Speed has been one of the biggest selling points of next-gen consoles like the PS5. With the introduction of a solid-state drive (SSD), the PS5 will effectively make loading screens a thing of the past, as themost recent glimpse atRatchet and Clank: Rift Apartshows. By that same token, this also means that the time it will take to start up games, likeKena: Bridge of Spirits, will also be drastically decreased.
Game Informer’s magazine has been highlightingKenafor this month’s cover story, and as a result a lot of new details about Ember Lab’s action-adventure title are making their way online. For starters, Game Informer states it only takes around two seconds for the game to be launched from thePS5’s system menu. To clarify, that’s booting up the whole game, not just resuming it from a suspended state.
RELATED:PS5 Game Kena: Bridge of Spirits Confirms New Gameplay Details
“They have a whole thing set up where you can do transition and it’s very nice, but frankly it doesn’t have time to play the animation. It just loads the game so fast,” says Ember Lab COO Josh Grier. Adding to that, studio CEO Mike Grier explains that the team had spent most of the project developing for the PS4 and were struggling to get the performance they wanted forKena: Bridge of Spiritsout of it. “But having done all that, when we went to PS5 it was nice, because we had a good baseline and then we could just add to it and take advantage of the extra juice.”
That extra juice will naturally lead to a few differences between current and next-gen versions ofKena. One of the most notable will be howthe Rot,Kena’s collectible spirit companions, will appear on screen. On the PS5, all 100 of the game’s Rot will be visible simultaneously. That won’t be the case on PS4, but Ember Lab assures that this won’t have any effect on the parts of gameplay involving the Rot. Additionally, it was confirmed that the game’s forests and other foliage will be denser on the PS5.
An accompanying Game Informer article also answers several questions aboutKenaand its gameplay.Kenahas been described as a mix betweenThe Legend of ZeldaandPikmin, but it won’t be an open-world game likeZelda. Instead, Ember Lab says the game will utilize a more “wide linear” approach that offers players plenty to explore beyond the main path. And unlikePikmin, the AI companions can’t die, since the Rot are meant to be treated more like teammates than a consumable resource.
Another intriguing piece of information is that the game won’t cost the standard $60 when it launches. Making that deal even better is the fact that anyone who buys the PS4 versionwill be able to upgrade to the PS5 version ofKenafor free.
Kena: Bridge of Spiritsis slated to launch this holiday season for PC, PS4, and PS5.
