The frustration of not knowing what to play makes us eagerly control Steam: this is where Kraken Academy !! attracts us with its plot, wacky enough to make us play it to write a review
In recent years, the indie world has emerged as a gateway to many emerging developers. Proof that even for one person it is possible to achieve fame with a video game developed by itself it is visible, for example, in the renowned Undertale, so much so that it has recently received the announcement of the creation of three sequels including the second, Deltarune 2, available for free. This is because developer Toby Fox wants all fans to be able to enjoy the work in which he he poured out his entire spirit creative. And the review we will dedicate to Kraken Academy !! explore this line of thinking shared by the developers, who wanted to expose their fantasy universe to players, with a more specific goal: the desire to entertain.
Few but good
The soul is the thing more visible within an indie: it is what makes it interesting in the eyes of people, that pushes them to buy it and play it, it is one of the fundamental points, since it is the only part on which a creator can really work to achieve success. This funny and hilarious game, produced by the indie studio Happy Broccoli Games, the (somewhat funny) name of a team originally from Berlin, counts behind its development alone three people, which, however, have a world of fantasy to be transported to the videogame context.
Within the review, we will go to expose the world and the history that circumscribes Kraken Academy !!, which we will be able to know through the protagonist, able to play the part of the “straight man” but never in an excessively meticulous way, indeed often transporting us with his curiosity into the adventure; we will then obtain the relatively useful time travel power with which it is endowed, and we will conclude it all by involving fantastic and supernatural entities, in what will result a mission to save the school, and the world.
An Ecologically Ruined School – Kraken Academy Review !!
Kraken Academy !! it will find us in a school with a prestigious reputation, surpassed only by the quantity of individuals weird and out of this world who live on campus; and despite this, even the most absurd things of this universe are accepted as a common daily fact, and almost nothing it might surprise the characters they are part of. Indeed, the plot itself is set in a rather direct and nonchalance way as regards the most peculiar and strange points that structure it, to the point of making the game mechanics even too simplified than what they could have been.
The premise of the game is basic: the protagonist (the name can be decided by the player, in our case Anonuman, a union of “Anonymous” and “Human”) will be attending the prestigious Kraken Academy school, together with his sister, Nadia. The thing that makes everything more interesting, however, is that the school is frequented by students, professors, principals and even janitors distinguished by a some kind of bizarre feature. And thinking about it, there is also an important detail to add: not all are human, or rather, some are 50%, or perhaps less, it has never been fully clarified on the matter.
The school itself is shown through a map, structured in various blocks that divide the play areas. We have a main square, which acts as a corridor to the other areas, and which shows more of everything the decay that a certain timeline is undergoing on a certain day. The further areas are divided into school clubs of various types, where students are placed according to one hierarchy, based on how much money they have decided to shell out their parents: the music club is the one for the common scum, and the same one in which we – the protagonist – are dragged, recognized by our uniform.
The only way to access the higher clubs, that is the artistic, sports and acting one, is in fact with a uniform belonging to the club, as well as a pass to pass the controlsi security. Upon our arrival, the school is in very bad condition, with streets full of ramshackle cars and full of garbage. Nothing to do, therefore, with the much vaunted academy on brochures.
The Three Days That Became Twelve – Kraken Academy Review !!
Kraken Academy !! starts on a Monday morning, ending up being dumped in front of the school by our mother, and seeing our cruel sister walking past us to the acting club, having managed to enter it in a way that we will not delve into in this review. Shortly thereafter, we will see a heated discussion that will end with a fight between a old phone thief bum, an alleged hooligan and an authoritarian but not too recommendable chick.
In addition, the scene will soon be peppered with a nearby car explosion. But we won’t get too excited anyway; at least until what we discover is our own club member, as well as looking like a broccoli, enters the scene: Broccoli Girl. She will be the one to hastily lead us to class, but not before having paid a certain Stix access to the area of the school building, with a sum of 10 thousand Shlotinki.
It is also explained to us that getting money on campus will be quite simple: it will be enough smash all baskets, bins and lockers that we will see, in order to obtain plastic bottles that we can then recycle to have in exchange for the pecuniary. These are the cost-benefits of being eco-friendly, after all. At least we’ll get to converse with bottle-eating machines, as well as asking them what kind of relationship they have with snack machines. Once in the classroom, we will find our classmates, each one more “Otherwise normal” of the other. The teacher won’t seem like much in her own right either, after she talks to us about how she had a career as an opera singer aeons ago, and was left by her husband. to the sound of dab.
After a series of events, Broccoli Girl will invite us to a costume party for Wednesday night, telling us that we can find a costume at the lake near the school. When you arrive at the lake, the development of the real plot of Kraken Academy !! will begin, presenting a Kraken in flesh and blood before the eyes of the protagonist. But what will make the situation even more incredible is the request that the Kraken will make of us: to use an amulet to save the school from ruin. within three days. Finally, the same monster will not fail to invite us to have a good time and get to know your companions, stating that it will be one of the key points for saving the world.
Combat, Quests, Gameplay and Puzzles – Kraken Academy Review !!
At this point in the review of Kraken Academy !!, we are going to introduce what is the gameplay and the “combat” within the game. Kraken Academy !! draws its characteristics from the typical narrative games that focus on the line of visual novel, also adding a rather basic and simple gameplay. In fact, the exploration of the game areas, distinct from a top view, is essentially based on walk around approaching characters and objects positioned in a certain way on purpose to attract attention.
It will be possible to collect or interact with them, in order to get to the completion of secondary and main quests. Initially, quests cannot be completed, as they will need to be done first gain access to other game areas, but once opened they can be terminated quite easily.
The function of time-loop comes in really handy if by chance too much time is lost to break through things to earn bottles, thus wasting hours within the day, which goes by pretty quickly anyway unless you’re doing a proper mission. In that case, time will remain firm and immovable. The puzzles they are not particularly difficult, and the game itself in certain situations does not allow you to leave an area until the completion of the mission, thus limiting the areas in which we will have to go to look for objects necessary for the solution.
They are placed numerous mini-games, which almost always consist in pressing the action key quickly or at the right time. Towards the latter half of the game some mechanics are experimented with a little different from button-mashing, but they still turn out very narrow and without the possibility of choosing one particular approach over another, limiting ourselves to being able to dodge and move.
Although the puzzles are almost always very similar to each other, in some situations rather nice ideas pop up break linearity, but it is certainly not a question of anything revolutionary. As you progress through the game, you will be able to get your hands on various types of clothes, which will allow you to perform certain actions allowing us to solve some puzzles. Evidence is also posed by the secondary characters: this after the Kraken invites us to socialize with our peers, motivating it as a categorical necessity for the success of our mission, a bit like social links in the Persona series.
Therefore the protagonist will have to make friends with all the circles present at the school, completing the secondary quests entrusted to him and thus obtaining a friendship pin. These are missions that almost always require you to bring a certain object that can only be obtained after making some loops, but they are still quite nice and interesting, and could also lead to eventual appointments with some characters.
Between music, pixels and sprites in anime style – Kraken Academy Review !!
At this stage of the review, we must applaud the visual style with which Kraken Academy presents itself !!. The graphics are definitely colorful and lively, formed mainly by a stylization in pixels of the entire game world, but with the characters taking on a characteristic I draw souls during conversations, when their sprites appear in the foreground of the environment. Even the animations in the various interspaces, always pixelated, are effective and cute at the right point. We can say that it is an optimally successful combination. Scrolling through the game menus, we will be able to observe the map, the inventory, and even a social platform where the interests and details regarding each character we meet are shown.
As for the soundtrack, each situation is marked by a different music, which amplifies the strangest or most disturbing situations. Sure, it’s not an overly memorable score, or somehow masterfully composed, but it does its dirty job nonetheless. The game does not feature a dubbing, if not a series of words repeated by some voices attributed to the characters in certain situations; despite this, the writing of the game is still more than capable of …