Crypt Custodian

It isn't just a review, it's more of an appreciation post. [i]Crypt Custodian[/i] welcomes you with a lighthearted story within a vast map full of quick snappy battles and little secrets typical of metroidvania genre. Yet it never becomes a burden, always respecting your time with gentle touches like having no death penalty or allowing you to teleport to any shrine whenever you want - which helps keep things fresh just long enough for story to quickly wrap itself up without being too overwhelming. But what I didn't actually know at first is that this game is made almost entirely by one person - Kyle Thompson (with the help of Eric Thompson's soft relaxing music). And that drastically changes your perspective on the game, the quality of its art and game mechanics, especially since it's already Kyle's third game release within a remarkably consistent two-year cycle, with yet another new title coming just in a few months from now. My sincere applause to you, Kyle!

Crypt Custodian is a charming zeldavania! You play as Pluto, kitty who has recently arrived in the afterlife and because of reasons you're given a broom and need to run around cleaning things up and bashing monsters. There's also some platforming and a few puzzles to solve. The denizens you meet along your journey are also charming and the boss battles are fun. Great difficulty balance! I also appreciate the art direction and tight controls! Only minor gripe is I wish the other special attacks were as useful as your starting one. I just kept going back to that the whole game. Keep in mind this is a game about the afterlife so the animals' stories about their life on Earth concludes with the inevitable. I teared up more than once and hugged my super sweet precious I love you so much fluffy void babies a bit extra.

I really enjoyed this. I enjoy a challenge, and while I wouldn't call this a difficult game the hard difficulty had just enough bite to keep things interesting. The gameplay is nice and snappy with some good mobility. Thwacking enemies with your broom feels satisfying. Exploration was nice. The map is pretty expansive with paths that branch out and merge into each other. There are plenty of goodies and shortcuts to find. Often you'll find that you are missing an ability to get some items, but thankfully the game has a generous marker system that you can utilize so you can easily come back later when you unlock some more abilities. I highly recommend using it as when you visit a room the entire room is explored on the map, even if you just peek in. So it can be hard to tell how much of an area you actually have explored sometimes. The music is incredibly mellow and I found wandering the map to be quite relaxing because of it. The characters you meet aren't deep, but they are fun. I found the picture collectibles that add a bit of extra backstory to the characters to be oddly more effective and compelling than I was expecting. Overall, I had a great time and the 12 hours I spent on 100% completion run (not 100% achievements) flew by. The game has a boss rush mode that I didn't spend much time on as while they were fun, they weren't really what made the game compelling for me.