Akatori is a Metroid-like that has some lofty goals with it being pushed as a mix of Hollow Knight and Nine Sols, so I checked out the demo to see how that works out in this first taste of the game.
It’s a gorgeous game with beautiful pixel art and a great 2.5D-style background, and it obviously has had a lot of work put into it. The combat was easily the weak link here. However, it might be the victim of a shortened demo that feels like it is constantly introducing new aspects of what you can do before you’re able to start mastering the basics. It felt very clunky and unresponsive at times with my DualSense Edge that I had to keep unplugging it and plugging it back in to be sure that I wasn’t the issue, but I often took damage because the game couldn’t act fast enough or my button presses wouldn’t register to do something on screen. I’m still not sure what the issue was, but it was a frustrating experience when you have this sort of soulslike action platformer that is constantly challenging you.
Let’s back up a bit and explain how the demo works. As you start learning the game’s controls (before you reach what seems like a big story moment), an attack has befallen your home. Rather than playing through this event, you’re whisked away to another area with a merchant that only sells potions (that you use with the d-pad), while a bunch of enemies around you try to kill you, and you’re simultaneously seeking a bunch of tutorial orbs. These orbs introduce new mechanics that pile on top of the rest.
The platforming also suffers from that feeling of unresponsiveness, especially when I lost health trying to jump on some platforms and others had enemies on their ledges that lead to me jumping to get a hit or two in as I tried to edge forward. It also doesn’t help that I found some bamboo poles that seemed clearly designed to fling you across gaps, but I could never get it to work properly.
Platforming suffers from that feeling of unresponsiveness that makes every jump a gamble. Whether I was struggling to time hits on ledge-dwelling enemies or fighting with the bamboo poles that clearly were designed to fling me across gaps but refused to work as intended, it resulted in movement that felt clunky and unreliable. Even the Steam page shows gifs of that being the point, so it felt like I missed out on some cool moments that were intended.
The developers do mention on the main menu that this demo is a shortened form of the full game. I assume this means there will be more time to process these new moves in the full game. That doesn’t really help the game though, especially when a number of enemies get shots or attacks in before mine can get out and they respawn so quickly that I wonder if this is a Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden game in spirit. It’s overwhelming with everything going on in the demo, resulting in dying frequently yet I have no real idea of what I did wrong other than take damage. I took a handful of swings at the boss and never got past the swimming sequence it requires before you can even face the beast, which was a disappointing way to end this video. This feels like a demo for a game that still has a lot of work to go before it’s ready for launch, so I hope the developers get the time this demo needs to fulfill its potential.
This feels like a demo for a game that still has a lot of work to go before it’s ready for launch, so I hope the developers get the time this demo needs to fulfill its potential.
Akatori is a Metroid-like that has some lofty goals with it being pushed as a mix of Hollow Knight and Nine Sols, so I checked out the demo to see how that works out in this first taste of the game.
It’s a gorgeous game with beautiful pixel art and a great 2.5D-style background, and it obviously has had a lot of work put into it. The combat was easily the weak link here. However, it might be the victim of a shortened demo that feels like it is constantly introducing new aspects of what you can do before you’re able to start mastering the basics. It felt very clunky and unresponsive at times with my DualSense Edge that I had to keep unplugging it and plugging it back in to be sure that I wasn’t the issue, but I often took damage because the game couldn’t act fast enough or my button presses wouldn’t register to do something on screen. I’m still not sure what the issue was, but it was a frustrating experience when you have this sort of soulslike action platformer that is constantly challenging you.
Let’s back up a bit and explain how the demo works. As you start learning the game’s controls (before you reach what seems like a big story moment), an attack has befallen your home. Rather than playing through this event, you’re whisked away to another area with a merchant that only sells potions (that you use with the d-pad), while a bunch of enemies around you try to kill you, and you’re simultaneously seeking a bunch of tutorial orbs. These orbs introduce new mechanics that pile on top of the rest.
The platforming also suffers from that feeling of unresponsiveness, especially when I lost health trying to jump on some platforms and others had enemies on their ledges that lead to me jumping to get a hit or two in as I tried to edge forward. It also doesn’t help that I found some bamboo poles that seemed clearly designed to fling you across gaps, but I could never get it to work properly.
Platforming suffers from that feeling of unresponsiveness that makes every jump a gamble. Whether I was struggling to time hits on ledge-dwelling enemies or fighting with the bamboo poles that clearly were designed to fling me across gaps but refused to work as intended, it resulted in movement that felt clunky and unreliable. Even the Steam page shows gifs of that being the point, so it felt like I missed out on some cool moments that were intended.
The developers do mention on the main menu that this demo is a shortened form of the full game. I assume this means there will be more time to process these new moves in the full game. That doesn’t really help the game though, especially when a number of enemies get shots or attacks in before mine can get out and they respawn so quickly that I wonder if this is a Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden game in spirit. It’s overwhelming with everything going on in the demo, resulting in dying frequently yet I have no real idea of what I did wrong other than take damage. I took a handful of swings at the boss and never got past the swimming sequence it requires before you can even face the beast, which was a disappointing way to end this video. This feels like a demo for a game that still has a lot of work to go before it’s ready for launch, so I hope the developers get the time this demo needs to fulfill its potential.
by Chris Selogy