Kaku: Ancient Seal – PC Review

Genre: Open-world action RPG
Developer: BINGOBELL
Publisher: BINGOBELL
Release Date: July 11th, 2024
Edited by AlexKnight2005

Step into the shoes of Kaku, a young man on a mission: To catch a piglet. This sounds like a strange thing to do, but there it is. In this Action RPG Kaku gets drawn into a journey he never imagined. The piglet, on the other hand, doesn’t expect to get caught, but it makes the transition to being a pet/partner to the lad and thus blooms a beautiful friendship. Me personally, I feel bad for Piggy. He tries to refuse the call and ultimately has to pack it in. Kaku, on the other hand, is brash to a fault, but not nearly as clever as he thinks he is. He does have the occasional flashes of intelligence. As the game goes on, he gets a bit better. He’s got a long road ahead. Kaku works the monomyth pretty hard. That’s complete with the old man who turns into a mentor. Mind you, they meet at the beginning of the game when Kaku runs right through him while chasing Piggy. Between the three, they get things done. Piggy can fly (his ears get used as wings, Dumbo style), which we are not going to catch until after the first boss.

Here is where the complaints start: The boss is both too hard and too easy. It has not one but two health bars. Most of you are scoffing at that, and feel free. Up until now, you’ve been learning to stun lock critters, including the golems right before the boss. As the boss heaves into view and the combat arena (which is bounded by red lines apropos of nothing), In some areas, they even put gaps for enemies to jump over in some set pieces. This is the easiest in the game and not so hard to deal with during the first phase, while the second is far more unpredictable. If you lose, you have to begin right where you were BEFORE the fight. It goes like that for every boss. I lasted until the third one and got flattened on the fifth attempt. When I arrived at the last stage, he pulled a one-hit kill move I hadn’t seen before. Not even from the boss I was trying to kill. It was about that point when I decided to pack it in. I tend not to like Neutronium walls. Not even for internet cred.

The music was nice, and the sound effect was visceral, even if Kaku sounded like he was ten times his size. He has little to no concept of stealth, even if he winds up having to. Because he will, and it probably won’t go well. As for little things like the gameplay, you can work the whole thing with mouse and keyboard, but let the Player beware: Moving with WASD is fine, but all the others you need are something of a stretch. It’s possible to move and juggle your quick bar during combat, which can add to your frustration level in a big way. With a controller, things are far better. Some of the things you might want to use the keyboard for they’re all out-of-combat bits. Also, don’t forget to catch every chest. You will thank yourself later. Those are static and have the same things every time. Pay close attention to whether or not the chest moves (and some of them will). Or out of reach, they will tell you what you need to do, but it’s not as easy as it looks sometimes.

Add to that the other worlds Kaku has to traverse on his quest, and you’re in for a good time. What I got through left me feeling down about Kaku. I play games for fun, not just to go through a checklist. As beautiful as it looks, with emotive characters and huge rough-looking mobs and even bigger bosses, I came away almost bored and frustrated, looking for an excuse not to play it. It’s not that it is necessarily a bad game. It is well put together and technically competently put together. I appreciate the hustle, and the graphics are nice, but in the end, the game lacks the soul behind the gorgeous mask. For all the griping I did in paragraph four, it’s still not bad if you’re more into gameplay than story and are excited about the boss I spoke of (also in paragraph four); then you’ll love this game like no other. They’ll be telling me it gets better later on or that I didn’t play it for long enough (or many other silly things). To me, it lacks substance. When combined with frustration (and a bit of cynicism). I recommend playing the demo before you shell out for it. If you like the demo, you’ll get far more out of it than I did.

Pros:

• Well optimized
• Excellent SFX
• Well-animated, highly expressive characters
• Everyone in the game has a role to play in the story
• Very polished

Cons:

• Shallow Story
• Keyboard controls are more complicated than necessary
• Boss fights do not reflect player training

Lord Crocosquirrel gives Kaku: Ancient Seal a Drastik Measure or 6.5 (65) out of 10.0