7 Awesome Games From Malaysia's Level Up KL Game Expo
Level Up KL is a game expo held annually in Kuala Lumpur. This year’s first post-pandemic show featured a wealth of great games from across the Southeast Asia region, with developers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Korea, the Philippines and more. The quality of games coming from this region is growing at an amazing rate, with some not-to-be-missed new titles coming this year and next.
Here are a handful of my favourites from the Level Up show floor this year.
With its dark fantasy take on folklore from across Southeast Asia, Kabaret is a visual novel with a rich scattering of minigames and other confections, all presented with an incredibly striking hand-drawn art style and a vibrant soundtrack. While developer Persona Theory (Fires at Midnight) is based in Malaysia, they are collaborating with developers and musicians from across the region to breathe life into Kabaret’s captivating mythos.
The story follows Jebat, a freshly dead ex-human who must adjust to his new horned serpentine form in an afterlife filled with monsters, keeping his nerve as he rubs shoulders with a harimau jadian weretiger, a pontianak vampire and other mythical creatures from Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and more.
The game unfolds through a mix of visual novel text boxes set against grand full-screen painted backgrounds, comic-book panels, dialogue trees with abstract images instead of text, and minigames where you must lead a tea ceremony, flick guli marbles, or conduct a musical theatre performance. There’s even an interactive glossary for Malay vocabulary. Grounded in legend yet unbound by reality, Kabaret is shaping up to be a truly special experience. Pick it up on Xbox, Steam and Epic Games Store in March
Read more on ign.com
