Getting to know the arena

Akane, developed and published by Ludic Studios, had its release for PlayStation on 09/20/2022, officially released for Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS on 09/10/2018.

Akane is a game with signature 2D graphics, very colorful, set in the cyberpunk theme that offers frenetic and challenging gameplay, even being in some moments frustrating due to its difficulty. The experience is very dynamic and the learning curve is big, demanding some time to master the mechanics and controls.



Surviving Alone

The game starts with a short speech by Akane, the character that gives the game its name, and then everything begins. The game has only one background story, in which Akane had her parents murdered as a child and wanders around the world seeking revenge, but the game boils down to the fact that they threw her into an arena with a Katana and a gun and from there on it's all blood and death.

That said, the game is pretty simple in terms of mechanics, you walk, you have a character boost action that varies as you go, you have normal attacks, and special attacks, and you can aim and shoot.

So we have no story to follow, the only detail we discover is that for every hundred points acquired, we fight a boss, which is the same the whole game, but always comes back stronger and with different movement patterns, basically a Nemesis of Akane.



Overcoming Your Own Challenges

Akane is a cruel game, in the sense of difficulty. In the beginning, I just kept dying non-stop, but when I got the hang of it, everything flows and is very good. Throughout the game, I had the feeling of "souls-like" games, in which we go by trial and error until we discover the best technique to increase points or kill enemies more efficiently.

In this way, the game becomes extremely dynamic and very fun to play. I spent hours and hours playing non-stop because the game urges you to fulfill the objectives presented to you to gain equipment upgrades, better weapons, new boosts, and a few other details.

The greatest strength of the game is the sense of challenge and desire to progress, since every time you die the game returns to the beginning, but it is important to know that you do not lose the equipment you have released, so every time you come back, you are stronger and with the feeling that "this time it will be different.



No Support

Throughout Akane, I realized that everything is made to kill you, all enemies and even yourself, since one wrong step and you die for anything, and I mean it when I say anything.

The variety of enemies is not very large, but it is essential to the game, as the game takes place in Mega Tokyo, in the year 2121, the cyberpunk theme is already justified and obviously, the enemies follow this line.

This way, for example, the pawns are members of the Yakuza, the famous Japanese mafia. The rest of the enemies follow the Japanese theme with nice touches of technology, laser weapons, cyber ninjas, and the boss, which reminded me of a lot of characters from Metal Gear Rising, an extremely fast ninja, dressed in technological clothes with a giant Katana.

Akane is certainly challenging and exciting where it needs to be, I mean that in the sense of rewards, all your effort is worth something. The optimization of the game is excellent as it is a very light game, there is no need for any gaming setup or a powerful computer.

At the controller, the experience of learning the commands is great, everything makes sense and for me, who is not experienced with consoles, I felt very comfortable, and soon after I was already progressing in the game.

I want to highlight the audio of Akane, the music is excellent and brings all the excitement necessary to destroy everything in front of us. The general audio of the game is also very well done and fits completely into the dynamics offered, so do not be afraid and turn up the volume, it's worth it.



A Brazilian project

On PlayStation 5, the platform used for this review, the game has all the text in Portuguese, but I could notice that in its PC version, the localized interface is unavailable, which is a shame.

As it is a Brazilian project, in such a relevant platform, I believe it should also be localized, bringing more visibility to the project for sure.



A good mixture of sensations

My experience with Akane was wonderful, for sure it is a game that brought me an adrenaline rush in such a simple way, but at the same time so challenging that it captivated me a lot. I had the feeling of advancement and reward all the time, fulfilling the challenges can be difficult but worth it and every time you release something new, you get stronger and I particularly was very motivated to keep playing and not give up.

For this review, the game was experienced on PlayStation 5.