Akatori

I thoroughly enjoyed Akatori's approach to combat, platforming, and exploration and its upgrade system is incredibly unique and rewarding. ⛩️

Akatori may have a fantastic art style comparable to some of the finest HD-2D games, but this is where my high praise ends, as it fails to offer anything else that truly stands out in an oversaturated market

Akatori has to be assessed for what it is, not what it could have become. This isn’t trying to be the next Hollow Knight nor does it want to be a sprawling, dozens-of-hours-long Metroidvania with very sophisticated level design and a massive advancement system.

With tenuous character motivations, messy dialogue, underdeveloped narrative structure, sloppy combat, haphazard checkpointing, flat skill progression, and unreliable controls, Akatori is an exploraformer to avoid. The game’s excellent visual presentation does not compensate for its many unpolished and half-finished ideas.

A vibrant adventure that stumbles in places but still delivers a memorable journey. Akatori offers a vibrant world, rewarding progression, and enjoyable combat that make the adventure engaging. Some elements fall short, such as the flat NPCs, small text, and a few frustrating moments with navigation and difficulty, but they never outweigh the game’s charm or atmosphere. It’s a flawed yet memorable journey that fans of Metroidvania‑style games will still appreciate.

Fun 2.5 Metroidvania with fast-paced momentum-based gameplay

Even ignoring the Metroidvania elements that don't work in a linear action title like this, Akatori isn't a good game. While visually appealing thanks to its beautiful pixel art and some interesting 3D backgrounds, the gameplay leaves much to be desired. It has absurd, non-functional mechanics, repetitive enemies, inconsistent level design, and dialogue so clunky it's painful to read. There are elements with real potential, and you can find some fun in its six-hour runtime, but there are many better games in the genre.

Akatori isn’t going to reinvent the action-adventure genre, but that’s ok. What I got was a colourful, straightforward adventure with enjoyable combat, some decent exploration and absolutely gorgeous presentation. The platforming occasionally tested my patience, the difficulty spikes could have been smoother, and the constant humour in the story really didn’t work for me. But underneath those problems is a relatively simple adventure that doesn’t demand that you learn seventeen different systems before you’re allowed to have fun. You can pick it up, explore, punch some strange creatures, unlock increasingly useful staff abilities and enjoy the scenery. For me, the biggest missed opportunity is the writing. I genuinely think the world would have had more impact if the game had allowed itself to be a little more serious. Still, I enjoyed my time with Akatori. It’s a pretty little adventure with plenty to like, even if it occasionally trips over its own feet.

Akatori could be described as a Metroidvania-style game, but despite lacking key elements of the genre, its visual aesthetic, dynamic gameplay, and solid story manage to win you over.

Akatori is not a bad metroidvania. Its visual direction is memorable, Mako is fun to control, and the boss fights show how good the game can be when its systems work together. But its shallow rewards, weak ability gating, awkward healing economy, repetitive regular combat, and inconsistent Ally X performance hold it back.