KAKU: Ancient Seal [Review]
KAKU: Ancient Seal is an open-environment action RPG that follows a young caveman, Kaku. The game was both developed and published by BINGOBELL. Kaku is a caveman child who starts his journey by finding a small flying pig creature that helps him traverse the map. Kaku’s journey involves exploring the world and finding the powers of the four elements used to create the world in which you travel.
The game is similar to Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom in terms of combat and exploration. The gameplay also reminds me of a old game I used to play on the Nintendo Gamecube called Vexx. Kaku himself is easy to use, and you get two sets of abilities. Kaku’s abilities can only be used at certain times, and Piggy’s abilities are mainly for traversal, like giving you a long jump or a way to get across water. Piggy’s only combat ability is that he can give Kaku a helpful shield that grants you protection from one hit. These abilities aren’t the quickest to use, though, so be careful and make sure you’re in a safe place.
In the end, it’s best to stick to what Kaku is best at, and well, that’s whacking things with a stick. You can upgrade stats and, thankfully, combos. So, Kaku isn’t just stuck swinging back and forth, and these combos are helpful, especially in boss fights. The bosses have multiple health bars (not something I personally like), so you need to get as many combos in before having to dodge out of the way. You will be doing a lot of dodging and running around in these boss fights. You also can’t pause during boss fights, which can get annoying as these fights can get long. I only dislike the fact that jumping isn’t an effective dodge. Usually, in games like this, I will utilize both the dodge roll and jumping, but jumping doesn’t act as a dodge (even if the attack only affects the ground). It was a bit of a learning curve for me, but it doesn’t ruin the game.
The game can become a bit difficult, or you’ll be faced with too strong or too annoying a fight. This is why I like the upgrading system, alongside upgrading stats and combos, you can also upgrade equipment into stronger ones and even equip items to make the equipment stronger. There are plenty of items to collect around the world: mushrooms, flowers, gems, and materials. These are used for making food or pellets for your slingshot, or to be used for upgrades. I find it fun that the long-ranged weapon in this game is a slingshot instead of a bow, which makes sense as the protagonist is essentially a Neanderthal.
The gameplay is fun and easy. It can be a bit overwhelming at first, as a lot is going on, but it isn’t nearly as complicated as it seems. The story is a bit generic and chaotic, but in a cartoony way. It fits the world of magic and strange creatures that adorn the land, it reminds me of a more obscure Nickelodeon show, Tak and the Power of Juju. My only complaint is the voice acting, as it isn’t exactly real dialogue. The subtitles will translate, but the voices are grunts and exclamations that resemble words. The issue for me isn’t that the game uses a unique language, it's that you will encounter the same voice lines in the same sentence. It feels a bit lazy when they could have at least done different grunts for each sentence. A small gripe, I know, but I always look forward to the voice acting in a game.
KAKU: Ancient Seal gave me a bit of frustration at the beginning, but once I got into it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It took me a while for the gameplay and mechanics to click, but once they did, that was when I started to get into the game. The graphics are very good and the inspiration from Breath of the wild and the similarities to vex defiantly makes this game one of my favorite of 2024. I will give Kaku a 8/10, I recommend it to people who like exploration or RPGs to try this game out. KAKU: Ancient Seal is available on Steam, and on Xbox One and Series, and PlayStation 4/5 at a later date.