Last updated on January 3rd, 2026 at 01:54 pm
Kenshō – Adventure Game Review
Kenshō is a Adventure/Puzzle game from FIFTYTWO, OOO, first launched in 17th September 2017.
It’s rated 9+ and currently has 2,722+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes Kenshō Stand Out
Begin your journey through a surreal world where nature, time and space intertwine.
Mysterious things happen in a ruined room. Doors inside that room lead to different worlds and beautiful landscapes.
Match blocks and overcome challenges in this addictive puzzle with rich visual effects that unfolds a narrative through breathtaking places including lush jungles and stormy seas.
11 original songs accompany you on this adventure, replete with violin, piano, harmonica, accordion and more.
"A block sliding puzzle matching game with a great design"
— AppAdvice
"It’s a calming game with an absolutely gorgeous art style that may well be the most beautiful puzzle game I’ve ever seen"
— Rock, Paper, Shotgun
This Adventure game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, Kenshō is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 17th October 2025
Recent improvements include:
Thank you for playing! This update contains many stability and performance improvements.
Download & Availability
Kenshō is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
This is honestly the only game downloaded from trying it on a display iphone, its so beautiful the story told. The graphics, the puzzles kept mr engaged and always had us trying new ways to find a key piece. We love this game and am currently replaying now.
This game feels like 2010s sf space movie vibe we love this game.
Amazing game for smart and intelligent kids.
Kensho is an artful treat for your senses of sight and hearing, while challenging your mind, analytical skills, and imagination! ~Well-worth the $4 fee! So happy to have discovered this. We see its won many game-industry awards; well-deserved.
This game has the most beautiful graphics, and its so fun to play! The only thing is that we wish theres was more levels.
Trust us with your heartwe all would have been best off receiving more games like this one, rather than literal brainrot, and its quite souring that we dont at present for some reason. There isnt any reason to produce the hundredth Steal A Brainrot Obby instead of another glorious game such as this one.
We really enjoy this game, but Ive noticed that our phone will start to get unusually hot after just a few minutes of playing. This doesnt happen with any other app except this one. Our phone will also automatically dim the brightness (even though it says its all the way up) once it has gotten hot. Its a bit concerning that an app can cause that. Other than that, the game concept is great.
At first we were like okay why is this game $4? And then we listened with our in-ear monitors and we really got to appreciate the sound masterpiece that it is. Then we noticed the visuals in the cut scenes. It has us thinking what it could all be about as the drama unfolds. We are determined to experience this all the way through. There is something satisfying when you hear the stones move especially when you match 3. We cant stress enough, we recommend in-ear monitors as opposed to regular earbuds. This game is a symphony. ***** Five Stars.
We look forward to the next one.
Not only is the gameplay really fun and just challenging enough, the whole game has such a beautiful aesthetic to it. Our only complaint is that we wish it were longer. Also tell your music guy that he killed it.
Beautiful game, interesting play. We wish there were more levels.
Omg this game amazes us! But we just have one glitch.if we want to start a level ( after leaving to game ) it will always restart! We dont know why! It says the words continue, but it just restarts PLEASE FIX THIS! Otherwise the graphics are amazing, and it is fun.
This game is perfectly genius. Not too many levels so it feels endless, not too few that its not worth the money. Not too hard so that it feels impossible, but not too easy, so every move takes thought. The graphics are beautiful, the lights and animations, everything. The clicking sounds when you move the tiles and other little sound effects add so much depth to the game. The little puzzles to open the doors are really fun, its a nice change of pace so its not tile after tile. We love the camera feature, a wonderful addition and a fantastic idea. We have really grown attached to all of the characters. The small noises they make and the music that accompanies them gives them an emotional ambience, and if it wasnt clear enough what feeling was on display, the little box character has the little emoticons that are almost tacky, but just within the lines. Everything is so thoughtfully calculated. We wish there was a statue or something of the box-character, to go along with the deer. Id buy it for sure. We look forward to more apps from 52.
This game is a good puzzle game, reminds us a little but of Monument Valley, its a puzzle game, but its got a sort of story behind it, theres a main character, and its even a little ominous! Its kinda confusing though, plus, theres not really a clear way of getting the piece of the key we like how there is a puzzle to open the door though and we love the cute Kensh deer!! Btw would have rated 4 1/2 stars but we dont think Im able too good game.
We find the game more frustrating than fun, and although the gameplay mechanics are interesting and cool, the structure of the game disappoints us: It relies on random generation. We love the puzzles that unlock the doors (those don't rely on randomness), but the main game feels luck based. This is why we heavily prefer puzzle games with specificly designed levels, rather than games like this and candy crush where random generation is a part of the game, and the levels are different each time they're played. Its more of a strategy game, which isnt our thing but thats just us. If puzzles that rely on random generation are your cup of tea, get the game… But there are some really great puzzles out there that are so much better. We guess it depends on what youre looking for. Graphics are very impressive here, music is nice, gotta say though.
This is a great game but its due for an update. Ive waited for an update for a while now and there hasnt been one for a long time ever since November or December. We like the way this game makes you think out of the box to come up with a solution in order to solve the puzzles it shows. We just wish there were more levels so that we can play. Please add more levels to the game and make it more stable. Thank you.
Expensive price for a very low level puzzle game. Its not challenging at all and the puzzles dont really evolve despite adding barriers each level. The music will only play if you have headphones and the cut scenes are annoying and pointless. Overall not what we were hoping for in a puzzle game, especially one that cost money.
You guys should install an endless section or something. We beat this game way too fast.
We are all about finding free games to play but this one was listed as an editors choice so we trusted that evaluation. Turns out we didnt get our moneys worth. While the game is captivating we think we expected a little more, and once we were completely engaged, the levels ended. Wow, we thought, already? As we said in our title, not worth paying for.
This game has everything youd want from Monument Valley or other minimalistic-but-gorgeous games … It looks great & taxes your battery, it sounds great with melodies lifted straight from Threes, it has lots of effects when you do the slightest move, it has long flowery cutscenes that convey little meaning, it has mysterious glyphs on the wall like Fez but dont seem to matter, and it has a cube character that we couldnt give 2 poop emojis about. We bought this for 99c just to have a Threes-like experience with some new twists like immovable stones, but we wouldnt have paid any more because we know Ill finish it once & erase it, and not think too hard about a 1-eyed cube that keeps beating itself against locked doors. Three s out of 5.
Graphics are beautiful. We like the specifically designed puzzles in between levels to unlock the doors, but the main gameplay is randomly generated and is rather tedious.
The visuals & music are so beautiful, would love to see more of this :).
Wonderful gameplay that gets slightly harder as you go, but you arent overly penalized for getting part of a puzzle wrong. The between puzzle interludes are beautiful, and we love that there are no hearts, ask friends for help, or unlock with 50 million diamonds gimmicks. Worth every penny for sure.
This is what mobile gaming should strive to be. Simple to learn but can be challenging to master. Beautiful graphics. Engrossing sound. And most importantly – not designed to make you pay to play. Take our money – and when you make something new, take our money again. Thank you for making this beautiful game.
One question is: Will there be more worlds? Not the rooms we mean. But a different location entirely.
Im really enjoying this beautiful game. Just the right challenge for us, as Im not a very skilled gamer. The graphics are soothing and the music is haunting. We decided to try this game because a review described it as elegant. Thats a very good way to describe it.
We loved this game until it was over! Beautiful and challenging, it was a sensory delight to play. But why so short? We were done in a few days after purchasing it. Hopefully more levels will be introduced at some point.
Update: Of the solutions we listed below, #2 was implemented. Yay! However, it is still true that you can somewhat muscle your way through the game. There is no penalty to filling the board, so you can still win any level by repeatedly pressing one button until you get lucky. However, smart play just speeds things up. Old Review: This is a beautiful game with a fundamental design flaw: often times the best way to progress is to fill your board and lose. Ill try and explain as succinctly as possible: 1) Puzzles have a set start place. 2) Each requires you to gain five pieces. 3) They get harder as they go and your board fills up. 4) If you fail, it restarts to puzzle 1 of 5. 5) However, you dont lose any collected pieces! Therefore, its boring but possible to progress like this: 1) Get a piece. 2) Fail on purpose. 3) Get that same piece again. -repeat until done Possible fixes: 1) Lose collected pieces: players must collect all five without failing. 2) Randomize the start of each puzzle. 3) Add an achievement of some kind for finishing without losing. This game is artsy enough, one of those fixes may be present but invisible to us at this point.
Kensh is a beautiful match three style with vibrant colors and addictive music. One started, its hard to stop playing. What annoys us about this game is that after paying its $3.99 price tag we still have ads popping up directing to an Etsy page asking us to buy a stuffed deer. If this were a 99 title with an in-app-purchase option to remove the ads Id get it. Hopefully future versions of this game will skip the ads.
Played fora bit and it was pretty cool… But then we get to a point that we can get rid of blocks of same color…why???? Did we make ss something? Doesnt matter because we dont know what to do to get the key an we deleted the game…editors choice? It edits crap that we took a chance on and will not trust the editors any longer just because it has ambient music and a good 1hr theme who are getting kick backs from these companies for the awards.
We dont get how to pass the level Im on ,if its a level at all, or if its the end of the game. Its just a black screen with a white block that we can only move up slightly and thats it. Cant get back to menu or home screen it just stays stuck on this.
Nuf said; just plain boring beyond belief. We play the puzzles with no idea what we are doing. We lose a round because of blocking tiles, but we lose no progress, just restart the individual level. There is no rhythm or reason to why we are playing, and variety is completely absent. Cannot believe we trusted all the reviews to pay for this game. So disappointed.
Developer puts ad on intro screen that you are unable to clear.
It seems as if you just slide bocks around. Theres no story. Whats the deer all about.
This game is brilliant! The story is very entrancing, and the game play is absolutely made with the music. We love that each level is unique and that if you fail you dont have to start all over on building all the keys, you only have to start over on the single piece of the key you are currently trying to get. The graphics of this game are incredible and very immersive! We dont really have any complaints about this game. This might be our new favorite! We just hope it last a bit because Im loving it! Update***** PLEASE MAKE A SEQUAL.
The graphics are so well made, and the puzzles really make you think. That plus the relaxing music makes a very entertaining, intriguing game.
Very enjoyable, challenging yet not overly difficult, incredible graphics, great game.
The graphics are truly lovely. The puzzles are challenging without being impossible. Overall, this is a beautiful and soothing game.
Big inspiration and most relaxing choose this game.
….. A splendid, surreal soundtrack and this author's annoying alliteration. The Puzzles are challenging enough to hold one's attention without becoming a headache spewing explicative. Our only wish is that we could spend more time exploring the worlds in between the puzzles. There the vibe is relaxed and ethereal providing a perfect interlude while the brain recharges for the next set of puzzles. The animation reminds us very much of Mahiro Maedas Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo. Enchanted, mysterious and breathtakingly beautiful.
The graphics are wonderful and gameplay is excellent…not too hard but challenging enough…highly recommend.
That's all. This game is awesome. We don't really understand the cutscenes, but enjoy them and their creativity nonetheless. We feel like the game, as with all new games, could use some refinement (like the crumbling animation that is used constantly could be smoother) but it was absolutely worth the money we paid for it.
We downloaded it because it was visually beautiful and mysterious. The instructions are minimal, we thought intentionally. Other games/puzzles which involve a visual logic are similar. It makes them charming. The guides are consistent, which is part of the challenge. What isnt clear is where the game is ultimately going after it stopped the way you proceeded and introduced something which seemed to go nowhere. We addressed this today in a message to Kensh. We only had one other occasion to contact them when we couldnt solve a puzzle; the response was rapid and helpful without giving any hints or strategies. For anyone contemplating downloading this game, dont let our most recent problem discourage you. Its a delight to look at and a challenge as they introduce each twist. We dont care for the music which is distracting, so we turn it off. We like the sound effects. We gave this a 5 star rating because the whole experience was mesmerizing. It is not easy to stop, but that is a problem in the discipline of the player.
Wow. Wow! Im literally in awe of Kensh!!! This is one absolutely AMAZING game. After only playing this game for a few minutes, we can most certainly say we're left speechless and ready to play some more. Stunning graphics. Freaking awesome soundtrack. It's a perfect game in our book. Props after props to the developers of this game for doing some extraordinary work. Can't wait to see what else they come up with.
Good game, polished, can be frustrating at times.
This game is great fun, but it ends abruptly just as its starting to get really good. Total playtime was about 3-4 hours.
Puzzles are great and just hard enough. The story is totally unnecessary, and shouldnt be there, Id rather they invested in making more puzzles.
We played this game for a week or two and somehow its done?? Its beautiful, the storyline, the music, the visuals are stunning. We loved how if you couldnt quite pass a level, you wouldnt lose all your progress for the level/ stage you were on. But for playing a bit every day, to have the game be over, (at least thats what we surmise with the cut scenes and credits), Im a bit disappointed.
Puzzles okay but we get bored watching all the swirling lights between puzzles. Rated down because of long wait times between puzzles. We mean are you here to play or watch swirly lights.
This game started out fun but then became tedious and boring. While there is concept of parts and keys you basically have to solve 25 of the same puzzle per level, and each level is a variant of the prior. We found playing early levels fun, until the random level kicked in, which removes a lot of skill. Then the force field levels really bored us because there are long sequences of fixed moves required and if you fail you start over. The levels arent different enough to keep our interest and long sequences of moves over and over just arent fun for us at least. The little movies between levels are creative but they have nothing to do with the levels. Disappointed to say the least.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 1.9.11
- Size: 183.37 MB
- iOS: 13.0 or later
- Languages: NL, EN, FR, DE, IT, JA, KO, PT, RU, ZH, ES, ZH
- Content Advisory: Infrequent/Mild Cartoon or Fantasy Violence, Infrequent/Mild Horror/Fear Themes
- Developer: FIFTYTWO, OOO
Last updated: 17th October 2025 | Genre: Adventure, Puzzle | Developer: FIFTYTWO, OOO