• Price: $12.99 USD (currently on sale for $11.69 until December 28th)
• Developer: Cosmo Gatto
• Publisher: Neowiz
• Release Date: December 14, 2022

A review code was kindly provided by Team Critical Hit on behalf of Cosmo Gatto and Neowiz. We thank them for being able to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

I’ve been eagerly awaiting the release of Aka, an incredibly wholesome-looking game where you play as a red panda. I loved seeing that cute little guy swimming around and sleeping on a capybara in the trailer.

Aka may be adorable, but many tragedies from a recently-ended war still haunt him. One of his friends sends him a letter with directions to Pine Island, which is supposed to be a peaceful and relaxing place.

You’re given a small house to live in, which even includes a bathtub you can interact with to soothe Aka’s aches and pains. It doesn’t seem to actually do anything in terms of the game’s functions, but it’s a nice little detail. You can add more items to brighten up the place by finding them or crafting them. Outside of the house, you can plant crops to use in those crafting recipes. There are food recipes, but you really only have to make food for NPC requests. Thankfully, Aka doesn’t have a stamina meter or a hunger meter, so you can keep going as long as you’d like every day. I thought that not including those meters was a good way to keep things stress-free in a game meant to relax you.

There are a variety of activities for you to do in Aka; there are four islands (including Pine Island) that have characters to meet and ways for you to help them. You may have to go back and forth between the islands to complete some of the quests. All four islands include quests requiring you to clean them up by removing traps and rubble. Now that the war is over, Aka can spend his time doing good deeds instead of causing harm. You can feed the hungry, help cure the sick or injured, and more. The NPCs are just as ridiculously cute as Aka, and they tend to have a decent amount of things to say.

Not all NPCs will need your help. Some will simply want to hang out and do something fun together. I loved the hat maker, who gives you clever little hats such as a Croc-inspired shoe to wear. Many characters will enjoy playing a card game with you, and you can get additional cards when you meet new characters. (Unfortunately, the rules and symbols for the card game aren’t properly explained, but I figured it out for the most part.) Others will play music with you in the form of a rhythm game, or have you stare up at the clouds with them. These activities are all optional for the most part, but they’re fun little additions to the game.

There are multiple hidden areas on each island, so you’ll want to explore as much as you can. As the environments are breathtakingly gorgeous, that’s no hardship. You’ll also find that there is another hidden element to the game: the spirits who linger in the real world after the horrific events of the war. These spirits will only appear at night, and they’ll need your help to get closure and move on to the afterlife. Once you’ve helped them, they will tell you their stories and disappear.

Sadly, one of the characters who you will help move on is one of Aka’s dear friends. As they died, they asked Aka to spread their ashes at the top of a mountain. The story art that accompanies the spirits’ stories is lovely yet terribly sad at the same time.

Aka is a charming artistic masterpiece with a pleasant soundtrack that complements the relaxed nature of the game. It’s a short yet enjoyable enough experience that currently contains some technical flaws, which include long loading times, the occasional crash and frame rate issues, and somewhat wonky movement when walking around. There are also some problems placing furniture items and with input working (such as speaking with certain characters). The good news is that the developer has acknowledged these issues and committed to fixing them. I plan on returning to Pine Island once Aka has been updated so I can more fully experience the game.