Akimi Village Review

In an entertainment medium dominated by competitive, combat-oriented titles, games like Akimi Village don't come along that often. The reason for that no doubt is that for many gamers, once you remove the idea of "winning" from the equation, there's no reason to play. Ignoring this logic, NinjaBee -- makers of city building game, A Kingdom for Kelflings on Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) -- have once again created a title that tries to tap into our constructive, as opposed to our destructive, impulses. Sadly, the result isn't great.

As in Kelflings, in Akimi Village, you're asked to help a group of tiny folks build up their tiny community. While the previous XBLA title turned your Xbox Avatar into a godlike creative entity (or at least an efficient project manager), Akimi Village turns you into either a skinny, headband-wearing boy or a skinny girl with middle-parted hair shaped like a butt. Whichever you choose, you wake in a strange land where a wizened, seemingly benevolent raccoon tells you you've been magically whisked from your home to Akimi Island. I say "seemingly benevolent" because no matter how kind he seems at first, this furry philosopher has an agenda.

The sage says he can send you home -- if you help the Akimi, a race of small turnip-like people. The Akimi's island has been recently destroyed by a soul-crushing gloom of unknown origin, and your task, if you ever want to see home again, is to help them dispel the gloom and rebuild. After this admittedly charming intro, Akimi Village becomes much like A Kingdom for Kelflings. Both games focus mainly on using blueprints to build structures and using minions to gather resources to make those structures. Both also involve hours and hours of patience-testing running (or in this case, skipping) back and forth across the map. Although offering a new Asian-inspired setting, cute graphics and India-inspired musical themes as well as some interface and build mechanic improvements, Akimi Village is highly indebted to its predecessor.

The game boasts Kelfling's same low-pressure gameplay which can be seen as both a positive and a negative. Players looking for a more zen-like experience will enjoy the repetition inherent in the game but players wanting a more dynamic experience will likely be bored. Without conflict, and with no obvious indication of progression beyond unlocking more blueprints, the game's meditative formula can become downright mind-numbing after more than a couple of hours. Akimi Village isn't a strategy game but a little strategy here might be a good thing. Like in Kelflings, resource management really isn't that necessary thanks to an abundance of both resources and willing Akimi villagers. Sure, micro-managing resources isn't for everyone, but this level of "set it and forget it" often leaves you wishing your minions weren't quite so self-sufficient.

Along with the repetitiveness, lack of progression markers and perhaps too-automated AI, the game also still exhibits a troubling lack of reference points and feedback. Building things can be rewarding but if something won't build or there's a missing component and you don't know where to get it, there's no place to reference this information. Your only alternatives are to page through every single blueprint, scanning hundreds of icons, or to skip around the map, inspecting every structure. Oh, and that reminds me: the game's upgrade system is oddly obscure. When buildings have created enough components, they earn an upgrade, but beyond a slight aesthetic change, there doesn't seem to be any real benefit to this. Additionally, both interactive and non-interactive buildings can be upgraded but it's never clear what qualifies the latter. Without upgrades offering any exciting (or at least useful) gains, you're left wondering why you should upgrade at all.

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