Positives:
- Three distinctly different characters to play as.
- High-speed action makes it a satisfying game to speedrun.
- Good presentation overall.
Negatives:
- (PC-only) Refresh rate higher than 60hz makes the game unbeatable. Unforgivable.
- Every replay is the exact same, with only the characters making the difference... if it wasn't so easy.
- Puzzles are really bad, losing the key item on just one hit.
-----------------------------------
''Okay so, before this review starts, I'm going to go on a quick rant. Note that this only applies to PC players (I think?), and also only those with higher-end monitors. You can probably already guess where I'm going with this but yes, we are living in the year 2022 (or 2019 when the game came out), and this game is entirely unbeatable depending on the refresh rate your monitor has. I was running around the second level for almost half an hour with no idea what to do, and then I looked up guides on the internet on what other people did and they moved way faster, but for no explainable reason. It wasn't until I found a deep buried Steam post until I realized that apparently anything above 60hz causes the character to move way slower. Frankly, that's just an unforgivable flaw and yes, I will judge the game for that--even if it is something that may not apply to everyone. But for now, rant over, let's actually talk about the game.
KAMIKO is an action game starring three different characters; a fighter specialized in melee, one in distance fighting (archery), and one who does both. I appreciate the variety between the three because of the gameplay styles also enforcing how their gameplay should be--either take it up close and hack away, or care more about your positioning. Not like it really matters that much in the end since the game is really easy, only giving me one death on my very first playthrough of about six. And I can hear you thinking "...wait, six playthroughs?!" and yeah, that's indeed what I did. Not that surprising either when a single playthrough doesn't last more than half an hour, aside from maybe the first one since you need to get the hang of how the game works. And if a game is that short, is really needs to have good replayability for people to want to play it more. Given that every playthrough is the exact same with no differences, the characters here really are more important than just a preference in gameplay style.
I liked playing as two characters, being the melee fighter who goes in for quick slashes and a beyblade spin as special attack, and the jack-of-both-trades who throws her surprisingly high-damaging shield and then goes in for pokes with her tiny sword. The only reason I don't like the otherwise powerful archer character is because of her vulnerability while attacking. While the other two characters can move around all the time without any issues, the archer just can't move at all when aiming her bow. It makes sense and like I said, it makes positioning more important, but there are many enemies on screen at pretty much all times and if there's an enemy not standing straight in front of her, she's kinda screwed. But like I said, the game is really easy so it's more just her not being fun to play as rather than her being bad to play as.
With the characters out of the way, time to talk about that very short playthrough. There are a total of four stages to go through, with a high emphasis on the before-mentioned combat and a very slight emphasis on puzzles. The basic gist is to find four gates, cleanse them, and then beat the boss of the level. All stages are visually distinct but there isn't really anything making them actually distinct from each other, aside from maybe enemies but even they have very generic attacking patterns. The other objective is to just find chests for upgrades and unlock the path to the gates or the boss and... that's where my biggest annoyance lies with this game. Be it a door or a pedestal, you need to carry the item that unlocks it over your head to it. The problem is that if you get hit even once, you immediately lose the item and you have to go back to where it was placed. Given how many enemies there can be on screen or how narrow some paths can be while you cannot attack them, this is surprisingly the most difficult part about the game--but absolutely not in a good way.
I wanted to talk about the bosses too but given how easy the rest of the game is, I couldn't really find the motivation to do so. The idea behind them is at least fun but that's all I really have to say. And with that, we have a surprisingly negative review for this game... which is something I really didn't want to do, but it is what it is. But I at least wanted to end on a positive note since my time with KAMIKO wasn't necessarily a bad one. I like the presentation of the game, and also that there is an emphasis on combo's that break whenever you take too long or get hit. Everything like unlocking chests- or cleansing gates, as well as using special moves requires a specific currency dropped by enemies, and they are easier to get with combo's. Given that this game also places an emphasis on speedrunning due to it's length, making bigger combo's results in less time spent grinding for them. And hey, since this game is so short, it makes for a fun game to speedrun... except that there is no global leaderboard. So we're still ending this review negatively after all huh. Oh well, it was a decent fun experience for how long it lasted, but the characters being the only difference each playthrough makes it a really tough sell unfortunately.''
- Three distinctly different characters to play as.
- High-speed action makes it a satisfying game to speedrun.
- Good presentation overall.
Negatives:
- (PC-only) Refresh rate higher than 60hz makes the game unbeatable. Unforgivable.
- Every replay is the exact same, with only the characters making the difference... if it wasn't so easy.
- Puzzles are really bad, losing the key item on just one hit.
-----------------------------------
''Okay so, before this review starts, I'm going to go on a quick rant. Note that this only applies to PC players (I think?), and also only those with higher-end monitors. You can probably already guess where I'm going with this but yes, we are living in the year 2022 (or 2019 when the game came out), and this game is entirely unbeatable depending on the refresh rate your monitor has. I was running around the second level for almost half an hour with no idea what to do, and then I looked up guides on the internet on what other people did and they moved way faster, but for no explainable reason. It wasn't until I found a deep buried Steam post until I realized that apparently anything above 60hz causes the character to move way slower. Frankly, that's just an unforgivable flaw and yes, I will judge the game for that--even if it is something that may not apply to everyone. But for now, rant over, let's actually talk about the game.
KAMIKO is an action game starring three different characters; a fighter specialized in melee, one in distance fighting (archery), and one who does both. I appreciate the variety between the three because of the gameplay styles also enforcing how their gameplay should be--either take it up close and hack away, or care more about your positioning. Not like it really matters that much in the end since the game is really easy, only giving me one death on my very first playthrough of about six. And I can hear you thinking "...wait, six playthroughs?!" and yeah, that's indeed what I did. Not that surprising either when a single playthrough doesn't last more than half an hour, aside from maybe the first one since you need to get the hang of how the game works. And if a game is that short, is really needs to have good replayability for people to want to play it more. Given that every playthrough is the exact same with no differences, the characters here really are more important than just a preference in gameplay style.
I liked playing as two characters, being the melee fighter who goes in for quick slashes and a beyblade spin as special attack, and the jack-of-both-trades who throws her surprisingly high-damaging shield and then goes in for pokes with her tiny sword. The only reason I don't like the otherwise powerful archer character is because of her vulnerability while attacking. While the other two characters can move around all the time without any issues, the archer just can't move at all when aiming her bow. It makes sense and like I said, it makes positioning more important, but there are many enemies on screen at pretty much all times and if there's an enemy not standing straight in front of her, she's kinda screwed. But like I said, the game is really easy so it's more just her not being fun to play as rather than her being bad to play as.
With the characters out of the way, time to talk about that very short playthrough. There are a total of four stages to go through, with a high emphasis on the before-mentioned combat and a very slight emphasis on puzzles. The basic gist is to find four gates, cleanse them, and then beat the boss of the level. All stages are visually distinct but there isn't really anything making them actually distinct from each other, aside from maybe enemies but even they have very generic attacking patterns. The other objective is to just find chests for upgrades and unlock the path to the gates or the boss and... that's where my biggest annoyance lies with this game. Be it a door or a pedestal, you need to carry the item that unlocks it over your head to it. The problem is that if you get hit even once, you immediately lose the item and you have to go back to where it was placed. Given how many enemies there can be on screen or how narrow some paths can be while you cannot attack them, this is surprisingly the most difficult part about the game--but absolutely not in a good way.
I wanted to talk about the bosses too but given how easy the rest of the game is, I couldn't really find the motivation to do so. The idea behind them is at least fun but that's all I really have to say. And with that, we have a surprisingly negative review for this game... which is something I really didn't want to do, but it is what it is. But I at least wanted to end on a positive note since my time with KAMIKO wasn't necessarily a bad one. I like the presentation of the game, and also that there is an emphasis on combo's that break whenever you take too long or get hit. Everything like unlocking chests- or cleansing gates, as well as using special moves requires a specific currency dropped by enemies, and they are easier to get with combo's. Given that this game also places an emphasis on speedrunning due to it's length, making bigger combo's results in less time spent grinding for them. And hey, since this game is so short, it makes for a fun game to speedrun... except that there is no global leaderboard. So we're still ending this review negatively after all huh. Oh well, it was a decent fun experience for how long it lasted, but the characters being the only difference each playthrough makes it a really tough sell unfortunately.''