Core Design was a juggernaut on the PS1. After Tomb Raider was released they firmly placed their name in every gamer’s household. Akuji was released closer to the end of the system’s life cycle, and while critically acclaimed, it didn’t sell well. It was a bizarre game about voodoo and was hard to market at the time.
You play as Akuji who needs to get his wife’s soul back and must travel through the different levels of hell to reclaim his ancestors’ souls and appease the keeper of the vestibules which act as hubs. In each hub, there are doors you can go through that lead to each level. If you don’t collect these floating heads you won’t be able to advance in the game and I absolutely hate this system. Even with all your skills, you used to beat bosses and enemies you need to collect things. I feel this is demeaning and frustrating. For the story, it’s forgettable and nothing special.
The game plays quite well with Akuji jumping around, slashing, and blasting spells. You will use your spells more than you think in this game and there is a variety of them and each is used for different situations. Outside of combat, there is some minor puzzle solving and switch throwing. Platforming in the game is mostly fine, but the camera is sluggish to move around with the shoulder buttons so Akuji will jump off an edge or fall to his death. Another irritating thing is the use of lives, I mean why? You can hit checkpoints, which are poorly spaced, so why not just restart there? Why punish the player even more as if surviving and checkpoints aren’t enough?
I felt this game dragged on a bit too long. There are over 15 levels and, while they all look different and look great, they’re unoriginal. They are mostly short, and each level plays out the same. Grab this doohickey, put it here, flip this switch, kill this enemy to lower this wall, etc.
While this was the norm back in the day, it just doesn’t hold up well. Maybe if some things changed a bit like the use of lives maybe it would be a more fun experience. Mixing a collectathon with a progressive platformer just doesn’t work well here.
The game looks fantastic as Crystal pushed the PS1 to its limits, probably too hard. When effects like water splashes or magic effects flash around the game slows down to a crawl which can get quite annoying, but it’s still playable.
Overall, Akuji is a great PS1 title that has solid controls and great gameplay, it just has so many frustrating factors around it that make it less enjoyable as you play. If you really need a PS1 platformer that’s different then go for it as this is a hidden gem.
You play as Akuji who needs to get his wife’s soul back and must travel through the different levels of hell to reclaim his ancestors’ souls and appease the keeper of the vestibules which act as hubs. In each hub, there are doors you can go through that lead to each level. If you don’t collect these floating heads you won’t be able to advance in the game and I absolutely hate this system. Even with all your skills, you used to beat bosses and enemies you need to collect things. I feel this is demeaning and frustrating. For the story, it’s forgettable and nothing special.
The game plays quite well with Akuji jumping around, slashing, and blasting spells. You will use your spells more than you think in this game and there is a variety of them and each is used for different situations. Outside of combat, there is some minor puzzle solving and switch throwing. Platforming in the game is mostly fine, but the camera is sluggish to move around with the shoulder buttons so Akuji will jump off an edge or fall to his death. Another irritating thing is the use of lives, I mean why? You can hit checkpoints, which are poorly spaced, so why not just restart there? Why punish the player even more as if surviving and checkpoints aren’t enough?
I felt this game dragged on a bit too long. There are over 15 levels and, while they all look different and look great, they’re unoriginal. They are mostly short, and each level plays out the same. Grab this doohickey, put it here, flip this switch, kill this enemy to lower this wall, etc.
While this was the norm back in the day, it just doesn’t hold up well. Maybe if some things changed a bit like the use of lives maybe it would be a more fun experience. Mixing a collectathon with a progressive platformer just doesn’t work well here.
The game looks fantastic as Crystal pushed the PS1 to its limits, probably too hard. When effects like water splashes or magic effects flash around the game slows down to a crawl which can get quite annoying, but it’s still playable.
Overall, Akuji is a great PS1 title that has solid controls and great gameplay, it just has so many frustrating factors around it that make it less enjoyable as you play. If you really need a PS1 platformer that’s different then go for it as this is a hidden gem.
This game could potentially be better now that I’m older but I’m basing my rating off when the game came out. It wasn’t my type of game and I feel like this one was similar to Soul Reaver so if I wanted to play something, why not the better option? AKUJI! That woman’s voice saying his name is a core memory…
I'm really surprised that people didn't seem to like this one. It runs off the same engine as Gex (which I'm a big fan of) and is more or less a dark/edgy 3D platformer before that trend took over on the PS2. Perhaps a little too easy, but I still had a lot of fun giving it a once over.
bizarro
Has all the ingredients for a good game but not enough of them.
This was a very obscure game that I used to play despite finding it scary, I loved the combat and soundtrack, the fact that the soundtrack progressed during gameplay was mind-blowing, you need to play this if you love obscure, dark platformers.
My main experience with this game its demo in Gex 3: Undercover Gecko. It's one of those games from the mid to late 90s that's comically edgy, as if a teenager made the whole thing. I love when you pick up a powerup and Akuji says, with zero inflection or emotion, "Hellblast".