KAKU – Ancient Seal from Microids, Bingobell, and SneakyBox brings us an action RPG set in a world that has lost its balance. Learn more in our KAKU – Ancient Seal review!
KAKU – Ancient Seal from Microids, Bingobell, and SneakyBox brings us an action RPG set in a world that has lost its balance. The game will place you in the role of the titular protagonist, and you will find yourself being yanked from your regular life and thrown into the role of the hero of a long-forgotten prophecy. This world was shaped by the powerful Creator Saga, a divine entity who managed to maintain the balance of every element thanks to the four elements. Unfortunately, one day, a mysterious force from another realm brought a cataclysm that resulted in the Creator Saga vanishing, scattering the four elemental souls. This led to the world breaking apart into four hostile regions that rule over their part by using the corrupt elemental energy in their power. It’s now up to you – and your loyal companion Piggy – to explore each continent as you take on the challenge of the remaining Ruins, battling against huge foes.
You can play the game by choosing from one of three different difficulty settings: Easy, Normal, and Hard. The Easy difficulty setting is for those of you who are new to action RPGs, with monsters that are a bit less aggressive and that deal less damage to Kaku. The Normal difficulty setting offers the standard experience, balanced to challenge your skills but without ever feeling overwhelming. As for the Hard difficulty, it’s one best reserved for those with experience with action RPGs, since monsters will pack a punch and will be more than ready to destroy you!
Once the starting story cutscene is over, you’ll be taking control of Kaku by using the left analog stick, as you use the right analog stick to move the camera around as needed. You can jump – and double jump – by pressing the X button. You can sprint by pressing and holding down the R1 button, but this will consume some of your stamina. Your weapon attacks are mapped to the Square button, while armblade attacks are set to the Triangle button. While armblade attacks are going to be slower, they can drain an enemy’s poise, which can then leave them stunned! A stunned enemy will receive a lot more damage from every attack that you land, and this will be key when taking on much larger opponents. Lock onto a target by pressing in on the right analog stick, so that you can keep it in your sight at all times. Press the Circle button to perform a quick dodge roll that will hopefully allow you to evade incoming attacks. This will also consume some stamina.
Press and hold down the L2 button to aim your slingshot, so that you can then shoot a pellet by pressing the R2 button. While you have an unlimited stock of regular pellets, you’ll also need to craft special pellets with elemental properties. Fire pellets, as expected, will deal fire damage to a target, adding burning and explosion effects in the process. Thunder pellets will add paralysis and scattering effects. As for Poison pellets, they will add poisoning and poison cloud effects upon hitting their target.
Press the R1 button to interact with items or other characters. The quick access menu is shown in the bottom left corner of the screen, and you can use the D-Pad to select the corresponding item. Always keep a healing item ready in case you’re injured! You can press the L1 button to display the abilities you’ve learned so far. You can then use each one by pressing the corresponding button. Cooking some of the resources that you collect is important, since this will allow you to gain upgraded food items that have boosted effects. A Kylin Roll – made with Kylin Fire plants – will help you heal 225 points of health every 12 seconds. A Mushroom Roll – made from you guessed it, mushrooms – will heal 100 points every 15 seconds. Cooking a Golden Phoenix Roll from Golden Phoenix Melons will boost your defense by 10 points for 15 seconds, which can certainly help you during boss fights!
There are several pieces of weapons, armblades, and other equipment for you to collect, which can start to make a difference as they boost your odds of survival. Take, for instance, the Wild Fang Headband. This particular headband – sporting the fangs of wild beasts symbolizing courage – will reduce stamina consumption when dodging. You can also slot runes into the different pieces of equipment to improve them.
The game features a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy for you to aim for during your time with KAKU – Ancient Seal. The list is split into 6 Bronze trophies, 15 Silver trophies, and 3 Gold trophies for you to work on. What will you need to do for that shiny Platinum trophy? Some of the objectives to complete include defeating your first Ancient Guardian, defeating the different bosses that the game will throw at you, fully socketing any piece of equipment with runestones, meting the different characters that will be part of your journey, defeating 100 Ponpons, defeating 100 snow beasts, collecting 1,000 special ores – blaze ore, azure ironstone, and verdant ore – or defeating 500 monsters, to name some examples.
KAKU – Ancient Seal brings us an action RPG set in a world that has lost its balance. The game will place you in the role of the titular protagonist, and you will find yourself being yanked from your regular life and thrown into the role of the hero of a long-forgotten prophecy. This world was shaped by the powerful Creator Saga, a divine entity who managed to maintain the balance of every element thanks to the four elements. Unfortunately, one day, a mysterious force from another realm brought a cataclysm that resulted in the Creator Saga vanishing, scattering the four elemental souls. This led to the world breaking apart into four hostile regions that rule over their part by using the corrupt elemental energy in their power. It’s now up to you – and your loyal companion Piggy – to explore each continent as you take on the challenge of the remaining Ruins, battling against huge foes. KAKU – Ancient Seal launches tomorrow on PlayStation 5 with a $29.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This KAKU – Ancient Seal review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Microids.
