Akatori: I fell in love with a backdrop before I even understood the game

Let me be honest about what drew me to Akatori, because it is not very noble: I launched it for the looks. Purely the looks. The first screenshot I saw, that temple courtyard with its colorful banners, the old master in red and a background that looks like a watercolor, made me hit "install" without reading a single line of description.

And that art direction has to come first, because it is the game's great success. Akatori marries expressive pixel-art characters to stylized 3D environments, painted-scenery style, and the blend is gorgeous. The warm colors, the light, that sun-drenched Firebird Temple: you want to stop and look. It is made by Contrast Games, published by Games Harbor, and I do not know how many people were on it, but someone on that team has an eye.

A staff that does everything

Still, a pretty backdrop does not make a game. Thankfully there is substance behind it. You play Mako, a young monk raised at the temple, setting out to stop the Amber Storms corrupting the world, joined by a red bird sealed inside her staff. And that staff is the whole design idea: it is your melee weapon, your projectile when you throw it, and your traversal tool to glide, wall-hook, slide. Everything runs through it.

The game bets on momentum, the fluid chaining of combat and traversal. When it works, you link an aerial combo, throw the staff again, hook on, slide down a wall, and the verticality of these levels comes alive. It is fast, demanding on timing, and honestly satisfying once you find the rhythm. You feel the influence of mobility-driven metroidvanias, the ones where the joy comes as much from moving as from fighting.

What holds it back from more

I will not oversell it: Akatori is still an ambitious first swing with the rough edges that come with it. The difficulty curve has abrupt spikes, some platforming stretches ask for a precision the controls do not always deliver a hundred percent, and I had a few moments where I lost track of the action amid all that busy scenery. Nothing dealbreaking, but enough to remind you this is not an infinite-budget behemoth.

It did not dent my enjoyment. Akatori is a game you love first with your eyes, then with your hands once the staff is tamed. If you want the flawless, perfect metroidvania, maybe wait a few patches. If, like me, you have a soft spot for games with a real visual identity and the nerve to carry it all the way, go meet Mako. If only for the temple at dawn.