Abubakar Salim on Metroidvanias as a vehicle for grief and storytelling

“The beautiful thing about what Black Panther did was it essentially showed there can be heroes that look like me,” says Abubakar Salim. “The feeling I had when watching was I wish I had this when I was a kid, because it shows to me, as an actor, I don’t have to be the best friend of the cop, or the buddy character. I can actually be a hero.

Tales of Kenzera: Zau previewDeveloper: Surgent StudiosPublisher: EAPlatform: PC (Steam, Epic, EA), PS5, Xbox Series X/S, SwitchAvailability: Out 23rd April 2024

“If this game has that same effect to audiences and to players and developers, then great. We’re doing a good thing. I want to go for that.”

Salim is perhaps best known as the voice actor of beloved Assassin’s Creed: Origins protagonist Bayek. Now he’s jumping into the world of game development with Tales of Kenzera: Zau. On the surface it’s a Metroidvania inspired by the Bantu Tales of African myth with a dash of the sort of Afrofuturism seen in Black Panther. Beneath that, it’s a narrative about coping with grief, paralleling Salim dealing with the passing of his game-loving father with whom he would play together.

It’s the sort of setting that isn’t seen enough in games, with Tales of Kenzera offering authentic Black and African representation. You won’t find the clichéd Killmonger dreads here, though we did discuss the wider impact of Black Panther when I had the chance to chat with Salim ahead of the game’s release. Its Steam demo was already impressive but I was keen to understand more about its mythological origins.

“[The success of Black Panther] connects to everyone on a deep level of just wanting to hear more cool stories,” says Salim. “I think if this game is able to inspire the next generation of developers and even players to build and conjure cooler stuff than ours, then we’re winning.”