KAKU: Ancient Seal is a new action-adventure indie game from the developer Bingobell (China). Looking through the game's trailer, one can clearly see the influence of the series. The Legends of Zeldaspecifically the version Breath of the Wild.

Let's take a look at the following review with MarkGame!

YOU WILL LIKE

HOURS OF ENTERTAINMENT!

The journey of Kaku – the main character of the game – takes place right in a segment chasing a small flying pig, leading to a series of small events that make him fall into a mysterious ice cave. After escaping from the cave, the story begins.

Actually, the plot of the Kaku: Ancient Seal… nothing to discuss, the main thing that the developer wants players to experience is the gameplay.

As an open world game with a large map, the first commendable point of the developer is that it does not create a series of dense things on the map like most games today (typically Ubisoft games).

Amount of content Kaku: Ancient Seal condensed, mainly lies in unlocking “Crystal” pillars, solving puzzles or finding the way to treasure chests, green energy cubes, and “lore” pillars scattered for players to hunt. Occasionally players will be given some small side quests, they are not many but the rewards are quite worth the time to do.

Kaku: Ancient Seal also offers a lot of interesting puzzles, and climbing and jumping (platforming). Most of them are carefully designed, some of them made the writer “die up, die down”! Although it does not allow the player to be as creative as the style of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of Kingdombut overall the game is still deep and worth experiencing.

It can be said that the exploration array of Kaku Ancient Seal It's well made, very entertaining, and can keep players going through the areas to scour every corner thanks to the clever design of the mysterious areas and twisty paths.

The game's combat system is divided into melee and ranged combat, and upgrades for both play an important role because the game is quite difficult and challenging at the beginning. Don't neglect ranged upgrades because there are many types of monsters, especially bosses, that are nemesis to 4 types of attributes. Besides combat, these 4 attributes also help with puzzle solving.

The melee system is quite satisfying because besides lightning-fast normal attacks, players also have other powerful ultimate skills such as ability to transform into a “Saiyan” like Songoku – when the attacks are extremely fierce, shaking the whole screen. Similar to the long-range ability, melee also has 3 other “ultimate” skills for players to “beat” tough enemies.

The exploration part of Kaku: Ancient Seal is quite well done, very entertaining and can make players go through all the areas to scour every corner

Equipment system of Kaku: Ancient Seal are streamlined, intuitive, and each has its own pros and cons, further enhanced by runes that can be used to “force gems” to further enhance the main character’s abilities. These items are beautifully designed and worth scouring the game’s vast and rich map.

Graphics of Kaku: Ancient Seal The later it gets, the more impressive it gets. Although it is an indie game, the art direction is quite harmonious and there are many scenes that will captivate the player. Surprisingly, the game also runs very stably on Steam Deck and during nearly 15 hours of playing, the writer has not experienced any crashes or errors that affect the experience.

YOU WILL HATE

INCOMPLETE

Although the developer has delayed it many times to Kaku: Ancient Seal complete, but the “early-access” aspect remains present from start to finish of the journey.

The first thing that is most noticeable is the sloppy user interface, with a bunch of crowded fonts and text, or the untidy, unprofessional menu. Especially when players open the game map, they are overwhelmed! Honestly, they are not bad, they just need to be streamlined and it will be fine.

Next, although the open world is really beautiful, the game progression is uneven, especially in the snowy area, it is quite boring when the story is long and not interesting enough to increase the excitement of the player.

Although the amount of exploration content is not overwhelming, it is also repetitive, causing the player to “skip” through it later, because there is nothing special to look forward to anymore. And probably 90% of the main and side quests are about collecting this or that item or defeating this or that soldier. Fortunately, thanks to the good level design, at least the player can still enjoy it.

The next confusing point is that the most interesting part of the game, the challenge dungeons, are literally “thrown” into another universe? Why aren’t those dungeons applied to the vast world of Kaku: Ancient Seal to create more excitement for discovery?

And to add to the confusion, the upgrades for equipment and skills are also in that separate universe! While the game has stone tables to “forge” fuel, why not integrate the ability to upgrade skills and weapons there, instead of having to separate them so that every time the player needs to upgrade something, they have to wait for the loading scene?

Another big regret of the game also comes from trying to “follow” the open world, with the usual weakness: superficial investment in the plot. All of them are added literally “for show”, leading to full of errors and creating the feeling that the plot is added at the end of the development process, to have the so-called “lead” the player into the world of Kaku: Ancient Seal.

While it's understandable that the game wants players to focus their experience on gameplay, if they want to intentionally tell a story indirectly to enrich the world of Kaku: Ancient Seal then it has to do as well as other indie games, for example Journey, Figment 2: Creed Valleyetc.

Because of the carelessness in the plot, the main character's development seems to be non-existent, leading to the sympathy of other supporting characters also disappearing. Inadvertently, making the overall experience of Kaku: Ancient Seal lost points. Not to mention the game is also very “economical” with cutscenes, instead the dialogues and 3D images of the characters look… boring.

The dubbing uses a separate language, such as Gravity Rush Remasteredbut the music and sound are not outstanding, which “contributes” to creating a bland point for Kaku: Ancient Seal.

The sloppiness in the plot makes the main character's development seem non-existent, leading to the sympathy of other supporting characters also disappearing.