A Killer Gimmick That Doesn’t Lend Itself to Fun Platforming Levels
If Kitsune Kaeru has done anything, it has improved my understanding of Japanese culture. It’s an indie platformer where you play a kyubi, a nine-tailed fox (also known as a kitsune). The Kaeru in the title has a few meanings – frog, going home,transformation – all of which applies since you are a fox that is going home, transforming, and jumping a lot as they do it. And the backgrounds are based on sumi-e art, an artform that involves ink-washes. If I’ve got any of that wrong, blame Google.
I’m not convinced that Kitsune Kaeru is true to any specific myths or stories. The kitsune of the title, you see, has a rather unique special power. They love boxes so much that they can transform into one (or, more precisely, more than one). Rather than being an ability that is perfect for a prop hunt, it has been chosen as a platformer gimmick. When making an impossible jump, the Kitsune can tap X and turn into a box. This resets the kitsune to the start of the level where they can use that box – now floating in the air, sturdy enough to be stepped on – to make the impossible jump possible.
Metal Gear Solid’s Snake Would Make Good use of the Box Ability
It’s a simple mechanic that can be used in a number of ways. The kitsune can ‘pop’ to make more than one box, so you can create a staircase of them, or make alternating rungs as a kind of ladder. A box can even protect you from hitting your head on spikes.You can make a ceiling and feel safe from death-from-above.
As a mechanic, it tests you in a few different ways. Are your reflexes strong enough to create a box stepping stone before you plummet off the bottom of the screen? Can you time the button presses well enough that each step of a staircase is actually within reach? Plus – and this is the skill that gets tested the most within Kitasune Kaeru – since you ‘pop’ and have to restart the level with each box you create, can you successfully make every jump three, four or five times over?
As gimmicks go, it’s an unusual one, and it works reasonably well in Kitsune Kaeru. In a neat touch, there is a stretch-goal of completing the level in a maximum number of boxes. It tempts you to make long-shots, dropping down a box at the very end of your jump and then repeating that jump several times over. In my case, it was too tempting: the levels are slightly too easy if you ignore this objective, and there’s some valuable strategy to finding the quickest path to the exit.
Box Placement That Feels a Little Too Random
It’s not a complete winner, though. I didn’t find the box-placing to be particularly precise. It felt like there was a small delay between a button-press and the box placement. Boxes also materialised offscreen on occasion. Instead of saying ‘nah, sorry, you pressed too late’, Kitsune Kaeru forces you to anticipate where the box might be. Guesswork, when it comes to precision platformers, is rarely a good thing.
I also found it slightly repetitive completing the same level several times. It’s inherent to the mechanic, but that doesn’t mean it’s fun. You’re making difficult jumps, over and over – especially if you’re dying and restarting – which means that you’re effectively playing a Mario level but several times over in sequence. Which was expected but not my idea of enjoyment.
That said, placing a box to perfection can still be satisfying. You can grab success from the jaws of defeat, recovering from a terrible box placement to make something much better. And the ‘box limits’ are chosen well, so that you can even reach the end of the level with a box to spare.
Kitsune Kaeru attempts to mix things up halfway through with some wind updraughts. You can jump into them and propel upwards, which gives you some much-needed lift for a strong box placement. Time it right and you might not even need a box, as you can slingshot yourself to another updraught.
Gone With the Wind
But again, they have a downside. They’ve been implemented so that you can’t keep bobbing around in the updraughts. You hit a kind of invisible ceiling. Which means that, if you don’t catapult yourself immediately out of them then you’re pretty much scuppered. It’s not the expected behaviour for anyone who has played similar platformers, and can lead to some annoying deaths. It’s even more frustrating if you end up trapped below a box you have created, particularly as Kitsune Kaeru doesn’t come with a ‘Reset Puzzle’ feature.
I really do feel like Kitsune Kaeru is onto something. There’s gold in the idea of manifesting your own platforms. But there needs to be an answer to the feelings of repetition, completing the same platforming level over and over. If the platforms somehow made the experience different (spring boxes?), and the controls were more precise, I think Kitsune Kaeru would be within reach of something very interesting indeed.
As it stands, though, Kitsune Kaeru can be consigned to a box marked ‘novelty’. It’s not a bad platformer, and its gimmick freshens things up nicely, but too many of its levels feel like a chore. I knew what I needed to do in each level – creating meticulous staircases out of my boxes – but I couldn’t muster the enthusiasm to do it.
Important Links
Kitsune Kaeru Brings Clever Box-Creating Platform Puzzles To Xbox – https://www.thexboxhub.com/kitsune-kaeru-brings-clever-box-creating-platform-puzzles-to-xbox/
Buy from the Xbox Store, Optimised for Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/kitsune-kaeru/9NH0JX5CFT31/0010
Buy an Xbox One edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/kitsune-kaeru-xbox-one/9P838LHX7NB7/0010
Or one for Windows PC – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/kitsune-kaeru-windows/9PCKPT3HM4D8/0010
