Kraken Odyssey

Kraken Odyssey is a 2D side-scrolling platformer set in a fantasy world where you control a four-legged octopus. The core premise involves navigating through levels while avoiding hazards like water, which is instantly fatal to your cephalopod hero. The game emphasizes speed-running with optional level goals, though engaging with these objectives is necessary for progression. Despite its simple visual style and straightforward platforming concept, the game is noted for its technical issues and frustrating implementation of core mechanics.

Kraken Odyssey: A Flawed Voyage into the Depths of Mediocrity

In the vast ocean of indie platformers released annually, few titles manage to sink so decisively upon launch. Kraken Odyssey, a 2023 release from French developer Honikou Games and publisher Just For Games, is one such title—a game that, despite a charming premise and a cute cephalopod protagonist, serves as a stark case study in how technical incompetence and flawed design can scuttle even the most basic of concepts. This review will delve into the wreckage, examining how a simple speed-running platformer became a frustrating odyssey of bugs, poor design choices, and missed potential.

Development History & Context

Kraken Odyssey emerged from Honikou SASU, a studio based in Marseille, and was published by the Ile-de-France-based Just For Games (also listed as Maximum Entertainment AB on some storefronts). It was built using the Unity engine and saw a multi-platform release throughout late 2023 and early 2024, hitting Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and eventually Xbox consoles.

The gaming landscape of 2023 was densely populated with high-quality indie darlings and polished AAA experiences. For a small, simple 3D platformer to compete, it needed either impeccable execution, a revolutionary hook, or irresistible charm. Kraken Odyssey aimed for the latter, presenting a cute, family-friendly adventure. However, the rapid-fire release schedule across platforms—with mere weeks between digital and physical editions—suggests a production cycle prioritizing market saturation over quality assurance. The game feels less like a labor of love and more like a product designed to fill a slot on digital storefronts and physical retail shelves, a common tactic for budget-tier publishers. This context is crucial to understanding its myriad shortcomings; it was crafted not as a standout title, but as content.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

The narrative of Kraken Odyssey is so minimalist it borders on non-existent. The player controls Voulpy, a four-legged miniature kraken, whose little brother has been kidnapped by a large crab. This setup is conveyed not through in-game cinematics or dialogue, but solely via the official storefront descriptions. The game itself is completely wordless, offering no further exposition, character development, or narrative payoff.

The 32-level journey concludes with what reviewers have described as a profound anti-climax. There is no final confrontation with the crab antagonist, no resolution cutscene, and not even a proper credit sequence. The adventure simply stops, leaving players to wonder if they have actually finished the game. This lack of narrative care reduces the quest to a meaningless checklist, stripping any emotional weight or motivational drive from the experience. The theme of a rescue mission is a classic platformer trope, but here it is implemented with such bare-minimum effort that it fails to resonate on any level, making the entire journey feel pointless.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

At its absolute core, Kraken Odyssey’s gameplay is functional, which makes its descent into frustration all the more tragic. The player controls Voulpy, who can run, perform a double jump boosted by ink, and occasionally utilize context-sensitive items like TNT barrels to blast enemies or hitch a ride on a seagull for a brief flying section. The early levels, designed as linear sprints to a finish line, are inoffensive. The controls are simple and accessible, aimed at a casual audience.

However, the game’s structure is built around a triple-layered system of repetition and pursuit:

1. Medals: Each level has a time limit for earning bronze, silver, or gold medals. This encourages replayability and route optimization, a standard and potentially engaging mechanic for a speed-running platformer.
2. Stars: Each level has three objectives needed to earn stars. These are often repetitive tasks like “defeat no enemies,” “collect all coins,” “do not jump more than X times,” or “find the two secret areas.”
3. Hats: An unlockable customization system fueled by random loot. After completing a level, a treasure chest (whose size is tied to your medal) grants random “credits” toward various hats. You must then spend collected gold coins to purchase these hats once enough credits are accrued.

It is the implementation of these systems where the game completely unravels:

• Buggy Objective Tracking: The game’s detection for objectives is notoriously unreliable. A “no kill” run can be failed by merely jumping near an enemy due to an overzealous “magnetizing” effect. Conversely, an “kill all enemies” objective can often be completed without actually defeating every foe. The “no jump” objective is even exploitable via a glitch that resets the counter upon death.
• Progression Gates: To unlock later levels and access the non-ending, players must earn a specific number of stars and medals. This forces players to engage directly with the broken objective systems, transforming minor annoyances into major roadblocks.
• Technical Failures: Reviewers report game crashes, particularly when replaying levels from the pause menu. The level select screen often malfunctions, greying out unlocked levels or displaying incorrect completion data. The results screen frequently flashes too briefly to see, obfuscating progress.
• Recycled and Unfair Level Design: The second half of the game simply recycles earlier levels with a new aesthetic (e.g., a beach level becomes a lava level) and adds more aggressive, unpredictable hazards. The most cited example is falling snowballs, which behave with random patterns that make consistent speed-running or careful navigation a matter of luck rather than skill.
• The Hat System: This is a blatant, poorly integrated mobile-game mechanic. The random loot drops can grant credits for hats you already own, and the grind to unlock even common hats is immense. It exists not as a rewarding metagame but as artificial padding, incentivizing mindless repetition of broken levels.

The core gameplay is “passable,” but every system built around it is designed to frustrate and impede the player, highlighting the game’s flaws rather than complementing its strengths.

World-Building, Art & Sound

Kraken Odyssey’s presentation is its most competent aspect, though it still falls into the “generic” category. The game takes Voulpy through a variety of environments: sunny beaches, jungles, snowy mountains, and fiery dungeons. The visual direction is bright, colorful, and cartoonish, successfully aiming for a family-friendly vibe.

However, multiple critics noted that the graphics have a distinct “cheap” or “mobile-game” quality. Textures are simple, models are unrefined, and the overall look is functional rather than impressive. The audio design features a suitably upbeat and whimsical soundtrack that matches the lighthearted tone, but it is ultimately forgettable and does little to elevate the experience.

The world-building is practically non-existent. The settings are mere backdrops with no lore, no inhabitants beyond enemy crabs and walruses, and no sense of a living world. It is a series of obstacle courses, not a place to be explored or invested in.

Reception & Legacy

The critical reception for Kraken Odyssey was devastatingly poor. It holds a dismal 29% score on MobyGames, based on the sole professional review from The Game Hoard, which awarded it a “Terrible” rating. Consumer reviews on platforms like Steam are virtually non-existent, indicating a lack of player engagement. The few discussions that exist on its Steam page are players asking for help or reporting bugs.

Its legacy is one of caution. Kraken Odyssey stands as a prime example of a “shovelware” adjacent title—a game developed and published with apparent disregard for polish, balance, or player experience. It demonstrates how a potentially decent core idea can be ruined by a surrounding framework of ill-conceived, broken, and predatory mechanics (like the hat loot system). It has had no noticeable influence on the industry or its genre, serving only as a footnote on how not to design a platformer. Its physical release, a rarity for a game of this quality, only adds to its reputation as a title meant to capitalize on retail shelf space rather than captivate an audience.

Conclusion

Kraken Odyssey is a failed voyage. It is a game that begins with a glimmer of competence in its initial, straightforward platforming levels before rapidly devolving into a tedious, bug-ridden chore. Its charming protagonist and bright visuals are instantly betrayed by its broken objective systems, unfair level design, technical instability, and a cynical progression grind that feels imported from the worst of free-to-play mobile games.

While it might have been a forgettable but playable 5/10 experience if it were just a simple collection of levels, its insistence on forcing the player to engage with its deeply flawed mechanics seals its fate. It is not merely bad; it is frustratingly and avoidably bad. In the annals of video game history, Kraken Odyssey will be remembered not for its adventure, but as a case study in squandered potential and the critical importance of quality control. For historians and journalists, it is a useful artifact. For players, it is best left buried in the deepest, darkest trench of the eShop.

Final Verdict: A profoundly flawed and frustrating experience. A few glimpses of a mediocre platformer are drowned beneath a tidal wave of technical failures and poor design. Not recommended under any circumstances.