In Aka, you’ll meet a lot of interesting NPCs. Each one has a story and personality that will stay with you long after you finish the game.
Aka is a cosy open-world farming simulation set in a world after a war, where the people of four islands are trying to forget painful memories, fix up their land, and find happiness in the smallest things. You play as Aka, the name of the main character. Aka is a cute red panda who comes to Pine Tree Island to start over. But you can’t find your own peace until you help others find theirs.
As you move through the game’s nonlinear story, you’ll meet cute villagers, animals that need food and protection, and ghosts from your past who are stuck on each island. With every quest you finish, they’ll like you more and tell you about how the war changed their lives.
Thom
When you get to Pine Tree Island by boat, your old friend Thom, who is big and looks like an ox, is there to meet you. After talking to him, you find out that he asked you to start a new life because he thinks you need the island and the island needs you.
Thom is a good friend who you can count on. He only wants you to be happy and at peace, and he’ll stay around to make sure that happens. After he puts you up in an empty house under his house, you can ask him about the basics of farming and tell him about the familiar ghosts you’ve seen around the island at night.
Sibylline
Sibylline, who wears big glasses and loves to learn, runs a library where you can find plans for things you’ll want to make for your garden and a recipe for a rucksack to add to your inventory. You might have to pay for these plans in other games, but Sibylline gives them away for free.
Sibylline thinks that books are more powerful than anything else, and she’s happy to be with words. Even though she could leave the library, books already let Sibylline go anywhere in the world at any time without having to leave her room.
Cortus
On your way, you’ll come across a shop with games, cards, and a mouse with wide eyes who says his name is Cortus and that he’s the youngest inventor ever—at least in the town. Cortus comes from a family of thinkers, but the war made some of their ideas useless. Cortus has committed his life to making games so that this terrible thing doesn’t happen again.
You can play cards with the confident mouse or try out the prototype of Cortus’s prized invention, the marble maze. When you touch the maze, a minigame starts in which you guide a pebble through wooden paths, changing its speed and direction to avoid holes.
Beeatrix
When you meet Beeatrix, the queen bee, she can tell right away that the war is over, and she hopes that your past won’t keep coming back to haunt you. She tells you that the war destroyed the land around the island, but that you could help the bees by making your yard bigger.
Beeatrix will give you tulip seeds to plant if you agree to help. Tulips are the first flowers to grow after a long winter. As you keep helping the island, you can also go back to Beeatrix to get more flower seeds, and she’ll tell you to keep going.
Xen
At first, Xen sounds like a scary voice you hear through the trees. However, if you follow a path hidden behind a fence, you’ll end up in a quiet spot with a tree in the middle. You’ll meet a pink animal that looks like an owl and has strong ideas about nature and war.
Xen says he is the voice of the forest, and he is scared that you showed up on the island so quickly. He will tell you that you have to “change from within” before you can change the world. As you get rid of traps, dead trees, and fishnets, Xen’s view of you will change, but he will still be an assertive person.
Gaagi
You can find Gaagi’s ghost on Palm Tree Island. You’ll have to beat him at a game of cards before he’ll tell you his story. If you win, he will talk about his memories of the war, which will start a cutscene where you can see him split from his friend Misao as he looked ahead to see if there was danger.
After hearing his story, you’ll realise that Gaagi was once your friend, too, and he’ll ask you a few questions before passing away peacefully. But in his place, a pink fireball floats at the table, and you can once again challenge it to a card game.
Lenno
If you go down to the stone building near the dragon cave at night on Pine Tree Island, you’ll see a small space with prison bars around it and a dark figure trapped inside. This is Lenno’s ghost.
Lenno tells the ghost that he was a prisoner of the enemy during the war after he finds a key to set him free. He was left alone in his cage, and he still remembers seeing you, Aka, walk by. But before he died, you didn’t see him or help him. But now that you’ve set him free, said you’re sorry, and dealt with your guilt, Lenno can finally find peace.
Ari
A small black cat named Ari is waiting alone between a lake and a fish pond. When you talk to Ari for the first time, the little cat will start to sneeze and cough. Then you’ll get a new quest that tells you to bring back a medicine potion.
When you show up with something new, like a potion, a meal, or a shelter, Ari is hesitant to accept your help. Ari eventually says that they always thought they had to take care of themselves, but after your acts of kindness, they learned that it’s okay to trust other people, too. This is a good lesson for people who have trouble asking for help.
Tekoa
At night, you can go to a tombstone on Bamboo Island to meet Tekoa. Helping this ghost will send you on a quest to find a pink flower called a Rhododendron and a bamboo candle, both of which you remember from your childhood.
As soon as you finish these tasks, you’ll remember that Tekoa is your mother. She says that the next tasks were only given because she wanted to spend more time with her child before leaving this world. It’s a sad and loving statement. Aka and Tekoa hug, hanging on to their good memories for a few more seconds before Tekoa goes away.
Naya
Meeting Naya is different from meeting any other ghost or character in Snake Game. When you take a jar out of your house’s storage, you’ll see a video of Aka holding Naya as she dies. She tries to make everyone laugh, but she also wants you to take her to the top of Mount Kanak on Maple Tree Island, where she will be laid to rest.
Once the ashes are spread on the snowy peak, Naya’s ghost will show up. Before she leaves, she thanks you for getting her to the place she’s always wanted to be. This ending act is a bittersweet, heartfelt moment that shows many of the game’s themes, like finding inner peace and balancing sad feelings with good memories.