Reviews: Aka
Spoiler free review of the game Aka played on the steam deck OLED.
About the game
Find inner peace in a small, open-world game. On these carefully handcrafted islands, you can take a nap on a giant monster, feed baby dragons, take care of the fauna and flora... ...but demons from your past might come back to remind you what you want to forget.
Margot’s stats
Device: Steam Deck Oled
Difficulty: One setting
Completed: yes - main story
Time: ~2.6 hours
Summary: I had a nice time playing this. It was a bit emotional in places and has the potential to be a nice cosy game you dip in and out of. The main story is very short but it does have some farming or exploring elements which mean you could play it beyond the main story line and dip in and out for some relaxing escapism.
Score: 7/10
Disclaimer: Most images are from the official press kit. Found here.
Narrative
You play as a red panda, who has survived a war and is trying to set up a new home. It is set in a japanese setting, and has a lot of japanese architecture and structures. I thought the art was very cute and beautiful.
There are a few NPCs that help you or give you side quests. It was a pretty simple and straight forward story was some emotional threads.
Beyond the main story, you are tidying up several islands and helping their inhabitants, by feeding them or repairing something.
Each island is a bit different and comes with different items to collect or farm.
Gameplay
The game play is relatively simple. I did struggle in the beginning with the controls a little bit, but they have recently released a bug fix and patch and maybe these things will improve. I was playing on the steam deck and I don’t think it is officially verified but was definitely playable.
The main actions are exploring, crafting, farming and and a bit of building. Each of these you can do more of than is required by the story and build a nicely decorated home if you like but it is not essential to the story.
To travel between the islands you generally take a boat, but one place you get to by train/tram. There are no big detailed maps but these are also not needed.
The game has a few “hidden” secrets to discover encouraging exploration. I put hidden in quotation marks as you are generally led to discover these eventually.
There is no combat and I would class it as chill and cozy. Part of what lets the game down a little bit, was that there are several NPCs you cannot speak to. They don’t even say “hello”. This broke the escapism for me a little bit and makes it feel a bit unfinished.
Sound
I am not sound expert, but I really liked the music and it added to the relaxing vibe of the story. There are a couple of music related games too, but me with my lack of rhythm struggled with these.
Verdict 7/10
Despite the main story being very short, I enjoyed this game a lot. It was immersive enough to provide some relaxing gaming time and it simply beautiful to look at. If you find farming sims like Stardew Valley overwhelming maybe a little short game like this where you can farm a little and help people is a nicer way to spend your gaming time. :)
Do you play cosy games? What have been your favourites?
I struggled with the controls on this one and didn't give it a good chance. Maybe I'll try again now that there's an update! Thanks for reviewing this :)
Yup I love my cozy games! 🥰🥰🥰🥰