Kraken Academy 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.

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.