Grief is messy. It’s complicated. It’s noisy. Or, at least, that’s how Abubakar Salim described grief to me when we sat down to play Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, the debut game from his studio, Surgent Studios. On the surface, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU is a confident and vibrant 2.5D metroidvania, with an African mystical world as its backdrop. But below its genre foundation, are roots nourished and forged from tragedy. When Abubakar’s father passed away, he said it was like “the rose-tinted glasses were snatched from his face.”
Abubakar was shoved into the depths of grief, navigating a labyrinth of questions he couldn’t answer and emotions he had trouble unpacking. It was noisy and unclear–a feeling that he felt only Tales of Kenzera: ZAU could emulate. “It doesn’t matter if you’ve lost a parent, a brother, a friend, a pet, or a job. Grief is something we’ll all experience, and it’s a journey that we all go through. It’s what makes us all human,” he told me. Hearing him contextualize grief in that way, regardless of what/who you’ve lost, struck a resounding chord for me.