For those looking for a little anime or a whole lot of waifus in their Metroidvanias, Kotama and Academy Citadel may be the perfect match. Set in a futuristic academy, players take on the role of a transfer student who has come to…well, beat everyone down and become the star student naturally. The absolutely incredible art, however, is tainted by occasional rough edges on the platforming, translation and combat.
Right off the bat there are going to be a couple of easy tests to determine if a potential player has any interest in Kotama and Academy Citadel; namely that it is an exploration platformer through and through, and despite any visual novel or talking to the contrary, this is where 95% of the game is going to be. Additionally, players will need a high tolerance or desire for heavy anime aesthetics and story. For the right target, the art will be on point, but more casual gamers will be put off by the character design of the frequently partly clothed buxom characters that look straight out of the latest gacha.
Players will explore an academy on their quest to becoming the next ‘Carmel Star’. This means going around beating down enemies and finding students who will profess their votes to you after often displays of violence to the various creatures in the room. Platforming-wise the game hits an okay balance at best, with some small annoyances at the edge that detract from the experience. It’s things like the main girl Kotama feeling a little slow in her movements, or that jumping is a strange balance of too floaty and too heavy. Frequently there are rooms that demand near perfect precision and timing, and her somewhat sloppy movements often frustrate the flow. This is especially bad in the power-up rooms that require perfection from the system that simply is inconsistent with timing and execution.
Combat has this same feeling of parts of it being good, with other parts being painful. At the root, the character hits enemies with faster attacks that build up a ‘fluid’ on them that, after a set amount, Kotama can then hit with a special heavy attack that does big damage and slightly heals her. One of the issues is combat often feels unfair. The enemies deal incredible damage, capable of killing Kotama in three or four hits, even just regular mooks in the hallways. Mini-boss fights are especially egregious for how much of a punching bag they are, and the very narrow path of how few hits the heroine can take. Ironically mini-bosses are often harder because of the spam they hit with, and being less tested than the main bosses.
It’s unfortunate as it feels like with a little bit of tuning things could have been much better, as there are parry mechanics, as well as the slight heal-in-combat ability when a heavy attack lands on a enemy. Far too often, though, Kotama ends up in the corner beaten down into a quick death. While there are different weapons, such as the umbrella or whip, and even abilities to go with them, some are just completely outclassed.
Story-wise there are hints of a very deep and potentially dark backstory, but the main plot almost never touches on it. There are info dump items that players can find that hint at a dark underbelly, experimentation, time travel, clones, sleep stasis, and all sorts of good sci-fi juiciness, but it just isn’t really incorporated into the plot. This is really unfortunate. Even halfway through the game it’s still unclear who is talking in the lore notes, whether Kotama is human, or what is even happening in the plot. There is a lot of dialogue and words…and a lot of it doesn’t go anywhere.
Both in the story and exploration there is a time element, but it feels secondary unfortunately. For exploration each room advances time by one unit, and the player can reset time at certain spots. The premise is that things change depending on the time – an absolutely wonderful idea in theory – but it is utilised so infrequently that, for all intents, it can be completely ignored. Sadly a pattern is slowly revealing itself here of all elements coming close to the mark but missing.
The character art is absolutely stand-out. Every character that is come across, even those with just minor roles, has highly detailed and animated portraits. A lot of it is admittedly excessive, like with unnecessary belts hanging off at every angle, but going in know that it is anime. That being said, the waifus are thick and plentiful, with ‘thick’ being an understatement. Just when it seems like one has seen it all, some new girl hits the scene with even bigger assets and even less clothes. To be fair, Kotama and Academy Citadel never goes into any sort of nudity, but many of the designs are incredibly ecchi.
It is a shame that there are clearly translation issues (a few tutorials, in fact, were still untranslated), and the story isn’t more coherent and integrated. Overall exploration is fairly enjoyable, especially because of how nice the map is with multiple icons that can be placed on it, excluding the often annoying upgrade rooms due to how hard they are. When it’s being touched on, the story is interesting and the lore that is expanded on in logs can really draw in sci-fi fans. Most notable is how well animated even all of the side characters are, with each one radiating intense anime flair and often heavy ecchi elements. The small annoyances aside, Kotama and Academy Citadel is fun and enjoyable, but it will definitely leave players wishing there was just a little more there.
