There’s initially one thing so tantalizing about RKGK / Rakugaki’s daring utilization of coloration in its anime-inspired artwork type. From the bounce, the sport’s story appears rambunctious and absurd in the absolute best means, accompanied by gameplay the place split-second selections reward your well-timed jumps and dashes with temporary explosions of coloration. As the sport continues, nevertheless, the aesthetic of every stage begins to run collectively and the underlying narrative loses steam, leaving solely the platforming challenges to evolve in any significant means. So regardless that the story would not depart a long-lasting impression, your acrobatic escapades via every stage do, carrying the sport to gratifying heights.
In RKGK, you play as avenue artist-turned-rebel Valah, who is ready on taking her metropolis again from Mr. Buff, a rotund megalomaniac set on enslaving the populace with hypnotizing billboard screens and a military of robots. With spray paint cans in hand, Valah does battle with Mr. Buff’s robotic minions in an assortment of third-person 3D platforming ranges, returning to her residence base between every mission to speak together with her allies or change outfits.
Every stage of RKGK is a self-contained gauntlet of shifting platforms, explosive traps, twisting rails, and breakable containers that Valah should double-jump over, sprint previous, grind via, or smash. Enemies populate every stage however are simply overcome with a fast spray of Valah’s paint–it’s not all that difficult or rewarding to take them down. Some present a further problem by shielding themselves or releasing area-of-effect assaults, however nothing that comes near stopping Valah, even on the more durable problem the place she has much less well being.
However the secret for every stage is pace, not fight. Your efficiency for every stage is graded, with completion time affecting the curve most of all–it’s clear enemies are supposed to be a pace bump, not a fight problem. Chasing that sooner time is the crux of RKGK, and it is pleasant to replay ranges in hopes of uncovering hidden shortcuts or determining sooner methods to chain collectively sufficient platforming combos with out Valah being hit to unlock a pace increase that rockets her ahead. Deducing a brand new means during which to shave off an important handful of seconds to earn a greater letter grade seems like a victory over the robotic minions in itself.
Even RKGK’s boss battles are structured round platforming, prioritizing Valah’s positioning and timing till the boss opens itself as much as an assault. It isn’t probably the most thrilling approach to take down the hulking constructs that impede Valah’s means, nevertheless, which lessens the fun of overcoming them–hiding behind an impediment and ready for the boss to stupidly ram into it for the third time simply is not as thrilling as performing a death-defying leap to shave a while off a stage, for instance.
Valah’s actions possess an exuberant sense of pace with out sacrificing control–whenever I fell off a platform or missed a bounce, the fault was mine. The build-up of the platforming challenges is a rewarding climb as effectively. As Valah continues via the sport and reaches later ranges, she encounters faster-moving platforms, flame-spouting traps, and more and more obtrusive obstacles, however RKGK by no means piles on a number of new components at a time. As an alternative, they’re usually launched in a vacuum, forcing you to deal with the brand new factor one or two instances, earlier than then discovering methods to weave it into points of stage design you’ve got encountered, subsequently remaking an previous impediment into a brand new problem that you have already got an inkling of how one can overcome.
This methodology of stage design ensures RKGK has a gentle momentum in the case of development. Even on the more durable of the 2 difficulties, you are not often stymied for lengthy, permitting you to finish every stage in a matter of minutes and transfer on to the following stage in order for you. Each stage hides secrets and techniques off the crushed path and some comprise a handful of shortcuts, incentivizing you to replay them to earn a better grade and unlock extra rewards, which might then be spent to purchase cosmetics for Valah, like outfits and paint colours.
This construction centered round replayability does assist alleviate the shortcomings in RKGK’s story, which is bland and shallow. Valah isn’t a straightforward protagonist to narrate to, spouting quirky action-movie one-liners and wanting to face as much as the large unhealthy however not likely current past these normal characterizations. The story rushes via her battle with Mr. Buff, by no means fairly delving into both character’s motivations or rivalry in an intriguing means. Halfway via the sport, I had fully checked out of its story, solely incentivized to maintain going to benefit from the well-designed ranges and more and more complicated platforming challenges.
The blandness of the narrative bleeds a bit of bit into the aesthetics of the degrees, too. Although they’re designed effectively and every presents a handful of obstacles and challenges distinctive to it, an enormous swath of the degrees that Valah parkours via all visually look the identical. Presumably, that is to associate with Mr. Buff’s motivations to make the whole lot look as an identical and lifeless because the robots he instructions, however in observe, this interprets into dozens of ranges that every one bleed collectively in my thoughts. This does not damage the moment-to-moment of RKGK’s gameplay however does influence the general sport’s memorability and additional detracts from the narrative components of the world. It is exhausting to care a few world so same-y, and I want Valah’s efforts to clear every stage and remind the populace about their residence metropolis’s uniqueness was translated into the sport in order that I might see it, too.
You see a snippet of one thing like this each time Valah occurs throughout one of many hypnotic billboards on the planet, which she will be able to paint over for further factors if she’s collected sufficient paint all through the stage. When she does so, you are introduced with lovely artistic endeavors that pull inspiration from each Japanese anime and Mexico’s graffiti tradition, hinting at what kind of world Valah did stay in earlier than all of it turned crimson and grey. They’re all the time awe-inspiring to see, and Valah abruptly portray one thing new rapidly turned one of many issues I most regarded ahead to whereas enjoying via every stage. These situations are uncommon, nevertheless, hiding away one of the vital beautiful points of the sport.
RKGK / Rakugaki is a enjoyable debut for Wabisabi Video games, incorporating an unimaginable anime-inspired artwork type into an approachable 3D platformer. Identical-y trying environments, disappointing boss battles, and a bland story all make it exhausting to connect with the narrative components of the sport, however the gameplay is sound and the extent design is rewardingly difficult. Though the story is forgettable, my need to additional grasp my timing and precision in my quest to get higher and higher completion instances is, for now, persevering with to convey me again.