Kaku: Ancient Seal is developed by the Chinese indie developer Bingobell. Kaku: Ancient Seal is their second game, marking a massive leap in terms of ambition and scale compared to the small VR title they previously released. Kaku: Ancient Seal appears to draw inspiration from numerous action-adventure games from the GameCube, PS2, and Xbox era, while also incorporating contemporary mechanics and trends. Does Kaku: Ancient Seal live up to its ambition, or does it crumble under the sheer weight of ideas?
In Kaku: Ancient Seal, you play as Kaku, a young boy who stumbles (quite literally) into a journey he didn’t see himself getting into. The game begins with you chasing a flying pig creature (aptly named Piggy) while being chased by a giant boar – typical stuff. Eventually, he crashes into a small, old man named Geiser and finds himself entangled in prophecy, and now he must save the world. There’s not a ton of exciting/interesting things happening in the story, to be quite honest, but you can’t say the game takes a long time to get started.
Kaku: Ancient Seal gives me major Tak & The Power of Juju vibes, which is a positive. The characters are very cartoonish and colourful in presentation, and some of them have a major layer of silliness in their design. Look at Geiser, for example, the little old man who accompanies you on your journey. His hair and beard cover his comically large face, with only his freakishly large nose and toothy smile showing. I can’t help but giggle every time I see his stupid face – it brings me joy.
The environments in Kaku: Ancient Seal are visually stunning and a significant highlight of the experience for me. Whether you’re in some snow-covered mountains, the dry seas of a sandy desert, or a lush green forest, the game always manages to pop off the screen. What’s frustrating, though, is that the actual levels themselves are not very fun to traverse. You almost never find anything worth “discovering.” You are never rewarded for going off the beaten path, and are often pulled right back to the main mission if you stray too far. The game clearly has a destination in mind, and it will guide you there. As somebody who loves wandering, this annoyed me greatly. I do think the Unreal Engine is doing some heavy lifting, though. It is pretty cool to see the snow move beneath you as you walk through it, but I feel like there could have been more detail put into environments and level design to make the already pretty cartoonish visuals feel more exciting.
Where Kaku begins to fall off is the presentation, tragically. I found the story difficult to latch onto for several reasons. First off is the English translation seems to be all over the place. I found a handful of typos, as well as some lines that fell flat due to the unusual wording. Sometimes I was even confused by what exactly was being told to me during certain dialogues, and it left me questioning what the story was actually trying to do. I found that most attempts at humour fell apart, and I really only got a laugh or two throughout the time I spent with the game. The characters also speak in various grunts and “ughs,” so the writing is really all it has to cling to. Perhaps a native speaker of the game’s original language would derive more enjoyment from it, but Kaku’s story and dialogue failed to captivate me.
The gameplay is equally uninteresting, unfortunately. Combat actually has some weight to it and feels genuinely impactful, which is a great quality. What’s not great is that it feels one-note, even after getting some pretty major upgrades through the skill tree. You’ve got a regular light attack and a heavy attack to melt through the enemy’s poise. Yes, Kaku: Ancient Seal has poise, which confounds me because it never does anything worth noting with it. It just seems like an additional health bar. Taking down the poise of an enemy never felt like it had any real impact, and that makes it seem pretty unnecessary to me. There’s also a dodge roll to avoid attacks, except you don’t actually gain any invulnerability frames during the roll. Because of that ridiculous omission, the combat just feels like it wasn’t tuned properly, and like it’s still in a beta form. What confounds me further is that there is a parry button, and I wasn’t able to parry a single thing… ever. Enemies also fall into a stun-lock when you hit them, so they can’t hurt you back. Fighting singular enemies just feels boring and too simple. Kaku feels clunky and unresponsive to control, and the combat is neither engaging nor rewarding.
There are also many foundational aspects of the game that I disagree with. What I mean is that there were decisions made across the board that seem to be past the point of change. For starters, I can’t fathom why they would make the button you use to interact with things the same button you would use to sprint. Often times as I’m sprinting I might pick up an item I didn’t want, or maybe I’ll try to open a chest as I’m walking up to it and then I sprint right past it. There’s also very little enemy variety, and the quest structure is very samey. The soundtrack also repeats itself over and over again, and it feels very much like a stock music track. The music never seems to fit the game’s aesthetic, which made it even more tonally confusing to me.
Kaku: Ancient Seal takes some big swings and hits the ball maybe 30% of the time. Personally, I find it odd that this game has been available on Steam for about a year, and many of these issues were present when it launched, yet none of them seem to have been addressed in any way. It isn’t the worst game of all time, but I personally find it way more frustrating than fun. Kaku has a ton of customizable options, and many pieces of his outfits have stats that can be used. The issue is that the combat system doesn’t reward you the way you think it would for dodging or parrying, so getting a hat that lets you dodge 40% more often doesn’t feel like it actually does anything. It often feels like there’s a cool idea mixed with a poorly optimized gameplay design that gets in the way. With some gameplay updates, Kaku: Ancient Seal could be a real hit for people who love the PlayStation 2 era of action-adventure games. In its current state, it’s difficult to recommend at full price. It frustrated and confused me in ways that few games have lately. But if Kaku: Ancient Seal ever lands in a deep, deep sale, and you find yourself itching to play a game that gives you those nostalgic butterflies, then I think you could justify giving this one a try.
