Crypt Custodian (2024) [PC] review
6 min read
We have no reliable guarantee that the afterlife will be any less exasperating than this one, have we?
– Noel Coward
If you asked me where to look for some good indie Metroidvanias, one answer would pop into my head immediately: Kyle Thompson. A one-man dev team isn’t normally the first thing to come to mind in any genre, but Kyle’s an exception for good reason. I was first introduced to worth with his 2020 game Sheepo, a whimsical Metroidvania with a focus on platforming over combat. The quality of the gameplay mechanics, visuals, and music amazed me. Unfortunately, not many people talked about it. Kyle followed Sheepo up with Islets in 2022, and with support from an indie publisher, people began to take notice. Now, his third game, Crypt Custodian, is hitting the market, and he’s only gotten better.
A Cat With a Broom
One constant element in all of Kyle’s games is that none of the player characters are human. In Sheepo, you’re a sheep creature. Islets’ lead is a cat-like warrior, and in Crypt Custodian, you are just a cat. Or rather, you were. In life, you were a normal everyday black housecat, but after a tragic accident sends you to the afterlife, you’ve become a bit more humanoid. Still a cat at heart, though, as evidenced by how skillfully you break all the pots you can find.
Unfortunately, on your way to be judged, you also break some statues of the overseer, Kendra. It’s not your fault, though. They were blocking the whole path! Still, she takes it fairly personally and banishes you to Outside The Palace for eternity. You’re also condemned to be the afterlife’s janitor. If the Palace is heaven, the Outside is, well, not really Hell. It seems like a nice enough place. Plenty of good people live in the area (except for Kendra, who comes around to hang out at the bar and gloat over the people she’s banished. “No hard feelings,” my tail.) It just also has monsters and piles of garbage. You’ve got your broom to take care of both.
The Basics
For its gameplay systems and controls, Crypt Custodian is a fairly standard exploration platformer. It’s top-down instead of side-scrolling, though, adding an element of depth to exploration and combat. It also means a lot of bottomless pit platforming, so make sure to commit to your jumps. The top-down style also leads to a different variety of movement techniques. Instead of double jumps, there’s dashes and throwing your broom to hit distant switches. It’s not the same tech you get in most Metroidvanias, giving it a refreshing feel.
As for enemies, monster types vary based on the area you’re in, with contact damage minimized to attacks. On normal difficulty, enemies have just the right balance of danger versus health. They’re not too easy, but neither are they damage sponges. You can easily race them to the bottom of their health bar, but be prepared to take a hit or two if you’re not careful. Dash-dodging is important. I’ve died my fair share of times so far, but it’s never felt unfair, even to bosses. The controls feel good and aren’t too complicated to remember or use. All in all, the basics are more than satisfying.
Being a Metroidvania, there’s also a large number of collectables. On top of the standard movement options that make it the genre, there’s photographs of your new friends’ lives, cat spirits trapped in jars, bonus skills, and more. You’re never short of stuff to find, and backtracking is often rewarding. Plus, there’s an option in game to spend your precious garbage to mark missed treasures, so as long as you’re making money, you’re not going to miss any secrets.
You’re a Soul, but is it “Souls-Like”?
A big question to ask these days with Metroidvanias is, “So, is it a Souls-like?” You see the label applied more and more often to exploration-based games, whether they’re 2D or 3D. It’s usually a statement of “this game will punish you for failure.” Which, okay, if you’re into that, great. The Souls games are popular for a reason. But if you’re not a fan of losing hard-earned progress or money for a clumsy mistake, it can be a major turn-off.
As a member of the latter group, I’m happy to report that at least on normal difficulty, Crypt Custodian will not punish you beyond sending you back to your last save location. You’ll keep your garbage (currency) and any upgrades you managed to uncover since your last save. A typical “fail forward” style of gameplay, just the way I like it.
That’s not to say the game goes easy on you. Quite the opposite, it provides a wide variety of challenges available. So far, I’ve found wave challenges required for progress and optional curse challenges and challenge chests with beneficial rewards. Additionally, many enemies and bosses turn the screen into a bullet hell, requiring tactical attacks and well-timed dodges to get in on them. Careless timing will quickly send you back to the last save point.
Getting Around
Another important question for the genre: how’s the map? Is there good fast travel or are you running back and forth all over the place when trying to find the next step of progression? For Crypt Custodian, the answer is: couldn’t be better. The map isn’t just a typical Metroidvania map. You get the standard blocky view with exits, but then you can zoom in for close-up of the various routes available. And keeping with a growing trend, you can also mark important places to come back to with a variety of symbols.
As for fast travel, save wells that double as teleporters aren’t frequent. However, they are well placed, generally noting a nearby area transition or boss. Some of the runbacks can be a bit long, but never too terrible. Plus, you don’t actually have to be at the well to teleport. Wherever you are, with a long button hold, you can hop to any well at any time, significantly cutting down on that exploration time.
Final Thoughts
I’d actually been itching to play a Metroidvania recently after a period of relatively chill games. I wanted to explore and get into fights and look for new verbs to explore more. As a fan of Kyle’s past works, I knew that Crypt Custodian would probably scratch that itch. It has thus far performed the job fabulously. If you have a similar yearning for some good exploration and combat in a unique and colorful world filled with fun animal friends (and one not-friend, KENDRA), don’t sleep on this one.
Special thanks to Top Hat Studios for providing us with a copy of Crypt Custodian.
PIXEL PERFECT
Recommended
Maggie Maxwell spends most of her days buried in her fiction writing, only coming up for air to dive into the escapism of video games, cartoons, or movies. She can usually be found on Twitter as @wanderingquille and @MaxNChachi or streaming on Twitch with her husband, also as MaxNChachi.
