Abubakar Salim, the actor behind Assassin’s Creed Origins and Valhalla‘s Bayek, made an appearance during The Game Awards 2023 stage to announce a new game called Tales of Kenzera: Zau.
A world premiere trailer was also shown for the title, and it featured a main character called Zau, who’s a shaman of Kenzera. He told us he “seeks his father’s return,” after which the game’s gameplay was shown. It looked like an advanced jump ‘n’ run game, where the main character used different magic to progress further.
Zau was fighting numerous different enemies along his way, with each one requiring a fresh tactic and approach. But what mainly caught our eye was a colorful, astonishing backgrounds, which were almost beaming with life, making us even more excited for Tales of Kenzera: Zau. On top of that, Salim’s speech was even more heart-wrenching and inspiring.
While the game looks truly beautiful, it was Salim who stole the show on this one. The actor talked about how his late dad introduced him to the gaming world, with games likes Kingdom Hearts and Golden Sun. Salim shared his beautiful experiences with games, the same ones we’ve been going through since we started being passionate about them. He underlined how they’re a perfect world to escape reality and express ourselves.
A while back, Salim said, he came across an idea to commemorate his father’s memory in the best way he thought is possible—by making a video game. The speech gathered a lot of applause from the audience, deservedly so.
Tales of Kenzera: Zau is scheduled to release on April 23, 2024. It will be playable on PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.