Lots rests on the shoulders of a game’s protagonist. After all, the participant has to embody that character and must be drawn to them and their world. In Ember Lab’s Kena: Bridge of Spirits, we’re transported to a fantastically animated non secular realm simply begging to be explored. Kena is our information. She has an aura of thriller round her, but additionally radiates a sort heat. Plus, she’s received to be fairly superior if all these cute Rot need to assist her. While studying extra about Kena: Bridge of Spirits for this month’s cowl story, we couldn’t resist discovering out extra about our main girl and the story behind her creation.
Choosing A Protagonist
Believe it or not, Kena was not all the time the star of the Ember Lab’s debut game. Early prototypes centered extra on the black critters referred to as the Rot, experimenting with them because the antagonists after which relying closely on them out and in of battle to drive the game. In truth, Kena was not even within the staff’s first prototype. “She was part of the next one we did, and it was fleshing out her story and the story of what makes her unique and why the Rot trusts her and connects with her; that was a big part of her development and the look of her and the abilities that we wanted her to have,” says chief inventive officer Mike Grier.
In earlier prototypes, Kena was a lot youthful, round seven or eight years outdated, however that modified because the staff thought extra in regards to the story and what was on the core of it. “As we developed more of a story and the themes and we knew we wanted her to be a spirit guide to help these spirits move on, she needed a little more experience to do that,” Grier explains. “She’s still a younger spirit guide, but it didn’t feel right to have her being a child trying to empathize with these darker, more adult themes.”
Ember Lab appreciated the thought of getting Kena and the Rot come collectively for a standard objective of restoration, and the evolution began there. “As we started developing her character and the idea of her guiding spirits and helping out other humans, that’s when she started to really get her own identity, and we wanted to make her so on her own she can stand toe-to-toe with these bigger spirits. And I think that gives her a lot of what people connect with when they see her and why people like her so much.” Grier says.
Getting Kena’s Look Just Right
Once Ember Lab had settled on Kena and a few of her core traits, it was time to start out placing collectively her design. The staff enlisted the assistance of its lead character designer Vic Kun, a longtime Ember Lab collaborator who has been constructing a reputation for himself within the Chinese animation scene. “Since she is our main hero, we developed many versions and explored variations in color,” Kun says. “We struggled a bit to find a balance between Kena’s design fitting into the world while still allowing her to stand out. Our overall mood and tone of the environment is usually very forested and sometimes quite dark in the shadows of trees.”
Due to those challenges, some concessions wanted to be made earlier than deciding on Kena’s look. “We decide to use 60 percent off-white on her clothes and mix in earth tone as much as possible,” Kun says. “Mike and I also tried to work in a long cape element to help Kena stand out a bit in the foliage. But when Animation started adding natural movement to the piece, it ended up being distracting. So, we changed that into a tighter shawl. It still has some movement and helps break up Kena’s outline.”
Even the little particulars mattered, equivalent to ensuring the needlework was seen on Kena’s scarf and pants. “The main idea of the design for her costume is asymmetry in every detail and adding a hand-crafted element, Kun explains. “We tried to make her clothes feel handmade, practical, and functional.” The staff additionally added particulars to the symbols to create a singular tradition for the game. “We drew inspiration from Japanese and South East Asian cultures to inform the designs of our symbols,” Kun says.
One a part of Kena’s look that can get extra explored within the narrative is a scar on her arm. “You just see a little bit on her hand but it actually runs up her whole arm onto her shoulder,” Grier says. “It represents this traumatic experience she had with her father.” Because it’s an enormous plot level, we received’t spoil something on how she will get it or the way it impacts the plot, however she does type a particular reference to the primary Rot she meets on account of it.
A Reason To Fight
At its core, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a extra peaceable journey that has her being one with nature and on a quest primarily to revive peace and assist troubled spirits in want. Still, Ember Lab wished her to have some battle and funky powers to deal with it. The staff experimented with a whole lot of totally different concepts; at one level the Rot ran your complete present, “Originally, she didn’t have many abilities of her own, she was kind of basically like A Boy and his Blob; you can’t stand on your own, you need the blob to do everything for you,” Grier shares.
However, because the staff performed round extra with totally different ideas, they settled on one thing that felt proper and made sense for Kena as a spirit information. “One of the ways that we’ve done that was making sure that Kena feels powered up with her spirit energy and with the Rot, so it doesn’t feel like she’s the Hulk by herself,” says designer Liz Fiacco. “There’s this magical edge to our combat. Trying to make enemies threatening so it feels like she needs to defend herself as opposed to she’s come here to lay waste to all these threats in the forest. I think those two seem to be the angles we’ve used to keep Kena consistent through combat.”
Ember Lab additionally wished to make sure that fight felt reasonable to Kena’s talents and energy. After all, she is going through off in opposition to enraged spirits. “She battles some pretty big spirits, and we want them to feel intimidating,” Grier says. “A design goal for every combat game is: What do you want the combat to feel like? When you’re with Kratos, you’re just ultimate power. But Kena gets tossed around a lot. If she gets hit by a big attack, she’ll go flying and we wanted to make her feel vulnerable in that sense. She’s strong, but she’s not this brutish sort of [combatant].”
Kena might not be overpowered, however she will be able to make up for it in attention-grabbing methods. She can name within the Rot for assist to wreck and distract enemies as soon as their braveness meter is excessive sufficient, use her pulse skill to provide a bubble that acts as a protect, or smack enemies with gentle and heavy assaults utilizing her employees. She may even flip mentioned employees right into a bow for ranged assaults.
Kena is not as large because the spirits she faces, however she will be able to use her agility to her benefit as effectively. “Kena’s mobility is something that I’ve been pushing for, and it’s been a challenge making enemies being able to keep up with her, because she can sprint, run, double jump, but I think her mobility is really fun,” Grier says.
Making Kena’s Journey Matter
While Kena: Bridge of Spirits definitely looks like a whimsical journey, teeming with childlike surprise in discoveries and cute characters, it additionally offers with some extra critical and contemplative material. Kena’s journey shall be an emotional one at occasions. “Kena’s connecting with these spirits and having to let them go, and we’re trying to put that same sort of emotional weight in the player’s hands as much as we can,” Grier says. “If we can nail that and nothing else, I’ll be happy.”
“As Kena helps out others, she learns about herself and gains something hopefully beyond sympathy, but more toward empathy and understanding things,” provides designer Jessica Kernan. “That can kind of help her further her own personal development, which in turn helps her help other people. So we’re touching on these big, lofty ideas of how experience, even the bad things, can lead us to relating better to other humans, basically.”
It seems like Kena: Bridge of Spirits has loads of knowledge to supply, and we’ll study it via Kena, who Ember Labs clearly put a whole lot of thought into creating and making distinctive.
