Kotama and Academy Citadel
Review
Straight B Student
by Samuel Corey
reviewed on PC
A Saturated Market
It wasn't that long ago that quality Metroidvanias were few and far between. Your options were between grabbing one of the oddball early indie games like Cave Story, getting a handheld where the genre continued to flourish, or replaying Super Metroid/Castlevania Symphony of the Night for the millionth time. Now, visiting the metroidvania tag on Steam feels like discovering a massive oil well when digging in your garden. On one hand, I'm glad for the sudden influx of variety and options, but on the other, it does sometimes feel like this may be too much of a good thing. Metroidvanias are, after all, a very restrictive genre; you simply can't do without the large interconnected map, the gradual trickle of upgrades/traversal options, and the constant backtracking. There's only so much that a single entry in this genre like this can do to differentiate itself from the herd.
Kotama and Academy Citadel (which really feels like it's missing a definitive article somewhere) opt for the most obvious option: Cute anime girls. While this is hardly a unique approach, considering titles like The Lost Ruins and Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth, you can at least praise Kotama for its commitment. Every single character in the game (aside from a couple of robots) is a cute anime girl. Moreover, there is a degree of care and creativity that has gone into their creation, with each girl looking immediately distinct from one another but all nonetheless appealing. The character designs are all rather busy, particularly with the titular protagonist, but they work for the most part, as you only get a close-up look at them through the still images during the game's visual-novel style dialogue sections or during the cheesecake illustrations that appear after beating a boss.
The other strong suit that Kotama plays to is its combat. There are three different weapons, all of which have their own strengths and weaknesses, which foster a unique play-style. The game also boasts a wide variety of enemies that keep the combat fresh throughout, most of which have semi-unique mini-boss variants scattered across the map, guarding upgrades and collectibles. Each zone of the map has its own unique boss, which offers a meatier challenge than the regular mooks. Each boss has an absolutely massive array of attacks that they alternate through, seemingly at random, meaning that they are almost always able to surprise you here and there without it feeling cheap (at least except for the final boss's move that freezes you in place and lets her score a free hit, that one will always be infuriating).
Unfortunately, most of the game's imagination has gone into the combat and eye-candy departments, so the player will be left to make their way through dull environments using a bog-standard set of Metroidvania traversal mechanics. Don't expect much beyond the obligatory dash and double jump.
Student Election
At first, it seems like the game takes place in one of those anime high schools where the student council wields absolute authority over the students and faculty. You begin as a transfer student looking to compete in the school-wide election, and even given a completion bar that tracks how close you are to getting 100% of the vote (not sure why 51% isn't sufficient to sweep the election). However, it quickly becomes apparent that this isn't your typical high school. For one thing, the halls are patrolled by malfunctioning robots and juvenile delinquents in fish cosplay, and all the regular students are busy working on bizarre scientific experiments.
More significantly, you are also stuck in a timeloop, with the time resetting every time you save. Fortunately, it's a very convenient kind of time loop that never resets your progress on any of the side objectives or makes you have to fight the various bosses you've cleared again. About the only thing it does is cause enemies to respawn and any chili-flakes you've collected for a side mission to go bad. There may be an explanation for this in the game's copious lore, but I'll admit I didn't read through all the game's numerous collectible documents.
Obviously, there is more at stake with this student election than who will get to set up decorations for the big homecoming dance, but the game is very cagey about just what is going on here until the end. This does build an atmosphere of mystery, but at times, I feel like the game is holding a bit too much back from the player. When the optional final boss asks you if you trust her, I honestly had no idea whether or not I should, and the very short ending that followed did little to convince me that I had made the correct or incorrect choice.
One More Time
Kotama and Academy Citadel is a solid entry into a very crowded genre that struggles to distinguish itself from its numerous peers. It does have above-average combat and tons of sexy anime girls, but really if you have played a Metroidvania in the past few years, this will feel pretty familiar. It's an enjoyable enough way to pass 20 hours if you have an itch for the genre, but if you're expecting the next Hollow Knight or Super Metroid, you're going to come away disappointed.
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8.0
fun score
Pros
Nice variety of enemies and bosses, Compelling character designs, Engaging combat
Cons
Fairly standard suite of Metroidvania traversal options. Dull environments.
