Ancient Seal Review – Hidden ARPG Gem – WGB

Bingobell, an independent developer from China, is a small company with only one name, a small VR game launched in 2017. Kaku: Ancient Mark, a video game bigger than before. Some demos, some big changes and an early access period after that, Kaku: Ancient Seal Was a welcome surprise.

Kaku: Ancient Mark References to many other games in visual style and gameplay, The power of Tak and JuJu and Kaina: Bridge of Spirits until one o’clock Pokemon Taking the form of a piggy, he’s an adorable flying companion who loves to say his name like a question, a statement, and a curse word. In some ways, the combination of combat, platforming, and puzzle-solving reminded me of classic PS2 platformers, but with modern touches and a larger scale.

The story of Kaku and the people he meets on his adventures is one of the weaker aspects of the game, although it’s not terrible. Kaku himself is likable, with the piglet looking purely adorable in a pair of overgrown ears, but everyone else is rendered into a personality trait without any substance. The lack of voice acting is also a big reason why everyone is forgettable. Perhaps because English is not their native language, Bingo Bell’s writing style gives everyone the same voice, making them all memorable cartoon faces.

Kaku will explore four worlds, from lush jungles to frozen wastelands, each divided into smaller areas with magical portals passing through. They’re gorgeous areas to explore, and sometimes look much better than the game’s presumably modest budget would suggest. It’s actually a slightly odd hodgepodge of graphical quality, as while the environments and vistas are great, the animations are terrible. For every cool enemy design, there are textures that look out of place.

These graphical inconsistencies are a sign of a game with a small team and a small budget. Another sign is that there isn’t much to do in the space given to us either. Enemies are scattered throughout the landscape like candies in a hastily opened bag of Skittles, and there are a few treasure chests to find, as well as some basic side quests, but none of these really fill up the space. It gives the impression that the levels are big for the sake of having big levels, not because the game actually needs them.

Another aspect where the game is hampered by its standalone nature is the repetitive mission design. Whenever you travel to one of the four continents (you can jump freely between them, which I like), you meet a new friend, are introduced to the local bad guy or bad girl, and then begin a series of quests, usually It involves talking to someone, jogging through the scenery, punching something, and then doing it again.

The good news is that the gameplay involved in doing all of this is often quite fun, if you can accept its limitations. Kaku is very handy with his club, and can also use catapults to deal with the game’s small selection of long-range enemy types. There is a special attack that also damages the enemy’s balance meter, stunning them once depleted. By combining two attack types, Kaku can unleash special moves, many of which are determined by his stamina bar.

I did find it a little difficult to balance. Plenty of enemies are easy to take down with the button press, but mixed in are random enemies that seem to soak up damage like a damn sponge. These enemies look just like their comrades, but have a higher damage tolerance, which means they’re not more challenging to fight, just more annoying.

The balancing mechanic is a nice idea, but it doesn’t affect combat as much as I’d like. It seemed more effective early on, but as I increased the damage levels, my regular attacks were far more useful than the balance.

Overall, the combat is decent and fun in small doses. Over the course of the game, however, its simplicity becomes increasingly apparent and repetitive. There are only a few enemy types, and very few moves are used, so after a few hours, you’ve seen everything the game has to offer except the boss fights, which are also very basic. After a while, I started ignoring the enemies on the map because it was boring to stop and fight them. By bypassing combat, I can make combat feel fresher.

You get some simple puzzles and platformers to help mix up the gameplay. It’s classic stuff: double jumps and mid-air dashes, taking the occasional elemental stone. There’s a weird acceleration when you press the jump button that caught me off guard the first few times, and Kaku isn’t as nimble in the air as I’d like, but once I got the hang of it, I played Very happy.

The Temple of the Elements is where the game really tests its jumping and puzzle solving. It’s like a series of classics, from spinning cylinders and spiked walls to rising water, deadly mazes and levers. These sections can be frustrating at times due to some clunky design, but are otherwise a lot of fun. Again, it has an old-school vibe that I can get behind.

Upgrading your card library to take on more powerful enemies is handled not through a menu, but through a portal that can be opened at any time and venture into a set of strange underground runes. From there you can spend special crystals and resources to boost your base defense and damage, as well as unlock new special moves. Increasing health and stamina is a bit weird, though, as you have to use special ruin keys to open small platforms and tackle challenges. As you complete challenges, you’ll advance to the next level, where doors require more keys to open, and so on.

We also can’t forget about the adorable piglets. Plot importance aside, Piggy also gives Kaku some cool skills, like being able to walk on water (is Kaku Jesus?) or jump great distances. I think Piggy’s powers could do more, like Nintendo did with Link’s powers tears of kingdombut they’re still fun to use.

The game even finds time to include a gear system. There are lots of different pieces of armor, clubs, slingshots, and rune stones to find and collect, all of which offer special perks. Some can only be obtained by defeating bosses multiple times.

Kaku: sealed in ancient times The biggest problem is that it’s a little larger than it needs to be. The 30+ hours of content claim is a great selling point for anyone concerned about the money-to-time ratio, but the gameplay doesn’t quite support that. The environments are vast but mostly empty aside from the occasional treasure chest or rote mission, combat doesn’t evolve as the game progresses, and the basic mission structure keeps repeating itself.

None of this stopped me from being impressed Kaku: Ancient Mark. Despite its obvious shortcomings, it’s a fun time and is best played for a few hours a week so that the simplicity of the game remains engaging rather than repetitive. I certainly can’t fault the developers’ ambition – there’s a lot that goes into it Kaku: Ancient Seal, including some really cool ideas. I just think Kaku might be better if the developers took a few things away and focused on a few of their key ideas. By its very nature, Kaku: Ancient Seal It is a charming ARPG Salda Atmosphere and a lot of heart.