Kaku: Ancient Seal, I know it’s hard to read that without pausing after the “kak” part and then giggling to yourself, but I’m here to tell you that the game is, at least, a little better than that.
Let’s start off with the story before we get to the gameplay because I don’t think the story is where this game shines. There’s nothing remarkably outstanding about it. You play as Kaku, a young, caveman-esque type character who somehow stumbles upon the old gods and their temple. In doing so, you become the one chosen to reunite the torn islands, each with its own elemental scenery, and restore the world to its former glory.
As I said, there’s nothing in the story that’s really going to blow your hair back.
Where Kaku does shine is in its gameplay. The game gives me really strong PlayStation 3 Ratchet and Clank-style gameplay. The good ol’ days when you were able to explore the “open” world or probably more accurately, the area that you were in, and in doing so you were rewarded with a few extra coins to purchase some sort of upgrade or you find a hidden item to power up a gadget of yours. Maybe these things, or coins, are locked behind some sort of puzzle area that you need to figure out or can only come back to once you’ve got a certain skill on your tool belt. Bringing back any memories? Well, this is what it felt like when playing Kaku.
At first, the game didn’t feel like it was going to grab me, the intro scene felt a little stiff, and it felt like the game was launching itself into early access before it could figure out how to get the characters to run. But once you settle in a little, the game starts to charm you. Yes, it is a little buggy, the player does feel like he’s sliding around a little on the floor instead of pushing off with his feet. It’s also pretty easy to cheese an enemy into a corner, hop up onto a rock and slingshot him in the head until he dies, but all of these characteristics reminded me so much of the games I used to play when I was younger. I am still laughing to myself at how I managed to kill one of the super hard bosses, while I was way under-levelled, by hiding behind a stone just big enough to cover a toe. It took me an hour of throwing stones at the enemy, but I did it.
There are times when the “old days” were frustrating, though. More than once, I slipped off the platform’s edge and fell to my death, not because I wasn’t 100% accurate with the landing, but because the character had this sliding effect on his movement, just like in Kaku. I remember countless hours spent, sweaty palms trying to grip the controller and wiggle the analogue stick just right so I could stick the landing in a puzzle room. After 50 or 60 tries, you put the controller down, take a deep breath, and wipe the sweat off on the grass outside.
These days I am much more skilled at gaming, basically pro level, actually, so I didn’t find myself falling off of platforms in Kaku that often.
While there are a few things that the devs still need to polish up before officially taking it out of Early Access – such as the subtitle reading speed and a few quality-of-life menu aspects, like pressing back takes me all the way to the beginning of the menu instead of just one step back. To me, the game feels like it could’ve launched as it is.
There are good times to be had in the game; the ‘mostly’ open world allows you to roam almost anywhere at your leisure, and the combat feels decent enough – although I did find myself losing health without feedback at times. There are stacks of upgrades to choose from, almost Horizon-style. You can upgrade your combos, and you can upgrade your slingshot, you can change out your gear for buffs to stamina or buffs to defence, and you can upgrade your magical, giant-eared, flying piggy; there’s just a healthy amount of upgrades, ok.
There are also enemy camps to raid for a chance at some treasure and best of all, there are puzzle rooms all over the place. While these provide the most frustration, they also provide the most satisfaction. They offer just the right amount of difficulty to make you think it through thoroughly before giving you a nice, juicy reward.
Kaku: Ancient Seal isn’t going to be winning any awards, but it does take me back to a time when games were just a bit more magical. If you can, play this one for fun, not because you want to complain about devs releasing half-baked apple pie games.