Kotama and Academy Citadel Review

Kotama and Academy Citadel is a sci-fi 3D metroidvania developed by Atomstring Games and published in collaboration with 2P Games. I feel like it has been a while since I checked out a search-action game (yes, that’s its actual name), so why not play a title where everyone has strange superpowers, and you’ll be covering your enemies in fluids. I promise it’s an important gameplay mechanic.

Become the most popular girl in school... violently.

As stated in the title, you play as Kotama, an exchange student attending Caramel Academy City, where the smartest and strongest rule the place. On her very first day, Kotama decides to go after the most prestigious title in the city, Caramel Star, and will stop at nothing to reach it, even if it means taking on the top students in each academy. However, as she does, she’ll uncover the secrets of the Academy that have lain buried for centuries.

I personally didn’t care too much about the story (due to some of it being untranslated at the time), but there was enough mystery and intrigue to make me curious about what’s going on. There are places that will make you question what’s really happening with the school. Though the character designs and posing can be a little over the top and, um, revealing at times, I did like them. They have good dialogue, their animations are lively and endearing (Kotama’s especially), attacks from enemies are clear, and each part of the city has their own unique enemy types with different quirks to keep you on your toes.

This is a really big train.

As for Caramel Academy City itself, it’s a joy to explore, even when my platforming skills fail me. The entire city is a campus full of enemies to defeat, bosses to conquer, and secrets to find. Each academy/area has a different look, which made navigating the school pretty easy, even if I wasn’t using the map. The map itself is rather detailed, marking unique rooms with symbols and automatically showing you what you may have left behind, which is all great for a metroidvania. Despite the sprawling maze of the academy, I never felt lost, especially since you have a home base that you can teleport back to at any time.

But enough of me rambling about the presentation, how’s the gameplay? Well, like any good 2D metroidvania, it can be separated into two categories: exploration and combat. You'll be jumping through areas, dealing with the many death traps that the students love to leave behind, grabbing items that will improve your stats, all while dealing with robots, delinquents, and monsters throughout.

Everything you need to know

For the platforming side, you’ll have abilities like dash, double jump, and wall jump, but there are more special powers you can use, like Traction, Liquefy, and Invincible Dash. You’ll need every technique as there are some really tricky areas that will challenge your platforming ability, and failure can be pretty punishing if you screw up enough, outside of dying and needing to restore from a checkpoint. Still, the controls felt tight, and I never found myself getting frustrated over the game making me miss a jump. It’s often my own fault when I land on the many spikes in the Art Academy (seriously, what art project involves this?).

What complicates matters even more is the ongoing event that’s affecting the entire city. Time has become quite weird in the Academy City. With every room you visit, time will move forward, which will change areas, dialogue, and even toughen enemies and bosses (but they’ll drop better rewards). Once it hits 22:00, time will remain in stasis until you get more Temporal Coils or use a Rewind Station. It’s a fairly interesting mechanic that made me think about my route through the map. Do I want to go back to refill or would I rather play a little more risky and fight a boss at full power? It certainly makes backtracking a little more compelling.

I wish learning was this easy.

As for combat, it’s simple to learn, but takes some practice to get really good at. You have three unique weapons at your disposal: the Umbrella Spear, the Whip Hammer, and the Liquid Blade. Each one has its own combat style and ability progression, and they all have their uses both in combat and in exploration (the Umbrella, for example, lets you float). However, I did find myself leaning towards using the Whip Hammer for its long range, ability to hit multiple enemies at once, and heavy damage.

However, the most important mechanic is Detonation Points. After hitting a foe enough, they’ll be covered in Chronofluid and glow purple. If you hit them with a heavy attack, they’ll lose a Detonation Point; lose them all, and they’ll be staggered. You can also parry most attacks. You will need these techniques to survive the school because you won’t last long without using them. You are pretty fragile, where even the beginning enemies can kill you in only three or four hits.

...Really?

Luckily, you can heal at any time, but it will cost you… literally. It costs Luminite, the currency of the game. That’s right, if you suck, you’ll be draining your bank account fast. Thankfully, every boss is designed so that every attack is avoidable, meaning a skilled enough player can possibly go through the entire game without even needing to touch the Restore button, and it’s probably the most efficient way to play, too. Just make sure to check if you’re near a checkpoint; I cannot tell you how many times I’ve healed only to see I could’ve healed for free.

Throughout the school, there are plenty of little secrets and items to find that will improve your stats: more HP, more Temporal Coils, materials for improving your abilities and weapons, etc. However, one of the more important things you’ll collect are Votes. They’re what let Kotama become a Caramel Star, and by going out of your way to help students in need, you get Votes. Essentially, they act as your completion percentage. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find where these side quests were tracked, so you might want to get a pen and paper and start writing stuff down. 

Honestly, it’s pretty fun to figure some stuff out on your own rather than letting the game guide you to the answer. It’s only the critical path that’s made obvious, but if you want a better ending, you’ll need to frequently go off and do random tasks for whoever is willing to vote for you.

Break them.

However, there were some issues in my quest to become the most popular and strongest girl in school. I don't know if I messed something up, but the resolution is capped at 1280 x 720, which looks a little blurry, especially when my monitor can definitely handle 1920 x 1080. I checked multiple times, and it didn’t go any higher. That wasn’t all: when I entered the Biology Academy, the framerate went down from the consistent 60 FPS to sub-30 FPS… in gameplay only. Yes, because I need smooth framerates for (admittedly well-animated) visual-novel style character portraits. It didn’t happen in my next play session, but it is something to watch out for.

In my playthrough, some dialogue is improperly formatted or was completely untranslated. This included some tutorials, and due to only being able to speak English, I missed some important information. I also would’ve liked a small cue to indicate there was gameplay dialogue, because I really wanna know what the heck was happening in some areas. However, I think my biggest gripe is that some buttons were a little too sensitive, changing and exiting from the menus I wanted from a tap of the button. That being said, this could all be fixed for the full release, so take it with a grain of salt.

A concerto to my/your demise.

Overall, though, I really liked Kotama and Academy Citadel. The combat was fast-paced, stylish, and engaging, and the platforming and exploration kept me interested even when I wanted to backtrack. I just hope that the issues I’ve experienced will be fixed in the full release. If you’re itching for a new metroidvania (and you don’t mind some underboob), this isn’t a bad choice to pick up.