Preview: Kraken Academy!!
In German, the word for “Fun” is “Spaß”, pronounced "Schpahz".
But how would you say, “Fun, hilarious, slice-of-life, action-adventure RPG” in German?
Kraken Academy!!
Right from the get-go in my 25 minute demo, the game spouts chaotic hilarity. Immediately upon arrival at the academy, a fight between a homeless thief and a student breaks out. This interrupted by a teacher joining in the fight, starting a car fire nearby.
Kraken Academy is nuts, and it's proud to show it to you while making you laugh along with it.
From it’s DNA at heart, Kraken Academy is a visual novel-meets-adventure game in which you build friendships (and relationships??) while running around the school smashing garbage to find bottles to recycle. The bottles, by the way, are your source of currency in this game. Take them to bottle deposit stations for some sweet, sweet money; as we know from real world experiences, the only reliable form of economic structure.
In the brief opening, you’re introduced to a bevy of unique and lovingly crafted characters; ESPECIALLY MRS. PETROVA, whose husband just, well…
After her brief assault pop-quiz, the real music club teacher arrives and shoos Petrova away, leaving the classroom with a hiss and a cat-like scurry. For each character in the game, you’re given a Kraken-Net friend invite that brings up a character sheet with information regarding themselves. How all this will play out in the full game and what you do with that information is yet to be seen, but you don’t have to tell me because I’m already all in on Broccoli Girl.
From here, Broccoli Girl will show you your dorm room, in which you’ll be able to decorate with different items, wallpapers, and more in the full game. Something the demo for Kraken Academy reminds you on multiple occasions with fourth-wall breaking jokes; this is a demo, of course. You can’t do everything yet. Broccoli Girl tells you about a costume party coming up in two days, to which you express concern over because you don’t have a costume. She directs you to visit the lake on campus as people throw away all kinds of things over there. Convenient and hilarious.
Upon your arrival to the lake, a dark and ominous silhouette speaks to you with purpose and foreboding, telling you of your destiny. That shadow is the Kraken. They fill you in on a dark and terrible outcome that’s to come to pass in just 3 days. Unless we help them in freeing the four guardian spirits of the school, everyone is doomed. But that’s okay, because with the amulet you just found here you’ll be able to travel back in time 3 days as many times as you need to until you set things right. Sound familiar, Link? So head to the headmaster’s office and steal the-
Oh wait:
Kraken Academy is being developed by Happy Broccoli Games, a small 5-Person team out of Berlin, Germany and being published by Fellow Traveller. To say I’m excited or head-over-heels for this game is an understatement. I absolutely cannot wait for this game to be completed. From the comedy to the general aesthetic, I love it all. Put Kraken Academy!! on your calendars and your Steam Wishlist. This is a game everyone here at Six One Indie, and probably everywhere in the gaming community, will be talking about.
Previewed by Matthew Wright