Kabaret Review – A Beautifully Macabre Monster Mash of Southeast Asian Myths

Kabaret is a new visual novel adventure game by Malaysian indie studio Persona Theory Games. I first played a preview of the game last year and I saw a lot of potential in the title, a dark fantasy story about a man who turned into a monster, you meet and ally yourself with several well-known monsters from across South East Asian myths.

The visual novel is a gruesome show with its monstrous cast not afraid to bare their teeth and explore the darker aspects of what it means to be a monster. Yet it also has its touching moments mixed in with a surprisingly interesting mystery. It has some drawbacks in terms of gameplay and quality-of-life features but overall, Kabaret is a gripping experience and shows the potential of Southeast Asian myths for storytelling.

Welcome To The Kabaret

Jebat is a 20-something nobody. He works as a delivery driver living with his sick mother who seems to believe he’s a messiah of some sort. Outside of this, he has nothing going for him, no hobbies, friends, or ambitions. After a fight, he finds that his mother has committed suicide, and feeling distraught he flees to do another delivery only to witness a crime and be attacked by a bird-like creature.

When he wakes up, he’s floating on a river and is no longer human. Appearing as a snake-like creature, Jebat is treated by a mysterious masked man called The Caretaker who brings him to The Kabaret, a place where monsters can live safely. Here, he is given the job of Tea Master, serving tea to the ‘Dwellers’ and listening to their problems and regrets, kind of like a mystical bartender that serves brain-fluid cocktails.

More sinister forces are at work, however. With less food (ie. humans) the dwellers are beginning to riot against The Caretaker. There will soon be elections held to decide who will be the new leader of the Kabaret and depending on the choices Jebat makes, the fate of the strange residence could change forever.

A World of Monsters

The first thing to note about Kabaret is that it is not for the faint of heart. The dark Wayang Kulit-inspired art makes for a unique yet surreal setting that makes you feel like you’re going down the rabbit hole into a true nightmare.

The game makes no attempt to shy away from the fact that the inhabitants of this world are monsters. They eat humans, babies, even with little to no remorse. This only added to the oppressive atmosphere. Despite the Kabaret supposedly being a safe place, each monster has their secrets and their own agenda, with several of them being ok with killing at any moment. It keeps every conversation on the edge, and you’re never quite sure who’ll be alive by the time you’re done.

With that being said, they are also fascinating to speak with. It’s quickly established that each monster used to be human and hearing their past regrets, memories, and views on the world around them allows you to sympathize and even became friends with each creature. You sit with ghosts killed during the Japanese occupation of Malaya to Mayang, an ocean goddess who is dying due to a lack of prayers. Some of them are also just fun to hang out with like Tikbalang, a Filipino horse demon that just wants to scare to crap out of Spanish colonizers. 

Like a good horror movie, it’s interesting because it delves into the more taboo and thought-provoking themes about the human psyche and makes them seem almost enticing. You can’t help but be drawn to these creatures and their macabre views on life, death, and much more. You want to interact with them further which in turn makes you more uncomfortable because you question if you could ever be like them. There’s even an element of romance in the game but I’ll leave you to discover that on your own.

The Half-Human Monster

This intrigue extends to Jabat as well. While many visual novel protags can be bland self-inserts, Jabat has a lot of personality and some of it can be kind of disturbing. When we first see him, he’s a bit of an edgelord with a “don’t give a shit about anything” sort of attitude however he does grow throughout the game depending on your choices. You can be the paragon for good or agree that monsters are superior to humans and that perhaps eating humans is acceptable. It sounds bad but the game never treats Jebat as evil for thinking these things. The monsters gotta eat the same way people do, and some people can be worse than monsters.

He can be very kind yet also selfish and unpredictable which makes him fun to watch. One constant personality trait of his however is that he wants to make the most of his new life in The Kabaret, something that grounds him as likable. I’m sure we’ve all thought about how nice it’d be to start again with a clean slate and I can relate to Jebat’s feelings in this regard, especially when that new life involves hanging out with cool snake people.

Games In The Kabaret

The Kabaret isn’t a pure visual novel though. The game has several mini-games that you play through each of its five chapters, all based on traditional Southeast Asian games or activities.

These are a bit of a mixed bag. The congkak and dance performance mini-games were a lot of fun. They’re easy to understand while giving a good level of challenge and are pretty exciting to play through. In the case of the performances where you act as a stagehand, you also get a chance to hear the incredibly catchy vocal music all recorded with traditional Southeast Asian instruments. These were produced by the Indonesian band, Sambasunda, and Malaysian composer, Tay Cher Siang. They certainly helped bring the game to life. 

One cool thing is that even if you lose the plot will still continue, and you’ll just have to deal with the aftermath of the loss. You’d think not having to do the same mini-game all over again would be a good thing but knowing you may have potentially triggered a worse outcome arguably stings even more.

My favorite however had to be the tea ceremony where you have to choose the right ingredients for each of your guests. This one can be a little hard at first as your patrons often aren’t clear on what exactly they want from their comments. By reading their exact demands and what each ingredient represents in your special journal you can slowly decide on the correct flavors. It reminds were a lot of an Ace Attorney trial, a puzzle about selecting the right item to advance the story forward.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t a big fan of the Guli (marbles) mini-game where you need to shoot a marble to push a bunch of other marbles out of a circle. Getting the range correct was a little too hard to pinpoint and the fast quick time events to determine the speed were often too brisk for me to get down properly. I’m fairly sure I sent at least one character to their death as a result of my bad Guli playing. This brings us to a bigger issue I had with Kabaret.

When Do I Save?

The biggest issue I have with the game is that you don’t seem to be able to save manually. Instead, there’s an auto-save feature. This can make the game somewhat frustrating. Manual saving is common in visual novels since it means you can put the game down at any time while reading, much like you can with an actual book.

Saving overall is pretty frequent and the icon flashes on the screen to confirm a save, but it’s not like I always noticed or remembered that icon and the lack of a confirmed save file did worry me at times. I couldn’t help but think that I might turn the game off, only to come back and learn I lost a good chunk of progress.

As a result of this, the game also doesn’t allow you to make multiple save files to jump back and answer questions differently if you don’t like a certain outcome.

This is all far from game-breaking. Some might even argue that the latter issue is a good thing since it’s more immersive. I mean, it’s not like you can change your answers in real life. Still though, not having manual saving makes the game a little too inconvenient on a practical level.

The Journey Through The Kabaret

Kabaret is a delightful little visual novel that beautifully captures the wonder and darkness of Southeast Asian folklore. As a longtime fan of series like Shin Megami Tensei and Fate, I’ve always enjoyed works that offer a new look at different mythology while also indulging in darker, thought-provoking themes like what it means to be human and what it means to be a monster. In this regard, the game certainly gave me my fill.

While I didn’t like the guli mini-game and the autosave could be annoying, I can deny this twisted tale of monsters and death was a fun ride. The mystery was thrilling, the music was catchy, the art was striking and overall, who knew creatures like Pontianaks and Rangda made for such good conversation partners.

Kabaret is available for PC via Steam, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

A review copy of the game was provided by the publisher. The game was reviewed on PC via Steam.

Kabaret

Publisher: Persona Theory Games, Wings Interactive

Developer: Persona Theory Games

Release Date: 2023-04-05

Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

Cursed into a monster, Jebat journeys into a realm called the "Alam Bunian". Taken in by the charismatic owner of Kabaret, known only as The Caretaker, Jebat is tasked with providing tea ceremonies to the dwellers in an effort to gather information on how to break his curse. Kabaret is a dark fantasy folklore adventure game. The story unfolds through the eyes of Jebat, a cursed boy who is uprooted from his small town to a mystical, violent, and unforgiving monster realm. Astray and lonely in a place of unfathomable cruelty, Jebat confronts monsters both supernatural and human in the Kabaret.

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