Southeast Asian culture was a big influence on Kena: Bridge of Spirits

Kena: Bridge of Spirits, the action-adventure game developed and published by Ember Lab, has been drawing attention with its striking visuals reminiscent of Pixar animations. Recently, the game received a release date announced by Sony, which is now expected to be in March 2021, but the company, in a new video, removed all the release dates of the games that had been shown at CES 2021, which could mean that some of these titles take a little longer to come out.

Coming out in March or not, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is a game that many players have been waiting for. Now, to get fans even more excited, Josh Grier, co-founder of Ember Labs, revealed some information about the title in an interview with PlayStation Magazine.

The most anticipated games of 2021

Balinese influence

Josh Grier stated that Kena: Bridge of Spirits was heavily influenced by Southeast Asian culture. More precisely, Bali, an island in Indonesia, is the main influence in the development of the project.

Grier also said that with this influence, one of the biggest inspirations was music. According to the co-founder of Ember Lab, the music was important to make a connection between the folklore of Bali and the ideas and elements of the game.

Check out Josh Grier's words.

"However, our understanding and exposure to Balinese culture came only after we started collaborating with the Çudamani group. Our composer, Jason (Gallaty), reached out to Gamelan Çudamani in hopes of incorporating his musical style and traditional instruments into the soundtrack. spent a lot of time working with the Çudamani team to build a collaboration that would bring their sound to the game in a respectful way. Through this collaboration, we discovered that the incredible Balinese culture includes similarities to the core concept of the game: helping trapped and struggling spirits moving forward. Music is an important part of this process in Balinese culture and the collaboration with Çudamani helped us to build that in an authentic way"