its appearance in Tales of Kenzera may inspire players to look further into Bantu mythology.
Interview: Tales Of Kenzera: Zau’s Art Team Talks Blending Afrofuturism And Mythology
We spoke to Surgent Studios’ lead animator and artist about the studio’s upcoming Afrofuturism Metroidvania.
These themes seep into all of Tales of Kenzera; death isn’t as negative a concept in Bantu culture as in Western cultures, this is why the representation of grief in Tales is more colourful than you’d expect. “It’s a different viewpoint on the world. It’s the celebration of life rather than the grieving really, it’s two sides of the same coin,” Durant says.
When it comes to Afrofuturism, Black Panther was used as a reference point, but not something the team wanted to “come close to.” Warner said, “Those fundamental design motifs being based in Africa and looking at references and rituals, that’s what feeds into all of this. We just happened to draw from the same mythologies and cultures [as Black Panther].”
Tales of Kenzera: Zau releases April 23 for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau
Wield the dance of the shaman. Reclaim your father’s spirit. Brave the beautiful and treacherous land of Kenzera with the God of Death in Tales of Kenzerz: ZAU, a Metroidvania-style adventure crafted by Surgent Studios.
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