Just because a world has a rich and ancient history doesn't mean its inhabitants care all that much.  Kaku lives out in the forest with the old man Geyser and his primary interest is food, plus making sure the next day is more fun and comfortable than the one before.  The state of the world isn't of any concern seeing as it's never given Kaku a reason as to think about it much, but one day a hunt gets a little out of hand.  All of a sudden there are lost temples, ancient ruins and god-like elementals to deal with, and while this is more than Kaku knew existed, it's not an adventure he'd dream of turning down.

Kaku: Ancient Seal is a mostly-all-ages action-adventure that feels like a relic from the PS2 era in all the best ways, when mascot platformers were still relatively common.  It's currently in Early Access and rough around the edges because of this, but story-complete with a massive quest through a good number of large, open maps filled with collectibles and secrets.  Shrines, treasure chests and enemy micro-villages dot the landscape, and quests and side-quest send Kaku from one side of the map to the other.  There's a lot to do to uncover the world's secret history and reunite the elemental powers, and Kaku will need to grow much stronger along the way to meet its challenges.

At the beginning Kaku isn't a particularly impressive hero, with even the weak starter enemies taking a fair amount of hits to go down.  Once fully armed his basic gear is club, slingshot and shield, plus clothes and headgear for protection.  The game is oriented more towards combat than platforming, and while Kaku's fighting ability isn't initially all that impressive, every enemy dispatched adds a few more soul gems to the collection that can be spent on new skills, and once he starts powering up, fights get much more varied and satisfying.

All enemies except major bosses have two bars, one for health and the other stamina.  While beating on an enemy with the club is eventually going to be effective, that just slowly chips away at health while the shield knocks out the stamina bar.  This is important because an enemy with stamina has its defenses up, taking less damage while being able to attack back, but wiping out its stamina with the shield-bash not only temporarily stuns the critter, but also leaves it open to much more effective attacks.  The skill tree has plenty of sword/shield combo attacks in it, many of which end in strong finishers that have great area-of-effect strikes for much-needed crowd control.  Combat soon becomes a flow of attack, dodge and parry, breaking out the right combo for the job depending on how tough the encounter is.  Although it's not even close to a soulsborne level of difficulty, the tools for smart fighting are there if you feel like using them.

While Kaku does have a slingshot as well, it's mostly used as a tool rather than weapon barring a few flying enemies where a ranged attack comes in handy.  Each area of the world has a ton of resources to chase after, and while you can walk right up and harvest them with a tap of the right stick, they also fly to Kaku's inventory when hit with club or slingshot.  Bright crystal formations of blue, red, yellow and purple dot high walls and other inaccessible areas, but tagging them with a slingshot pellet shatters the clusters so they can be spent back at the Star Alter on attack, defense and other basic stats.  Plants are more accessible, but if you don't feel like walking three feet thataway to harvest one with a swing of the club then the slingshot will work just fine.  This is also true of the final collectible resources of wood and ore, used for crafting elemental slingshot pellets that can be a lot more powerful than the basic unlimited rocks it defaults to.

Once Kaku is strong enough to explore without too much in the way of caution, the game opens up into a massive exploration-fest.  Underground temples hold focused platforming/puzzle areas, similar to recent-Zelda's shrines, while the mini-villages of the enemy Ponpon frequently hold a resource-rich stone chest.  Kaku's flying companion Piggy has an ability that lets you temporarily sneak in as a tribe member, and the Ponpon frequently have small sub-quests with varying levels of rewards.  Rare gold chests pop up on the map now and then when you get in range, and those are guaranteed to have a new weapon or piece of armor inside with a new buff to experiment with.

Chasing all over each new area ends up being almost irresistible, and it helps that each new zone has its own personality.  Once out of the starting area you can choose which of the four elements to chase after first, and in my play-through I chose water.  This started in a beautiful area with waterfalls everywhere, with huge number of places to explore that have nothing to do with the primary quest. Once cleared the next section is a misty green swamp, and then a giant chasm with huge mushrooms added an entire section with a bigger focus on platforming.  Each new area has its own personality, and while Kaku may not be my favorite character design ever, the world he inhabits more than makes up for it.

There's a surprisingly large amount of content in Kaku: Ancient Seal, and while the game in its current state is a bit janky, that in no way made me want to explore it less.  It's been out in Early Access for a bit over a month at the time of this writing and has received several updates already, and the plan is to polish and add more content before the full release by the end of this year.  It's honestly already impressive as-is, and while a few more enemy types would be welcome, that's hardly a deal-breaker.  Kaku: Ancient Seal is an all-new action-platformer that feels like a modern throwback to a different gaming era, but one that's taken full advantage of the lessons of the intervening years.  That's a lot for a not-quite-caveman kid to live up to, but so long as there's an adventure, Kaku is happy to tackle it head-on.

[embed width=696 height=392]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLsZr6uQHDQ