Sacred Symbols+, #405 | When Grief Is Hijacked (Patreon)

Please welcome renowned actor and game studio head Abubakar Salim to Sacred+. You may know Salim best for his roles in shows like House of the Dragon, Raised by Wolves, and Jamestown, Ridley Scott's Napoleon film, and even in games like Assassin's Creed Origins and World of Warcraft. But he recently came to my (Colin's) attention because of his studio Surgent's first game, a delightful EA Originals-published Metroidvania called Tales of Kenzera: Zau. I really liked it, ended up Platinuming it, and then shared a Sacred Symbols clip on social media talking about my experience. This got his attention, and ultimately we were able to get in touch and put this episode together. I wanted to talk to Abubakar not about the ins-and-outs of his game specifically, but rather about the completely unearned chaos that seemed to surround it post-release. A lot of the negativity came off to me as forced, misdirected, and -- at worst -- racist. After all, this is a game about loss, grief, and overcoming a terrible tragedy, and has nothing to do whatsoever with race, gender, politics, or pretty much any other potential and predictable third rail. But listening to much of the outside narrative, you would think quite the opposite was true.