Kraken
Academy

Kraken Academy (2021) is a narrative adventure where it's your first day at high school. No ordinary high school though, it's a melting pot of wacky personalities and fantasy goings-on: ghosts fill the art department, cultists meet below the monkey bars and now crocodiles are eating children. You are soon embroiled with uncovering a plot to end the world, with the help of a magical Kraken that grants you the power to go back in time. It's a novel time-loop adventure where each loop you edge closer to solving the mystery.

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Play involves exploring the high school and talking to students and staff. The first time through you are simply learning who people are and deciding with club to join: Music, Art, Sports and Drama. But then on subsequent loops, you keep the things you've found with you, and can make different choices. Slowly you uncover the Traitor, a malevolent mastermind, who could be anyone at the school.

Along the way there are other (non-world-saving) activities to dive into. You can learn teachers' and students' routines as you explore every corner of the campus during this three day loop. Attend a costume party, become a detective, and help the school's janitor bring down a crime syndicate.

The result is a game with some light dating-sim aspects, puzzle solving and mini-games. But the main event is how intuitive and intricate the use of the time loop is. Get to the end and you've not only shared a great story but felt really clever while you did it.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Kraken Academy 22 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 13 months ago.