Kotama and Academy Citadel
Carmel is an academy built on one principle: strength rules. As the Centennial Anniversary approaches and the Carmel Star Election looms, a mysterious exchange student arrives to disrupt the pecking order. Kotama and Academy Citadel casts you as that newcomer, tasked with climbing the school hierarchy by fighting, exploring, and unraveling the secrets that threaten the institution itself.
This is a 2.5D side-scrolling Metroidvania that leans into high-speed combat and exploratory design. The Academy Citadel is part machine, part hallucination, with self-contained biomes, impossible machinery, and illusions that can bend the very rules of space. Your progress depends on mastering Kotama's fluid constitution, unlocking abilities, and returning to old zones to reveal hidden pathways and rewards.
The Academy Citadel: a high-tech labyrinth
The Citadel is less a campus and more a sprawling trial. Each area introduces environmental tricks that toy with perception, from illusory walls to mechanics that alter traversal. Exploration is rewarded: new powers let you slip through previously impassable sections, expose locked caches, and discover shortcuts that reshape how you navigate the map.
Because the Academy values raw power, many encounters are designed to test both your platforming and combat intuition. Traps are lethal, machines are inscrutable, and the architecture itself can feel like another opponent. Finding the Carmel Star means thinking sideways to conventional Metroidvania puzzles and staying alert for cues that an area may be hiding more than it first appears.
Fluid combat and stylish chaining
Kotama's key trait is a fluid body that translates into movement and combat perks. Combat emphasizes speed and combo flow. You can switch weapons on the fly, weave them together with skills, and slot Memocards to tailor combos and passive effects. Push your energy gauge to trigger a Fluid Detonation, a screen-clearing burst that punctuates frantic fights.
Enemies and bosses require pattern study and precise timing. Parry mechanics let you neutralize heavy strikes and break an enemy's stance. Successful parries open a short bullet time window where you can land decisive, high-damage follow ups. The design clearly encourages mastering timing and improvisation, rewarding players who can chain attacks while keeping mobility high.
Allies, choices, and stakes
The Citadel is populated with other students, each peculiar and captivating. They are not just flavor text. Helping them unlock story beats, earn loyalty, and occasionally gain powerful assists. Choices you make while interacting with these characters can ripple outward, changing how events unfold and possibly altering the fate of the Academy during its crisis.
Narrative and systems are intertwined. Small decisions can grant an ally who shifts a particular boss fight or opens a new tactical option later on. The stakes are more than personal glory. As the trials reveal the Citadel's deeper problems, your actions may determine whether the Academy survives its direst moments.
Difficulty, exploration, and Steam Deck verification
Kotama and Academy Citadel offers a range of difficulty settings to fit different player goals. If you prefer narrative and methodical exploration, a more forgiving mode lets you savor worldbuilding and item hunting. For players chasing mechanical mastery, higher difficulties demand flawless execution, punishing mistakes and rewarding precision.
The game is also verified on Steam Deck, which is promising for handheld play and on-the-go sessions. Given the fast-paced combos and the exploration loop, the portability angle could make revisits and sectional runs especially satisfying.
Kotama and Academy Citadel blends brisk, skill-forward combat with Metroidvania-style unlocks and a distinctive setting that feels simultaneously polished and strange. If you like your platformers with height, speed, and a little institutional chaos, this Academy may be the toughest class you ever take.
➡️ Check out Kotama and Academy Citadel now on Steam
