Another Crab's Treasure's existence is phenomenal to me. I love soulslikes so much, but also many platformers are some of my favorite games of all time. The marriage of the two genres is not something I thought I'd ever see, but here we are.

To get it out of the way, this game is closer to Sekiro more than anything. You only have one main weapon and you are forced to master it or you won't get very far (like Sekiro), however you are given many tools to also assist you alongside your main weapon (also like Sekiro) via the shell system.
The gameplay is done very well, it's super responsive and I never had any issues with the controls itself, besides some camera struggles at rare times.

The shell system is the main mechanic that differentiates the combat from souls/sekiro. There are many different shells you can find lying around the levels and they essentially act like shields that you can pick up and swap out. All shells have different properties like weight, defense and ability. The weight determines whether you are fatrolling or not, defense is defense, and ability is the thing you want to look out for the most. Each shell has a unique ability that can turn the tides of battle. There are so many abilities that they can range from simply healing you, or buffing your stats, to things like shooting magic or freezing everything around you. There is no 'best' shell here. You want to play around as some shells can benefit you more than others depending on the area you or are in or the boss you are fighting. I love this system and trying to find every new shell and seeing what they do kept the shell system very exciting all the way till the very end.

The glaring difference between this and souls games is the setting, and artstyle. We are so used to having realistic dead dark horror fantasy worlds as the backdrop for these types of games, but here we have something that feels more like a Saturday morning cartoon, and it is a very refreshing deviation to the typical backdrop of the genre.

The setting allows this game to also be a platformer at the same time, which is done very well here. Jumps cam easily be controlled through the air as you are given moves and tools to help your air control, including grappling hooks. Obviously it's no Mario Odyessy, but for a game that nails combat, it also surprisingly nails platforming too. Usually it's one or the other, and not both.

The difficulty is what you expect from a soulslike. It's not Sekrio hard, but it's not a walk in the park either. Each boss challenged me fairly and each took me a few tries, always feeling that the deaths were on me. Like Elden Ring though, if you do your fair share of exploring optional areas, you can find some stuff that can break bosses and trivialize the difficulty.

Exploration is close to Dark Souls 1 and Sekiro where levels are quite linear with branching paths with a lot of collectables that can greatly help you on your journey if you explore each area to the fullest. Exploring in ACT is even more fun than it is in other souls games as there is the requirement of having to platform around. As previously mentioned there are also some optional areas you can go to to get some great abilities and upgrades.

Unlike From's games, there is a lot of dialouge and cutscenes. The writing is the typical in your face humor that you'd see in something like a saturday morning cartoon, where they replace swears with puns like "shuck off". It's pretty funny and there is a decent story here, but it's nothing too deep and the game knows to not take itself too seriously either. There are some seriously funny moments though I will say, the devs got some good sense of humor.

Playing this at launch, it's not the most polished game, but it feels up to the standard that most AA games should feel. I know the team are very dedicated to supplying the game with post launch updates very frequently so we'll just have to see how much it improves from here.

There was still a bit to be desired. The game can be completed in about 18 hours, and 100%ed in 22 hours, which is 10 hours too short of what a souls game should be. It could have used one or two more areas to feel more like a fuller game. I'm still happy with all the content and I just enjoyed the game so much I wish there was more.

Aggro Crab has created something that could be a flagship franchise. There is some room for improvement and if there is work on a sequel, there is potential for one of the best soulslikes of all time. They have something good in their hands and they just need to keep the momentum going.

I highly recommend you give this at least a try if you are a fan of soulslikes, or want to get into the genre of soulslikes and want a solid place to start. Great game, loved every second of it - just wished there was more of it.

Awesome idea. Cool environments. I really felt at times I was playing a SpongeBob Souls game. Kril is a good character. His enthusiasm for paying taxes makes him a bitch but I root for him anyway.

I got softlocked on the scenery, twice. And the music I find to be lacking for the good visual vibe going on here.

It's at the right price point for what you get.