I think the impulse to describe Crabs Treasure as merely a Soulslike is understandable given the somewhat divisive nature of the Souls style difficulty curve - but in truth Crabs Treasure is just as much a PS2 era 3D platformer as it is a challenging action RPG. This fusion is so unexpectedly seamless that its actually kind of difficult to distinguish at first, but when youre unlocking an ability that lets you break purple cubes that have been blocking passages in the past 3 zones and now youre backtracking through levels to collect pink upgrade crystals the experience is unmistakable.
And unlike most contemporary Soulslike titles that determine iteration on the genre means stapling more systems onto the side of the combat experience, Crabs Treasures combination of genres genuinely synthesizes novel gameplay experiences unseen or unrealized even by the Souls games themselves. You ever wanted a boss that truly roams an entire level and acts as a stage hazard in addition to a thrilling Souls fight? Well guess what nerd, the silly crab game is the one that pulled it off - and it might have even pulled it off because its a silly crab game thats slightly less beholden to the confines of realism.
Bonus Thoughts:
- The humor here is kind of tone deaf. Balancing serious with funny is for sure challenging but Aggro Crab makes their gambles with just emphatically bad jokes half the time.
-Swomps not in the game
- Slightly less serious Soulslike means slightly less serious about making sure things like input buffers are tight and unobtrusive, and therefore an occasionally more frustrating game to take seriously.
And unlike most contemporary Soulslike titles that determine iteration on the genre means stapling more systems onto the side of the combat experience, Crabs Treasures combination of genres genuinely synthesizes novel gameplay experiences unseen or unrealized even by the Souls games themselves. You ever wanted a boss that truly roams an entire level and acts as a stage hazard in addition to a thrilling Souls fight? Well guess what nerd, the silly crab game is the one that pulled it off - and it might have even pulled it off because its a silly crab game thats slightly less beholden to the confines of realism.
Bonus Thoughts:
- The humor here is kind of tone deaf. Balancing serious with funny is for sure challenging but Aggro Crab makes their gambles with just emphatically bad jokes half the time.
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- Slightly less serious Soulslike means slightly less serious about making sure things like input buffers are tight and unobtrusive, and therefore an occasionally more frustrating game to take seriously.
3 Comments
I disagree with your rating, but cool perspective on how the game is like a 3D platformer moreso than a souls-like, I didn't really take that into consideration. Now that I think about it, I really liked the level designs of most areas that had me exploring everything kind of seamlessly. Backtracking didn't feel fucking awful like some games, and was actually kind of fun.
@seby
I struggle to think of a way in which I think the game is actively bad other than some very poor decisions it makes with the writing - and maybe thats worth losing half a star or something but its just not quite striking me that way yet. I have nothing negative to say about the combat that wouldnt just be preferences, like do I wish the game was harder overall? Maybe, but I dont think it needs to be. Its a lil glitchy sometimes but Im almost never considering glitches when it comes to design (unless that glitch is gamebreaking), glitches are accidents and glitches can be fixed (in most cases)
And frankly even in the ways I dont think it might measure up to other Soulslikes I respect Crabs Treasures approach to improving on and iterating on the genre than I do higher rated Soulslikes that are just incredibly incohesive and internally inconsistent pieces of work that get by on being technically better but conceptually all over the place etc etc etc
I struggle to think of a way in which I think the game is actively bad other than some very poor decisions it makes with the writing - and maybe thats worth losing half a star or something but its just not quite striking me that way yet. I have nothing negative to say about the combat that wouldnt just be preferences, like do I wish the game was harder overall? Maybe, but I dont think it needs to be. Its a lil glitchy sometimes but Im almost never considering glitches when it comes to design (unless that glitch is gamebreaking), glitches are accidents and glitches can be fixed (in most cases)
And frankly even in the ways I dont think it might measure up to other Soulslikes I respect Crabs Treasures approach to improving on and iterating on the genre than I do higher rated Soulslikes that are just incredibly incohesive and internally inconsistent pieces of work that get by on being technically better but conceptually all over the place etc etc etc
Vysetron
14 days ago