When a game is given a label as a spiritual successor to a popular or successful, it can add a lot of pressure that may not have existed otherwise. Expectations naturally rise in such scenarios and if a game doesn’t live up to said expectations, it only makes the disappointment much more bitter. With Bakeru being labeled as the spiritual successor of the Goemon series, given that the producer of the game was involved with the series in the past, expectations are high. Is Bakeru a game worth jumping into?
Story
Bakeru opens up during a stormy night. A young girl is running away from a monster who’s chasing her when our titular hero, Bakeru the tanuki, saves her from the brink of death. However, things don’t settle down from there. The girl, introducing herself as Sun, brings news that Oracle Saitaro and his Festival Troops are holding festivals all over Japan with the goal of taking over the country. But that’s not all: Momotaro, the Fairy Tale Hero has been brainwashed. Thus, it’s up to Bakeru and Sun to travel across Japan to find a hero to save Japan.
The story overall is very charming, with a growing cast of characters from other fairy tale heroes to maidens that you have to rescue. Bakeru is a childish hero who likes girls and hates any kind of work, while Sun and his grandpa scold him whenever they get the chance. There aren’t any side quests to take on, and as such, it brings a level of nostalgia where the story is simple to understand and remains your main goal. It’s charming in its execution, being your classic hero tale.
Gameplay
Bakeru is a action platformer where you will traverse across regions of Japan. Each stage is a different prefecture of Japan. Your goal is to eliminate the emitters scattered in each stage to get to the drum at the end and cleanse the entire area. But enemies stand between you and the end. So you’ll need to use your drum in order to defeat them. Along the way, you can also pick up collectibles which give you little tidbits about Japan and the region you’re in.
Combat
The combat in Bakeru is action based where you use your two drum sticks to attack monsters. You have a regular attack that you can string into a combo, as well as special attacks that you unlock as you progress. For those who love just button mashing their way through combat and not having to worry about combos and parrying at just the right time, you’ll feel right at home with this game. Of course, the flashier attacks and perfect dodges feel wonderful to execute, but you can just as easily rely on your regular attack to clear through most battles. As such, this game isn’t as difficult to complete, but the game is fun to play through. A downside is that there is no target locking in the game. However, spamming your regular attack does seem to automatically target the nearest enemy if you happen to be surrounded. But at the same time, you could also end up going in the complete opposite direction if an enemy is far enough away from you.
Along with regular enemies, there are sometimes mini bosses that will appear in stages, and they require a few more hits to defeat. Outside of being larger though, the mini bosses act the same as regular enemies. All attacks deal the same amount of damage to you (one heart) and once your health runs out, you are defeated and forced to restart at the last checkpoint. This is also the case if you happen to run off the stage. You’ll be revived using the coins that you collect while exploring.
One particular skill that you unlock early on and continue to gain new skills for are Henge powers. These are special abilities that allow you to change your form, since you are a tanuki which are known for their shapeshifting abilities. With different Henge powers, you can shrink down or gain range based attacks. However, these forms are time limited based on the Henge gauge. You can increase this gauge by defeating normal enemies, who drop Bakeru energy. Once the gauge runs out, you will revert back to your normal form. While these powers are available, it is easy to forget that you have them, given that there aren’t a lot of times where you’re encouraged to use them. It would have been nice if there were more enemies that required you to be more creative with your battle tactics, or environments that required some puzzle solving, outside of the occasional small door that you need to shrink down to access.
While you go through the level, you’ll come across a fellow tanuki who will sell items to you. These items can range from stat boosts, to healing items, to stock items that can be used while in a stage. The stat boosters and healing items are instant items, that take effect the moment you buy them. Stock items, like a barrier or increased gold drops, only take effect when you choose to use them (or when a particular event occurs, such as the decoy item reviving you instantly if all of your health is depleted). With the addition of items (and these items are cheap to purchase), the game is a breeze to clear through, especially boss battles. So if you’re looking for a challenge, you’re better off not making use of the shop sparingly, if at all.
The boss battles tend to be in three phases and have their own attack patterns. After you deplete their health down to a certain point, the boss will pause before moving onto their next set of moves. The moves will grow increasingly harder to dodge, with damage coming at you at a constant pace. The key to clearing through boss fights is remaining as aggressive as possible (and cheesing the fights using items from the shop, if you’re having a hard time). While not too difficult, it’s still fun to see how expressive and quirky the bosses can be.
Platforming
You’ll find yourself traversing through levels outside of battle. Each stage has a set of collectibles that you can pick up. There are always three souvenirs, designed after specific items you may find in those regions of Japan, and five pieces of Scoot’s trivia. Most of the time, these collectibles are easy to spot or find in the environment. If you see a path that seems to go off in a random direction, there’s likely a collectible up ahead. But there are a few that are easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention, especially during the stages where you aren’t just platforming. If you do happen to miss a collectible, you are able to go back and replay through any levels, with any collectibles found disappearing so that you don’t get confused.
There are a variety of stages to keep things from being too monotonous. Along with the regular platforming stages, there are also racing stages where you’re riding inside of Browsby, a friend you meet along the way. In the racing stages, you’re aiming to reach the end without taking too much damage from bombs scattered along the way. The racing stages are simple and don’t tend to stand out too much. On the other hand, the shoot ’em up stages are a lot more engaging. In these stages, you need to shoot down enemy ships. Along with your regular blasts, you have bombs and a laser to make use of. Since this type of stage is only sprinkled throughout the game, there isn’t much variation available. But both the racing and shoot ’em up stages are a nice palette cleanser.
There are also wonderful variety when it comes to the actual stages. The areas that you explore in Japan coincide with where you are on the map. So up north, you’ll come across snow levels while down south, you’re on the beach. All stages are decorated to reflect the festival atmosphere and bring character to the game in general. If there’s one thing that a platformer needs, it’s variety in its stages and that curiosity to keep players engaged with the environment. Bakeru knocks that out of the park, each of its levels standing out from the last. No two levels felt the same and while you may have been in similar locations (the beach, the wilderness), the level design is unique between different areas that you don’t get bored.
When it comes to the actual movement quality, Bakeru moves great. The movement was responsive and didn’t feel sluggish or slow. The only downside would be certain sections having the camera locked, making it a bit harder to figure out your location in the air so that you’re landing in the right space.
Aesthetics
Bakeru makes use of both 2D and 3D, with 3D making up a majority of the game. The characters and environments in the game are all in 3D and look great, especially in the small amount of cutscenes that are available in the game. The art style is very similar to Goemon, which makes sense given that the game is listed as a spiritual successor. All of the characters and enemies are little chibi versions of themselves, leaning into the cute factor.
As for the 2D cutscenes, these make up a majority of the game, with the characters interacting with each other in a manga-esque background. A lot of the art does tend to be reused, so you’ll have to get used to seeing the same expressions on the characters.
Bakeru’s strongest point is definitely the character and level designs. While the enemies while there is a limited enemy pool, with each new region, there are a new set of enemies joining the fray that rejuvenate the stages a bit. All of the enemies are designed after popular Japanese festival and folklore creatures. And tying all of that together are the stages, brightly colored as though you’re taking place in a festival yourself. The enemies are all enjoying their time, dancing and playing around (until they see you and decide to attack).
Voice Acting and Music
When it comes to voice acting, there is only Japanese voice acting available. Unfortunately, most of the game isn’t fully voice acted, with characters only letting out grunts or yelling a character’s name. Full voice acting is limited to the full 3D cutscenes. The little bit of voice acting that we do hear is nice though. As for the music, Bakeru fully leans into the traditional sound that players who play games of a similar genre are used to. The game brings a nice mix of upbeat game music with traditional Japanese drums and strings, leaving the player with a catchy soundtrack that’s fun to listen to.
Conclusion
Bakeru is an experience that is well worth playing. For fans of action platformers at a time where 3D platformers aren’t as common, this scratches the itch in a satisfying way. There’s a lot of character and love behind this game that comes across while playing. But the enjoyment is not just with the visuals and music, the gameplay is a lot of fun as well. The combat is engaging and the stages are each engaging in their own way. It overall rounds out to an enjoyable game that is easy to pick up and put down whenever.
Rating: 9/10.
