It’s been one year since our launch. To celebrate, we’re thrilled to share our biggest update yet – the Anniversary Update! As a thank you for your amazing support we’ve expanded the Kena experience with many new features, including: New Game+, Charmstones, Spirit Guide Trials, Kena Outfits, accessibility features, and more.
The Anniversary Update will be a free update available to all PS4 and PS5 players, new and old, on September 27.
During development, we aimed to take fans’ comments into consideration while also adding more unique features and gameplay to expand the experience. New Game+ has been a big one! Once players have completed the game, they will have the opportunity to convert their save file into a New Game+ game. From there, they will restart Kena’s journey with all of their previously unlocked Abilities, Upgrades, Outfits, Rot, etc. as they face redesigned and more challenging combat encounters. Combat encounters adjustments even include new enemy types unique to NG+. Many bosses even have some additional phases.
Charmstones are another big addition coming in our September 27 update. Individually equipable – these unique collectibles each provide different adjustments to Kena’s stats and abilities. Some Charmstones contain a benefit and a drawback, encouraging players to strategize about how they want to take on certain enemies and challenges. Rare Cursed Charmstones are aimed at players who want a serious challenge by attacking the game with reduced abilities. Players will find most Charmstones hidden around Kena’s world, with a few connected to another big addition: Spirit Guide Trials.
In a whole new game mode accessed from the Mask Shrine, the Spirit Guide Trials will challenge players’ skills. By building a variety of replayable challenges, we wanted to encourage all players to test out different combinations of their upgrades and deepen their combat experience. The Spirit Guide Trials fall into three different categories: Obstacle Courses, Wave Defenses, and Boss Reflects.
Each Trial can be played as many times as players want and include various objectives to complete within that particular Trial. In the Obstacle Courses for example, players focus on Kena’s primary abilities: the Bow, Bomb, and Dash as they navigate through courses designed to test their accuracy, timing, and platforming.
Wave Defenses pit players against multiple rounds of increasingly difficult enemies. They must think strategically while pacing themselves through multiple waves of unique scenarios with limited chances to heal. We’ve prepared some pretty exciting and hair-raising enemy combinations here, so be prepared.
Finally, Boss Reflects allow players to revisit their favorite boss fights and perfect their tactics. While we love the excitement of all of our smaller combat encounters, we’re particularly fond of a good bossfight. We wanted to make sure players had the opportunity to retry these exciting events to their hearts’ content within one playthrough, experiment with new approaches, and become true masters.
What about the rewards? By completing Trials, players have the opportunity to unlock Outfits for Kena, each one inspired by one of the characters she meets along her journey. Succeeding at bonus objectives within each trial can unlock color variations of each outfit, as well as some unique Charmstones.
There’s even an exclusive outfit for Deluxe Edition owners.
We hope players enjoy replaying or continuing their playthrough of Kena: Bridge of Spirits with these constant reminders of the special characters Kena helps along her journey as a Spirit Guide. (Plus, we also just think they look pretty cool). Even as we’ve been testing them, every time we play with a different outfit, we’re reminded of helping Beni and Saiya find their brother for the first time, or learning how to channel the bow from Rusu.
We can’t wait to share all of these additions with the Anniversary Update on September 27.
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