Ep 5 (S) - Kena: Bridge of Spirits - The Story of Grief & Its Poisonous Consequences When Turned

In this episode, I thoroughly summarize Kena: Bridge of Spirits, and discuss a lot of the theming and general components of gaming that I adore from this game!  And also the one thing that I am quite bitter about, as it just makes no sense.

Ending and Beginning links:
Beg: https://youtu.be/OJhqsUnKUWw - Humanity (NCS Release) - Max Brhon
End: https://youtu.be/r75cTpUS7tM - Bugs & Daff - Duft Pank


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Transcript

Hello, y'all, and welcome to Video Game Tirade, the show where I talk about the games I've been playing and whatever they remind me of!  My name is AJ, and let's get this rant rolling.

Today's episode is going to be about Kena: Bridge of Spirits, a 2021 debut game from studio Ember Labs, who previously were pretty famous for their animated commercials.  A fair warning, I might start crying during this episode - I definitely did while playing the game and rewatching the story scenes to accurately make this script.  Another fair warning before I start getting into things, this episode is going to be VERY spoiler-heavy, so if that bothers you, please tune out now!  Now, now!

All that being said... Kena is a game about grief, love, and expectations.  The game begins with an opening card explaining a ritual used in the fictitious land the game is set in.  The ritual describes unique wooden masks being enshrined and allowed to decay when someone dies; once the mask has become dust, the spirit has completed its trip to the afterlife.  Some spirits struggle with tragedy and need assistance from a Spirit Guide to complete their journey.  Enter Kena, literally, dropping into a cave and following the path that lights from her pulses of spiritual energy, a key gameplay mechanic.  At the end of a short path is a cavern in which crouches a man, bowed over a dais, a purple-tipped staff in hand and mantle of animal fur across his shoulders, demanding to know why she has come.  Kena voices her sensing suffering in the area, to which the man responds that she knows nothing about it, lifting his head to show he is wearing one of the masks from the opening card.  He tells her to turn back threateningly, disappearing and leaving behind enemies, corrupted little wood sprites.  With them defeated, Kena can now exit the cave into a lush forest environment - with evidence of recent civilization gone to decay: overgrown shrines, paths with well-worn stairs blocked off by landslide, overturned statues, and long-unlit incense and candles.

Running through the forest, Kena discovers some children who are chasing after a small black-furred humanoid with a mohawk of grass and small antlers of branch.  This creature can turn into purple light and does so to escape the kids' grasp.  When the kids see Kena observing their play, they run away, revealing they also have masks.  Kena makes fast friends with the creature, who guides her through the next bit of forest and ruin and helps her find some more similar creatures - these ones are larger and are only covered in black fur, no mohawk or horns.  At the end of the tutorial area, after Kena climbs around and does some moving work with the creatures, she comes across a clearing through a large Eastern-style gate, and all the plant life nearby is white or red, shriveled, brittle, looking as though it is diseased and dying.

The man from before is in the clearing, waiting for her in front of a large, very large writhing red-and-white plant which closes its flower as Kena approaches.  Kena attempts to assist the man, and he rebuffs both of her attempts to make him understand his situation, taking her offers to help him heal the area and himself as an invitation to abandon his people, which he grows offended at, attacking her and vanishing again.  The plant summons the sprites this time, a clear gamer message: defeat these weaklings to defeat me.  As assumed, the flower opens once again once the enemies are defeated, and the companion creatures go after the bulbous central part of the flower, turning it blue and susceptible to the cleansing power of spiritual energy.  One pulse later, the flower explodes, its tendrils evaporating, all the decay nearby fading away to leave behind healthy and lush greenery, grass, moss, flowers.  *kiss noise*

The kids are emboldened by this show of positivity, crowing over the companions' ability to "eat" the decay, and explain when Kena asks that the man is definitely responsible for the "poison" she just cleared.  In return, Kena explains her goal for being in this region: the Sacred Mountain Shrine, which the kids offer to take her to if she helps release their brother first, who is trapped deep in the forest.  With the contract made, to action it, Kena has to go through the infested remnants of their village thoroughfare to the mask graveyard/shrine at the end, clearing infections as she goes.  At the shrine, she meets an old man who seems to know an awful lot about what's going on here.  He names her friends the Rot, capital "R," and she - when she explains her goal to help the brother, Taro, he gives her the brother's mask, tasking Kena with helping the trapped spirits here so she can clear a path to the Mountain Shrine.

Taro's fox-shaped mask in hand, Kena clears Taro's spirit barrier to the east of the thoroughfare and journeys into his prison.  Kena experiences glimpses of Taro's memories along the forest path: a thunderstorm at night, him screaming for his siblings repeatedly, and at the end of the path once she dons his mask, finally a few snatches of his tragedy that will be explained more later before Kena is unable to maintain grasp on the connection to his spirit.  The kids ask what happened in front of Taro's actual prison, a gargantuan overturned tree's root system, at which Kena explains that Taro has forgotten who he is and he needs 3 relics directly connected to his reason for staying to remind him.  Kena journeys around this part of the forest, clearing corruption, gathering more fragments of his memories as an optional collectible, and working together with the Rot, the kids, and a local hunter named Rusu to retrieve Taro's relics.  Various boss fights guard each relic and lore is also handed out once the relics are gathered - the knife reveals that Rusu helped protect this group of kids from when Taro was very young; Taro's lantern reveals that the cave its found in is a very important spiritual ground, perhaps somewhere the community performed group rituals; and finally, the box of food carved with a fox face motif is found in front of the Sacred Guardian Tree, where people ask for blessings and leave offerings.  Among the offerings remaining are weapons, giant arrows tipped in blue stone, similar to the blue stone littering this region and imbued in Kena's staff and necklace.  All 3 relics gathered, Kena returns to the overturned tree.

When presented the relics by the Spirit Guide, "Tarrow's" - Taro - Taro's spirit summons the thunderstorm that plagued his final days and then he himself comes limping out of the root system, only for bark and plant roots to attack him from the ground, cloaking him in a violent scene in the hulking corrupted form of a werewolf-like beast, whose face is a warped and spiky version of Taro's fox mask.

One long fight later, Taro weakens enough for the Rot to feed on his corrupt form, enabling Kena to blast away the poison and leave behind the regretful soul.  The young man, now kneeling in front of a set of gates leading presumably to the Spirit World, now explains his story:

Some time ago, when people still lived here, a sickness spread through his village, affecting both people and plants - affecting Taro's parents.  Left to defend and protect his very young siblings by himself, Taro brought them out to Rusu's hunting lodge to ask for help.  Rusu, however, was very unnerved and claimed the forest was getting too dangerous - he pressed Taro's knife into the boy's hands with purpose and advised him to quickly return to the village.  Taro, however, remained, camping overnight in safer areas with his siblings.  In the morning, he awakens early to go fishing, only to be distracted by a loud sound coming from the Mountain Shrine's direction.  When he climbs a nearby bluff to see the Shrine, the blue light emanating from it suddenly turns purple and an explosion rings out, the shock wave throwing Taro onto his back and knocking him out cold.

When he awakens next, its at night, during an intense thunderstorm.  He remembers the children and immediately runs back to their campsite where he left them, but they have long gone.  By his own telling, he spends the next several days out in the storm, searching for them high and low.  In the lantern cave, he experiences a rockslide that crushes his leg and forces him to abandon his lantern.  Still searching to no avail, he makes a small shrine in front of the Guardian Tree, with stones and leaves put together to resemble the family miniaturized.  Here, he leaves the food box - the implication being the children may come here for shelter, and if they did, he wanted them to be able to eat.

Back in the present, Taro admits to Kena that he believes whatever befell the children is his fault for not watching them and caring for them as he should have.  Kena consoles him - what happened in the village wasn't his fault or anyone's, and the children both know he loves them and still need his guidance.  Uh, the kids show up, and with Kena's encouragement, dog-pile their older brother, and this tender moment is what convinces Taro to forgive himself, as all the kids wanted was to know he was ok, too.  The girl comes back with chagrin, apologizing that they won't be able to take Kena to the Mountain Shrine as promised, but Kena assures the girl and encourages them all to finish their journey now.  The cutscene ends with the family hanging their masks on the statues that Taro had built under the Guardian Tree, now transplanted into this border realm, and them praying together to these icons as the music swells and the image beyond the family of a dual set of Eastern-style gates strung all over with charms begins to glow an intense spiritual blue.

When it transitions back to Kena, she is back in the real world, the forest around her healed and she herself alone with the Rot.

This is the part where I started bawling like a baby for the first time playing this game, and you might hear that I'm having difficulty even just reading the script.  The music does a lot of heavy-lifting, for sure, but also the story of a family finding each other again and them being together was all they needed to move on together...  I'm getting misty-eyed just thinking about it.  I, uh, I need a bit of a break before I continue, and luckily, the finance department would like to say a few words about this project!

Hello, guys!  I'd like to remind you real quick that I have a Patreon, if you'd like to buy me a coffee or snack.  My Patreon is also where I post my own transcripts of these episodes, for free public consumption, so if you need that accessibility tool, please check it out!  You can get in touch with me via my business email or my Twitter, to chat with me or send me suggestions, whatever you'd like!  The Twitter hashtag for discussing this episode will be #VGTKRot - all of the first 5 letters are capitals.  All links, including to today's opening and ending themes, will be in the description of this episode.  Update installed, let's get back into the action!

With Taro's spirit assisted, Kena returns to the old man in the mask graveyard.  Here, she confirms her success while also lamenting the passing of the children, to which the man consoles her by stating that even though a Spirit Guide's job is by nature a lonely one, the bonds we make last even when people have moved on.  He then gives her the 2nd mask so she can continue with her task, this one a dragon-like mask, belonging to Adira the Woodsmith.  This time, Kena travels alone to the fields west of the thoroughfare and clears Adira's spirit barrier.  Some more homes and buildings litter the area immediately beyond the barrier, with a large storehouse blocking her progression at the end, as a gigantic door on the other side of the storehouse is lacking power and unable to be opened.  As Kena is attempting the usual mechanic to open doors and failing, another spirit shows up, eager to get to the Woodsmith herself.  She greets Kena, immediately assuming Kena's purpose and intuiting Kena's spiritual powers, teaching her how to use that energy to create a bomb that can temporarily alter gravity.  Through use of this power, Kena climbs around the area and eventually can repower and open the door - revealing the fields beyond on fire and a monumental tower piercing the heavens, radiating blue light at the very top amidst all the orange smoke.  The friendly spirit accuses Adira of being the culprit and races off to the tower, Kena joining her.

Like with Taro, this sequence is a peek into Adira's memories, and when she enters the bottom hollow of the tower, Kena dons Adira's mask to grab the few memory snatches that will point to her relics.  The flames are doused by the time Kena loses grip on Adira's memories, leaving behind destruction that she must sort through with the assistance of the Rot and the friendly spirit to find the Woodsmith's 3 relics.

The friendly spirit does very little to explain who she is exactly, unlike the kids in the first arc who explicitly state the trapped spirit is their brother, and the companion spirit from the final arc, whose relationship to the final spirit is made very clear.  She sort of names herself an assistant of sorts to Adira but the language she uses and the tones she uses don't exactly align with that description; she seems a lot closer to Adira than a simple assistant would be.  As an example, when the first relic is relieved of corruption, Adira and the friendly spirit's colossal automaton ox, the spirit exclaims his name being Rufus and reacts with exuberance and cooing and intelligent comments directed at the ox, implying the ox is more of a pet than a tool.  Since Adira helped build Rufus, perhaps a shared pet?  Coworkers generally don't share pets.

The area that Kena roams to find the remaining 2 relics is expansive, covering a wide stretch of farm fields, the foothills of the mountain holding the Mountain Shrine, and underground, too.  Up in the hills, in Adira's workshop where her hammer is found, the friendly spirit reveals she left at the onset of their village's struggles, across the sea to find assistance.  She voices this with pain and regret in her voice - gotta give it to the VAs in this game, they did 1 amazing, stellar job.  She made Adira promise to move on if the spirit did not return, again, not something a mere coworker does.

In the final area, underground, Kena discovers a half-submerged cavern that once was a kind of temple-like area, now in shambles and missing the icon from the dais at the very end.  The relic gathered here is a piece of the icon, named the Village Heart.  When Kena emerges from the underground temple via an elevator set up in the well, she claims the Village Heart is missing to the friendly spirit, as if she knew what it was supposed to be already???  The spirit then intuits that Adira took the Heart and its power is was - is what is holding the giant tower together.  All 3 relics gathered, Kena heads on back to the tower.

When presented the relics by the Spirit Guide, Adira's spirit summons the thunderstorm that plagued her final days and casts an anti-grav effect on the area, much like Kena's bomb, forcing Kena to ascend the tower.  At the very top, an enormous structure in the center of the room casts light from behind floating stones like the piece Kena retrieved, only to shelter itself as Adira's spirit manifests.  Dragging her hammer, the spirit succumbs to corruption, bark and wood forms cloaking her in a knight-like figure with cape and gauntlets, her mask growing jagged edges like horns and whisps of blue spiritual energy like whiskers - a terrible version of the dragon motif.

Another long fight later, an interesting one in terms of mechanics, and the Rot once again feed on the corruption of the weakened soul, allowing Kena to blast away the poison and let her share her grief:

Adira explains that she found a way with the other spirit, finally in-plot acknowledged as Hana, to harvest the spiritual energy imbued in the area from sheer proximity to the Mountain Shrine - the Village Heart is the way that they did this.  Its power helped the village prosper, but though it was to last hundreds of years, it very rapidly started fading, heralding the coming ills of the village.  The plague that took Taro's parents followed shortly, and people began to grow concerned as crops failed, too.  Hana left, at she - as she had explained, but Adira counters the promise she made, stating, "I would never leave our home without her."  As Hana took more and more time to return, and the village grew worse and more wild, Adira became desperate to bring Hana home.

She built the tower, straining Rufus, as high as she could before ending her plan with the removal of the Village Heart from its underground temple, aiming to install it at the very top of the tower.  As it was being pulleyed up by Rufus and she was climbing to meet it, she glanced at the Mountain Shrine visible from this height: it was glowing strangely purple, and a creature was flying around it.  Shortly after, the explosion that doomed Taro's family hit, erasing the life from Rufus, forcing Adira to catch the falling Heart all on her own and use her building equipment's anti-grav powers to struggle it the last bits of the way to the top, which presumably took days considering this part of the cutscene takes place in the rain storm that we know from Taro lasted days and days.  Fully ensconced, the Heart releases its casing and shines out, the tower now revealing itself to be a lighthouse to guide Hana home.  The final image in Adira's remembering is her, dirty and exhausted, discarding her equipment.

Back in the present in the border realm, Adira admits to Kena the reason that she clung so hard to the memory of her and Hana's existence, at the cost of her own, was because she believed if she left she would forget Hana and the life they had shared together.  But what she most regrets is letting her fears tear apart everything they had built.

Kena assuages her fears, claiming she can sense their love is still strong from her time knowing Hana - and yes, she uses the word "love."  She also confirms many things they built are still part of the land.  Their bond is equally unerasable, and as Adira visually forgives herself, Hana comes forward.  They share a bear-hug of an embrace as the music swells and the gates glow once again with that intense ephemeral blue light.

And once again, as Kena returns to reality, she is left alone with the Rot.

I have - I have many things to say about this arc, but first let's discuss the final arc, the healing of the village leader.

Kena returns to the graveyard and the old man to share her success and grief, and ask about the creature she saw in Adira's memory.  The man confirms the leader, named Toshi in this discussion, struggled against the creature previously, and his failures - seeing the village deteriorate, people dying and struggling even with his best efforts - broke him.  He gives over Toshi's mask, which looks like some kind of antlered skull, which now allows Kena to clear the barrier blocking the path to the Mountain Shrine.  The Village Leader Hall blocks her path, and as she enters, Toshi manifests and questions her motives for helping, launching several attacks.  Amidst blows where he takes her staff from her, he accuses her of being selfish and weak instead of the strong altruist she is pretending to be, and her fear in this moment enables him to drive her into the Spirit World.

She awakens to see many spirits on the path towards the end of their journey, beyond the gates we've already seen twice with 2 more sets ahead and the Mountain Shrine in its true glory at the end.  She stares at the gates for a moment - and then she hears a little girl calling for her dad.  We see a little girl who looks very much like Kena, struggling to hold a version of Kena's staff.  Kena approaches the girl, who explains that her dad is missing and asks for help finding him, which Kena promises with difficulty.  The girl asks adult Kena to hold the staff while they look, as its heavy and her dad will need it to return home.  As adult Kena takes the staff, young Kena fades and a flurry begins to blow from the mountain, pushing Kena back towards the initial gate, back into the world of Life.  She calms herself amidst the gale, and then darts back through the veil.

Kena appears bask - *gibberish* - back in the mask graveyard, where the old man comforts her.  Toshi wields untamed spirital energy and great sorrow, the man explains, which make it easy for him to feed on Kena's internal conflicts, like corrupt spirits are wont to do.  At this, Kena shares her true goal: She seeks the Mountain Shrine, believing visiting will make her a better Spirit Guide, to help spirits and make her father proud from his place in the Spirit World.  In essence, she's insecure about her capability and believes this pilgrimage and helping X number of spirits will let her earn her stripes as a Spirit Guide, that she can't be a good one without first meeting some arbitrary expectations.

The old man hears this and returns with the fact that she is succeeding in this village where many Guides before her have failed.  His specific phrase of comfort, "Your father would be proud of who you've become," I've taken that to be a direct comfort of Kena's insecurities.  A way of saying, the fact that Kena is here, helping spirits and doing what's right rather than aiming for numbers or believing simply visiting some holy ground would make her instantly better - her efforts alone, successful or not, is what makes her a good Spirit Guide and what would make her father proud.

And this kind of thing makes me so emo.

Emboldened by the reassurance, Kena resumes her quest; her new ability to transition into the Spirit World without dying is key to finding Toshi's relics and understanding him enough to counter his spiritual energy prowess with her own.  In 3 Spirit World pockets that reflect the village, the corruption is here, too, and intense, difficult to push back.  Doing so cleanses both reality and the pocket realm Kena is currently in, reuniting them, and the act of fighting the various bosses of these pockets shows us different personas Toshi had to take on to lead his people: a spiritual leader who helped make masks for peo- for his people, safeguarding their existence in reality and their journey to the Spirit Realm, both; a hunter, who both fed his people and entertained them, all while respecting nature and their ancestors; and a warrior, strong, traditional, unbending, willing to do whatever it took to ensure his people's safety and happiness.

These avatars give us glimpses of how seriously Toshi took his role, and this is the 1 part of the game where the optional collectible glimpses of memory tell us something important to the plot, which furthers Toshi's severity.  In 1 glimpse, we see the old man passing over Hana's mask to Toshi and explaining his role only becomes more burdensome with time; in another, we see Toshi asking for help to save his people from a sacred cherry tree, only for silence to be his response.  And finally, in arguably the most important collectible, we see why Rusu was so nervous the day he turned Taro away: Toshi lamenting their lack of their ancestors' spirit energy knowledge, with which they made the weaponry that Toshi believes can be used to turn the creature away and restore balance to the village.  The last line of this particular glimpse is Rusu saying, "Those tools were hidden for a reason..."

These are very important things to know, to understand how Toshi buckled under the onslaught of tragedy that affronted his village and the responsibility on his shoulders to keep his people safe... as well as understand where he turned, literally and emotionally, for answers to solve the problem.

With Toshi's relics in hand, Kena returns to the Leader Hall and summons his spirit.  Once again, he resists her attempts to make him pass on and attacks her like the other spirits.  Interesting fact: his corrupt form, unlike every other corrupted creature in this game, is his own body un-changed except for the mask being worn and the eyes on it glowing orange with power.

After an oddly underwhelming fight, when Kena attempts to utilize the Rot - the Rot and her powers to purify Toshi like the others, Toshi pushes back with his own spiritual power, knocking over Kena and her companions.  He berates her for trusting the Rot and uses an orange power to reach out to them, pulling them to him, claiming to show Kena their "true nature," disappearing before this is revealed.  The Rot stolen and Toshi gone, Kena runs after them to the Mountain Shrine she has long sought, though now she arrives to save creatures other than herself!

There is a frozen lake between the path up from the Village Leader Hall and the Shrine proper, and as Kena crosses it, the Shrine erupts with angry red power.  Toshi bars her path to the Shrine.  He beats his corrupted staff into the snow, and an enormous black draconic beast emerges from the red glow.  This beast possesses the same black fur and twisted antler-branches of her first Rot companion, and the game confirms our fears when the boss fight begins, naming the beast the "Corrupt Rot God."

The beast cannot walk properly on its humanoid arms and legs, dragging its back half around.  This makes it somewhat easy for Kena to target the pustules of corruption oozing from its hide, weakening its - its power with her own.  Eventually, the god retaliates by throwing her in a pocket of the Spirit World, where she has to fight the same corrupted nature sprites she's been fighting all game.  This time, instead of fighting to cleanse, she's fighting for escape - not just her own, she finds at the end of the gauntlet, but also the Rot's, as her efforts free a few of the tiny spirits, enabling their assistance in phase 2.

The second phase of the fight is the same as the first, but now with lasers!  Lovely.  The second pocket realm, Kena needs to use her traversal powers to escape, ostensibly to show she's willing to go any distance, even ones that seem impossible without significant special power, to assist spirits in pain and needing help.  She frees a decent amount more Rot spirits, heading back into reality with their combined assistance for the final piece.

This final phase, the god has an attack where it begins to build up power for a super move, during which certain spines on its back begin to glow golden.  Targeting them enables the Rot to pull them out, revealing the 3 spines to actually be weapons: 2 harpoons and a longsword.  The final weapon pulled free, the beast collapses, the corruption flower on its chest opening.  The Rot assist one last time, enabling Kena to blast away the poison of this entire land.  The beast evaporates, sending out a shock wave that clears the negative energies from the area immediately around the Shrine, and bringing back the gate scene one last time, where Toshi, now defeated, stands in front of the border.

Now it is time for Toshi to share his laments and move on:

The disaster began long before the plague, as we know from Adira's memories.  When things began to fall apart, his people looked to Toshi for guidance, of which he could provide none.  When the creature from Adira's memories came, he went to the old man from the mask graveyard for advice, this memory sequence revealing the man used to be the Spirit Guide or something like 1 for this village.  The old man advised this was all part of a natural cycle, that the land would be bountiful again, but it would need time to heal.  My interpretation of this specific part is like winter, how things definitely do die and decay in winter but its very necessary for the ecosystem to experience this, as the decay provides nutrients for all the new growth to th- to thrive on come spring!  But in a much deeper more spiritual way.  Anyways, the old man advises that it would be best for their people to leave the village, perhaps over the mountains, but Toshi takes this as advice to abandon his village, and in his anger, he lashes out at the old man, finally named Zajuro, and takes the wounded elder's spiritual staff.  It immediately corrupts at his anger, the blue glow from the gemstone at the top instantly becoming the purple we are now familiar with.

The scene cuts to Toshi stalking up to the Mountain Shrine, the lake thawed with stepping stones leading across it and the area placid, untainted.  At the end of his approach, he throws 2 harpoons into the ground, weapons that have blue stones at the end that flash purple with his anger - these are the weapons from the Sacred Guardian Tree, which Rusu warned him away from that he ended up taking anyways, something you may not connect without the collectibles!

Toshi approached the Shrine and shouts many why's up at it, and we get to see the omen creature up close for the first time: a titanic feline body cloaked in black fur, muzzle and face bedecked in all manner of greenery, and lifting a majestic head of antlers made of branches of wood.  Hmm...  As Toshi did with his ancestors, he demands answers of the powerful creature, why it came, why it is punishing his people, and just like with his plea to his ancestors, the creature turns from him, leaving silence as his answer.  In his rage at this turn of events, literally, he grips 1 of the harpoons and launches it - launches it into the beast's back flank.  It roars in anger and begins to fly off to flee but Toshi nails it with the second harpoon, forcing it back down to the Shrine structures.  Toshi demands why again, but the creature only snarls in answer, and Toshi rams the staff on the ground, an explosion of purple energy knocking the beast off balance from 1 of the harpoons.  As he decries his people reverence - his people's reverence of the creature, of the Mountain Shrine, he forces a second explosion, throwing the beast on its side atop the Shrine, weakened and helpless.  Toshi climbs up beside it, retrieves his sword, and rams it into the creature's side for a final blow.

With a howl of pain, the creature dissipates into purple light, causing the explosion that led to the other 2 tragedies, pouring out an immense amount of now-corrupted spiritual energy, freezing the lake in front of the Shrine and encouraging the growth of the poisonous plants Kena has been fighting all game.

Back in the present, Toshi anguishes over his fear of change and acknowledges that his actions directly harmed many, not just the Rot God but also asking himself how many of his own people he could have saved if he had simply listened to Ja- Zajuro.  Kena comes to his side, admitting her own grief and offering the comfort that while grief is natural, it is also overwhelming and can change who we are, make us act in ways we would normally never forgive.  But then she advises Toshi to forgive himself anyways, so the land can heal, reminding him subtly that his grief and st - sorrow - grief and sorrow are still poisoning the land and actively doing harm - if he wants to stop hurting people, if he wants his land to heal and nature to return to normal so people can live there again, he needs to let go and move on.  He seems reluctant to do so at Kena's words, until Zajuro, the man he harmed and stole from, whose power he misused to kill the Rot God, comes forward and offers him a helping hand in forgiveness.  As the 2 men come to an understanding, the gates once again flash blue to the intensity of the music, leaving Kena once again alone with the Rot spirits.

This leaves only 1 spirit left to help in this land.

Kena approaches the rubble the Shrine has become, the aftermath of Toshi's assault on the Rot's true form, and bids goodbye to her friends.  With her encouragement, they poof into their purple petal-like light forms and re-coalesce atop the Shrine, once again the magnificent, horned, feline, true form of the Rot God.  Body restored, it looks down at her with recognition in its dark eyes and bows its head in thanks.  As the music swells for the final time, Kena sets down her staff and begins to meditate, letting her energy pulse into the environs.  The Rot God leaps - leaps off the Shrine and swoops and spins in the air around the Shrine, echoing her energy pulse with several of its own.  At the end of the chorus, the Rot God emulsifies into light and dives straight into the Shrine, seemingly fusing with the energy of the Shrine to assist in restoring balance.  The final triumphantly sad chords of the song crescendo as the camera zooms in on Kena's calm face, and just as she's about to open her eyes, boom, ending title card and credits.

That is indeed the end of the game, no post- or mid-credits scenes.  That was quite a lot and quite a game, so I will give y'all a minute to take it all in before I start talking about my thoughts, what you came here for today.   ...If you need more time at this point, feel free to pause your listening!  But I've got a lot to say, and I'm just gonna go ahead and get started, since this is already turning out to be a long episode.

I really love the theming of this game and how its in everything.  The Rot are named very particularly, and the corrupted decaying things they eat decompose into new, fresh life.  They literally rot away the bad to leave behind the good.  When you get a new one, they leave behind purple mushrooms; fungi are decomposers, which literally eat dying things to return the nutrients to the ecosystem.  Kena, herself, is arguably the same: she assists dying people and their spirits to move on, to return health and peace to the land, people, community - the ecosystem - they come from.  That's, by itself, a very powerful through-line and theme.

Additionally, both the Rot and Kena grow stronger from acts of goodness: feeding the Rot, encouraging flowers to fruit, righting toppled statues, returning missing statues to their homes, etc.  The upgrade currency awards from these good acts is called "Karma."  I love that, even if it is a little in-your-face.

There's also the heavy emphasis on grief and love and expectations.  Taro's expectations of caring for his siblings is what keeps him in this world.  Adira's love and what she expects for her and Hana's relationship is what keeps her in this world.  Toshi's love for his people gets warped and the expectations he puts on himself to protect the land, more than his actual living people, is what generates the whole frickin' plot.  Kena even has something, as her love-turned-grief over her father is what leads to her insecurities, as we see her father died very early in her life and wasn't there to properly lead her on her path of becoming a Spirit Guide.  Based on what we are shown in this game, its fairly reasonable to assume Kena is more-or-less self-taught, and probably has a lot of concern besides what she voices that she's doing something wrong or otherwise isn't good at it, because she was never taught how to be.

Like she told Toshi, grief is natural but it can be overwhelming.  Something that's not explicitly said as in dialogue but is very explicit through the events of this game is that grief being overwhelming is only such if you don't have or accept help.  All of the human spirits blamed themselves for various and sundry reasons, but only when they explained their fears to Kena was she able to help them, show them how they were wrong, so they could actually forgive themselves and move on.  Its only through her intervention as well as the people who were close to them in addition to their vulnerability to talk about these things, an assuredly combined community effort, that each human spirit could let go their burdens and move on.  Kena, too, when she shared her insecurity, was reassured by Zajuro and this gave her the focus and strength she needed to confront not only Toshi but the Corrupt Rot God, too!

Again, this kind of thing makes me emo.

The music does some very emotional heavy lifting, swelling in a hits-your-chest way during all 4 spirits' departure scenes, and elsewhere sounding simultaneously sad and fearful or triumphant depending on whatever is happening, boss fight or cutscene, and the intensity that came into play during the traversal of the Village Heart temple, the pocket realms Toshi's avatars and relics were in, and the final fight versus the Corrupt Rot God - like, wow, those moments all gave me goosebumps from how on-point the music was.  It is absolutely perfect, plus the specia- specific instruments and vocals heavily influence the overall Eastern feeling of the game.

Speaking of, I love that this game is distinctly Eastern.  All of the visuals, the sounds, even the basic premise are very emulative of Eastern ideals and styles.  And its a very respectful interpretation, too, in my opinion, which I appreciate a lot.  Mind, this appreciation is coming from a pure white Westerner's point of view, but even us Westerners with our ethnocentrism issues can recognize when something is refreshingly unlike the stuff we shove down the rest of the world's throats.  This game is very refreshing, respectful, and, above all, touching - regardless of hemisphere or culture, we can all relate to the various ways loss and grief were illustrated.

Going back to the Rot for a moment, I absolutely love, even if its unintentional, how the Corrupt Rot God moves as though its injured, gravely.  Its back half slithers behind the front, rather than the 2 working in tandem the way 4-legged animals normally work.  With the harpoon and sword placements along its spine, I feel its entirely reasonable to say its semi-paralyzed from Toshi's assault.  Which would also explain, combined with Toshi's negative energy being funneled through the weapons, why the god can't restore itself.

Also, small note, Toshi's sword is the first thing we see of him in cutscene, right when Kena is saying at the very beginning that she senses great suffering in the area.  This is 100% intentional and ties from the get-go the suffering she feels to its cause - Toshi's regret and the harm he caused by defying nature.

Which brings me to my last point: the plot.  The beginning and ending, Taro, Toshi, and the Rot God's stories, all awesome, great, 10 out of 10, magnificent, wonderful, never been done before, Lady Gaga meme.  However, I will admit that the method of explicit exposition being backloaded into 1 long cutscene per spirit feels - something.  Not lazy or lackluster, but in that general ball park.  I'm giving it a pass, though, because every single one of these scenes made me cry so dang hard!  And I don't cry easily!!

Notice how I said there "beginning and ending."  I said earlier that I had things to say about Adira's arc, and I have things to say about Adira's arc.  I feel like her arc was the weakest of the game, narratively - gameplay-wise, probably the most open and chock-full of things to do.  Great, love that.  Like I said earlier, Hana doesn't explain who she is nor does she give a wealth of info like Zajuro.  It's a little vague, if you don't grab the optional glimpses of memory, what exactly she is to Adira until Kena at the very end of the arc calls the feelings they have for each other "love."  Also, and this just may be me being picky, Hana can immediately tell Kena is imbused - *gibberish* - imbued with the same power that runs both the Village Heart and the Mountain Shrine, without Kena having done or said anything to suggest it?  And without Ke- Hana showing she's especially sensitive to these things like Zajuro is?  What's up with that?  That felt pretty rushed and unearned to me.  When Kena goes to find the Heart, too, she comes back up saying its missing - when did she learn what this thing was and what to look for?  Hana never told her what it looked like, or even where to go to get it.  I talked to Hana every time I could but it was my own exploration that led to me to the Heart, so how on earth would Kena know what she was looking for???  And back on the relationship aspect - Hana says nothing about this, its only through Adira's memories, both collectible and required, that anything about their speci- significance to each other is explained!  This really frustrates me because they're very clearly lesbians and that kind of story deserves just as much fully-fleshed-out attention as the other stories do.  Not to mention, this is the only arc directly focused on women only.  It honestly feels like some pieces of story were cut from this arc without anything made to fill them, leaving logical gaps and rushed parts that make the whole story of this arc feel very unsatisfying.

I just find it so sad and upsetting that the weakest part of the game narratively is the 1 focusing not only on romantic love or women, but also the 1 with LBGTQ+ characters front and center.

That's my brig - *gibberish* - biggest gripe with the game, honestly, the rest is phenomenal and it plucked at my heart strings in all the right ways.  I really enjoyed playing it, and if you enjoyed today's episode, please give the episode a like wherever you're listening, it lets both me and the system know what I'm doing right so I can keep entertaining y'all!  I have a Patreon, Twitter, and business email for interacting with and supporting me - reminder that today's hashtag is #VGTKRot, caps through the first 5 letters!  Links to those, as well to today's themes, are in the description.  The opening and ending themes respectively are Humanity the NCS Release by Max Brhon and Bugs & Daff by Duft Pank.  All the plugging done and my rant wrapped up, I hope y'all enjoyed today's episode, and I hope you have a great weekend.  Bye!