Kaku The Ancient Seal – Review
Ancient Kaku Seal, There’s a good chance you stopped reading after the “kak” and had a little chuckle to yourself; if so, I’m here to reassure you that the game is at least somewhat better than that.
I don’t think the plot is the game’s strong suit, but let’s start there so we can get to the gameplay. Nothing about it stands out as particularly remarkable. You take on the role of Kaku, a young guy who, in a rather caveman-like fashion, discovers the ancient gods and their temple. Your actions will mark you as the one destined to bring the world’s fragmented islands back together again, each with its own unique natural landscape.
Kaku’s gameplay is where it really succeeds. I get excellent gameplay reminiscent of Ratchet and Clank for the PlayStation 3. The good old days when you could walk out and about in the “open” world, or more precisely, the area that you were in, and discover new things that would either give you more money to spend on upgrades or new tools to use. Perhaps you need to solve a riddle to access this region, or the coins can only be retrieved if you’ve unlocked a certain ability. Does it make you think of anything? This, at least, is how playing Kaku felt.
The game didn’t immediately hook me; the opening cutscene was awkward, and I had the impression that development had already begun before the developers had figured out how to make the characters run. The game’s charm, though, emerges after you’ve played for a while. The player does feel like he’s gliding down the ground rather than using his feet to propel himself forward, so there are some bugs. All of these features brought back fond memories of games I played as a kid, especially the fact that you can easily cheese an enemy into a corner, then leap up on a rock and slingshot him in the head till he dies. When I was extremely low in levels, I managed to kill one of the most difficult bosses by hiding behind a stone large enough to cover my toe. I managed to defeat the enemy after an hour of hurling rocks at them.
There were moments when life in the “old days” was a real pain. Not because I wasn’t perfectly precise with my landings, but since the character had a sliding effect on his movement, like in Kaku, I frequently plummeted to my doom after slipping off the edge of the platform. In order to successfully complete a puzzle room, I spent endless hours with sweating fingers and a tightly gripped controller. If you’re like most people, after 50 or 60 tries, you put down the controller, take a deep breath, and wipe your perspiration off on the grass outdoors.
The developers still have a few things to iron out before removing it from Early Access, including the speed at which subtitles are read and a few quality-of-life menu features, such as the fact that pressing back sends me to the beginning of the menu rather than just one step back. The game is complete and ready to go to market in my opinion.
The’mostly’ open world design lets you explore at your own pace, and the fighting feels solid enough, though I occasionally lost health with no indication that I was taking damage. You can choose from a plethora of different enhancements, just like in Horizon: Zero Dawn. There is a good variety of upgrades available, from better combos and slingshots to better armour that increases your defence or stamina, and even a mystical, giant-eared piggy that can fly.
The finest part, though, is the abundance of puzzle rooms and enemy camps to attack for loot. These may be the most aggravating, but they’re also the most rewarding. They present a manageable challenge with just enough reward to keep you engaged and thinking.
Kaku: Ancient Seal won’t win any awards, but it makes me long for a simpler, more enchanted time in gaming. Play it if you can, but do it because you enjoy it, not because you want to vent your frustrations about developers releasing unfinished games.
